Hello from Winchester, VA! We got our first chickens in June from a friend of mine who buys one hundred chicks at a time. So I bought 6 from her. They are different breeds and we did not know what they were, we just chose different colored ones and then as they grew, we checked the pictures on this website to see if we could identify them. We believe that 2 are sexlinks (one of which turned out to be a rooster!), 1 americana, 2 hamburgs, and one buff colored hen. The red sexlink hen is the only one laying so far and she started about a month ago. She lays one a day, except when that egg is REALLY BIG and then there is not an egg the next day. She has started laying eggs while still sitting on the roost, though, and then we find it broken on the floor of the coop, twice with a partially formed egg also. Is this normal? Will she outgrow this habit and lay all her eggs in the nesting box or will this be a permanent habit? I was thinking of lowering the roost so the egg would not have as far to fall and might not break. Please help. Sorry this is so long. I've never blogged before. We also have 5 kids and a collie.