Please Go Check for Eggs

This is the first winter we've had chickens, so we weren't sure just how many eggs we would get daily with the lack of sunshine.  And it's been a dark fall and winter.

We had been getting between one or two eggs a day.  I was beginning to wonder if this whole chicken thing was worth it.  Organic feed is about $25 for 40 pounds and we go through about one of those bags a month.  If we got two eggs a day, that makes them just about as valuable as something that came out of that golden-egg-layin' goose. 

Well, this morning as Tom went out to the coop to let the girlies out, he took a peek inside.  He found a couple of eggs up in the nest boxes...

...and then he happened to look in an unusual place...

...In a small area between the fresh straw bail and the side of the coop, one (or more?) of the girls had dug out a nice...quiet...secluded...nest.

And in it were...

22 eggs.

Okay.  We'll keep the chickens.  The Barred Rocks, though?  Jury is still out on them.  (Oh...I forgot!  I haven't told you about THEM.  Well, I'll have to leave that for another post.  Suffice it to say, they are far too smart for their own good.)