The First Egg (in which I nerd out, again, over chickens)

a pale green egg from Loretta next to a regular white grocery store egg

Loretta was acting strange this morning. Lots of bawking and squawking and doing this weird feather thing that I can't even begin to describe with words. For a minute I wondered whether today was first egg day. I went so far as to grab a nest box, fill it with straw, and stick it inside of the coop.



And then I thought twice about it, emptied the box, and stuck it back in the corner of the run. I assumed I couldn't be so lucky as to have a chicken lay at 18 weeks. I just knew for sure my hens would take forever to mature, possibly pushing up into the 24 week range. I also assumed there was no way on earth the first egg would come from Loretta, the runt of the flock.

Thinking no more about her strange behavior I left the house to run errands, one of which was picking up layer feed for the flock.

This afternoon Jonathan rushed inside and announced in a somewhat frantic voice that he needed me to follow him immediately. "It's nothing bad," he swore and smirked mischievously. I knew.

There in the corner of the run where all of the chickens had hung out all day long was a lone tiny green egg. It was, quite possibly, the best moment of my year. It's incredibly gratifying to raise healthy chickens from babies to egg laying.




The little grey girl laid first. I just can't believe it.