The Wait Continues

I know I usually participate in the Yarn Along today.  What can I say but this week has been not normal.  Today I’ll talk about our chickens.

So, a friend of mine who got chickens after me (although they were from a classroom, so I’m not sure of their age) is already seeing eggs.  The guy who we ordered with is now at boot camp.  However, the chickens he has have the exact same hatch day as our chickens as they came in the same shipment.  As of last Sunday, his family said they’ve had 4 eggs.  Today is Wednesday and we’ve still yet to see one.

I know nothing is wrong, and it’s still normal for our chickens not to be laying.  Hearing of Conrad’s chickens laying already, though was not a huge help in the patience department!  I know it is the healthy thing for our chickens to wait as long as possible to lay.  There’s something about the longer a chicken waits to lay its first egg the healthier the chicken will be long term, and a healthy chicken in theory will lay longer.

They have enough water, they have the right food, with all the right nutrients to produce eggs with strong shells.  They are very healthy.  Perhaps that’s why we’re forced to wait.

I intellectually know all of this, but it is still not helping me with my impatience. 

Last Sunday when Knut had his day off he suggested that we have a bonfire and roast some hot dogs for supper.  Our fire pit is next to the chicken coop, so the ladies watched us with great curiosity as we ate our hot dogs and s’mores.

I brought out a pail of cracked wheat and corn that Knut swept up somewhere and said we could give to the chickens as a treat.  So the kids had fun scooping out handfuls to the chickens while they were waiting for their supper.

Silje was getting her dull fever that night.  It wasn’t yet at 100 F, and the night air was nice, so we said she could come out with us and sit in the lawn chair.  She played with this butterfly in the grass that couldn’t fly for some reason any more.  She kept wanting to find a way to fix it’s wing.  I don’t think I posted about the huge butterfly migration that went through the woods behind our house.  When anyone would walk back to the woods to take out the slop, we could see 50 butterflies on one tree on any given night.  It was like this for over a week.  My camera couldn’t seem to catch the beauty of it no matter how I tried, so I’ve never posted any of those pictures.  That was a few weeks ago, though.

Back to the chickens, I don’t think I’m the only one getting antsy about them.  David wants the dollar for finding the first one so bad!  He doesn’t just check the coop every morning.  (I’ve been delaying their release from the coop until later morning, so that if one does decide to lay an egg it will be in the nesting boxes.  I want them to get used to laying there if possible.)  He checks the bush behind the coop.  He checks the empty doghouse which we think looks like a cozy place to lay an egg using our “imagine what a chicken looks for” thinking skills.  He checks little hollows of trees.

Silje doesn’t check as often, which is often apparent when she exclaims almost every few days she’s out there “Mommy!  They laid some eggs!” and I run and see that she just saw the fake Easter ones in the nesting boxes for them to practice sitting on.  Of course in Silje’s mind, a chicken laying a pink or purple egg would be just about right.

On David’s birthday I was so certain they would give us the first egg as a present for him.  It just seemed like fate.  So we went out there together, almost like a parade to unveil the chickens for the morning.  It was yet again another let down.

There are so many decisions to make when having chickens.  Do you follow the route of a penned in run, or let them run free around the yard?  Do you insulate the coop and bring in light, or do you leave the coop without electricity and insulation and just have little to no eggs in the dead of winter, as they don’t need heat and light to survive, they do need it to lay eggs.

Although the days are sunny and unseasonably warm right now, in the back of Knut and my mind we’re wondering if they don’t lay soon, we may have to wait until Spring to see eggs.  I know that’s an extreme worry, but we’d feel so much better if we saw some eggs before the cold sets in.

Maybe someday we’ll modernize the coop, but we’re satisfied with the old fashioned way for now.  Maybe someday we’ll get some fencing, but we’re happy with them eating all the ticks and grubs in our yard for now.  We’ve even talked about getting meat chickens next year, and my mind likes to wonder to what else.

What stops the imagination on what else we could get is the eggs.  We’d like to see some eggs.

Have I mentioned Lena in all this?  I should probably say she’s about the best guard dog for these chickens now.  She still goes out with me to feed and water them, and doesn’t pay them much attention at all.  They get startled when she spots a squirrel trespassing on her territory as she bolts off to chase it up a tree.  I think she’s given up on chasing birds and prefers squirrels now. 

I’ve started leaving her outside to guard them when I know we won’t be back in time to close them in at sunset.  When we drive up to the house I look over and see her sitting in front of the coop until I get there to shut the door.  All the chickens are roosting inside, digesting their meals from the day…fat and happy.

I knew she’d be good with the chickens.  I just knew it.

To be continued…
…with egg news
…I hope.