Our little beaten and abused SLW Lacey has finally, after months of care and her own coop/run, started laying. We got her from a previous owner when his hens were attacking her. When she arrived she was less than 20% feathered and horribly torn up. She spent the winter in the house with us putting on weight and feather and now is much more "chicken-like" that she was. I went out this evening and there in her nest was an egg. It was deformed a bit with a nodule of shell at one end like most first time eggs have and I was so happy!! I put in in my pocket and while stepping over the fence, with my 19 month old daughter on one arm and the feeder in the other hand I felt a *crack*. I broke her egg! Oh we soooo want little SLW/BO chicks and her first egg was broken by me. We've had her out of her run a few times a week so the rooster can cover her and "take care of business" but each time he does his thing four or five times and then she runs and hides. I'm hoping we can get more eggs from her this week before we start the incubator so that she'll have some chicks to take care of and the rooster will leave her alone.
I'm so upset that I ruined her first egg.
