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I should also do a bit more of an update... I missed the ordering window for the 100 planned chicks... so now I’m looking for another meat chick supplier with available stock and decent pricing... so I’ll have to wait until next year for my big push on meat chickens anyway. I hope Chickie Hawks boys are big in the meantime!
Hoppy has basically adopted the 29 Babies from my last hatch, I guess all that listening to them chirping in the barn got her thinking in the family way! She stopped laying a week or so ago, no longer wants anything to do with Sammy, and after frantically leaving the tractor full of chicks this morning to go check the brooder in the Barn, she returned to the tractor and has been behaving nicely to them ever since. 
Here are my four bowling ball sized meat ladies, still not appreciating the forced dieting.
And, I am happy to say that the latest re-design on the roll away nestbox seems to have worked! I got 7 eggs so far today, as opposed to my recent average of 2!
First I added a 1x3 to the bottom of the nest box insert that extended out the back about 4” and a 1x3 to the top of that to protect the eggs, it has a cut up old jean fringe to block the sight. It was propped up by an additional 2x2 in the front with a plywood floor.
This failed, they just stuck their heads through the fringe and ate the eggs anyway!
So, I added an additional 1x3 to the inside with a second fringe, but this slowed the eggs down too much and they caught on the fringe, the front went up another inch to increase slope. Then the eggs were cracking when they got to the bottom and hit the back or another egg. 
On went the brown foam fringe and some more jean material for cushioning.
Then my sapphires decided they want to lay standing up tall and high and dropping their eggs onto the plywood, so in went my cut up rooster kitchen mat
for padding, which was not appreciated by the chickens at all! They tried to scratch it out, roll it up, pooped on it multiple times (it really is stain resistant)
In the end though, I triumphed over the feathered egg eating little scoundrels, and have gotten seven eggs to prove it. I didn’t have to catch them as they were being laid, or run out as soon as I hear an egg song only to find That I was too late and they are actually celebrating their snack, so now I can get chores done and still get eggs throughout the day... now I just need to make two more for the other tractors!
Here are my four bowling ball sized meat ladies, still not appreciating the forced dieting.
And, I am happy to say that the latest re-design on the roll away nestbox seems to have worked! I got 7 eggs so far today, as opposed to my recent average of 2!
First I added a 1x3 to the bottom of the nest box insert that extended out the back about 4” and a 1x3 to the top of that to protect the eggs, it has a cut up old jean fringe to block the sight. It was propped up by an additional 2x2 in the front with a plywood floor.
This failed, they just stuck their heads through the fringe and ate the eggs anyway!
So, I added an additional 1x3 to the inside with a second fringe, but this slowed the eggs down too much and they caught on the fringe, the front went up another inch to increase slope. Then the eggs were cracking when they got to the bottom and hit the back or another egg. On went the brown foam fringe and some more jean material for cushioning.Then my sapphires decided they want to lay standing up tall and high and dropping their eggs onto the plywood, so in went my cut up rooster kitchen mat
for padding, which was not appreciated by the chickens at all! They tried to scratch it out, roll it up, pooped on it multiple times (it really is stain resistant) In the end though, I triumphed over the feathered egg eating little scoundrels, and have gotten seven eggs to prove it. I didn’t have to catch them as they were being laid, or run out as soon as I hear an egg song only to find That I was too late and they are actually celebrating their snack, so now I can get chores done and still get eggs throughout the day... now I just need to make two more for the other tractors!
)
Oh Kris! You would make a great Aussie! Duct tape & WD~40 are every Aussies Go to stand by for everything!
