This is the first egg I have found in the chicken coop in a month or two. The laying is regulated primarily by light, which affects what must be an incredibly tiny pituitary gland in the chickens brain, and it drops off drastically after the equinox. In my own experience, it seems that cold weather also depresses laying. So the combination of being past the equinox and a few days of above freezing temperatures seem to have inspired one of the girls.

It doesn't mean Spring is here. It only means that its inexorable arrival is assured. Remember that in dark and cold days.