Pint-sized Pioneering: Fresh eggs with herbs

This is Scooter, a white-crested black Polish.

She's named for this Scooter:

If you don't have The Muppets theme song in your head by now, here's the ~~earworm~~ link.

I bought Scooter because she was supposed to be a blue polish, like this:

The color of their feathers has nothing to do with their personalities or egg-laying capabilities. I just wanted a blue one because they're unusual.

The problem is that the genes for blue coloring (blue genes?) work out that 50% of the offspring will be blue, 25% black, and 25% "splash". I have 2 "blue" Polish. Three guesses what Beaker is, and the first two guesses don't count:

Yeah. She's a "splash". Damn genetics.

Polish are different from chickens without crests. They're neurotic dingbats (instead of just dingbats). They're friendly, yes, but because they can't see well, they definitely march to a different drummer. Because they're also bantams (lightweight), they can get places that the bigger, heavier birds can't reach. Like the NCZ (No Chicken Zone).

They are also the only members of the flock who lay white eggs. One of them has been laying in a flower pot on the back porch, which is in the NCZ. I even put a chicken wire cage around the pot to keep the dimwit out of it. Alas, to no avail. Either Beaker or Scooter has been bound and determined to lay her egg on my chives and thyme. She, whichever one it is, has also been taking liberties with the backyard vegetable garden, digging, eating, and pooping in it.

The herbs in the flower pot are not doing well as a result of the prolonged hen-sitting spells. Earlier this week I dropped the flower pot egg because my hands and pockets were full of eggs from the nesting box. You know... where the eggs are supposed to be laid. All the other hens got the memo.