Eggs!

One of the latest excitements around our place has been the introduction of egg gathering.  Our chickens and ducks have been laying for a couple of weeks now.  It started out pretty sporadically and since we were still letting the chickens free-range they were often very well hidden.  Each of the introductory eggs was patiently searched for, and when found, snatched up and excitedly raced into the house for show and tell.  Our eggs range from a beautiful brown to white to speckled to a pale green (which is the best our Americauna can do I guess)  She was supposed to be the star-laying colored eggs!  Maybe it is her diet, or the fact that she buckles under pressure.  We went through a little initial drama, like every event seems to at our house.  Sometimes they would lay and then not lay for a couple of days so we were sure Pepper was eating them, or they were hiding them.  Sometimes we found a broken shell and felt sure that they had gone cannibalistic on their own handiwork.  I think the best thing that we did was relax a little and then build them a fenced yard.  Though the yard worked only for the ducks until we clipped their wings, it has seemed to instill in them a sense of their home.  From the fence building point on, they have laid their eggs right where they ought; in the cute little nesting boxes we designed for them.  As with many parts of life Capriel enthusiastically welcomed the egg-laying and gathering routine into her life.  She would race out in the early morning checking for eggs.  I have seen her actually tapping on the side of the nesting boxes to try to "encourage" the hens to hurry up their business.  She has been known to put her ear up to the box and claims to have heard the egg drop, and believe it or not she swears she has actually been so much "at the right time and the right place" that she has seen an egg layed.  Though her excitement has been exceptionally aggressive her siblings have also been very anxious to gather.  We finally had to divide egg gathering privileges into specific days for specific children because Capriel was so tenacious.  Something that has been extra fun is the size difference between the duck and chicken eggs.  Our white duck is a Pekin and her eggs are probably 2 1/2 times the size of an average large egg.  In fact, much to our surprise and delight a great majority of her eggs are double yokes!  The first time it happened I made Breck take a picture (which of course I can no longer find) and then show all the kids telling her it might never happen again.  That same day they probably cracked 4 additional double yokers which brought us a good laugh.  The new tradition for Sunday brunch is for each kid to make their own custom fresh omelet.  They love to save them up till Sunday and then use them all together where they can comment on their size and unique qualities and show them to each other.  It has been fun to show the kids the difference between something that is really fresh and something that has been sitting on the store shelves.  So, despite the fact that these chickens are a lot of work, and winter is coming, they really have been wonderful pets.  The kids still can often be seen hanging out with them in their pen, or letting them out to wander the yard, or bringing them an especially delectable scrap from dinner.  A favorite memory I have is looking out the window at Capriel all dressed for church and lugging a stray chicken under each arm.
I also get a kick out of watching Lani with the eggs.  He takes great pride in keeping track of how many come in, "that's four today" and frequently gets the cartons out to sort and "arrange" the eggs according to size or color.  
It has been interesting that a number of people have asked me or the kids if we "actually eat the eggs?"  I smiled at first, but then realized that I definitely like a dissasociation from my meat, and its previous form and shape, so I should afford others the same need with their eggs if need be.