Mystery of the tiny Egg

It was a typical morning at the Wanch - let the chickens out of their coop and milk Darlin. K8 is holding Darlin's tail to keep her from swinging it at S's head.

I took a few pictures of happenings inside the coop.

And outside the coop.

And inside the coop - just a bunch of hungry chickens eating grain every where you look, so I decided to gather eggs.

This was all I found, a tiny egg! What can it mean? Not feeding the girls enough? I doubt that. Could it be the 47 degree temps at night? Maybe, but doubt that as well. Could they want to unionize and go on strike for better living conditions? I doubt that since they live in an awesome coop!

This is how the tiny thing measures up to an egg we got yesterday. Something is definitely different.

It will take a lot of tiny eggs to feed our family. Hope we solve the mystery soon.

Upon further thought, and closer examination of this morning's photos, we think we have a theory. Notice the little black chick coming out of the coop entrance in the lower right hand corner of this pic. She is one of the new girls we hatched from our incubator earlier this summer who only recently joined the flock. We think the tiny egg is hers. What do you think?