Would you like that scrambled or fried?

Our first egg!

WE GOT OUR FIRST EGG!!!!!! Woot! Woot! Yippee! Dancing! Turning cartwheels! Well, hardly, but I would if I could.

Hope, our chicken of the moment!

I came home after dark yesterday, which means anytime after 4:30 these days. The CE had already closed up the coop, but I said I wanted to go over and say goodnight to the chickens. Okay, I may have used the actual words “tuck them in”, but still, the snickers I heard on the way out the door were uncalled for.

The girls were already settled on their roosts, all fluffed out and starting to doze off, but they happily roused themselves for a few handfuls of scratch, which is so aptly called “chicken crack”. I freshened up their food and water and said goodnight to them. No, I did NOT kiss them (but I have been known to…)

As I turned to walk out the door, I saw SOMETHING on the nesting box counter. Not in one of the nesting boxes, but next to them. It was light brown. It was oval-shaped. It was OUR FIRST EGG!!!!

My first thought: “I’ve been pranked.” No, I don’t have trust issues, but this egg was so perfect I thought someone had lifted one from the refrigerator and set it in the coop as a joke. Many chickenkeepers report that their first eggs are tiny, misshapen or even shell-less, so this egg seemed too good to be true.

First eggs are commonly shell-less like this one

But sometimes things just ARE that good. Sometimes you DO get a free lunch – or breakfast, at least. The CE remembered seeing Hope on that counter by herself late in the afternoon while the other chickens were outside the coop, so we know it was sweet Hope who gave us the egg, just as we had expected. And she laid it on her 6-month birthday, no less!

The CE holding our $6,000 egg...

First eggs tend to be small-ish, and this one is smaller than our store-bought eggs, but not by a lot. The perfect shell on it indicates that the chickens are getting the right amount of calcium. Just this week I purchased some oyster shell at the feed store, which I put out in the coop for them free-choice, along with grit.

Smaller than a store-bought egg, but not by too much!

This egg is 100% organic from a truly free-ranged chicken. Not sure I can even bear to crack it open, but you can bet I’ll take pictures of it if and when I do!

We put a sticker on it so we know it's Hope's - she gets a gold star for her good work!