we're having eggs now

Rooster or no rooster, the hens are a' laying!

It took the Chicklets a good 6 months, and finally they are both laying regularly! Along with Mama Canela, that's three fresh eggs a day :) This is exactly the reason we got chickens, but after so many months without eggs, I sort of forgot and started to see them as feathery pets.

The young hens are not quite the size of their mom, and are still going through an awkward featherless neck stage. hopefully this is normal?

Way too many people are under the false assumption that hens require the presence of a rooster to lay eggs. Scientifically I knew this was not true, but I admit that after several eggless months, i began to wonder. As I swept out the coop and fed my chicken friends, the old camp song "The Rooster" played in my head. the only line i actually remembered was we're having eggs now, just like we used to, ever since that rooster came into our yard! Silly, and thoroughly incorrect.

Anyway, when a mini egg appeared in Canela's nest one morning, oh happy day! The girls take after their mother in refusing to utilize the handsome laying boxes we crafted just for that purpose, all three sharing a dug out dirt nest on the ground.

The first few eggs from the Chicklets were half the size of a normal egg, adorable! Mama Canela, chicken that she is, initially approached the new eggs as any cannibalistic grandmother would: pecking aggressively. Once chickens adopt the revolting habit of eating newly laid eggs, apparently it is difficult to "break." (the habit, that is). Luckily, Canela did not develop a taste for them and has shown no interest since. whew

And so, unless an undercover rooster is sneaking into the yard when i'm not looking, the myth is disproven, and i am enjoying fresh eggs for breakfast--my compliments to the lady chefs ;)