Henrietta laid her first egg today. It's a lovely egg, the color of cafe au lait. Perfectly shaped, not small, not big. I guess the first egg a hen lays can be kind of an oddball, but this one was just perfect.

It turned out to be a double-yolker! So I fried it up in butter and I ate one half and Julian ate one half on sourdough rye toast. Delicious. I took photos to document this auspicious occasion, but for some reason they were lost. I think I jiggled the memory card when I was changing the battery today. Darn. I got some great shots of Julian making yummy faces while eating his egg. Don't know exactly what happened.

Henrietta and Lucy are so funny. They've lost their shy, timid, beat-up factory farm attitude and are now happy, healthy, glossy free-range hens scratching around in the backyard and eating every bug they can find. They roam around everywhere. Very affectionate too. They LOVE grapes, and will climb into your lap if you have any. I don't have any problems picking them up anymore, they actually like it. It's sweet to hold a soft warm hen in your arms. They like to be petted. They will also come over to the patio table if we eat outside, just to see if we might have something tasty to share.

Lately the girls are trying to come into the house to pay us a visit, but since their poops are large and arrive unexpectedly, this is taboo. The poops are the only downside to having chickens so far. They do poop a lot, but it's mostly grass and greens. We just hose off the patio once a day and move their coop around every few days. Then we hose down the grass where the coop was and all the chicken poop disappears into the ground and turns into fertilizer. Our grass is looking exceptionally green.

So far the dog/chicken relationship is about even. Bugs regularly chases squirrels around in the backyard and sometimes he'll take a run at the hens as well, just for the hell of it and because it's fun to watch them cluck and scatter. But then they'll chase him too, just for the hell of it. I think they all enjoy the company.