One of my first 20 hens laid her first egg on Thursday, laid another Friday and another today! It is Mandy, the one who always wants to be petted! She let out such a cackle-cackle-cackle Thursday that I ran down to the chicken enclosure and she was still sitting in the nest box so proud of her first egg!!!

None of the other 19 Golden Comets have laid eggs yet. I thought they wouldn't lay until the end of August! I also have five "easter egg" chickens but I'm sure they won't be big enough to lay untill at least another month!

We also have six new bunnies (well almost new because they are now three weeks old!) So the total now is 24 Angora and other bunnies; 25 chickens; two dogs; and three and a half cats (three house cats and a neighborhood cat we all share).

Hopefully I'll have hair sheep or Angora goats before long!!!

Thanks for all the help and advice I've received here as I raised the chicks and learned about my other animals!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), July 28, 2001

Answers

Yes, the people here have been wonderful help! We're expecting our first eggs shortly, and I know I'll be very eggcited about it too. We're getting our first rabbits from the county fair (won 1st place for mini-lops), so we're getting ready to recieve them in a few days.

Brendan in IA

-- Brendan K Callahan (sleeping@netins.net), July 28, 2001.

My chickens first egg was a thrill for me too. My husband took a picture of it for me!!! It seems a little silly but I smile every time I look at that pix!

-- Mary (cntryfolk@ime.net), July 28, 2001.

Thank you so much! My first "raised from a chick" chicken (I also have several hens that were bought as adults)laid her first egg on Wednesday (about a month earlier than I expected) and I took a picture to commemorate the occasion. My husband looked at me like I was completely insane as I excitedly showed him her tiny little egg. It's so good to know others can also get so much joy from these little pleasures in life.

-- Mary S. (1deal@quik.com), July 29, 2001.

Boy, there is nothing as exciting as your first egg when you start out with a crack at raising farm animals, congrats Suzy!!! Good luck with the bunnies too, they are sooooo adorable, I had a New Zealand pair that lived over 10 years, very old for rabbits the vet told me.

Perhaps you can use this "success" to try and get some other stock too!!! Is your "other half" still reluctant to try his hand at farming?

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), July 29, 2001.

Sincere congratulations, Suzy! You know it's going to happen, and you think you are ready, but it's such a surprise when it actually occurs...It works! A real egg! It's awesome, in the formal and slang senses. My wife, Bren is responsible for bringing the chickens into our lives, (and the dog, and the rabbits and the guinea hens...). I am responsible for early morning feedings (before work) and making new pens as fast as I can. (We use movable pens called chicken tractors, keeps them on fresh ground and they fertilize and till as they go). I am also responsible for cooking and let me tell you, there's no greater pleasure than that first home-grown omelette! Good luck and you go girl...

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), July 30, 2001.

Suzy, how old are your hens? I'm excited for you and can't wait until mine start laying--they were hatched April 10, so they're 3 1/2 months old.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), July 30, 2001.

Congratulations Suzy. I think that is just great. I haven't actually had this experience yet but I have to tell you, when I was in my early twenties I went to visit a friend's Uncle in Georgia who had a working farm. I offered to collect the eggs in the morning and the first morning I was out there I saw this chicken making a fuss so I watched it for a few minutes. Lo and behold she laid an egg right in front of me. His laying hens were put in crates in the henhouse at night and her crate was eye level with me so I could see her lay the egg very easily. I was just so excited to have seen her do that that to this day it remains one of the highlights of that visit to the farm. I think this is when I realized that the farming/homesteading life was for me. We are getting closer to having chickens and hope to get them by next spring. I'll be taking a picture of my first chicken with her egg as well I'm sure. LOL

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 30, 2001.

I'm still waiting for my first egg....

-- David Kennedy (davidkennedy@hotmail.com), August 03, 2001.