We thought we were so clever training the chickens to lay their eggs in the nesting boxes in the coop. It worked for nearly a year. Then, all of a sudden a couple of months ago we weren't getting so many eggs. I thought the chickens were getting ready to molt and had stopped laying eggs. Then Tom, well, actually Harry discovered a stash of eggs in a corner of the barn. The chickens, all but one or two of them, had abandoned the nesting boxes and decided the barn was a better place to lay eggs. So, for about a week I made the chickens stay in their yard all day until they were done laying their eggs. I thought it would get them back into the habit of laying in the coop and give them time to forget that the barn was a fun place to hide their eggs.
It worked for a while. I occasionally saw a chicken eyeing the corner of the barn with longing, but we had blocked off that corner so they couldn't readily get to it, so we were back to Chicken Palace egg gathering.
Until about two weeks ago. Production started to dwindle. We searched high and low but could not find any eggs out of place. I, again, confined the hens to the coop and yard for several days and at the end of their sentence, I set them free. Right away, egg production dwindled back down to three or four eggs a day.
After a hen lays an egg, she will squawk loud and long, "Look at me! Look what I did! I laid and egg! Come and see! This is a great place to lay eggs!" If Tom or I heard the egg laying call, we would run to see where the chicken was in hopes of finding her secret hideout, but we were always too late.
But, today! Today I tore down to the barn when I heard the call and sure enough, I saw the little sneak coming out from a hole in the hay. We have a stall in the barn stacked high with hay bales and we keep the cat's food bowl in there so that Harry can't get it. The chickens discovered the cat food and they love to eat it.
Apparently, they thought it was a cozy place to lay a few eggs, too.
Then, I heard another chicken calling...not from the barn, but from Tom's implementport where he parks his tractor attachments. I ran over there and out popped a chicken from the hay baler.
Sure enough, there was a stash of eggs in there as well. And Tom was planning to bale hay today.
I gathered 31 eggs in all.
We're going to clean out the baler so that there won't be any cushy hay to sit on (we didn't do it yet because there was a hen sitting when Tom went to do it), but we're not going to try to discourage the laying in the barn this time. Until we find out how to get them to go back to the coop again, we'd rather not have to hunt them down every day.
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8 comments:
do eggs go bad? how do you know which ones are fresh and good for eating?
Well, I'm no expert, but I've discovered that eggs last a lot longer than I ever imagined. I've read that they start to deteriorate immediately, but I think the process is very slow. I've read that the eggs you get in the store are generally about 10 days old and I've used eggs that I've had for over a month without suffering any ill effects.
The older the egg is, the bigger the air pocket inside it is. So, you can tell, somewhat, if an egg is fresh by putting it in water. Eggs that are very fresh will sink completely because they have no air in them. Eggs that are a little older will stand on end because the air pocket (which goes to the big end of the egg). Eggs that are old and stale will float and I doubt it should be eaten.
All of these eggs sank. Some of them stood slightly on end, so I separated those out to be used sooner.
that is so interesting! i wish i lived on a farm. i keep begging my parents for a sheep atleast lol.
Have chickens instead. They're easy to keep in the city and two or three would keep your family well supplied with eggs.
Or, grow a garden. It's a little bit like having a farm. ;o) I have a friend who grows vegetables in his flower beds and his beds are stunning. Some veggie plants are very pretty, full and lush - eggplant and squash are very large and have pretty flowers that turn into attractive veggies. And, of course, tomatoes are easy.
Grandma Fisher told me along time ago that you need a "fake" egg in there to keep the hens coming back to the nest and to keep them laying. I think she used a wooden one..probably not to hard to find.
After they laid all of their first day of eggs on the floor of the coop, we put fake eggs in the boxes to get them to lay in there. That worked.
hmm..wonder why they are laying other places?..I've never heard of that.
Those egg pics are awesome. I can dig it!
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