Today the girls reached a landmark – every one of them laid an egg in the same day!  For a few weeks we would once in a while reach 7 out of 8, though 4 or 5 a day is more usual.  Either somebody hadn’t started laying yet, or somebody was having a day off, or somebody laid a rogue egg out in the yard and we never found it.

Stormy and Stripèd, the Silver Laced Wyandottes, are probably our most reliable layers – 3 days out of 4.  Feather and Spalty, the Easter Eggers, lay the most beautiful ones (greenish for Feather, bluer for Spalty).

Of the 4 Barred Rocks, Two Patch and Lumpy have emerged as champions, hustling up to the nests to lay perfectly formed, large eggs right after their breakfast.  One Patch, the earliest layer of the flock, lays a small, tapered egg that’s easy to identify, every other day or so.

The really dirty one is a “floor egg,” laid on the ground in the coop (I had to hunch over and go inside to get it).  It’s probably Jumpy’s –she’s a late bloomer and an erratic layer, and she might not have the hang of laying in the nest box yet.

[In case you're wondering how I know whose is whose?  I haven't watched them lay every egg, honest!  though I've certainly wasted a lot of time out there.  It's mostly a matter of shape, and to a lesser degree a matter of size and color.]

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