trailor hens

[kareninthesun]

they are so silly...eight comfy nesting boxes in their coop and it only takes one too challenge a change of venue. sometimes I think its a contest. ive found a cache of eggs , thirty! under a four inch space below my potting bench, some in a potted plant, on a rocking chair seat, and a nest made in the middle of a cactus. that one amazed me...how in the world they could tamper down and sit there...oh, and behind an upstanding wheelbarrel leaning against the fence. they will go a few weeks of all laying in two nests...then off they go in search of other digs...what crazy places have you found eggs?

 

[mtnhens4]

Wow, they are determined to make you hunt for their eggs, have you tried keeping them cooped up until after lunch? maybe you will only have half as many to look for.

 

[kareninthesun]

I'd love to, but they start making a fuss around 6:20 AM, and by 6:35 or so they are LOUD. I'm afraid my usually kind hearted neighbor's patience will not be so much so. I'm trying (successfully) to be a good neighbor and advocate of education/promotions towards all things good in backyard chick-anery.

I wonder what they are thinking sometimes, "food, food, here, no there, no she has, no...what's that....I see...I need to...look! Oh, see that color?...Who laid that there? Must be..." (runs over to investigate). "Yeah, I see a feather...must be...let's just try it out...humph...comfy..."

Two other girls watch her run over. Think there is food to be had. The sitee purrs back off! until she finds her comfort zone. They see she has no food. They want to try out what looks like the perfect nest. Struggle over manners, impatient, they stomp, grumble, give her the evil eye, but she is not impressed.

Regarding the nester: At this particular time, I'm guessing that the egg traveling down the vent causes temporary amnesia purtaining to all things wonderful and safe in official nest boxes. This is the only nest she knows. And she aint gonna share.

Comrades of twinned feathered witnesses are more like two children with their noses pressed to the outside of a candy store with what they want just beyond grasp. Surely the nest is feathered in gold, spreckeled with all things lovely. And they WANT it!

Nester again: Egg laid, memory cells kick in, but do not include "x" ing the spot of the new egg. She's forgotten of the deed just done. Like me and my darned car keys, where dropped is quickly..........

Wonders if the two hens staring at her left anything good to eat from the spot they just abandoned. With no grace and lots of luck, she scrambles from The Newest Place and runs off. Hens four, five and six are momentarily confused, should they follow the first hen and investigate? No...stop off where the two hens are cozying down...These three break, split, run; change their minds. Stop to scratch, eat a wiggly morsel... forget what they are doing - and so it goes...

geeze. No wonder they eat so much. Burns up a lot of energy, just being a chicken in the everyday portions of life.