Chicken Saga

It’s the newest drama to hit the Raynor farm yard. Most of you will remember that Isaac got chickens at the end of April. We’ve watched them grow from little pullets into full grown chickens. They have names, a babysitter (Aunt Cindy) for when we’re out of town, and have been living a fairly uneventful life in the back yard. So what if one of the chickens is bigger than the rest. It’s a different breed and a little older than the rest. I mean they are all happy together and get along just fine.

But then the plot takes a little turn in the form of a “Cock-a-doodle-do!” [ScrEEEEEEEch!!] Hold up a second, my guaranteed hens aren’t supposed to do that. The first report came from Aunt Rhonda that she’d heard an early morning rooster. Only to be confirmed by a “Cock-a-doodle-do” that scared me to death as I walked away from the pen on Thursday.

So without further ado, I’d like you to meet Snowball our beautiful white Rooster.

So we have a rooster, not a huge deal. Like I said, they are guaranteed to be hens, so we just have to take him back to Mr. Mike’s farm and trade him for a hen. Isaac is cool with that and understands that a rooster can’t live in our backyard because he’s too loud for the neighbors.

Friday morning we go out a little earlier than usual hoping to catch another “Cock-a-doodle-do” from Snowball. It is pretty cool to hear him do it. We do our daily check of the boxes and [scrEEEEEEch!!] plot twist #2. We have our first egg!!!

Sure enough, it’s a pretty little green egg laid by none other than Isaac’s favorite hen, Wonder Woman.

Green is his favorite color, so he is elated by finding that she’s going to lay green eggs!

But hold up a second!! Mommy is a little freaked out. I didn’t read up on the whole mating process of chickens when we got them. They’re all supposed to be girls for goodness sake!! So is this egg going to be omelets or chicken nuggets when we crack it open? I’m sure not going to crack it in front of my 4 year old and have a baby chicken fall out in my pan! Good Lord, I’d scar him for life not to mention myself! Into the fridge immediately with that egg while I find someone who can tell me what to do with that egg. Thank goodness for Uncle Mark and his chicken lady. They saved the day and gave me a quick rundown of chicken sex education!

Since Friday, Wonder Woman has laid 5 green eggs, including one that was a double yolk! On Monday evening, we scrambled our first one (confirming that Uncle Mark and the chicken lady thankfully knew their stuff!) It was one tasty farm fresh egg!

Snowball is still with us, but will be going to a new home next week. I was fine with just giving him back and sticking with 3 hens, but Isaac says he wants to get a new one. Stay tuned to see what we get this time around!