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backyard chicken adventures

Sep 9th, 2011 by

To recap our story so far:

  1. The Damsel got four chickens in April, and was told they’d start laying in October.
  2. One chicken started laying in July, being an overachiever in all ways. Her comb is quite luxurious.
  3. The Damsel has spent a lot of time looking under bushes and things since then, wondering when/if the other three are laying.
  4. The Knight in Shining Armor has spent a hideous amount of time building the Celestial Chicken Coop, which is still not finished. This means the chickens are “free range” in the fenced backyard.
  5. Four days ago, an egg was found in a new spot, proving that at least two chickens were now laying.
  6. Three days ago, one chicken escaped from the Cottage’s yard, proving that chickens can compress their bodies into the size of a golf ball, causing the Damsel real/actual distress. Happily the chicken wandered back home, reinflated to her normal basketball size.
  7. Two days ago the Damsel continued her search of the yard for other nesting spots since she was having a strong suspicion that furtive egg-laying was going on by the other two chickens. All likely spots checked and rechecked. No eggs.
  8. Every single day since the first one started laying, she has consistently laid an egg in her same little spot without fail.
  9. Yesterday, no eggs in the two known spots. HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD.
  10. Today, the Damsel looked in a very unlikely spot and found:

 

TWENTY TWO EGGS.

Ok, chicken-ladies. How long has this been going on?

Game on.

The perps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: ,

Posted in chickens

  • amber pixi

    Ha!  They tricked you!  Now you get to play the egg-floating game to see what’s good or not. :)  

    • Lazurii

      That’s what I was going to suggest, the eggs may not be bad yet.  fill your sink with water, carefully put the eggs in and see if they float.  They should stay decidedly on the bottom if they’re fresh, they’ll float if they’re rotten.

  • Calicocat2

    Hahaha   I guess you will have some idea how long this has been going on when you crack them open.  Got a gas mask???

  • Idahonaturegirl

    Haha…Let that be a lesson to you…ALways check the unlikely spots first! With April chicks I would estimate August laying so it has likely been going on for sometime! Hehehe…

  • http://reuseandupcycle.blogspot.com Rachel Sue

    I so, so want chickens.  My husband so, so doesn’t.  I keep reading these posts hoping to get enough support for my position!

    • Anonymous

      hahaha would this post help or hurt your quest? Keep me posted!

  • Maren McCall

    What/where was the unlikely spot?

    • Anonymous

      There are loads of great little soft, dry spots in my yard. I didn’t think of looking underneath a giant daylily plant because it’s in a part of the yard that gets hit by sprinklers a lot. But they’ve decided this is their favorite. I hope I can get them to switch over to the coop when it gets finished.

  • Edna

    LOL – maybe they are wearing those stripes for a reason!

    My guess would be about a week… 1 egg per day per hen? The funny thing is, our chickens’ first eggs were always way smaller than the regular eggs and these seem like ‘normal’ size.

    My suggestion would be to get a nesting box of some kind and fill it with straw or hay and put it in their fav spot. If it’s comfy to go nest in, they will always go there. Then, you can move the box into the coop later when its done. Best be lighting a fire under that knight….

    • Anonymous

      Love this idea. We are so doing it. THANK YOU!!!

      And, those eggs I found…they were all different sizes, but most on the small side.

  • LA Adams

    This is great!!!  My friends brings brown, pale green, and white eggs to us every week.  i love the “organic” homegrown eggs and have noticed how ‘orange’ the yolks are and how hard the shells are. Now I’m wondering how long it takes them to gather up the eggs every week.  

    • Anonymous

      Yes, our yolks are very bright…I’ve heard it is from eating bugs. Tough shells, too.

  • Anonymous

    Groan…I don’t enjoy the hunt. At all. Especially since now they are laying SOMEWHERE ELSE that I can’t find. Gahhhh! I did put “nest eggs” in the spots where they were laying, but it seems that now I took all those eggs out of there, they have abandoned it and have a new secret spot. Grrrr!

  • Chembaby

    Just a thought on egg life.  To hatch out, say about 15 chicks (like my hens do), the hen would need to lay an egg everyday for 15 days (the oldest egg is now 15 days old).  Then she would set the eggs for another 21 days.  The oldest egg would be 36 days old.  If any egg was rotten after being laid for 15 days, it could not become a chick. 

    Now I don’t know if the eggs have to be fertilized to stay alive for 15 day, but as long as the shell has not been compromised, two week old eggs from the backyard ought to be OK.  But float testing them would give one peace of mind.

    • Anonymous

      My thoughts exactly! Thanks!

  • http://themeanestmomma.com Kendra aka The Meanest Momma

    I’m jealous you have back yard chickens!  Our semi-urban county apparently frowns upon this…. :(

    • Anonymous

      You should have seen me this morning, running around my back yard like a crazy woman, chasing those silly things! Sometimes I really wonder.

  • Heather Justesen

    Okay, those are some serious over-achievers (and remember, there’s no such thing as an unlikely place–they will find the oddest little crack of a spot and lay there instead of in their lovingly prepared laying boxes.). My Plymouth barred rocks did not lay anywhere near that fast–though oddly they all seemed to start laying within days of each other. I’d ask you for eggs to hatch (there’s got to be some seriously good genes in there), but it doesn’t sound like you have a rooster. Care to borrow mine for a few days? =) My birds free range most of the time, but I fence the garden–unless I want them in it digging up old plants and prepping the soil for next year, then suddenly they aren’t nearly as interested as they were all summer long. Naughty chickens. I can’t blame only them, though, the geese, ducks and guineas are having the same issue–and we won’t even start on my tom turkey…

    No, actually they are a lot of fun, even if I haven’t seen an egg in two months and  they have parties at 2 a.m. So far the neighbors have never complained.

    • Anonymous

      no eggs for two months? yikes! Why is that? Because they are hiding them from you or because they are old or ? Sounds like you have quite the happy bunch!
      We are definitely going to have to fence the garden or something. Good grief, they were a disaster with our garden this year.

      • Heather Justesen

        My older hens stopped laying when they went into their fall molt and never started again, and the younger pullets aren’t laying yet (but I keep watching–they’re 21 weeks old now, so any time). I didn’t keep anything I hatched last year in the summer, so my older birds are all at least 2, which means they probably won’t lay again until February or so when the days get noticeably longer again. *sigh*

        • Anonymous

          Yay! My very own chicken expert! :)
          See you at story makers?

  • http://www.facebook.com/christine.a.hensley Christine Ann Hensley

    Love the pic of your chickens I had four like it but the fox love them too! Now I am starting over again the fourth time with som Americandas sp? My cousin hatched them and they are now roosting on top of the coop only one problem we are getting the first snow storm of the season! We shall see what happens next?