In our Book of Firsts

Five months of life lessons. We built our first chicken coop, cried buckets of tears at the loss of three tiny balls of fluff, nursed a sick chick to recovery, learned who our friends were when they gave up a beautiful Saturday to help construct a run, had a stare-down with an adult Red-tailed Hawk, found out four of our eight birds are roosters ("What are the odds?" we joke), learned the intricacies of integrating a new hen into an existing flock, moved our lawn swing in order to catch plenty of "chicken television," came eye to eye with Mr. Fox, became content with day trips, stopped having to use alarm clocks and sharpened our sling-shot skills.

The work and worry all became worth it when our youngest announced with shrieks of delight "Our first egg!" and yes, though we didn't birth it, we all feel the right to call it "ours."

On the left is an egg from a local farmer's White Leghorn Chicken in order to compare the size and color with our olive-colored egg on the right.

We're not sure who the proud mama is yet, as three of our four hens consist of Olive Eggers (crosses between Americaunas and French Black Marans). The other is a pure French Maran who will lay chocolate-colored eggs. We hope you will enjoy getting to know our chickens as we're a bit um, obsessed.

ps Thanks to my friends around the world that have wondered about me in my absence. I've missed you all as well.