The many wonders of the egg

I am not going to write about the many ways an egg can be prepared or used in a recipe.  Most people already know that eggs are good for you and can be fried, boiled, scrambled, etc.  The wonder of which I am amazed is where they come from.  I finally have eggs.  My hens are now almost six months old and in the last week and a half, I have collected a dozen and a half eggs.  I think they have all come from one hen, too.  I have not finished my nesting boxes yet, even though I knew the hens were becoming mature enough to lay.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to find two eggs laying on some nice soft pine shavings inside the coop one morning.  Forgetting all I had read about leaving an egg behind so the hen believes it is safe to continue laying where she has, I took both eggs in my excitement.  Imagine my chagrin when there were no more eggs laid in the next few days.  Unsure what to do now, I was certain the hen had to be laying somewhere else.  Surely she couldn't hold those eggs, but I could not find where she was now nesting. 
A few days later, I took my son up to the barn and pressed him into egg searching service whilst I fed the horse and chickens.  He looked high and low, but I was becoming discouraged.  I was fairly certain the chickens did not venture far from the barn during the day, but it was possible my laying hen had been spooked when I took her eggs and wandered away to lay her eggs in secret.  Suddenly, I heard "I found them, Mommy!" in my son's piping little voice.  Inside the storage stall, we have a trash can in which the feed bags are placed when emptied.  The can had been filled to the top and the last bag had been laid flat across the top.  Ms. Hen had turned the bag into a nest and had laid six eggs on that feed bag.  Little man was so excited he looked like he was about to pee in his pants.
In an attempt to get the hen and eventually the other hens to lay in the coop, we placed plastic eggs in the spot where I had found the first eggs.  However, Ms. Hen has decided she prefers the trash can and feed bags, even though all her eggs had been removed.  Since, we have found seven more eggs laid in that spot.  They're perfect little brown eggs.  It can be a little disconcerting when you ponder the fact that they come from a chicken's butt.  However, since we have been eating eggs our whole lives, knowing the chicken butts personally will not deter us from enjoying these little brown wonders.In fact, I think we will enjoy them even more.  Now, I can't wait to start finding little blue eggs in about four months when my Araucanas are mature.