I HAVE AN EGG!!!

I'm starving and we have no eggs in the house--which is rare since I buy 3 dozen at a time. So my husband says "Well, let me go out and see if the girls have any". I snicker and say "Yeah--good luck with that..." The girls were hatched on Memorial Day and although I check daily, still nothing. I'd given up on getting eggs before Thanksgiving.

Lo and behold, he comes in with our VERY FIRST EGG! It wasn't in the nesting box, but on the wire floor under the roosts. No clue how long it's been there since I haven't checked that area in days. Perfect in every way. I just know it had to be either Henrietta (BR) or Piccata (Australorp) since they matured first (by the color of their combs).

 

The egg was still wet from cleaning it off in the picture. It didn't have much on it--just a wet mark from where it was laying on the wire. It was a lighter brown than that.

OMG... the wait nearly KILLED me. JUUUUUST when you give up (I mean honestly and TRULY give up)--they shock you, right? I seriously thought that the short days had set in too soon for them to start laying now. Dumb newbie (that would be moi).

As it is I have no idea if/when the next one's comin'! BUT, I think it definitely might have been poor Piccata. I went out there twice today and my husband went back out once and every time Piccata came up to the top level of the coop and LET US PET HER... multiple times. Henrietta was right behind her and equally nice to us. I feel horrible. I feel like she's mourning the loss of her baby egg. And I ATE it. Poor Piccata. Poor, poor little Piccata. What's worse is that I tried to make nice by hand-feeding them a bit and while I seriously thought Piccata was the queen of the pack, another less-mature Australorp pecked at her to get away from my hand (and then pecked another away as well).



It's like a soap opera right in my own back yard.