I didn’t expect our chickens to lay eggs until Spring. They are five months old now. Days are shorter and last week we had a frigate snap where it didn’t get above freezing for several days. So I have not bothered to look for eggs this winter.
I went out to check on the chickens because it was so cold. I found four out the five yard birds. Out of curiosity I opened the egg box to see if there was a chicken in there, trying to stay warm.
Much to my surprise – I found two eggs!!! The chicken who laid one was inside the coop resting. One egg was frozen solid with a cracked shell from the expanded frozen innards. The other one was perfect.
I carried the two eggs inside excited to tell the girls. My middle girl took the non-frozen egg from my hand and jumped around the kitchen so excited to have an egg from the backyard, that she accidently dropped it on the floor and it went splat. Opps. We laughed. Because what else was there to do?
My oldest girl was certain Dad, or the neighbor, was playing a practical joke on us. Our neighbor has backyard chickens two months older than ours and they just started laying. I figured we were two months behind them. I was wrong.
So now we know to look for eggs! And we have been every day, sometimes several times a day!
Since then we have gotten three more eggs, from two of our chickens. The Orange Buffington and the Ameraicana are both laying. It amazes me they they use the egg box, instinctually. Our perfect egg box designed specifically for kids to easily check for eggs.
The chicken duty chore just got a whole lot more fun!
