Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Creative nesting place

Anyone who raises free range chickens thinks, at some point,  their hens are laying eggs where they can't find them.  I feel pretty confident saying this.  If someone out there has raised chickens more than a few years and has them trained to always lay in the nests they've built for them let me know.  Since we clipped wings last week to keep chickens out of the garden fence they haven't been able to fly up to a few of the nests we have for them so they've found other places in addition to some of the lower nests. 
A few girls have laid them in our garage where we store the hay.  Lex discovered one of them yesterday and looked at me with a guilty egg eating face when I caught him licking his chops.  Another girl has left me one on the barn floor on the bare wood at least 2 days in a row.  I have no idea if Keri has found others.  She would not look the least bit guilty if she ate them.

This morning I was sitting in our basement and heard a rattle at the window.  Every now and then an animal gets down into our window well and can't get back out.  This animal could get out though and when she left I discovered at least 14 eggs in the leaves.  It appears she's been laying them there long before we clipped wings.  When I went over to look at her she hopped out but has now returned.  She looks rather cozy there, I think.  It's probably a good place for her to have breakfast too, as there are lots of bugs in window wells.  I wish she'd clean the window while she was down there.

 

1 comment:

  1. If only chickens were equipped with the manual dexterity to perform cleaning tasks! Ditto for the dogs.
    My hens have not laid one egg since the hawk attack and I actually resorted to buying a dozen from the store. :O(

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