The Egg Song

The Joy of Being a Mommy

Like most women who have given birth, the whole entire process for me was long, painful, and hard to anticipate when and where the small miracle was going to take place. I loved being pregnant with each of my three kids, but the moment the contractions started, an immediate dread filled my mind knowing how the next twenty-four hours were going to tax me physically, mentally, and emotionally...and that's with all of my pregnancies being normal and healthy without complications.

My husband and I chose to give birth naturally at a hospital. I was not given anything to dull the pain because part of me couldn't bare the thought of having strong pain killers transferred over to my baby who was still feeding off everything inside of me. The other part of me was like, "Power to the Woman!" where I wanted to be as brave as my mom, grandmother, great grandmother, and all the other women in history who went through the entire process without medicine. If they could squat in a field by themselves to give birth, then so could I....except I was blessed to be in a hospital with the guidance of my husband and nurses. Mike, my husband, was the absolute best birthing coach a girl could ask for, and he is the reason I was able to get through my contractions and deliver my babies.

Within seconds after I gave birth, the most incredible feeling of joy exploded my entire being...not only because I had a new human to love and adore, but because I survived another birth. Giving birth, hands down, has been the toughest thing I've ever been through. Most women have this wonderful feeling of love and unexpected energy after birthing a baby. The pain of childbirth almost disappears instanteously. In medical terms, this feeling of elation is caused by dopamine and oxytocin which are neurotransmitters our bodies create giving women energy to take care of a newborn baby after enduring hours and hours of body breaking contractions.

When I got chickens three years ago, I was so impressed with their ability to go through the birthing process EVERY....SINGLE....DAY. If I had to go through birthing every day, I would go insane. They have to squeeze an egg out of their body every day or they get extremely sick. Most people probably think it's not a big deal for a chicken to lay their daily egg, because that's what God designed them to do. I've learned differently.

Lucky laying her egg.

It takes about 30-60 minutes for a chicken to lay their egg. They have to be in a dark, secluded place, preferably away from their flock. I have 15 nesting boxes for the chickens to lay their eggs. My seventy hens only use about half of those nesting boxes. I've noticed that chickens love to lay their daily egg on top of all the other chickens' eggs. Most days when I go to collect eggs, all the eggs will be piled on top of each other in at least three or four of the nesting boxes.

The favorite nesting box this week.

Laying an egg is quite a process for each chicken. Sometimes....

1. They will pace the coop back and forth until the perfect moment arrives to push out the egg inside the nesting box.

2. Sometimes they will sit inside every single nesting box until finding the perfect one to lay their egg.

3. Sometimes they will sit for a half hour trying to push out an egg, but it's just not going to happen and they give up for the day.

4. Sometimes they try several times throughout the day to lay their egg until it finally pops out.

5. Sometimes there is a complication such as an egg breaking inside the chicken and getting stuck. This has happened to my flock three times. Each time an egg has gotten stuck, it smells like the chicken has a rotten egg inside of her. They have a terrible smell. I haven't been able to save any of the chickens whose eggs have gotten stuck or have broken inside of them.

Whenever one of my girls lays their egg, my whole family and our neighbors know.

Chickens sing an egg song after laying their daily egg. I've added a video to show you what the egg song sounds like. The video I took was six minutes long, but I condensed it down to not bore my awesome readers, haha.

There are a couple reasons why chickens have this lengthy egg song after laying their eggs. First of all, they are happy! After pushing and pushing and pushing, that pesky egg finally came out!

Look at the size of the egg on the left...a double yolker. That must have been fun for the chicken to lay, NOT!

Second of all, they use the egg song to notify their sisters that it's their turn to come inside the coop to take care of business. In the video, one of the hens outside the coop answers the chicken inside the coop telling her, "Okay, it's my turn, I'm coming!" The hen then waits patiently in the run for the other hen to finish her egg song before going inside to lay her egg. How polite, haha!

The third reason for the egg song is to help the chicken rejoin her free ranging flock. The other chickens will hear the song from out in the woods and come find the chicken who had just laid her egg to walk her back to rejoin the gang.

The egg song is just another example of how a flock acts like a family. Everyone has to work together and communicate as a team in order to not be separated or eaten. They are such amazing creatures!

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly

P.S. My next book signing will be taking place at Living Truth Bookstore in Noblesville, Indiana on Saturday, October 11 from 11:00-1:00. I will have copies of both of my books, Pastor Jay and Painter of the Sky, available at the signing.