Green eggs and ham

After a loooonnnnggg wait, I discovered my first egg out of the new flock this morning!!! Can you feel my glee? I mean, AmysFlock the First died on May 16, 2009, and we consumed what remained of their (non-incubated) eggs by the end of the following week. It's been five months since a chicken has laid an egg at Skookumchuck Farm.

The egg is light green with brown speckles. I suspect Mama, one of the Wheaties, is the layer; firstly, she had six 3-month old Wheatie Jr. chicks at her side when I bought her and secondly, I'm pretty certain none of my three black pullets out of AmysFlock the First had an Easter Egger mama. (I do want to research the heritability of feathering and color (and egg color) more, though, because perhaps a pullet could be black and lack the EE "cheek" feathers and still have an EE mother.)

I am just tickled. The nesting boxes were moved to their new location under the West-facing window just last week, but lack the darkening roof and back panels I had planned to work on today. I thought for sure those two things would need to be completed before a little miss decided the nest boxes were ok for laying. Perhaps the fluffy clean shavings, the perfectly-dimensioned vented file box nests, and/or the grit-filled fake egg did the trick. Regardless, the egg is spotlessly clean. It now sits in the fridge in half an egg carton...no need to get too optimistic yet, right?

Now the other kiddos just need to catch up! My three black pullets are now 18 weeks old so laying could commence at any time, although likely won't start until around week 21. The three Red Laced Black Wyandotte pullets I purchased are, I think, a couple of weeks younger. The other two Wheaties wore the same leg bands (denoting hatch #) as Mama, so hopefully two more green eggs will join the first before too long. Perhaps I've purchased my last carton of (flat, pale, flavorless) store-bought eggs for awhile!!