Naughty Chickens

Last time, I talked about how we had allowed the chickens out of their enclosed pen that has bird netting over the top and into an adjacent pen that has a lot of grass.  They are enjoying this new area tremendously.  However, this new freedom has led to a new problem.  

One day recently, Tom told me the chickens only laid one egg that day.  We have 4 chickens and we normally get 2 to 4 eggs a day.  So, only getting one egg was alarming.  The first thing to run through my mind was that they were sick with some terrible chicken disease.  As chickens get older, they will quit laying as many eggs, but these are only a year old.  So, they should not be going into chicken menopause or whatever!

The next day there were no eggs in the nest boxes.   So, he got suspicious and started looking around.  We created the chicken coop by partitioning off one end of a shed.  

The part to the right is where their coop is located.  We go in and out of the coop through the screen door.  The area to the left is a storage area where Tom keeps unused T-posts, PVC pipe and various things.  The chickens now have access to this part and like to prowl around in there.  They go in through the opening beside the gate.  There are mice in there and they will kill and eat a mouse if they can catch it!  I'm sure there are lots of tasty bugs, as well.

So, Tom suspected maybe they were laying eggs in this part of the shed, and sure enough, he found 7 eggs in a wallowed-out place between 2 trash cans.  Now, we know to check there, as well as the nest boxes.  They don't lay over there very often, but occasionally we find an egg, like this.