Five. One lost a load of feathers several weeks ago but they've since grown back. Another was also losing them until a week or so ago and now also seems to be recovering. Someone told me that they were likely being pecked by the others due to lack of protein in their diet. The powdered meat that I've been giving them for the past week or so combined with a spray which makes the feathers taste bitter appears to have stopped that.

And they're laying more than once a day? I've never heard of that before. Ours only get laying pellets. The rest of their food is what they find around the block and our scraps, normally we get one from each a day. I think the feather thing is dependent on the type of chicken. Jess, the black one lost a few the other week but is now as glossy as ever. Crispy and Gwen have about 20 feathers each but going by what happened last year, they'll grow back soon, although I think Crispy may be on her way out, her comb is not looking it's best. We've no idea how old they are so we'll just hope for the best.

They can lay several in one day. When the pecking started several weeks ago I separated the main culprit from the rest and that one laid three in 24 hours. It astonished me too. So at that time the implication was that the bully was laying three quarters of the eggs and the other four were managing just one. No wonder she was lashing out at the rest

Ours are in a run that is about 10 ft by 25 ft. Not much protein in there for them especially now that it's been reduced to mud by all of the rain we've had so giving them a good balanced mix of food has been essential. The eggs look and taste better now too.

So why it that all the books we've read and the chicken farmers we've spoken to all say that a chicken can only lay one egg in 14 hours, therefore one a day being as they sleep a fair while? I'm really confused right now.

I don't know. Maybe I am the proud owner of ......

PS: Check out the name of the link

From searching around three is very rare indeed but possible. It's tempting to segregate her and see if she does the same again. I might have a prize hen

Something I've recently noticed too is some of the eggs are small and others are a good size. Not sure which bird delivered which though

Currently we only have three, one white, one brown and one black. Their eggs reflect this. Granted the black one doesn't give black eggs but they are a darker brown than the eggs from the brown one.

Only one egg from all five of the girls this morning. Can chickens become egg constipated?

It's called egg bound.

It's a funny noise they make when laying the eggs

So... The girls are erratic layers, having little or no rhyme or reason for their hap-hazard pop-and-drop habits. For the past couple of weeks the five have produced between none and eight eggs per day, their average being four per day.