The girls are starting to earn their keep beyond being cute and quirky walking composters :)And as expected, it is the runty little rhode island reds who are first to lay. I came home yesterday and didn't see anything in the coop, but when I closed it up for the night and shined a flashlight inside, here's what I found next to their little slide-up door, just inside. It may have been there awhile, because I certainly didn't hear anyone singing the egg-laying song yesterday evening.
This morning Georgina did a lot of hemming and hawing and lollygagging on whether she wanted to be inside or out, and then I heard her scratching in a nesting box and clucking loudly. The 'bawk bawk bawk bu-GAWK!!' song a hen sings before she squeezes a large object out of her vent. This went on long enough that I ended up closing the lid on the nesting box just to muffle the 'singing'. It wasn't early early, but I don't want anyone kvetching about my hens being noisy. And then, I ended up lowering the side of the coop that lifts up for ventilation, because she was really carrying on in there (of course, I would be, too).
I went inside for some breakfast and more coffee, figuring I'd check on the nesting box after that, and sure enough there was another egg just like this one!
Right now, Geraldine is bawking her head off. She's at the bottom of the pecking order and is likely the first one who laid yesterday.
I'm going out in a few minutes to toss them all a couple handfuls of sunflower seeds :)
(Margaret should be proud it was Geraldine who laid the first egg. I named Geraldine for her long-lived tortoise shell cat who was mean as mustard but had soft and silky fur. Geraldine held a lifetime achievement record for Most Pantyhose Snagged, and spent much of her time hanging out on top of the fridge as Goddess of the Kitchen, waiting to take a swipe at anyone who annoyed her. And I was one of the few to scratch behind her ears and come away unscathed.)
