We’ve recently been having a few five-egg days. That’s from eight hens who were baby chicks back in June. They, and their rooster, are doing amazingly well in the bitterly cold weather we’ve been having lately… it was down to 16 below 0 this morning! We’ve been keeping a heat lamp over their water dish in their well-insulated coop, and that really helps.

But back to their eggs. In October, we got two brown eggs the day before we left on a month-long road trip. The friends who lived in our house while we were away reported that they got an egg a day and sometimes two. It continued like that around Thanksgiving but then the number increased. We had a three-egg day, then four, and now we have five-egg days two or three times a week.

The most prolific layers are our two Golden Buffs, who lay the eggs like the one on the left, large eggs with a rich brown shell. I had read that Golden Buff hens  were little egg-laying machines, and they are proving themselves! Sunshine, our Buff Orpington, is right behind them; her eggs are a little lighter in tone. We haven’t exactly figured out who is laying the rest, but it appears that Masie, one of our Easter Eggers, is laying the creamy off-white ones.

These young hens carry on with a lot of cackling right after they lay an egg. “Hey, look what I did!” they chortle. And I have been struck with the wondrous thing that an egg is. The shell, the white, the yolk, all so perfect, and such an excellent food!

I didn’t expect so many eggs deep in the winter, as I had heard that hens get into laying eggs  when the days get longer and now in late December, that’s not happening. But coming of age has trumped the long dark nights! We’re very proud of our girls. And what are we doing with so many eggs? Somehow, we are keeping up. I did give a dozen to our UPS driver the other day, after he made it out to our place on a snowy day, and there will be more gifts later, I’m sure. But we’re making omelettes, deviled eggs, custards, and more.