Fairy egg

One morning last week I checked the nest box in the chook shed when I went to let the girls out for the day, and found a teeny tiny little egg in the straw. It looks like a classic brown speckled Barnevelder egg, only smaller than a quail egg! Turned to Google and discovered it's a common occurrence called a "fairy egg", or its less attractive name, a "fart egg". When young pullets first start laying, their first few eggs are often small, but not this small... apparently, it's due to some kind of disturbance in the hen's reproductive system, disruption to their normal routine or stress.