Ever since our first chicks hatched back in June, we have all been anxiously awaiting the day we would start seeing farm fresh googy eggs appearing in nesting boxes. There has been a lot of googling, a lot of counting weeks on the calender, a lot of “but WHEN will they start laying, mummy?”. There was a brief reprieve when we adopted Dusty, one of Oma’s chickens who was already laying, but then that brought with it it’s own set of dramas. Specifically, one egg a day, and four children, three of whom were highly invested in the egg production process, and all three of whom felt THEY should get a Dusty egg. And so, my days went from counting calendars, to negotiating an egg consumption schedule. Who knew motherhood could be so very exciting?

And then finally, last week, Eggmelia Eggheart took herself off to the henhouse, and soon we had the cutest, tiny little first egg of our home-bred chickens. There was much rejoicing and excitement – followed by much discussion on exactly who would get to eat it. We managed to solve that problem, by using it in a batch of pikelets, so everyone got to eat it. Since then we’ve been getting two eggs most days, almost enough to stave off the possessive bickering, until yesterday, which was a THREE egg day.

I was happily working away on my laptop inside, battling with some code for the new members-only section I’m slowly adding content to, when I heard the door open. The first thing I saw when the door opened, was Mr12 smirking at me. The smirk was explained by the second thing I saw, being a chicken snuggled up in his arms. Nobody warned me that the intersection of parenting and farm life would include multiple repetitions of the phrase “we do not bring the chickens in the house”, and yet here we are. This particular plea, however, was countered with “but mum! Cluck has a present for you!” as he pulled aside the feathers floofed up on Cluck’s back to reveal a tiny little egg. “Cluck laid an egg!” he hollered in delight, much louder than our small loungeroom requires, but eardrums are overrated when there is a small boy’s excitement to be shared.

So now there are three. There are two more hens from that same hatching that we hope will start laying in the next week or so. Four or five eggs a day would be fabulous, and then the second hatching are only a month or two off laying. What fun it will be for everyone to be able to start their day with an egg straight from our hen house!