She thinks she is so clever

[odysseychicken]

My coop has three nest boxes. When I had four birds they laid in every box. They tended towards the middle one and the left one. Since I lost one bird a couple weeks ago they now only lay in the left box. No big deal. Chickens usually decide on a favorite. It is funny to watch them in the morning. One will be in the box laying and the other two will be lined up impatiently waiting their turns. Sometimes they get vocal and argue with each other. I used to sometimes catch two in there at once but not any more. They clearly take their tuns in pecking order. They have also been very consistent lately. For over a week now I have gotten three eggs a day from my three birds.

After watching all this again yesterday I decided to put one of my fake eggs in the middle box to see if I could encourage one or more to use another box and maybe stop some of the bickering. Well, this morning they each took their allotted time and spent about five minutes each in their usual left box. When I went to collect eggs a bit later there were indeed three eggs in the left box. But not really. One of them had rolled the fake egg from the middle box into the left box. One of them is either anal-retentive or is trying to trick me into thinking she laid an egg when, in fact, she did not. They each spent five minuted in there and they each made their big announcement when they came out, acting so proud.

I'm on to you chickens!!

 

[sourland]

Or are the chickens on to you? That remains the question.