Three pieces of good chicken news today. First, Mildred broke her pattern of laying two days and taking a day off. For the first time she has produced an egg three days in a row.

Second, she has apparently figured out the wisdom of laying eggs in the nest box inside the coop. I had a problem with frozen water this morning and instead of keeping the chooks penned up, I let them out so they could at least nibble on snow (I have seen them do this before, so count this as a chicken behavior) until I resolved the problem. I didn't think there was that much of a risk of her laying an egg elsewhere in the barnyard since her pattern indicated she wouldn't lay today. When I went to give them fresh water in the early afternoon, Bob was in the goat stall, but Mildred was in the coop, laying down and clucking loudly. That made me wonder. So I checked her favorite nest box and sure enough, there was an egg. I suspect she's learning to go to the coop now when the urge to lay hits her.*

Third, Mildred made a quantum leap when it came to egg size in the last few days. I mentioned you could put the eggs in chronological order simply by sizing them. Today's egg seemed huge by comparison. Tonight I took a store-bought large egg and put it in the carton to compare against Mildred's output of the last few days. Yesterday's egg was a large egg - the sizes were almost identical. The three earlier eggs were smaller. Off the top of my head I don't know if they would be considered small or mediums, so we'll say they were pullet eggs. Today's egg was much bigger than all of them. She's laying in Extra Large territory now.

Another couple like her and we'll be able to keep ourselves in eggs. I'm working on that part for spring.

*The box next to her favorite nest was one I tried to encourage her to use at first by putting a golf ball inside it. She does not use this one. It makes me wonder if she thinks that it is being used by another chicken.