who laid that egg?

Back in the spring we had this great idea that it would be fun to raise chickens and have fresh eggs.  So in April we brought home our day old chicks (see earlier post). 

Rod spent the months of May and June building a chicken coop using old pallets, used windows and a lot of farmer ingenuity.  By the end of June it was finished and we got it moved down into the paddock with the goats. 

12x8 chicken coop and feed room

 We were sure happy to get those fast growing chicks out of the basement.

We spent a few days in July adding an outdoor run to the coop so they could get outside for fresh air.  We had to be careful to cover all openings with wire to keep the predators out.  The hawks have been circling looking for a way in.  We didn't bury the wire like they recommend but tried a new method where we bent the wire over 18 inches and laid it on the ground angled away from the pen.  The grass grows up and helps hold it down.  A digging animal would have to figure out they would need to start digging way back from the fence.  Hopefully no one is that smart.

chickens in the run

Everyone keeps asking me when the chickens will start laying and I have been telling them SEPTEMBER.  Well, wouldn't you know it, someone or two decided to make a liar out of me.  I went out to the coop last Saturday to lock them up and when I looked inside I was surprised to find 2 eggs on the coop floor.  WHO LAID THOSE EGGS? 

first two eggs

I have checked every morning and night since then and nothing until tonight.  I was down there after work and low and behold there is another egg in the coop.  What is going on.  You aren't supposed to start laying until 18 weeks and you have just reached 14.  Someone is growing up faster than normal.  Is is one of the brown hens since the eggs are brown?

Is this the culprit?

I guess our next project is to build some nesting boxes so they don't lay their eggs on the floor.

Hope everyone likes eating eggs because 11 hens could mean 11 eggs/day.    Need to start looking for some good egg recipes.