The First and the Last

Henny and Penny arrived in our lives early this summer. Penny is hyper, at times frantic. Her first night she flew up in a tree above the coop while Henny clucked worriedly below. Bob managed to pluck the elusive Penny down and into the safety of her new home in our backyard.

Surprisingly, the very next morning Penny thoughtfully laid a warm, bluish egg in the nest. It was our first and we were delighted to begin our egg-gathering adventure for the season. As many know, chickens stop laying come the shorter days of fall. They need about 14 hours of daylight to continue egg production. Some farmers place lights into the chicken coops so that there hens lay all through the winter. We chose not to use lights and let Henny and Penny follow the natural light of the changing seasons.

Henny and Penny laid faithfully six days a week throughout the summer, with no nod of superiority over our three young chicks we added to the coop in August. In late September there were no longer one or two eggs each day to enrich our breakfasts. Some days there were one and other days the nest box lay empty. By October we gathered only an occasional egg.

During the third week of October Penny stayed in the nest box longer than usual, remaining unusually silent while I cleaned the coop around her. Henny came to the entrance at the bottom, looking up into the box, fussing a bit with some concern. After cleaning the coop and pen I scattered the scratch food, but Penny did not fly out of her nest to bully her way with the new chicks for the treats. Finally, after hours in the nesting box, Penny flew out quickly and silently and went to work pecking over-looked scratch food in the pen long since abandoned by Henny and the young, non-laying birds.

I opened the box and there it was! The last blue egg of the season. Penny may be hyper and keep her distance but she did manage to lay the first and last egg. I guess she has earned her keep. Looking forward to next spring. Long may she lay!