Yes, I use a small bucket, but I have a couple of ladies who insist upon laying in a hidey-hole which I need to stretch and reach down into in order to get the eggs. Not an issue when I am not wearing mitts or gloves, but the eggs are awkward to pickup with mitts/gloves.
I already have both thumbs cracked and split from the cold, and one of my toes frost bite and getting over my cheeks yet again…. I am trying to protect myself from cold, but sometimes I just have to work with bare hands, putting on the horses blankets also hard with mitts, so off go the mitts/gloves… cutting strings on the hay bales…. Bedding stalls.
A couple broken eggs is a small price.
Meanwhile only 116 more days of hell freezing over