Lily Lays an Egg! How to tell your girls are ready to lay...
It’s usually pretty quiet when I’m making my morning coffee. A few birds at the feeder, a squirrel or two snacking on sunflower seeds are the norm. But, today, wow….what a racket! The clucking was loud, long and totally different from the little chirps we are used to!
Running out to the coop I expected a critter crawling under the run fence or something equally as drastic. Instead, I found Lucy and Lacy cowering in the corner and Lily gingerly trying to walk up the ramp to the coop looking exactly like my little granddaughter with a dirty diaper! You know, that sort of waddle walking that they do? That was it exactly. Only she was clucking her head off at the same time, and, loudly. My poor neighbor who works nights as a nurse and who probably just went to bed was all I thought about…at first.
Suddenly I began to put the pieces together! She’s about 20 weeks old, wattle and comb developing, sudden loud clucking, walking aimlessly up and down the ramp, all following her weird “nesting” behavior over the past few days…could it be? Was it happening? YES! I bet she’s getting ready to lay her first egg!
It’s actually kind of embarrassing how excited I was as I went to work after giving my husband instructions to check frequently and call me if “it” happened! (Of course he checked only once and forgot!) After sharing the exciting news about the impending excitement with my coworkers all day, it was finally time to leave, so I raced home to check the coop and there it was! A small, light brown, rather speckled egg resting on the floor of the coop!
Hmmm..guess she didn’t like the nesting boxes we provided!
I was so excited I ran upstairs to share the good news and came to a dead stop at his office door when my suspicions were aroused with the memory of his putting an egg in the coop a few weeks ago to try and trick me (which didn’t work by the way!). It took a few seconds to discern that he wasn’t pulling a prank this time and we both went back out to see our little ” prize”. After taking pictures like proud parents…(OK, proud parent) I nestled Lily’s first egg in a napkin and set it in the frig for breakfast, then cleaned the coop and filled it with fresh, clean pine shavings for the next time! I’m loving this backyard farm thing…first all the veggies and apples and now an EGG!
