More chicken pictures!!!

I love to show off my girls. More chicken photos for your viewing pleasure.

Sweetie, looking as sweet as ever.

Honey, looking pretty serious.

The newly named, Bock Choy. Yes the Bok spelled Bock is intentional. My friend's son named her.

Jacoline named this girl Goldie. It fits her well.

Rachel showing off and the rest of the girls hanging out.

Houston, We Have an Egg!

Our first egg! Excuse the fuzziness, I stuck my arm in the coop to take it. I found it Wednesdayafternoon when I let the girls out. I did the usual, " I guess that I should take a look." Surprise! An egg. I did a happy dance all of the way back into the house to get the camera.

Later in the afternoon I decided that I should take a look around to see if there were eggs anywhere else around the yard. Sure enough, I found a clutch of eggs in the claw foot tub. The claw foot tub also happened to be Lydia's new favorite spot.

Here are all five of the her pretty eggs. We are so proud of Lydia. Five eggs means that she had been laying for five days or so. I checked the eggs to make sure that they were good. To test an egg you can put it in a glass of water. If it floats, it is bad. The sinkers win. Every egg sunk. Ya-hoo! Normally I don't know that I will wash the eggs. If you don't wash the eggs they can stay unrefrigerated for 7-10 days. They have a natural coating called a bloom that keeps bacteria out.

I am so excited to have fresh eggs of our own. Did you know that by the time eggs arrive at your local grocery store that they are an average of one month old? Just think about how long we let them sit in our own fridges after we buy them. I am so happy for my fresh eggs.

And look how pretty fresh eggs are. Here is another fuzzy picture. It is hard to take a photo of an egg yolk. I wanted you to see how rich and almost orange it is. That is a free range egg! A deep color is a good sign of good nutrition. Let me tell you, it was yummy! It will still take awhile to get used to getting breakfast from our pets. It's not something that we are used to.

Thank you Lydia for the delicious eggs! She laid anther one today in the nesting box in the hen house! Go Lydia. What a smart girl you are. Thanks to my sister for this amazing photo of Lydia. Isn't she stunning?

And not to be left out ~ Atta Girl sitting on the handrail of our back steps. They like to sit there and look into the house. Atta Girl, will you be our next egg layer?

Egg Anticipation

Saturday night while I was making pizza, I heard and awful loud and long clucking sound coming from the chicken coop. Of course I always expect the worst. I hurriedly washed my hands, put on my shoes and ran out in the rain to see what was the matter. Daisy, the beautiful blue(translate to gray) chicken was standing there clucking her brains out. Pickle came down to see what all of the fuss was about. I mean Daisy was squawking! Everyone within ear shot knew that there was a chicken in the vicinity. Lord, please don't let the neighbors report us!

She quieted down as I drew near. I think that she is going to lay an egg soon. That is my only explanation for her prolonged loudness. I looked around and didn't see an egg. Their first ones can be shellless, yes shellless, double yolked, oblong, tiny or huge. We are going to have to start checking regularly. Hopefully they start laying soon. I just hope that Daisy doesn't scream like that all of the time! I will keep you posted. Here is hoping for our first egg!!