It's also been really weird weather with the 80 degrees one day, 50 degrees next. I wouldn't be all that keen on laying a "baby-to-be" in those kinds of conditions.
Alas, when we returned home and let the girls out, the Blue Team would disappear, and not return till bedtime in the coop. Very odd.
Today i found out why....
10 eggs in this "nest"
four eggs in this one
and a straggler found in some random bushes near the back of the coop.
Why, oh why, did i not think to check the bushes around the yard when egg numbers started to deminish? Duh! The thing i don't get though, is that these brambles the chickens laid these eggs under are about 2 feet away from the entrance to the coop, if that. Couldn't they just walk the few paces into the coop and lay them there? Oy!
Well, nothing like instinctual curiousities of a chicken to make you feel like the dumbest city girl in the world!
How do the free range farmers deal with these issues i wonder?
Moral of the story: check every nook and cranny of your yard when eggs start "disappearing".
Mental Note: Start figuring out how to build an egg detectour so i can use it around the yard and look as *cool* as those men out on the beach on the ads for metal detectours.
That'd be such a cute picture if it weren't for all those uneaten omelets it represents! :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck corraling them. I think some people try making them stay in the coop till after they've laid to help break them of that.
I have this same problem with mine! I was also wondering how large free range farmers did it. Perhaps egg hunts have been keeping children busy since chickens have been domesticated. I have but 1 of 5 girls who actually lays in the nest box and we are forever looking for the one missing at the moment to try and find the new nest. So frustrating! But so far we've found them all, within two weeks and reclaimed the eggs. I just make sure they are well cooked. ;p Thanks for commenting on my blog!
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