Eggs!?

Well, there you go folks, another pro for the Chanteclers. 

I went out to the coop yesterday to do chores and there were NO eggs.  Ah well, with only two old girls laying, every day can not be an egg day. 

As I fed, watered, relocated an ornary rooster who jumped the wire, I noticed two of the younger hens settled into two of the nesting boxes.  I didn't think much of it- I wasn't even hopeful.

And then, as I went about tossing in grit and oyster shell, one of those younger girls hopped out of the nesting box.  Look what she left behind!

Beauty, eh?

The strangest thing is; that's a full sized egg!  So, maybe the two old girls haven't been laying right through the winter.  Maybe some of those younger girls have been laying right along with them.

I did get one small egg back toward the end of January, I think.  I figured it was a 'fart' egg.  I've never had pullets start laying in the middle of winter, regardless of age.  Those chanteclers:  trickster northern hens!

I now have this sudden urge to go out and buy a bantam rooster.  If I could get these girls to set their own eggs, they would be the perfect chickens for a northern farm.