Egg Cetera

Hey there. Our hens have decided to resume laying. Must have had a big powwow. They’d stopped suddenly a couple of months ago even though there was much more daylight during the slightly longer days and the temperatures were considerably warmer. I guess they haven’t read the part about egg laying in the manual that it all depends on several factors, with the amount of light being the deciding factor.
It all started about a week ago. I noticed a brown hen, one of 15 brown hens, looking lovingly at the enormous adobe pot where another brown hen used to lay her eggs. Then on a cold and miserable day she sat in that pot for quite a while and when she left there was a smallish egg on the dirt, where a plant used to be. So, she crept away silently without the usual fanfare and clucking sounds that I always associate with another egg being laid. The next day that same pot remained devoid of any gifts. But the following day there was one when I woke up in the morning and another in the afternoon, which I plucked for the house, before a rooster could sit on either of them. These lovable cockerels are a bit mixed up and some like to sit in there too. But, of course, I now see it as a newly emerging production area, so although I let the occasional crazy males lounge in there if there isn’t an egg, I frown upon them staying there too long. It needs to be available for the wandering females who seem to mysteriously lay there every day, especially when I’m not looking, although I have figured out this bounty is from more than one or two girls.
And so, the saga of the egg laying begins anew at the House of Cluck-Cluck. Happy days are here again. And judging by the crock I chose to put the eggs in, the production is currently overflowing the container.
Time to put them back into something larger again. Yippee.