I wasn't expecting anything for a while. It was surprise enough that the rooster crowed after only being in the coop for a few minutes (as previously chronicled - and ended up crowing five or six times before I shut the door and left them to get used to the place).

Day three of their stay, one of the Golden Comets dive bombed Ripley just to show that she wasn't afraid of this big, lumbering ball of fur. Dive bombing is my term for when a hen leans forward, fluffs up her feathers, spreads out her wings like an F-18, and runs straight for whatever it is she's trying to teach a lesson. It works wonders on cats and it even turned Ripley away. She's still thinking they are playthings.

But yesterday was the big surprise. Going in to check the coop before locking them up for the night I found... one brown egg next to the bucket I put in for them to use as a nest box.

Huzzah to that. My reading and previous experience said that moving hens around like that could set their laying back a month because of the stress of moving and getting accommodated to new surroundings. Guess one of the Comets - or maybe the Australorp - decided differently.

Or maybe it was a leftover egg. We'll see.

Meantime, on the goat front, the two yearing does are slowly starting to make friends with Ripley. Yesterday both of them approached her and she looked up at them and they almost touched noses. So that relationship is progressing, and will continue to do so as Ripley grows.

Yesterday was also Ripley's first trip to the vet. My daughter took her and came back with lots of medicine - heartworm, flea and tick, wormer, doggie toothpaste. One of those medications is going to have some really disgusting side effects, but I don't know if I'm ready to divulge just what those are yet. Trust me, you don't want it to happen to you. Or your dog.