Success

No sooner had I finished typing that last post, than a huge cackling arose from outside. I never did figure out what they were on about, but I noticed that Helga the Bantam Rooster was accompanied by only one of his three big girls. Since two of them use the same next box in their coop and the third one is all hidey, I deduced that the errant chicken had to be in her secret spot. I had already checked around the fence and other sheltered places, but I went out again anyhow, since a big ol' chicken is a lot easier to find than eggs that are the same color as the local clay. I finally found her under some weeds next to a tree and a stump. Now I'm probably going to have to go out and throw out a bunch of rotten eggs.

To complete today's grossness, I found the body from the crushed egg next to the chicken coop. It was a tiny little black thing, fully formed, but it didn't look old enough to have survived. At least the big girl didn't eat it. It's resting peacefully in a baggie in the freezer, waiting for the kids to come home from school. Blech.