egg-citing news!
In case you're keeping score at home, we have nine hens now, the most we've ever had. One left from our first batch (five years old now!), three from the second, this year's four "chicks" (now full-grown, of course), and one bonus hen that was delivered to our doorstep in early fall (a story of its own). The is year was the first time we got spring chickens—the other two batches were born in August—so I didn't know what to expect in terms of the egg production schedule. Well, never mind the cold and dark: they've started it up now!
look at the variety!
Harvey is in charge of collecting the eggs these days, so I don't know if he experiences a thrill when he sees three eggs in the box this late in the year. Visiting children certainly seem to appreciate finding even one, but they aren't out in the cold before 7:00 in the morning doing a chore they have to do six days a week. Either way, though, I'm pretty thrilled when he brings in a haul like that. Here it is the end of November, and our egg carton is still just about full! I think we've bought five or six dozen for fall baking, but for eating we've been doing pretty well with what our farm can provide. I can't wait to see how many eggs we'll get come spring! Strangely, it makes me want to get even more hens...
It's a good thing the egg numbers are holding up, because we now have another egg eater in the family: Lijah has finally realized that scrambled eggs, at least, are delicious, and now happily shares in the breakfasts we make for the other two boys (that's his little hand reaching out for a raw one in the photo above). Since Leah's not doing breakfast these days I get by making four eggs on egg mornings now, though I understand from friends who have bigger kids that that won't suffice for long. But for now we're doing well, and I feel confident about the future. Keep up the good work, hens!
Lijah saying, "which egg should I want..."