Following this morning’s two eggs, this evening brought two more – so today’s total is two medium brown, one pale brown and slightly speckly, and one closer to white.
This was wholly unexpected, because Ida isn’t technically ready yet (she’s four to five weeks younger than the others, and looks it), and in any case her eggs are supposed to be blue.
So that leaves two possibilities: either I missed an egg that was actually laid yesterday when I checked the nesting bays first thing this morning (though I’m close to certain that they were empty, and I don’t see how the hens could have hidden it and then moved it into position), or one of the chooks has laid two in one day.
The Backyard Chickens forum suggests that it’s unusual but not unknown for a single hen to produce two eggs in one day, but the second one is often not fully developed. This may explain the white egg, or else it may not: as Hilaire Belloc parenthetically concluded his immortal poem The Yak, “(I cannot be positive which)”.
But it’s clear that our egg production will increase dramatically this week: even if only three chickens are involved, there should be at least another six eggs turning up before Sunday.