3,999. Holy eggs Batman! That was the egg tally just a few days ago. When I started my adventures with chickens a year and a half ago, I didn’t comprehend the volume of eggs that would pass through those chickens and my life. I remember the thrill of finding the first egg and I started keeping a tally at that point. Each egg was so amazing and even precious, handled like royalty. I have loads of pictures if you want to see them. It’s like having your first baby…you document it all. But then production, and reality, really kicked in and the 30 chickens I had at the start of this experiment were working – working hard. Bless their little chicken hearts those girls just layed eggs, day in and day out and soon my life was overflowing with eggs. Egg carton creep started happening in my refrigerator. First they took over the bottom shelf, and then the middle shelf was under attack, and soon my refrigerator was more of an egg storage unit than anything else. Sorry son, we don’t have room for other food; make yourself another egg burrito. Egg cartons and egg cleaning and tables covered with eggs as I sorted and packaged soon became the norm.  Egg maven and chicken wrangler… the newest additions to my resume. Who knew? At times I was utterly overwhelmed. What on earth was I doing with 30 chickens and what will I do with the 10 dozen eggs on the table?

Over time, the predator population, which unfortunately included my own dogs once or twice, diminished my clearly over-the-top flock numbers to the much more sensible count of 8. That’s a lot of loss, but boy have I learned a few things….and eaten some great eggs.  During the height of production I also kept quite a few other people in fresh eggs and that felt great. Can’t feed as many folks now, but it is so much more manageable. My original business partner, my son, abandoned ship very early in the process so it’s all me. While I still wax poetic about the cuteness of the chickens and fun of having them around, he has adopted a much different mindset. In our latest round of “what would you do if you won 10 million dollars in the lottery” he talked about how he was going to give money to this family member and that family member, but when it came to me I got a Sophie’s choice instead – “you get a half million dollars….but ONLY (his emphasis) if you get rid of the chickens”. What! How could he even suggest such heresy. I never did answer him. As most moms know, there are ways, and I would find a way to have my chickens and money too. Ha!

So, 3999 eggs.  And to think I was feeling egg anxiety about the fairly brief molting and winter egg-free period we just experienced. No eggs for about a month and I was in a panic. When forced finally to the grocery store egg aisle, I just stood there looking at them for the longest time. People probably wondered if I needed help, and not of the physical kind.  Could I do it – actually BUY eggs?  For crying out loud, I had 8 chickens at home. But seeing that number the other day made me reconsider. Good lord those girls deserved a little rest. They’re back to laying, even on the negative and single digit days we’ve had so many of recently, hurrah. No more grocery store panic attacks.  And I, in honor of the 3999th egg, made myself a most delicious and decadent batch of eggs benedict, poaching eggs laid that morning. It doesn’t get much better than that. Thank you chickens!