What could be better than a high shelf to safely lay eggs away from snakes, etc. Seems logical to me!
PS. My hens are laying again, too.
Egg Eating
True free range = where the heck did they lay today.
We had one that could lay hers on top of the fan shroud. It is round & she could make it stay there.
Our chickens had gradually been upping their production of eggs from zero to five or six. I managed to sell a dozen last Saturday night and I had a dozen to bring in to breakfast this past Wednesday morning when a group of artists always meets. So Tuesday morning we were in the chicken coop changing a lightbulb, which for some reason had shattered overnight, and DH was up on a small ladder trying to disinter the shards of the broken one.
We had installed a shelf over about a third of the coop to hold the brooder and other chicken-related equipment, about 6 ½' above the level of the floor, and DH told me to look over on the shelf. He said I wouldn't believe my eyes. Sure enough, neatly laid out in the open space on the shelf were a whole mess of eggs! A couple were broken, but I think all in all there may have been almost two dozen! One or more of the Black Australorps was obviously flying up there to deposit her prizes; the older hens all use the nest boxes and the BA's are the only ones that can really fly, anyway. So we put some netting over the opening to the shelf and we awaited the next chapter in the saga of the eggs with great interest.
Yesterday DH called me into the chicken coop again and showed me this:
Would you believe it?
How did they manage that?
They somehow managed to get in over the small opening left over the netting, but then how they got out again is another question!
We cllimbed up there and raised the netting to cover more of the opening at the eaves and we're hoping that that will do it. DH had been in the coop yesterday and saw a Black Australorp fllying down from the shelf, so he looked up and there were the eggs! One was slightly cracked but still edible. Determined critters, aren't they?
Look what I found up on the shelf in the chicken coop this afternoon. She was stuck up there; I wonder if that taught her anything. But I fastened the net up even higher and we also clipped both of her wings! Un-freakin'- believable! But we both got a good laugh out of it. Determined little cuss, isn't she?
At least she left an egg!
First decent day for ours to go outside. Old hens are all out. Young pullets go out some.
They are hooking up the automatic waterer's now, so now more lugging pails.
Spring is here!
She's lovely. Just look at that face.
Actually, Bernie, there were two eggs up there! Not quite sure how they did that; there was very little room for a chicken to escape from that netting, and now there's none at all.
I like her spunk! She looks like a keeper to me.
At least we know she's laying eggs!
Maybe that is just what she wanted you to know--she's not the slacker! LOL!
There you go! Could be! Now we know that the chicken with the bobbed wings lays eggs!