I found a very small egg in the coop. It only weighed 22g.
Sometimes when this happens there is no yolk, but I poked holes in both ends and blew out the contents, and there was a yolk and a white, just in smaller amounts.
I suspect it was just a reproductive track hiccup, most likely from Wing Ding the hen, since she is my only active layer, and it doesn’t have the translucent white deposit that makes Faverolle eggs look pink.
Last year I had a reader reach out with a conundrum: she had three nest boxes with a golf ball each, and somehow the hens moved all three balls into one nest box. I suggested that they nudged or rolled them and to look for a ledge.
Fast forward to this week, and I found my two golf balls in my two nest boxes both in the same box.
There is no rolling or nudging possible between my nest metal boxes.
So I did a little more digging with the search phrase “can chickens move eggs”. We are not the only people to experience this phenomenon, but it is not common. One person even captured a picture of a hen carrying two eggs! The hen tucked the eggs between her legs and body and stabilized them with her wings. That particular internet chicken forged while carrying eggs, so moving eggs from one nest box to another is certainly possible. Or golf balls.
Of course these two nest boxes are not viewable with my web cam, so I don’t have photographic evidence of my hen moving her treasures.
The egg hiatus has ended and I am finding eggs in the coop again.
One egg is suspiciously smaller and lighter than the other, and makes me think that it is perhaps a Faverolle egg. It has been one month since our Black Star hen laid eggs, but it has been 10 months since I’ve found a 54g egg. Wing Ding the Black Star chicken usually lays eggs right around 60g.
I was rather startled when I found an egg in the coop. The last time Wingding the Black Star hen laid an egg was in August. My two Faverolle hens haven’t laid any eggs since April. All three hens are about six years old and well past prime laying age.
So I have at least one Faverolle hen laying eggs. I’m shocked because they stopped laying last June, 8 months ago. They are nearly 6 years old, and their window of “egg rest” gets longer every year. The almost pink colored egg on the right is a Faverolle egg. Well, it is a hatchery quality Faverolle egg. Better bred Faverolles lay eggs that can more easily be called pink. Wing Ding the Black Star hen is a good layer and the other darker egg is hers. Another clue that the eggs were laid by two different hens is the weight. Wing Ding seldom lays an egg under 60 grams, my Faverolles almost never lay an egg over 60 grams.
Critters and Craft 