First egg this week and confused

[ssteen81]

Very excited to wake up this past Tuesday AM to our very first egg! I am a little confused as to what is going on since then… Our 5 hens will be 20 weeks old this week, so I was a little surprised to find an egg Tuesday though I check the box daily due to the anticipation. The first egg was large, light brown in color, with small white specs on it. I wasn’t exactly sure which hen produced it, however I found quit a few blackish brown feathers in the box surrounding the egg that only match up to our Speckled Sussex. The next morning I woke to a much smaller medium darker brown egg and orange/white feathers in the box leading me to suspect our Buff Orpington. Next morning I caught the Orpington in the act and she has laid the same medium dark brown eggs all 4 days since. What I don’t understand is we have not gotten another large light brown egg like we did the first day, last Tuesday 7/14. We live up in the mountains of Western North Carolina on 5 acres and allow the flock to range 2-3 hours each evening. Could the Sussex had laid somewhere in the brush on our property while ranging in the evening? Could the Orpington have actually laid the first egg and it just looked so different than the other 4 eggs she has produced since then? This is our first flock so we have no experience with this. It is going to rain most of the day today so I plan on not letting them out tonight to see if the Sussex might lay in the box. Here is a picture of the difference in egg size and color. I’m confused…


Here is an older picture of our mixed flock from a month ago to give an idea of the feather colors found in the box.

 

[sjturner79]

I would suspect the Sussex did lay the first one and is hiding eggs, but it is possible for a first egg to be different from the rest of the eggs a hen will lay