It's finally happened to us. People always ask me about it and what we do, and I've never had an answer for them. But this past week, it hit us.
For 2 weeks now we've been getting 3-7 eggs a day. And then, one egg. The next day...nothing. I knew that meant one of three things: 1) the heat had finally gotten to them 2) they had a virus or 3) they were laying somewhere else. Bobby was convinced it was number three and took several short trips outside in the heat trying to find their new nest. We kept hearing the "bwak, bwak, bwak, BWAAAK" cry they make right after laying, but would go to their nesting sites and ...NO eggs. At the end of Day 2 of this, I saw a group of hens huddled behind the little red shed, which is very odd. Yes, all the grown-ups had laid two days worth of eggs UNDER the shed.
I've never had to teach a hen where to lay before, but according to my chicken Bible, it is possible to do with these little clay or stone eggs called "nesting eggs". Since hens tend to share a nest, it only requires placing one or two into the spot where you desire them to lay and they'll put their eggs near the sample. Some people use golf balls, others actually use the plastic eggs. I happened to have a few plastic eggs left over from a kids' activity, so I placed them in various places throughout the hen house. I'm happy to report that we're now getting 1/2 the eggs in the brooder box (where many of them had been laying before) and some in the hen house, and two a day under the shed. I'm hoping this craziness will end soon. The sad news is that since all this began, we've had NO green eggs, and we should be getting at least one a day. In another two weeks we should start smelling them as hot as it's been.
So if my plastic egg project works, I'll post pictures. Meanwhile, they're just getting pecked at and pushed around.
Comments