My chickens have forced me to do an egg hunt!

October 1, 2013 by sleepinghorse 13 Comments

Where on earth do I start to look for a nest of eggs? There are so many wonderful and safe hiding places for a chicken to lay her eggs. I am sure the nest is on this side of the house, somewhere in these bushes because this is where I saw George patiently waiting.

So Haitch and I entered the bush and started scouring the undergrowth for a nest of eggs. Surely the eggs would stand out against the dark floor of the bush. This shouldn’t take long.

We looked and looked and looked in the general direction I had seen Hannah coming from the day I thought George was protecting her whilst she laid. But there was no sign of a fresh nest.

But although I couldn’t find the new nest, I found an old nest hidden under the fern fronds. I had no idea that any of my girls had ever laid in the bush before. And here I was thinking they were such good chickens compared to other people’s! Clearly not.

When Haitch put these eggs in the bowl, one slipped out of his hand and cracked and oh dear. This is a very old nest. Smelly, smelly eggs. I am surprised that no critters had eaten these eggs, weasels, stoats, ferrets, possums even?

My girls are currently being locked up every day until mid afternoon when my wonderful neighbour comes up each day to let them out. We will do this for the rest of this week and see what happens in the weekend.

Hilda and Helen are both laying in the nesting boxes while being locked up but Hannah has not yet. She is either not laying at the moment (hmmmm) or she is holding onto her egg and then laying once she is let out. I might have to leave her in all day if she doesn’t give me any eggs over the next few days. She may be cleverer than I thought.