YAHOO!!! THE MYSTERY HAS BEEN SOLVED!

Well, yesterday it FINALLY HAPPENED!!! One of my chickens LAID AN EGG!!!! The bad news is that it happened when I was out of town - OF COURSE! :( You would know, that it would be our neighbor, who takes care of our pets when we are gone, that got to enjoy the excitement of finding the first egg. I don't think it was NEARLY as exciting for her as it would have been for me. Oh well! At least one of them laid! And my neighbor does take great care of our pets and home when we are out of town, so if anybody had to find the first egg, then I'm glad it was her. My friend, Kenneth, recently commented and said to stop worrying, because it has been a hot summer and my chickens would soon relax in their new environment and start laying once it cooled down and I guess he must have been right as we have started having cooler days. I also noticed that my Black Copper Maran, "Blackie", was spending a lot of time in the nest boxes before we left out of town and I wondered if she might be thinking about laying an egg and she did! So she gets the prize as the first of my chickens to lay! I praised her and told her what a good chicken she was as soon as I got home! ha! ha! Of course, I'm sure she only heard, "Blah, Blah, Blah", but I did give her some nice grass to eat, so I think that she was happy for that! She actually laid a regular size egg, too, and I was surprised since it was her first and I think chickens normally lay smaller eggs when they first start to lay. So, she did a great job and I am so proud of her!  Perhaps she will convince my other chickens to lay. Just to let you know, a Black Copper Maran chicken is originally from France and lays a dark brown egg and I think they will get darker (almost a chocolate color) the more they lay and then get lighter as the chicken gets older and is about to stop laying. That is what I've read anyway. I also think these chickens are not so common in the U.S. and their eggs are normally prized by French chefs in France. Below is a photo of a regular brown egg next to my Maran's egg. you can see a difference in color. I was most anxious for her to lay, because I don't think I've ever seen a Maran egg before and I was very curious to see how dark it might be. Now, tomorrow I think we will have to test the inside for breakfast! :)