Proud mum moment

There comes a time in every parents life when they take a minute, stop and feel immensely proud at what their children have achieved. I did that the other day, in the orchard, yes of course I am referring to the chickens! Raising the chicks from small bundles of fluff and watching them grow into fully grown chickens, or roosters as it appears is incredible. Its amazing that we have achieved to not kill everything, and that the chickens are thriving.

Our first batch of chicks have always been referred to as the famous four, and out of the four there are two chickens. Ruthie, is one, and she looks like domino, who is one of our best layers, so we had faith that she would be a good layer too. However, we knew we had to wait, until the pullets were old enough to lay, but patience isn't my strong point, and waiting for anything is a chore.

Everyday when I go to feed them, they gaze up at me as if to say "sorry still no egg" however  the other day Ruthie was sat, not moving but sat which is unusual. I thought the worst as I always do and proceeded with caution, however, as I got closer, she slowly stood, to reveal.....an egg!!! I felt so proud, and if possible would have hugged the chicken, but this was a step too far even in my mad world.

The egg was small, formed, perfect but small...so I'm waiting for a recipe that requires 1 1/2 eggs in the ingredients to be able to use Ruthie's first egg! I am beginning to think that her egg producing was simply to shut me up as there have been no others since, but she laid. We managed to rear a chicken from a chick and got an egg.....that quite amazing in my mind....sad but true!