Those sneeky little hens!

[Dragonfly Ranch]

Quote:
Glad to hear that they had at least one chicken that had manners and laid where she was suppose to. Guess I'll have to talk to mine about minding theirs.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Oh, about a month ago we had had it with the hens.

I raised every butt and searched every corner and took ALL the eggs from the barn.

Talk about a bunch of PISSY hens !! They screamed and clucked for DAYS after that and I in turn got one or two eggs a day for quite some time.

Now they all seem to be back at it except for this one hen.

She is going to set that clutch if it takes her making us all bleed.

 

[b.hromada]

How cute is that! Yes, you gotta love our girls!!

 

[RainbowFlower]

I'm wondering whether one or more of our girls is hiding eggs. We have 7 hens - 4 have been laying for a couple of months, and 3 of them have only just started in the last couple of weeks.

The 4 older girls were using one nestbox in the right hand corner of the coop. I kept a bale of fresh hay in the left hand corner. When the next 2 started laying, they squeezed themselves onto the top of the hay and made themselves a nest. I found 2 pullet eggs in there one day so I pushed the hay further across and put a nestbox in the left hand corner. I figured if they wanted to lay there, so be it, at least they could do it in a box.

Anyway, all eggs are now laid in the left hand box. The older girls have completely abandoned the right hand nest. The problem is that sometimes there are 5 eggs, sometimes 6 and occasionally 7. When there are 5 eggs, there are not always 4 big eggs, so one of the bigger girls could be missing an egg, rather than the pullets.

My girls are now completely free range from morning til night. Their coop is secure with a wire section for them to scratch around in, and they get locked in there overnight - too many foxes around. Our dogs have decided they no longer want to eat the chickens (long, strange story to that decision), so we let them out. We have a fence around the vineyard, which is where their coop is at the moment, but they can get over it and under it - it is mainly to keep kangaroos from eating the grapes.

Anyway, I am wondering whether some of the girls are laying eggs away from the nestbox. Will they do that some days, and not others or do they like to lay in the same spot every time?

 

[andalusn]

I was led to believe they like to lay in the MORNING... Well not so. It appears they lay eggs anytime of day and like the afternoon. I have been checking the hen house and I usually find one or two eggs in there. No power layers in my bunch yet. For some reason I turn around to step away from the hen house and go under cover of the barn roof/aisle way where the feed and two dog crates I used to bring hens home in and there they were.. eggs in the crate. The young son of a friend was out in the barn exploring as little boys do and he was just tickled to find an egg in the hay. I let him keep the egg, he has shown it to EVERYONE he meets and they have decided to make cookies with this treasure. Finding the egg topped even his trip to the Oregon coast/beach.

 

[RainbowFlower]

Nothing better than seeing a little kid's eyes light up when they find an egg. We have had a few "find" eggs in our nest too. Of course they have to take them home with them.

Must say, I always feel that little thrill of excitement when I find an egg in the nest too.

I found a 7th egg in their nest this afternoon - the last girl must have snuck in there after I checked earlier today. That's 2 days in a row we have had 7 in the nest, so maybe they have decided the bush is too uncomfortable.

 

[MIKE555444]

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I bought a special egg basket and always try to take my 1 1/2 yr old Granson and/or my 6 yr old step son when gathering eggs. They love finding them to

My granson son says "chickies" as soon as I get home from work lol What can i say ... he knows the routine

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

So I go out to the coop straight away when I get home and there is Shirley in the barrel laying an egg. I asked her what she thought she was doing in there and not in her nest. Reply "Excuse me but can't you see I'm busy". Well I beg your pardon. She stood for a moment and sure enough there were three eggs under her. So that is new favorite spot I guess.

Our chickens used to lay more in the morning now they lay throughout the day. We always get at least 1 egg in the morning by 7:30am and most times 2. I believe it is the Red Stars.
I have heard that they lay every 26 hours so may be that is why the time moves around.

We were also finding eggs under the roost in the morning. Someone said that a hen was probably laying in her sleep. Guess it brings new meaning to sleeping like a log.

Sandee

 

[the4heathernsmom]

wow never heard of that ..... egg in their sleep huh?

 

[Ol'FashionHen]

Quote:
That reminds me of the time my DH had made a delivery and the people had sent their kid out with the check to give to my Dh, and there was a pile of dog poo nearby and my Dh pointed to it and asked the kid if he did that. The kid looked at him with that I can't believe you asked me that face and said I did'nt do that!