#75 - The Rebellious Chicken

We're on an egg-roll. Not an eggroll, but an egg drum-roll!

Nearly every day we are finding an egg. Today, we've found two eggs, so far. The first egg was found during our early morning rounds with the chickens as we went out to feed them, clean the coop and make sure their chicken tractor door panels were open to let the breeze flow through. Inside a coop nest we found a beautiful little egg.

Ahhh, the fun of finding an egg. It is still so thrilling.

Later in the day, during the increasing Texas heat, my little niece wanted to go see the chickens as I was making her lunch plate. Next thing I know, she's screaming like a banshee and she's running inside yelling, "An egg, an egg, I found an egg in the flower pot!"

What?

Of course, I barrel out the back door with her to find the egg and there it was...laying in a flower pot.

Hey chickie ladies...Could you use the coop, please?

Now, the strange thing is, this pot of dirt that reflects my iffy green-thumb was sheltered beneath the fronds of our Sago Palm. I don't know what in the world propelled my niece to look under those skin piercing fronds for an egg, but she did. As far as we know, this is the first egg laid in the yard or garden. Up until today, all eggs have been found in the nests that are inside the chicken tractor coop, and I do regularly search the yard, but obviously, I don't search it good enough.

It was exciting to find the egg in the yard, but I stood there with my hands on my hips (after video taping my niece who led me to the pot with the egg) and I looked around, not so happy. I know chickens will lay eggs in any place that's kind of tucked away with privacy and is comfortable, but can't they take the time to lay in the coop and not in a flower pot? I guess that flower pot that was vacated of any plants seemed too welcoming for the chicken to pass up.

I hope you have video capability...to see the video of this fun, exciting moment, click the link below to watch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDuU3s5eg1k

Anyway, after I stared for a moment at the flower pot egg, I looked at the chickens and wondered which one did the deed? Which one strayed to lay an egg out of the designated coop? Which one is the rebel of the bunch?

Will this start a riot with all the chickens plopping out eggs at random all over the yard so it will seem like a hellish Easter egg hunt in over 100 degree weather? After all, the chickens ran to inspect the flower pot as we were picking up the egg...they were probably having a good chat and saying, "Not a bad place. I have dibbs on the flower pot the next time around!"

I'm not really fond of a barbaric daily Easter egg hunt in the August heat. If we were forced to have Easter egg hunts in August, in Texas, the Easter Bunny would either die or resign. Period. It's too hot.

But, my niece differed with my opinion. She thought that the egg in the flower pot raised the entire chicken experience to new heights.

She said, "This is a real treasure hunt and I want chickens in MY backyard at MY house so I can go outside everyday and look for eggs."

Gee. How nice. Her mother (my sister) will be so pleased.

So, my niece is obsessed with going into the backyard. Every 30 minutes, she wants to take a walk around the backyard to scour for rogue eggs.

I had to put my foot down because we just can't have the door opened and closed so often...the doors to our house is a parable to mom's threats about keeping the refrigerator door closed. Keep the doors closed in the heat and don't stand there with it open! Every time she opens the back door a gush of humid 100+ degree heat rushes into the house and it takes forever to transform the hot blast into cooled air.

So, the back door is rigged to stay locked. I need one of those locks that are installed high on the door to keep little fingers from playing a Houdini act.

No matter what I do, I won't be able to convince my niece that she has found all of the eggs. Shaye is convinced that there are eggs ALL OVER OUR BACKYARD just waiting to be discovered. She is in four-year old Heaven.

If those chickens don't stick to the organized plan of laying in the chicken coop nests, then we just might have eggs all over the place and I might as well put out the Easter basket for Shaye to use when gathering eggs.

As we brought the little flower pot egg inside the house, I said a little prayer, "Lord, as for the commercialized bunny-side of Easter, I really like having Easter only one time per year. Really."

Again, I thought I could faintly hear the boistrous laughter of the Ominous One...as if to say that the joke is on me. Good one God. Love the sense of humor...good one.