Yay Penny!

Yay Penny!

Congratulations to Penelope, our Black Australorp hen! Today she joined the "Layers Club"! 

And there is a club. I swear, the hens that have started laying (Penny makes #4 out of 7) have formed this cool kids clique. They hang out together and chat about their new status as layers. 

"I just laid my egg for the day!!!" This is often a very loud announcement for the whole farm, and neighbors (sorry neighbors), to hear.

"That's so great, BFF! Can you believe that those other hens haven't started laying yet? They are, like, so immature compared to us!"

"I know, right?"

"Ugh, don't you hate it when someone's in your favorite nesting box?" 

"Oh yeah, that's the worst." 

"Totally!"

I'm curious to see how this big achievement changes Penelope's status in the coop since right now she's definitely one of the lowest in the pecking order. Not that anyone is mean to each other. Luckily, they are a pretty nice group, but Penelope is very shy and quiet and a bit of a loner. Her closest friend is our other quiet, shy girl, Buttercup (who is not laying yet). So, I'll be curious to see if Penelope laying eggs bumps her up a notch or two. We have one other hen laying brown eggs (Gertrude), but Penny's egg is a shade darker, so hopefully, I'll still be able to tell them apart. For some reason, I love knowing whose egg I am eating. :)

I could tell something was up with Penelope because when i was in the coop changing the water she was in there with me, searching around, sort of frantically, in all the corners. Scratching the shavings on the ground, and then going to another corner, up the stairs, searching behind the feed bin. It's kind of like watching someone who needs to pee really bad trying to find a restroom. Is it over here? No, that's not right, maybe it's over here? Let me look back there. So finally, I just picked her up and placed her into a nesting box and closed the curtains for her so it was nice and dark. You could almost hear her immediate relief. It was like "Oh, yes. Yes, this is what I was looking for!" Mayzie was acting the same way, so I placed her in the box next to Penelope. However, Mayzie jumped out a few minutes later with no egg left behind. Penelope, however, stayed in the nesting box for a bit, and after she came out of the coop, announced to everyone that there was something very special that she left behind in the box. And there was. What a good chicken. And can I say, it is one of my favorite things in the world to  go collect an egg that was *just* laid. To reach in and grab an egg that is still warm from the hen. So cool. (Well, actually: So warm.) You get my point.

Here's our girl, Penelope, with her first egg. Penelope is a Black Australorp so she'll be giving us brown eggs. She is really beautiful with her all black feathers which have a green sheen to them, especially in the sun. So pretty.

Here is a picture of our Penelope as a baby, when she was just losing her chick fuzziness. Look at those tiny tail feathers emerging....

And here she is in her toddler age, on the doorstep. Penny had an adorable habit of standing up as TALL as she possibly could! Making her look like she was trying to be an ostrich. Such a tiny scraggly little adorable thing!

And now she's all grown up! Big girl! Thanks for breakfast, Penny! :)