new hires

I'm happy to report that the second shift has just punched in.

After months of declining egg production from the Phyllises due to deaths, heat and molting, many bags of feed, raccoon attacks, snake attacks, thunderstorms and all the rest, the agonizing wait is finally over. Today we got our first egg from one of the Camillas (the name we've given to the second shift girls). I'm not sure who did it, but she left it right in her nest box where she was supposed to, and I am deeply grateful. Now that one has taken the plunge, the rest will soon follow suit. It's such a small gift, but it feels like prosperity.

P. S. - I forgot how tiny the first ones are.