Sneaky Chickens...

[shchinchillas]

One of our chicks born in April started laying almost a month ago. We figured at 12 weeks, she was just an early starter. We've been finding 1-2 eggs/day. At 16 weeks we were patiently waiting for the others to start laying... But we weren't finding a thing. Meanwhile, my fiance's aunt who also bought the same day we did was averaging 5-7 eggs/day with less chickens then what we have...

Well we found out WHY we have had only 1-2 eggs/day... We were up in the hayloft grabbing hay for the horses, I turned around and on a beam I saw a tiny egg. When I looked, squeezed between the beam/wall/ and bales of hay were 11 other eggs. My fiance was then looking around the loft, and hidden on a ledge about 6ft off the ground where there is more hay stacked--were about TWENTY eggs in a huge pile.

So... they've been laying for quite a while--just a place we never expected them to lay! Now to keep them OUT of the darn hay loft. Too bad we have no idea how old the eggs are-- I'm sure they are all bad by now. No one has been missing for long periods of time--so they aren't broody either. *sigh*

 

[melodie_a]

LOL.. that is too funny. They have a secret egg stash!

 

[Adora]

put the eggs in a jar one at a time, the floaters are bad.

 

[drumstick diva]

you can do the float test, to see if any are still edible. If they float in a pan of water, toss them. If they sink to the bottom and stay there, they are fine for breakfast.

 

[drumstick diva]

PS maybe they were saving their eggs till the economy perks up., or for retirement nestegg . Couldn't resist that remark.

 

[shchinchillas]

We will have to try the water trick before we toss them. It would be a shame to throw them all out.

Well atleast I know we don't have duds!

 

[shchinchillas]

We had about 4 dozen eggs total that we found. Of those about a dozen didn't pass the water test and were thrown out.

Found 3 eggs today in one of the spots they have taken over, didn't get to climb up onto the top ledge to check there--will do that tomorrow.

 

[Dora'smom]

They are so funny, aren't they? Making you work for those precious eggs! Sorry you had to lose some, but at least you gained the others. Sneaky chickens, indeed. . .

 

[Kittymomma]

The float test is great and I've used it myself when the chooks go AWOL, but I think it's time to put your girls on lockdown for a couple of weeks. I'm getting ready to lock all of this years chicks (now laying or at P.O.L.) in the coop/run for two weeks so they understand that that is "home" and lay in the nest boxes. After a couple of weeks in the coop/run I'll let them freerange again but not have to go on an Easter egg hunt every day since they'll go back to the nest boxes in the coop (at least most of the time) to lay their eggs.

 

[Chickengal505]

Lol