Eggcetera

Very fun to be crossing things off lists these days!  While I haven't any New Year's resolutions, there is a certain sense of turning a page in January for me this year, turning toward the sun and a new day.   I've decided that the only way to get through winter is to be industrious and enjoy the instant gratification of a completed project.

So, the nest box is done. 

A quiet corner for eggs.

The cookbook shelf is also finished, with room to grow--so nice to have all of my books accessible and bracketed against suddenly tumbling off the end of a make-shift shelf.    My next big organizational task is to sort through my seeds--all kinds of lovely stuff there.  I get quite nerdy with graph paper & all when it comes to garden planning and seed starting, but it is the most fun to be poring over seed catalogs and daydreaming of verdant summer beds in the middle of a snowy mid-winter day.

Purchased eggs to the right....

We are well over our first dozen eggs from the girls, although they are all just a bit smaller than regular eggs at this point, as you can see in the picture.  I am waiting to see how quickly the girls take to the new nest box; up until now, they have made a sweet, round little depression in the bedding in the corner of their coop for a nest.  Yesterday, while I was working on the nest box, the chickens were out running around--exploring various interesting corners of the garage and out the door to the equally stirring side of the house, where a birdfeeder sheds its extra seed to the ground and there is a nice sunny patch of dirt for dust bathing.   Betty, the shy girl, who never wants to get too close, surprised me by coming in the garage, jumping up into the coop, and settling her round body in the nest.  Here I am, using a screeching table saw and a drill, and still she settled into her corner, occasionally plucking feathers from the surrounding bedding and tucking them underneath.  I know that she isn't comfortable around me, and I know that hens like to hide away when they lay--I just assumed that she was chilly and wanted to get off the cold concrete. 

But a few minutes later, she was up and out of the coop, and there was a light brown egg in the nest--when I picked it up, it was still warm.  Wow.  I was kind of awed.  You know from early childhood that a chicken lays an egg.  This is a very different way of understanding that reality, to pick up the warm little offering in your urban garage on a random Thursday in January.  How FUN.

Roxie has recovered after about 10 days of intermittent illness, and she finally laid an egg again yesterday, which makes us all feel better.  She is back to pushing her way up to the front for treats, and no longer spends her time hiding away on the roost in the corner.

In other bird news, we had the barred owl back in our front yard--in the same spot of the same tree as the last time, which was in February.  Apparently he likes overcast winter days in our hackberry.  My much-maligned camera, the snow that was falling, and the afternoon backlighting all conspired to create a lot of crappy pictures, no matter where I stood, or how close I came, and so I quickly gave up on capturing the moment and just savored it instead:  I love that he barely glanced my way, so utterly unconcerned with humanity and instead absorbed by the songbirds and sparrows flitting along the periphery and the small quiet rustle of a mouse in the ivy below.  I am grateful for the chance to watch him survey his world.  And even after we got distracted and went back to our day, he lingered in the tree all afternoon....