January 24, 2008
First eggs of the New Year
We do live in a desert. I remind myself of that every time I look outside. About a week ago it commenced to rain here and continues, with an accumulation of about 4 or 5 inches. (For reference, all of last year we got only 3 inches. In 365 days.)
Now we live in a new world, filled with puddles, ponds, running streams -- and roof leaks. Typical in California, our old house has one persistent leak that is just impossible to find, except when it rains, then it dries out and we can't find it again. For 15 years. When it began to drip directly on my work desk this morning I took action. I moved the desk and put a small bowl and towel down to catch the leak.
Good news here though this rain is a sign of spring. And one other thing has me thinking green, growing and sprouting – our hens have started to lay!
We added a light to their house about 2 weeks ago --- they'd had a solar powered light in there but it just wasn't bright enough to kick in those "days are long now lay eggs" chickeny hormones. So it was back to an electric cord rigged from a GFCI outlet on the barn, run overhead through the trees to a clip on light in their new house. Worked like a charm – two weeks later – eggs.
The big brown one in the back of the basket is the first egg from our new hens that we got last fall. My sister said the hen looked very surprised when she laid it…!!!
Cheers for chickens -- and home grown eggs!
