Little Egg

If you look closely at this picture you can see that one of last year's hens has just started laying (well, they all are now, but...) and she hasn't quite gotten it down, yet. At the edge of the eggs is one, very small egg. It was about the size of a robin's egg. After we opened it, it did, indeed, have a yolk and everything. Someone had put forth the idea that it could be a starling's egg, but there aren't any birds out there, yet. They are pretty easy to spot, as they can't really get in the coop/run too easily with a fully covered operation. It's always fun when they start laying. I think since they are a full year old now, most of them have really skipped the smaller egg stage pullets go through when they first start laying. It's kind of nice. It gives me a steady dozen eggs a day to sell/eat, after the older birds kind of gave up early last fall.

Yay!

While checking on my birds last night I noticed an odd sheen from within one of the nests. Upon further investigation...eggs! Finally, after a 5 month hiatus, they have started back up. That should help me determine whether to cull the oldest hens this or next, after seeing what their laying performance will be this year. There were three in that nest-I didn't check the others, though, as there was a rooster protecting a large group of hens in the other nest and it was too cute to disturb.
On another chicken note, there was one rooster who just wouldn't head inside the other night, so I left him out. He is still out. He refuses, and I haven't had a chance to get back down and bug him. I think he was bottom of the pecking order, and may have been blinded by one of the others cocks in one of their little battles. I need to look closer at his comb to see whether it is frostbite or blood leaving black spots. He is just very flighty and nervous. Definitely heading to the meat locker in April