missing chicken was laying under the house

[picklespickles]

ha. this has always been the chicken to go off on her own. i would walk the property perimeter over and over and never find her. i know where the others like to go, up in the trees, in the woodpile, etc. except for her. she used to go up in the trees, too, but then when i got more chickens, she became a loner and more broody. every so often, she would suddenly appear. so i knew that she did have to be on the property because she would just as suddenly disappear.

today, i thought, okay, i'm in my work clothes but i bet she's under the house. i went in under where the gas line goes in and yes, there was an ages old nest. the eggs had that light almost empy feel and you could shake them and hear the liquid so i knew they weren't for people.

so, i took them inside, cracked them up added odd leftovers, and cooked them in the microwave for her. she can have it tomorrow when i get home. picking out the shells is always their favorite part.

i left her a couple of eggs in there to keep her going back to the same place. i always did that before, too, but then with the new hens, she changed her m.o.

anyway. i had a serious sense of conquest. AHA, i found your nest. lol.

i was seriously starting to wonder if there was a snake who was eating eggs.

i have a few things to do but maybe later i will close up under the house and let her find a new place. i had closed it up before, there is just a small crack now. the GOATS used to go under during the summer. i would be in my bedroom and hear BUMP from under my house. lol.

 

[devora]

Quote:
So you want her to lay there? Congrats on finding the place! (Isn't a coop easier?

)

 

[Blisschick]

I had my banties laying in some of the craziest places this summer. I have an old frame that I made for the hens to have their own "section" that I put under an old window awing I use for shade in their pen. I took it out at one point and leaned up against the side another when cleaning, then forgot about it. Somewhere down the line, it fell over and I have an old plastic resin bench that the turkeys tried to roost on and knocked it over, and it kind of covered the frame. I went to clean up the clutter later on, and found about a dozen eggs in the frame. I also had a feeder top set aside, and in it I found about a dozen eggs from a loose Easter Egger. Then there was the old, rusted burn barrel missing a side...I found a couple dozen in there, along with about half a dozen in a corrigated culvert against the fence...some in a hole wallowed out behind the pen by the fence...the list goes on. We won't even go into how well my turkey hen hid hers.

 

[okiechick57]

well........I am currently on the hunt for where my hens took up laying their eggs............. wish they would use the boxes, but NO........I bet they get as much of a kick watches me search for the eggs as I do watching them during the day !

 

[rosyposyosy]

Quote:
So you want her to lay there? Congrats on finding the place! (Isn't a coop easier?

)

It is a lot of fun finding eggs! It's like easter!

 

[picklespickles]

 

[chickflick]

One of my chickens, Leeza, disappered on me....just vanished. Couldn't find her anywhere...looked for like 1/2 hr. Finally, heard a rustle come from my neighbors compost pile. There she was, just layed an egg, but.....there were 14 eggs there!!!

I had no idea she was laying elsewhere. Mia use to lay in the garage, but after a week of being locked in the coop and run for a week while we were in Flordia, she has started laying in the nest. Was kind of fun finding the egg in the garage, tho. Mia just loves looking thru every thing in the garage, tho. Funny.

 

[DuckLady]

I think it's a good idea to know where your hens are laying LOL
We had a duck who would hide a nest. I would find it and remove all the eggs. So then she would find a more hard to find place to hide her nest and I would find it and remove the eggs and so on and so on.
Finally when she had a nest that was somewhat easy to find, I would leave a golf ball in the nest and just pick up the fresh egg daily. Sure beats hunting all over.

 

[silkieluvr]

We have a small trailer that we use to throw old scrap wood and such to take to the dump. Last time we emptied it we foud 48 eggs!

I have never seen so many in my life, and all from the one hen we had that could actually fly over the fence!

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
Oh Man, been there done that. My Wendy would find a place and as soon as I figured it out she'd move to a new place. The compost pile was one of her favorites. Now Sasha and Dove have a favorite spot under the deck. I just make sure to keep it covered in clean wood shavings and my 5 yo checks after school every day.
Yes it would be easier if they used the coop but....