The Chicken

Big news around here...at least for me. Our chicken laid her very first egg! On Friday I heard her cackling (the sound a hen makes after she laid an egg). I ran outside to try to find her and her egg, but no luck. I later told my maid that I thought the chicken was going to lay an egg because she was about 20 weeks old and I heard her cackling. She said yes ma'am in a few days she will lay an egg. Well today she laid an egg! Yippee, I was excited. when I saw the small brown egg. I am sure you think I am crazy but I had been told all along that this hen wouldn't lay eggs because we don't have a rooster, she was a rooster chicken. I didn't believe that, hens do lay eggs with or without a rooster. The eggs just won't hatch unless the hen has visited with a rooster. One egg a day will be laid by the hen from 20 weeks of age and she will continue to produce eggs for several years although her production will slow down the older she gets, but she will still lay even if there is no rooster around. I know this for a fact as in Princeville we had 14 hens and got 14 eggs a day and there was no rooster around our house. But in India I supposedly had a rooster chicken which means that she won't lay eggs unless I have a rooster. I thought this can be true, can it? But maybe because we are in India and she is after all an Indian rooster chicken. Today though I was certain I had proved my point that my "rooster chicken" laid an egg without a rooster. Then late in the day the news was broken to me that about 10 days ago a neighbor's white rooster came courting my hen. Of course now everyone firmly believe that she only laid the egg because the rooster visited! So now I am on a mission to keep my hen away from any roosters to prove that she can lay eggs without a rooster around!