What color is brown? This question gets even more interesting with chicken eggs.

We do not have a large flock of chickens, but they are happy, clucky girls. They make the sweetest sound when they are happy. When fed treats they especially make happy sounds. Sorta like we folks do when eating our treats, “Yum! Yummy!” They have many different voices and sounds. #chickensmakeuschuckle when the one Isa Brown, Dot, chases our dog through the barn. She makes a sharp, directive, short sound while staring him down and following him with a threatening hearty peck. He gets out of her way. If I did not know better, I would believe she comes after me at times with her sassy look and quick pace!

Eggs are the same way, they come in different sizes, shapes and color. All the chickens we have owned have laid brown eggs. We have Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Black Sex-link, Australorps, and Isa Browns. Chickens are curious, given a multi-roomed laying area, more times than not they will each lay their eggs in the same nest. It seems to be a favorite to all. This can and does change over time, which makes for many a morning to feel like an Easter Egg Hunt (for the free-range birds that is). There have been times I thought the chickens were not laying , only to catch a glimpse of one coming from a different quiet place singing her “I’ve laid my egg!” song and found, all neatly tucked in a small pile of a sweet nest, over a dozen eggs!

Never will I forget visiting a horse farm full of pretty horses, dogs, cats, chickens and baby chicks everywhere and going into one of the horse stalls to find a nest full of eggs right in the corner on the floor. They were safe among the horses the owner told me. Our hens live around our horses, dogs and cats without worry but they have not made a nest on the stall floors. Max, our big black & white cat will often give them a chase, but it is all in jest. He likes the barn mice better.

I have watched a couple of the hens lay their eggs. One must stand quietly and out of sight so as not to disturb her. They sit so still and make a quiet, hardly audible sound, while at the same time plucking a piece of hay here and there to make the nest comfy. Just before laying the egg, their back end rises up to deposit the warm egg in the soft bedding. A moment or two later, up they get and sing their ‘egg laying’ song. The egg looks brown. I suppose it is brown until I gather them all at the end of the day and give them one big admiring stare. It is then I notice just how different in color and shape they truly are. Some have hints of pink, others more dark, some a little more yellow, a few have tiny speckles, some are big and round, others slim and pointed.

Call me simple, but I never grow tired of looking at them. To me they are a wonder.