BYC Café

[Ribh]

Almost forgot, I was given another pretty blue egg yesterday. Not as brilliant, but neat, nonetheless.
View attachment 2690929

How lovely! I love getting blue eggs. And speckly eggs. My very favourites!

 

[Meg-in-MT]

How lovely! I love getting blue eggs. And speckly eggs. My very favourites!

Me, too! All of my blue eggs are very very light in color except for this little anomaly. I have some pretty nice speckled olive eggs - also a favorite

 

[DobieLover]

I need a broody set up like Tonya has.

It's da bomb!
You have plenty of space to build something like mine. It makes the whole process so much more fun and easier on the broody.

 

[DobieLover]

@aart, I switched to your method of bedding my nest boxes. I stuffed flakes of straw in each one. I had been using a bag of chopped straw that I had left over from lawn repair. It made a nice fluffy bed but the chaff always got stuck in the bloom when it dried and I had to pick and rub at the eggs under running warm water to get it off.
I collected my first batch of eggs from the new nesting material and was SHOCKED how stinking clean they are! I am going to start water glassing for winter and didn't want to have to clean them at all.
Another great bonus is how bowled out they made each nest. I found Tonk on one of the nests and she looked very comfy in there! I'll have to take a picture or two tomorrow.
Oh, and the twerpy broody has cracked! She was hanging out with the girls of the roost when I went out there at 7. The new nesting material may have helped her finally give up after 2 days in the crate.

 

[aart]

@aart, I switched to your method of bedding my nest boxes. I stuffed flakes of straw in each one. I had been using a bag of chopped straw that I had left over from lawn repair. It made a nice fluffy bed but the chaff always got stuck in the bloom when it dried and I had to pick and rub at the eggs under running warm water to get it off.

Cool!
Still might get stuff stuck to bloom tho, as the straw breaks down into smaller pieces.

 

[DobieLover]

Cool!
Still might get stuff stuck to bloom tho, as the straw breaks down into smaller pieces.

When that happens, I'll put a new flake in.

 

[aart]

When that happens, I'll put a new flake in.

I've found that some straw is better than others.
Can depend on the grain(wheat, oats,etc) and how it is cut and baled.
Some flakes beautifully, others not so much.
Tho I can't tell the difference very well.
I try to buy new bales in the late summer right after it's been cut,
to avoid buying bales that have been stored where water or wild birds have had at it.

How are you storing your bale?
I sewed this up out of a couple feeds bags, just big enough to slide over the bale before cutting the strings, keeps it nice and neat for the year or more that it takes me to use it up. (This bale is actually hay)

More than you wanted/needed to know about nest straw.

 

[Sally PB]

More than you wanted/needed to know about nest straw

But a cool idea, so thanks!

 

[DobieLover]

How are you storing your bale?

Under the mudroom!
I planned to put flakes into feed bags this weekend.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Straw is bad here too wet it molds .. I use pine shavings.. I had bought this nesting buox stuff on Amazon rats stole it went back to plain old shavings