Easter Bunny Again??

In late December we added six more hens to our dwindling flock of three hens, a drake mallard and a male goose (gander).   As is typical, the new hens hung out in the coop for a few days before venturing out into the wide free range that we offer here.

Wouldn't you know it, there was a hawk waiting for these fresh new birds to come out and stretch their legs a bit. No sooner had they come a few steps out of the coop, then L happened to be outside to see a hawk nab one.  Thankfully, the hawk didn't come back for more the next day.  Understandably, the other hens were a little on the skittish side.  They have adjusted and have made friends with the other fowl.

When K was watching the pigs I encouraged her to take as many eggs as they produced.  Unfortunately, they were only producing one egg per day, among the eight of them, but K gave them a pep talk and they started making three a day!  Clearly the new gals had not started laying yet.

It's February now and we've been wondering where our fresh supply of eggs are.  Despite our unintended feeding of the wildlife we do intend to get something out of our investment.  Please don't ask to see the business case and ROI for these birds, it won't make sense.

Then on Saturday I found the mother lode.  Right out in the flower bed there was this nest full of eggs...

I was nervous to pick one up because I've seen snakes in this area during the warmer months and while it was probably still too cold at 60 degrees I didn't want tempt fate.

I have a completely irrational fear of snakes and that they are lurking (yes, snakes can lurk because it is my irrational fear) everywhere outside.  I expect to find them teeming in any section of tall grass.  I'm a lot of fun around here in the summer months; talk about skittish.

After several minutes, I did finally bend down and pick up one egg.  It was very heavy and felt a bit leathery... like a snake egg.  I do know that rattlesnakes are in the viper family and they are one of the few snakes that don't come from eggs, but rational thinking is a little strained for me when it comes to this topic.

Using my solid logic, I was afraid that I had a snake egg, anaconda perhaps, in my hand.  What I didn't want was a skillet full of snakes when I started cracking these bad boys open the next time I'm making breakfast.  Yes, that was EXACTLY what I thought about.

I decided the only smart thing to do was to drop one and prove to myself that it was a real chicken egg.  I dropped it, and nothing.  I picked it up and tried again, from shoulder height this time; still nothing.  I went and found L who was also outside and dropped it a few more times.  I was getting really freaked at this point.  Finally, I just cracked it on a fence post and BOOM, it's a regular egg.

I gathered the other 15, water tested them (they all passed) and rinsed them off and then tried to put them in egg cartons. They didn't exactly fit.

The brown eggs are regular large eggs.  The white ones are clearly super jumbo sized eggs.

I texted a picture to J who showed them to c and he and his 'big cheese' smile are confident they are dinosaur eggs.

He is even wearing a shirt that supports his theory.

e is a little less worried about it all.

She is content with peas and carrots for the moment.

As I sat down to write this post it dawned on me that the eggs are white.  All of our chickens are 'brown' with brown ears so they should be laying brown eggs.  The only bird we have that is white is the white gander.

Hello, Ripley's????  More to come.