Egg counts

The white chickens – the ones who actually have a chicken coop, with laying baskets – have been short-changing us lately, laying only one every other day or so.
Yesterday I’m changing the straw in the coop, including turning the cardboard liners in the baskets. Whaddaya know, there’s a charming nest on the ground underneath the lower basket, with several eggs in it.
I (carefully) rake the trash pile out from underneath the coop. 13 eggs! I remember from my sailing days that you can test the freshness of eggs by floating them in water. Thank you, Google for the refresher lesson. All of them appear to be edible, although we’re cracking them carefully.

So the whites’ egg count is back to normal. But what the ? I thought chickens preferred up, not down?

Today I finished digging the potatoes, and turned the whites loose in the garden. The browns are quite sure they are missing out. And they’re right!