First Easter Egg

Our first Araucana egg, sort of blue-green, in front of today's Dominique egg and next to grocery store large eggs.

Hilda noticed Bridget sitting in a nest box for a long time today. Finally, Hilda reached underneath her, and there it was—our first blue egg from an Araucana. I was away at a workshop at the time and did not get the news until I got home. Very exciting! We have five Araucana, so once they all start laying, production should more than double.

Up until now, we believe that all of our eggs were coming from the Dominiques. We have three of them. For about a week, we got one a day. Recently, that has gone to two. The size is creeping up into the “small” range. Early on, we had one that was 1.8 ounces. One of the chickens had skipped from teensy to large! When we cooked the egg, it had a double yolk. Another large egg a few days later also had a double yolk. I think I remember reading that double yolks are common from young hens. With practice, they get it right. We’ll see.

A double-yolked egg. We've had two so far.

I suspected the Aracauna would start laying soon. Thursday morning when I was cleaning the coop, I noticed that Ingrid did “the squat” when I stroked the back of her head. I first observed this behavior in Sara after she had started laying. When I petted her head, she lifted her shoulders, spread her wings slightly, and bent her legs. I mistook it at first for the poop position, but no poop was forthcoming. When I repeated the touch, she repeated the posture. It was then that I realized I was a big disappointment to her. This was a “come hither” sign for a rooster. Sorry, Sara. Sorry, Ingrid.
Meanwhile, we’ve had several good frosts. The tomatoes are quite dead. I’m working on processing the ones Hilda picked just before the first frost. They have been ripening here and there throughout the house and greenhouse ever since. Tonight I am going to make spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow we will begin fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut.  We will have to dig potatoes soon. Hilda dug up some Gold Rush russets last week. The results were encouraging, as there were some really big spuds in there. Some years we get nothing but tiny ones, which are rather a pain to peel.

Gold Rush russet potatoes. The large one in the upper left is probably 5 inches long.