yay! yay! yay! li'l red does it!

oh friends and sometimes-readers of this blog! (aka, oh al!)

exciting, exciting news!
my little hen, the little rhode island red, started talking on sunday. i got home from maupin and noticed she was making a little bit more noise than usual. using her lungs, practicing her chicken squawks. she hadn't laid an egg yet...and i was worried that she was a nervous, anxious chicken (i could imagine getting chased around a pen by a dog all day would do that to you) and she might never lay eggs. but her voice got louder througout the week which is one of those down-home signs that a chicken is going to start laying eggs. and this morning there were all sorts of peeps and squawks and i didn't see li'l red in the run...and i hoped she was inside ,in the nesting box, getting down to business.
well my friends! after a long day (a kind of emotional day) i came home, put on the xtra tuffs and ventured into the backyard at 9pm with my headlamp and a camping mug full of geverztraminer. i hoped to find some sort of small brown egg in the nesting box, but fearing disappointment, i was excited merely by the thought of just getting to hold the chickens. [they are docile when they sleep on their perch, practically the only time they hold still long enough for me to pick them up]. i opened the coop door and squeeled with delight when i saw two large white eggs (big bird has been productive!) and one, tiny, brown egg! joy of joys. it was the tiniest chicken egg ever. almost as small as the smallest bantam egg we put in the incubator last spring. tiny. miniscule. i guess that means li'l red is a bantam!? i'm not sure. she could be (the egg she hatched from was medium-small) but she is also the same size as big bird (who is not a bantam, but very small for her leghorn size). regardless...brown eggs! brown eggs! ahhh, i couldn't be more excited! so, of course, i refreshed the girls' water and watched them drink. if you have never watched a chicken drink water...you really should. it is one of the most precious things i have ever, ever seen. and, of course, if i like it---you'll like it too.
back to point. the late night egg harvest, the photos and the ohh-ing and ahhh-ing woke the girls up and they ventured out in the run to eat and drink. they are so cute! li'l red was using her voice some more (if an egg just came out of my butt i am sure i would be talking too!) and i have never been so proud of my girls. growing vegetables is one thing...but raising animals that provide the food i eat (read, fried egg on buttered toast!) is unbeatable. i just love it. it deepens my understanding of science, agriculture and our food system...and it also makes me believe in miracles.

the fancy nesting box that i finally built for the girls. i'm so glad they know how to use it. yay for chicken instincts.

big bird on the left. li'l red on the right. they are still pretty tiny even though they are both almost 7 months old.

fierces favortie job: chicken duty. she likes to herd them. sometimes i'd really like to be inside her brain.
see! see how small it is! teeny, tiny! delicious!

and not to neglect my favorite mammal...fierce is doing splendidly. we've been bonding alot lately. she does amazing things like she comes when i call her (really, this is amazing...you didn't know her a year and a half ago). we go for off-leash runs by the columbia river...and i can let her in the front yard, to the car or even leave her out at maupin without fear that she will run off. she also just got 'evaluated' at the local boarding house cause she's going to have to spend some days there during the turkey holiday and the decidious tree holiday while i travel. such is life (my heart is torn in two by this, actually). and for the sake of equality (you all know we are very pro equality here)...check out these classic fierce (and cleo) photos from the last week.

cleo up front. fierce in the back.