Got Eggs?

 

Two on Friday

On Friday morning, I woke up at 6:30 a.m., well before my alarm went off!  Long time blog readers know that I tend to stay up till the wee hours of the morning and sleep in, but, apparently, having chickens is making me want to wake up early!  Anyway, I went out and let the chickens out of the coop into the bigger enclosure.  I checked the coop, but didn't see any eggs.  But, that was fine; we had read that chickens will not always lay an egg a day, sometimes, they might lay every other day.  

However, daughter and I went out to check on them and give them fresh water and food around 10:00 a.m. when daughter had a break, and we found Henny Penny sitting in the nest box!  We were surprised because, earlier, neither hen wanted to go inside the enclosed part of the coop itself and quickly left it even when daughter put them inside.  They seemed to prefer the open area under the coop and the small run area, which is where I found the very first egg on Wednesday.  But, apparently, Henny Penny had found the nest box and was sitting there while Niwatori was walking around making some cackling noises.  

Daughter went to clean the coop during her lunch break and when she came back, she called to me to come and see what she found.  Not one, but TWO eggs in the nest box!  We had read that chickens will usually lay only one egg per day, but not two eggs at a time.  So, we are wondering if Niwatori had also laid an egg in the nest box either before or after Henny Penny did!

We were so excited to find two eggs!  We offered one to gardener friend M who was here in the evening to tend to the garden and to help daughter with some further coop reinforcements, but, he thanked us and declined the offer because he had just purchased a dozen eggs earlier that day.  He did say that he will accept an egg later on.

Once again, I took a picture of the two eggs with a store bought egg (size large) for comparison:

Friday's Eggs in Comparison with Store Bought Egg

Our okra plants didn't do well at all, this year (it got too hot after we planted them) and only two tiny okra pods formed on them.  We gave the okra pods to the chickens (after checking if they were okay for the chickens to eat) and they loved them!

Today (Saturday), I woke up at 8:00 a.m. when my alarm went off, but, daughter had woken up earlier and had let the chicken out of the coop, given them fresh water and food, etc., so, I went back to sleep for another couple of hours.  Then, she went at noon to clean the coop and guess what?

Saturday's Eggs!

She found two more eggs in the nest box!  One was brown and the other was a pale tan and slightly smaller.  We read that some variation in egg shell coloration was normal.  Both eggs were well formed with firm shells.  

Gardener M texted to ask if there were any more eggs and I was able to tell him that, yes, we had two more!  He's just as excited about our chickens as we are!

The chickens arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we have had a total of five eggs already!  How wonderful is that?  I am assuming that it is a sign that they are happy in their new home?  

I think there will be scrambled eggs for breakfast, tomorrow!!  

I am grateful for:
- The hens are laying 

- The fresh eggs we are collecting
- M's help with the garden and the chicken coop 

- Daughter doing all the work of cleaning the coop, etc.
-The joy of backyard chickens

Niwatori and Henny Penny