Roughly every half hour, the ladies would raise the worst racket for about 3, 4, 5 minutes. Of course, it felt like they were at it for five HOURS because they were so…very…LOUD.
Buttons and Marmalade were the worst. I would go over and try to play Chicken Whisperer, but they would just carry on while looking me straight in the eye. I had to remind myself very, very hard that endured the barking and whining of a neighbor dog for three years (before they got rid of the poor neglected thing), and that really, a little chicken noise mid-morning on a weekend was no big deal.
Still, I was mortified.
Oddly, the ladies kept going in and out of the hen house, which they never do. They go in to sleep, then come out in the morning. End of subject. Jeff asked me if I thought some attempted egg-laying was afoot. I had read that chickens can raise quite a commotion when they are laying, and had in fact already considered that possibility. So every time they reached 100 decibels, I checked the nests. Nothing.
After a while, they became the boy who cried wolf. I decided to just ignore them. They had food, they had water, they had leafy greens, they had fresh straw in the coop and fresh pine shavings in the henhouse to rearrange. They were fine. Noisy, but fine.
Still, they were especially quiet after the last kerfuffle…and guess why?
Ta da!
The ladies’ first egg. Small, but perfect in every way! I think Coco gets the credit, but I’m not sure. Whoever it was, she laid it right in the nest box, like a seasoned professional. We couldn’t be more proud.
Of course, the egg stole the thunder from the tomato plants, which finally offered up the first ripe fruit late this afternoon:
The proud parents! t&j
ReplyDelete