A Dozen Eggs

At least two of our new chickens — Rachel, the Rhode Island Red; Lizzy, the Welsummer; and Louisa Catherine, the Gold-Laced Wyandotte — are laying now, and we’ve collected a dozen eggs so far: 

This mis-matched set doesn’t include the four “seed eggs” that we put in the nesting boxes to help the girls figure out where to lay their eggs. Someone’s got it down, but someone else is still laying little eggs on the floor under the roosting bar.

But who’s laying where, and which egg belongs to which bird?   

All three of our older chickens are molting and appear to be done laying for the season. Martha and Abigail lay green eggs, so that’s not in question anyway. Sally lays light brownish-pink eggs, and you can see that we have three or four full-sized, light eggs in the box. We thought perhaps she was the one laying these big eggs in the box (despite the molt), but today I picked up an egg with a clue: 

The downy feather left attached to this light egg is a definite red-brown, and that means that these eggs are definitely Rachel’s. So at least one of our girls is laying full-sized eggs and has figured out where to do it properly.

As for the small eggs, they are just a bit darker. They could be from either bird, but I’m thinking the Wyandotte (Louisa Catherine), since those hens lay light brown eggs as well. Lizzie’s eggs should be dark brown since she’s a Welsummer, and I haven’t seen anything like that — yet.