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| A quiet moment taken through the glass of the coop door of Ginny, our Golden Laced Wyandotte |
The first eggs are beginning to arrive.
A couple of weeks ago, I caught Ginny, our Golden Laced Wyandotte in the nesting box. Sure enough as suspected, she was laying an egg. For the past week, we have had a fresh egg from her each day. A beautiful dark brown warm golden orb, tiny in size.
Yesterday, while cleaning up and raking the leaves in the yard, I discovered that another hen had begun to lay. I heard the egg song and upon investigation, someone laid a light brown egg. I think it was Lucy. It’s hard to tell because it seems that a few of the new girls are practicing.The younger ones sneak into the coop and explore the nesting boxes. They investigate all that are available. They pop in and they pop out, scratch in the shavings, bury the fake wooden eggs, and make a complete and utter mess. Although there are 12 nesting boxes, there are clearly three favorites.
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| Ginny’s beautiful tiny egg. |
It is amazing no matter how long one keeps chickens, discovering fresh eggs in the nesting boxes never gets old. In fact, I still feel a sense of excitement and discovery with each beautiful egg. This year we also added Easter Eggers to the flock. The color of their eggs is always a mystery. Who knows if they will lay blue, pink, or green?When hens first begin to lay, their eggs are smaller in size. As they continue to lay over the next few months, their eggs will gradually begin to increase in size until they have reached their regular size.
I don’t mind tiny eggs. I don’t worry about the color. I am just looking forward to the return of regularly laid fresh chicken eggs. Like snowflakes, they are all different and all beautiful. Inside they are all the same. Over the years I have come to realize that it’s the tiniest of things in life that bring me the greatest joy. Sometimes you have to seek them out. They are not always easy to see despite them being right in front of you all along.
Enjoy the season~Melissa.
6 thoughts on “First Eggs Arrive”
Congratulations! I remember how excited I was when my new hens started to lay. I can't wait to see the Easter Eggers egg colors.
Awe, I don't care how long you have hens. Those first eggs are always so special.
I have three BO's and the biggest one consistently lays a small egg. I mean quail egg sized. But last night, I got one that hit the Medium mark on the egg scale. Woo Hoo. They do get bigger.
You are right…the small 'things' in life can bring the greatest joy! It has been almost a year since we got our first egg, and I still get joy out of each one.
How wonderful to have fresh eggs this time of year with so much baking to do!!!
Our chickens have pretty much stalled on egg laying. We have 3 different kind of chickens, one I know is a polish hen. She has black/white feathers on her head, can barely see her eyes. Then we have "red" who is very reddish all over, do you know what kind she is? And we have "goldie" who is reddish but with goldish feathers around her neck and on body, tail. Then we have two black/white chickens who are smaller and kinda mean. We get about 1 or 2 eggs a day now, the small white eggs. Sometimes they have double yolks. They've all moulted so egg production is down much. In summer we were getting between 8-10 eggs a day. Some were the tannish, some a light blue and then the little white ones. Not sure who gives what eggs. We have 3 nesting boxes on the coop.
We got our chickens this summer from neighbor of our daughter. They were moving to Denver, couldn't have the girls. They gave us the coop, (nice one), waterer and feeder containers. We had a spot on side of back yard that was fenced in from previous owner so they went in there. They have little yard space plus their coop in that enclosure then we let them out during day to roam as they please. Even our cat won't bother them. He knows he better not hurt them. Our dog a black lab/border collie takes very good care of his girls. He is so cute with them. Dog fusses when he thinks it's time to go out to see them and now prefers to be in back yard rather than front yard which are fenced off from each other. We live west of Grand Junction, CO few miles in country, few miles east of Utah border. .I really enjoy the chickens, was a big city girl until we moved to MT on 20 acres in 92. Then 1 1/2 acres in KY in 99' and now 1/2 acre we moved here in 2004.
How do you keep your chickens warm in winter? Do you have heater or ? We're pretty much learning as we go. We were quite popular this summer having so many eggs which we gave away. I love hearing about your chickens, how did you know what kind you have? and how to take care of them all?
Happy season
So nice to hear from you and your story. I love hearing how you all got started. We knew our breeds because when I purchased them, the seller informed me what I was getting. Sounds like you have a very colorful flock and lots of eggs. I don't heat the coop in the winter. I'm going to put a link to my chicken care page. There are lots of posts on there that hopefully will address some of the questions that you have. Happy chicken keeping! Enjoy!
https://www.tillysnest.com/p/chicken-care-resourcesguide.html