Worth the Wait

Just as I was about to give up on our young ladies giving us any eggs at all, there's this:

The large egg is a normal-sized egg. The smaller one is maybe 2/3 the size — definitely a first attempt by one of the girls. 

The mystery (unless you catch a hen in the nesting box) is always about figuring out which egg came from which bird. The big egg above looks like one of Sally's regular eggs, a sort of pinkish brown. It was also warm in the nesting box when I picked it up.

Sally was nowhere near the henhouse, but Louisa Catherine (our Gold-Laced Wyandotte) was standing on the ramp, looking slightly confused. Some quick research revealed that, yes indeedy, Wyandottes lay pinkish brown eggs. 

Sally, by the way, is in the middle of a molt, and hasn't laid in a couple weeks (a sad fact that led us to buy an incredibly disappointing carton of eggs last week). Though she's a champion layer, I'd be surprised if she randomly popped out an egg in the middle of dropping all her feathers. 

But I'm equally surprised that Louisa Catherine appears to have figured out the nesting box without any coaching. I found that little egg on the floor of the henhouse in a corner, where all the other chickens laid their first eggs. We had to train them by putting some plastic eggs in the nesting boxes for a clue. It appears that Louisa Catherine was caught off guard by that first, small egg, but has since gotten her act together remarkably well.

I snatched up the full-sized egg and carted it off to the kitchen (we're desperate for some full-bodied, orange-yolked eggs instead of the pitiful ones you get at the grocery store). I left the little one in the nesting box as a helpful hint for the others, and Kirk added some straw to make the boxes more enticing.

We shall see….