A Little Brown Gift (and it isn’t what you might imagine)

Yesterday’s blog post was my 100th posting.  I was wondering what kind of post I should write to celebrate, when my animal family took the decision right out of my hands… and put something else back into my daughter’s hands that was cause for celebration:

I had just been reminding the girls (hens) that their egg-laying should commence in August, and since they didn’t have a calendar in their coop, what the date was.  This afternoon I stepped into their coop to fill their food dispenser, and saw the first egg!  So small and so perfect.  We aren’t sure whose egg it is, except that it doesn’t belong to Chickpea or Kakapo the Americaunas because they will lay blue and green eggs.  Our bet is on Evelyn because she was squawking a lot this week, and since she’s at the top of the pecking order, perhaps she felt that it was her duty to lay first and impress her beau Emerson.  Emerson is separated from the girls by chicken wire so that he may keep company, albeit frustrated company, with them.  We separated him just in time to not have fertile eggs!

So the egg is in the refrigerator, the nesting area is replete with straw, and we are eagerly awaiting more eggs. Miss Amelia was showing signs of being disturbed about something.  Passing the first egg would be quite uncomfortable, I’m sure.  As a mother of two, I’m actually positive about that.  Chickpea – who reminds me a bit of Meryl Streep playing Julia Child – was determined to kick all the straw off and bother her, so maybe tomorrow. What a great little brown gift!