Eggs for the week ending last Saturday: 21

Interesting events: I was getting home late in the evening, so my daughter was collecting eggs for me. Thursday she said she had gotten two, but a third might have been on the way as one of the Reds was in the nest box. It was late when I got home to close up the coop, the lights had shut off and the birds were all asleep, so I decided to wait until morning.

Friday there were four eggs in the next box. This meant that either the Red had laid late in the day or my daughter was right. It was the latter, I suspect.

But then while refilling the dish that holds the oyster shell, something cracked under my foot. I looked down and dug through the straw to find another egg. I don't think it was a fifth egg from the day before. I suspect it was the third egg from one of the days that only two were collected, one that had fallen under the nest and somehow been buried by chicken activity in the coop.

Sunday morning I found the remains of a thin shelled egg in the coop. There was either a malfunction in one of the Reds, or at almost four months, one of the other pullets is coming on line. I suspect the former. The chickens seem to know when the egg they're laying has something wrong, and it gets sent out of the nest. This was found in the space between the door and the goat gate.

On the other hand, this is a popular place for new layers to deposit their early efforts.

On the other other hand, Mildred the Ross hen started laying at four months. But on the other other other hand, Rosses are bred for accelerated development.

One swipe with Occam's Razor says: the culprit was one of the Reds. That's where I'm leaving it for now.