What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Well in this house, the chickens definitely came first. They arrived on the 2nd of June, 2010 and they were a day old. We waited nearly six months for that first egg (Thanksgiving Day) and one by one the rest of the girls started laying. This, in spite of the fact that my local chicken farmer friend advised me that they may wait until spring due to the shorter days and frigid temps. Ha! Not my girls. He suggested we could trick them by placing a light in their hen house on a timer to make them think the days are longer. We opted not to do that. Here's why I think they are laying so prolifically throughout winter:

A morning snack of organic baby greens, sprouts, grapes, blueberries, cottage cheese or yogurt.
Daily exercise - I clear the snow so they have a small playground to scratch around in and a path to the back door (see previous blips).
Afternoon snack of cracked corn (usually just to entice them back into their small coop after exercising).
Lots of love and encouragement.

Today we were gifted with four eggs before 8 a.m. I'm certain there will be more. We've had five in one day recently, and considering there are only six hens and it's winter, they're doing an excellent job.

That's Dad in the background eating breakfast and trying to find something he wants to read in the Chicago newspaper.