I Dub Thee Trixie

Over-Easy was your name.

Over-Easy was only 4 weeks old when we brought her home. The little sparrow chick was happiest up high on FM’s shoulder.

On the day that we acquired you, FM won you over easily as you hopped up onto his shoulder to roost and, ever since, that egg-name stuck. At four weeks old, you looked more like a house sparrow than a chicken and we guessed that you had been sneakily laid in some unknowing chicken’s nest. But now, as you near the end of your first year, you have proved yourself to be a chicken, although one of unknown variety.

Here is a sample of a typical daily haul. Each egg can be easily linked back to its hen. Over-Easy’s is the top-most egg.

A restless spirit, you are endlessly searching, looking up, trying to get higher. As everyone else settles into the coop at night, you pace the walls, watching shadows. During the day, you leave the flock and explore the Queendom alone, searching, searching. Neurotic? Intelligent? Anxious? Who knows.

A few weeks back, FM and I saw that our daily egg count was low. After paying closer attention for a few days, we noticed that it was your tiny, perfectly round eggs that were absent from the next boxes. We set out on an egg hunt and look what we found:

What is that behind the tall grass?

11 eggs in a grassy nest. This is more than 2 weeks of hidden eggs! Trixie indeed!

After we discovered your cache, you changed your strategy and began laying in the same next box as broody Sprout. And after we moved Sprout out to the broody pen, you laid eggs in a bunch of other non-conforming places – under the front porch, in the canning pot, beside the barbeque. I spend my afternoons trying to figure out your latest hiding spot – an endless game of hide-and-seek.

I had to use the butterfly net to scoop these three eggs out from under the front door porch. Apparently, SunnySide likes this impromptu nest too!

This canning pot could not have been a comfortable place to lay.

And so she laid beside the canning pot, next to the barbeque.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the nesting places you choose so how can we predict your next move?

Get out of my car, Trixie! There will be no egg-laying by the accelerator!

And so, I dub thee Trixie and I await your next ‘begawk!’ as a clue to today’s easter egg hunt.

We’re on to you, Trixie!