Ok, so my girls have been laying for a few weeks now, and I've been slightly perturbed because I've only been getting about one egg every other day or so, and I have nearly 30 hens. I was constantly wondering "When will I get a steady stream of eggs?" It was frsutrating to say the least. Well, I've had two birds in my bathroom for a long time now and I felt it was time to move them outside with the other birds, so we brought them outside. Well, I had the birds all out free ranging while we did yard chores, and after awhile I realized that I didn't see the two girls that I had brought outside. So began the taks of locating them, and after an hour of looking I still didn't have a clue. We looked under the neighbor's pine trees, in the bushes, under plants, but nothing. Then my mom comes outside to do the burning and she starts the fire, and voila, Misty magically appears from near the burning pile, looking frightened and unsure of what to do. I figured that wherever she was, Priscilla wasn't far off. So I begin looking in the area next to the burning pile where there is a big, rusted out drum that the previous owners had left, and of which I really have no way to dispose of, and I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye and I realize Priscilla is INSIDE the drum. Ok, no big deal. I figured we could just reach in and grab her. I had my camera on me cause I was busily taking pictures of all my birds, and I leaned down and aimed the camera into the drum to see if I could catch where exactly she was at, but she moved, and I caught a picture of something I had no idea I was going to see. Here is what I snapped a picture of: Do you see it? Look to the left: Yep. Found more than a dozen eggs all laid neatly in a pile. My 10 yr old DD carefully reached in and pulled them all out. Here was the booty: A few of them cracked because she made the mistake of handing the bowl of eggs to her 9 yr old sister who was eager to reach into the hole and grab eggs too, so she set the bowl down and it tipped over. But only 3 cracked: And lastly, here is my 10 yr old with her prize: She was so proud of herself for being able to grab them all. We'll be having omelets in the morning now!: I collapsed the drum and filled the entrance so the girls can't get back in there again. They free range in my yard though a few birds have laid an egg or two under my neighbor's pine trees. We usually grab those right away. I'm just glad to know that they are laying! Sneaky little birds...
But that was such a good hiding spot! When I find things like that, I leave an egg or two in them to keep the girls coming back. At least that way I know where some of the eggs are!
True, and I would have done that except the people that used to live here left the burning area such a mess, and there was tons of broken glass in the drum and I don't want my girls scratching themselves on the metal or cutting themselves on the glass, so I felt it would be better to just make it so they can't get back into it. So I went in the house, grabbed a big storage tote and I used my Dremel to make a hole in the side. I figure if the girls want to lay in a covered space, the tote will fulfill that need, only it will be glass and rusty metal free! I'm going to clean it to get rid of any extra plastic bits that came off with the Dremel and then dry it and put it in the coop, maybe with an egg or two so the girls figure out what it is for. I just hope it works!
Makes me wonder where they'll secretly be laying next. My hens free range, but only one is currently laying, and she goes back to the coop to make a deposit. She's so domesticated. Congrats on the bounty of eggs!
