A story...
My husband and I recently expanded our flock to 10 Australorps, and you know what that means... Quarantine!
After seven days of The Big Q, we let the flock mix in the open pasture out back. Only problem was, losing access to the coop (the six babies were locked in there for seven days to teach them where "home" is), our laying mamas got out of the habit of laying in the nest box.
So Hubby is, at this point, getting agitated. Yesterday's was the eighth egg that she has laid *somewhere* in the pasture in a nest we can't find. These are fertilized eggs from our breeding pair, too... So they aren't your average scrambles.
Well, good news... Yesterday, we started watching her around the time she lays. We took our eyes off her for ONE dad-gum second, and she vanishes. After a quick poke around, we find her in this brilliant little covered space made by a piece of corrugated metal and a tarp. After shooing her away, we find her nest, and it was FULL of eggs! There were probably eight or nine.
So we have them ALL locked in the coop now to retrain the mamas to lay in the nest boxes. A few days should do it.
Thought I'd share. ^_^
MrsB
