It’s been a long and eventful month since I last wrote. Despite my best intentions, family reunions, memorial services, and obsessively watching the Olympics have precluded blogging.
Luma peers out the back door of the nest boxes.
We have our own little Olympian around here. Luma, who laid her first egg on July 6th, has gifted us with 32 perfect brown eggs in the past 33 days. She has deposited each egg without mishap in the upper right-hand nest box. Egg laying seems to have mellowed her; she no longer runs to avoid us, investing her energy in hunting down treats instead.
Petunia, meanwhile, laid her first egg on July 28th and has taken two days off so far. In the days leading up to her first egg, Petunia became increasingly interested in Luma’s morning egg ritual. At the risk of audacious anthropomorphism, I would venture that Petunia was apprenticing, if you will—watching Luma in order to learn how to be a hen. On several occasions, she accompanied Luma into the coop, cackling with her over a new egg.
The morning before Petunia laid her first egg, I found Luma pacing up and down the run cackling to high heaven. Petunia had tucked herself into a nest box, practicing.
Petunia’s eggs are smaller than Luma’s, and white. The girls do not share a nest box. Instead, Petunia has set up camp in the upper left-hand box.
The girls’ eggs. Note the blood smear on Petunia’s first egg. Ouch!
Kelly and I have been enjoying lots of devilled eggs. We continue to talk about finding another hen to join the flock. I have suggested an Araucana. They’re said to be good layers, and the green eggs would allow us to keep track of each hen’s laying cycles.
