Thursday, January 17, 2008

And Then The Chicken Said, "What the Heck Was That?!"

Well, yesterday I got a call from Ayden's school saying he was running a fever of 101 and complaining of stomach pains, so I had to go pick him up early. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent watching my sweet child listless and puking. I had to cancel my massages for today so I could stay home with him, and I am really glad I did because he's even hotter this morning, though thankfully no more puking. We lounged in bed until almost 9:30 this morning, dozing and cuddling together. Eventually I knew I'd have to get up and go do my chores, especially since the chickens were locked in their coop. I made it out there at about a quarter till 10, and I had some pretty restless chickens glaring at me through the chicken wire divider in our coop. As I bent over to scoop some feed, one of the roosters crowed right in my ear and I swear I could feel my ear drums rattle. Wonderful. When I opened the door they came flooding out over my feet in a great poultry escape move. After they'd gone boiling out the door, the coop was eerily silent. I headed toward their little door in the corner, but something caught my eye. Something distinctly round and pale green nestled in the paper shreds.....
IT'S OUR FIRST EGG!!!!
According to my figures, over the last 7 months we have spent roughly $88 on chicken feed, $8 on a brooder lamp, lets say $40 on electricity to keep their heat lamp on 24/7 while they were chicks, $50 for them as day-old chicks, $50 for their feeder and waterer's (small chick sized ones and large 1 gallon ones for when they got older), $80 for chicken wire and hardware to enclose their run and separate off half of our shed to function as their coop... am I forgetting anything? Probably, but lets just run with that figure. So that means that this egg cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $316. I'll let you know if it is made of solid gold when we eat it.I know he looks feverish, but heavens his little rosy cheeks are adorable.You can see the difference in size to these awful store bought eggs. They will get bigger as their little eggy organs further develop.

5 comments:

farm mama said...

How exciting!! You may very well have some brown ones hidden out in your yard, especially since your Wyandottes have been ahead of your Americaunas in everything else.

Meg said...

Aww! The day we got our first egg was a major celebration at our house. Are you going to save it to eat until you get some others?

Danni said...

Oh, I'm so excited for you!! This is a momentous event - thank goodness for cameras. Ayden looks so sweet. I have a picture of my Aidan holding his first farm-fresh egg from the farm sanctuary we spend time at. Of course, while my boys is very cute, 16 year old cute is very different than 3 year old cute. :-) :-)
Congrats again. I'm tickled like it was my own egg!

goatgirl said...

Congratulations! Now you can never go back.
You have to love a green egg. I hope Ayden has a copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

Christy said...

Congratulations! The first egg has to be exciting.