Nestbox Excavations!

[3KillerBs]

I've got hens preparing to come into lay after their first molt and 20-week pullets contemplating their first eggs.

Last Thursday I made up their nests nicely with a layer of straw and fresh shavings.

I had ONE nestbox in good shape this morning. One.

All the rest look like this -- despite the 5-inch lips on the boxes:

Additionally, they have lost at least 3 golf balls -- presumably kicked into the litter and buried. (At least it's cheap golf balls from the thrift shop, not expensive ceramic eggs).

I know that they'll settle down once the eggs are coming, but I didn't think to reserve some extra straw (I also didn't expect them to dismantle a full-tied straw bale in 4 days). So though I know that they seem to like having some straw in the box they're stuck with just shavings since the straw is all on the floor and mixed with poop now.

Having done some vent checks last night and seen the boys' footprints on their backs, I'm expecting to triple the daily egg count by the end of the month.

 

[azygous]

No doubt your egg count will triple soon. There is a well known axiom that the amount of nest box mussing is a determinant of bountiful POL egg production.

 

[3KillerBs]

No doubt your egg count will triple soon. There is a well known axiom that the amount of nest box mussing is a determinant of bountiful POL egg production.

I certainly hope so! They owe me for the lost golf balls.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Additionally, they have lost at least 3 golf balls -- presumably kicked into the litter and buried. (At least it's cheap golf balls from the thrift shop, not expensive ceramic eggs).

My feet are uncomfortable just thinking about this. I have one ceramic egg in each of my nest boxes. One got kicked out last fall and thankfully I didn't have to find it via a sprained ankle. Instead, my girl Dingus just screamed and danced around it non-stop until I went out to see what the bother was and put it back where it belonged.

 

[3KillerBs]

My feet are uncomfortable just thinking about this. I have one ceramic egg in each of my nest boxes. One got kicked out last fall and thankfully I didn't have to find it via a sprained ankle. Instead, my girl Dingus just screamed and danced around it non-stop until I went out to see what the bother was and put it back where it belonged.

Well, this is what the deep litter looks like at the moment:

I have had kicked-out golf balls resurface, but mostly I expect to find them eventually in the garden several years from now.

 

[azygous]

I do admire your ability to surrender to your flocks feverish industriousness of which none of us would expect you to have any control over.

 

[3KillerBs]

I do admire your ability to surrender to your flocks feverish industriousness of which none of us would expect you to have any control over.

They've also excavated a beautiful dustbath spa under one of the windblock panels.

I am, of course, checking it for misplaced eggs several times a day.

 

[3KillerBs]

Popcorn, the SLW in the first photo, laid one today. No blood on it like there was in her final eggs of the fall, but her vent is very red and stressed-looking. I'll have to watch to see if she gets picked at.

She's never been a good layer so I'm surprised that she has resumed so soon.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm expecting a big white egg from Chipotle soon because she's been in the boxes regularly for a week.