Peeping Mom

Yes.  I consider myself the mother of my Six Chicks.  Dirty Gerty: she's like my foster child.

I've been lurking around the coop a lot lately.  The egg laying business is so interesting to me.  That and my girls are so funny.  Better than TV.  Almost.  It really depends on how hot it is outside.

We have 4 girls now laying.  A new egg showed up yesterday, and I'm pretty sure it was Cinderella's first.

I snapped some pictures of the girls taking care of business and got a quick video, too.

Here's Dirty Gerty lounging in the basil.  She lounges a lot.  Hence the dirt.

Johnny Cash, strutting through the rose bed.  The girls LOVE the roses.  The light catches her feathers just right, and you can see the green and blue cast to the black feathers.  I think she's gorgeous.  Her eggs are a light buff, very pretty.

The girls are waiting in line.  We have 3 nesting boxes, but they love the center one.  It's prime real estate for young eggs.  They are so curious, and really quite supportive.  They all gather around when it's egg laying time.  I went out to check on them, and they were all lined up.  Bunny, the lighter Easter Egger in the center is not laying yet.  I think she's just taking notes so she can do it right.

I had to take a quick video of this.  Ariel hopped up into the box with Johnny Cash.  Technically, Ariel was in the box first, cozying up, getting ready to lay, and Johnny Cash, who's been laying a couple days longer than Ariel, kicked her out.  Ariel waited patiently for a bit, then jumped up into the box too.  You can hear her cooing softly to Johnny Cash.  It was so funny to me - it reminded me of the encouragement you give to a mother in labor.  Funny girls.  It's a little hard to hear sometimes, it was pretty windy, and a couple cars drove by.

Anyway.  I love my girls and I love their eggs.  The eggs are getting a bit bigger every day - soon we'll have full sized eggs from our cluck-clucks!

Adjoa loves the chickens, too.  Every evening we go outside to let them roam a bit and play with them. Adjoa carries them around.  This particular night, she was dancing with the chickens and singing an "egg song."  I had complained to Robert that I hadn't yet heard an egg song from the girls.  Adjoa beamed and started making up some song about eggs and chickens and spontaneously choreographed a dance involving several of the chickens.  I guess I've heard an egg song now!