Found out why egg production dropped off. (with pics)

[patman75]

Over the last 10 days I noticed my egg production dip a little.

I have a broody hen and another molting but it seemed like I should have more eggs. So I inspect some of the other hens that I'm not getting eggs from, they are due for a molt. I noticed some new feather coming in but I also noticed a few creepy crawlies in their feathers.

So off to buy some Food Grade DE, I had been living in a fantasy land thinking I would not have to deal with this

. DE appied everywhere should take care of that problem.

Anywhoo...back to the eggs.

So I thought I had more molters than just one and that was the reason, until I noticed something behind my broody's dog cage. There between the cage and inbetween the 2X4 wall studs was two hidden nests.

From the side

from the top

Bunch of little sneaky stinkers.

13 eggs total.

 

[Cetawin]

Oh yes...I check those spots each day...learned my lesson on that one two years ago. Toerags!

 

[86121]

Ah haha nice!

 

[GoldenPuppy]

That's funny about the hidden eggs. Not the creepy things, though.

I had a crippled hen long ago that was such a sweetheart; her name was Heart. But she couldn't sit on eggs because of her leg. One day I found her egg pile up in the hay mound--she had about 8-12 eggs in that stash.

Sneaky little thing.
I stuck them under another broody hen and let her hatch Heart's eggs. Heart never went broody and never minded that I took her eggs. Her babies were as sweet as she was. I miss that hen.

 

[patman75]

Quote:
Just a few mites, nothing serious. Heart sounded like a great sweet hen.

 

[BooBear]

hahahaha hens can be so funny. They were trying to sneak in a bit of extra expantion on ya.
1st hen: "hey check this out, the human will never notice"
2nd hen: "but won't she wonder about the extra chicks and missing eggs?"
1st hen: "Naw, silly humans can't count."
2nd hen: "oh ok, cool."

 

[patman75]

Quote:

Yep. I think it was the way it went.

 

[Prisserbabe]

Thats a good one

 

[Squirrelgirl88]

You mean the chickens know about chicken math? They know we can't count!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Gotta love it!