Rose, the Rhode Island Red, has been consistently laying eggs now for about two weeks. So far she has been laying around 6 eggs a week, nearly one a day. We have enjoyed the eggs and have even passed some on to friends to enjoy. Up to yesterday the other two chickens were still watching her in wonder until Blanch, the Plymouth Rock, started to act a little peculiar. You see before the hen lays an egg it goes through a little ritual. After a couple of weeks, like all rituals, you sub-continuously learn the shortcuts and how to speed up the process to get right to the point. But like any ritual, before you learn it, it takes a little bit longer to work out the kinks. When Blanch started acting weird we new that she was just beginning to learn the ritual. We were excited because we knew what to expect when she was done.

The steps to the egg laying ritual go a little like this.
1.Separate yourself from the other birds.
2.Let your independence be known by walking around and clucking so people around notice that you are on your own.
3.Find an area to nest.
3.Scratch the area to make sure it is secure (on their first egg this could take a couple of hours)
4.Go back outside of the coop and let everyone know that you are independent and on your own.
5.Go back in the nest area and scratch some more.
6.Start putting wood shavings on your self to hide yourself from predators
7.Give a couple of loud clucks to let everyone know that you are still alone. (If you are new at this you may repeat steps 1-7 up two five times before preceding to step 8)
8.Lay egg.
9.Go outside and give a few loud clicks to let the other chickens know that you are done, and don’t want to be alone.

Blanche’s first egg was about the same size as Rose’s first egg. It was a little lighter shade of brown that Rose’s egg, which will help in telling them apart.

Dorothy, the Golden Wyndott, has yet to start the egg laying ritual, but we are confident that she will soon now that the other two are fast becoming old pros at it.