Thursday, April 4, 2013

Chicken Reboot

(Reboot: to turn (a computer or operating system) off and then on again; restart.)

For some unknown reason, The Girls were laying fewer and fewer eggs.  They had been cranking out their four eggs per day like clockwork.  Then only three eggs, two eggs, then none.  We didn't see any broken eggshells so we didn't think a critter was getting into their nesting boxes. 

I checked under the deck where they had laid in the past but nothing there.  That was a relief.  After seeing the rattle snake on the porch last Fall I'm not so sure how eager I would have been to have to slither on my belly to collect a few eggs from a dark corner of the deck's crawl space.

On a whim, I checked the doghouse and, lo and behold, four perfect eggs.  The Girls had scratched together a little fuzzy nest made of carpet fibers from Mele's carpet pad.  Over the next several days we kept The Girls locked in the pen for most of the day.  It worked, they started laying in their nesting boxes again.  Unfortunately, we've still got a few misplaced eggs.  Somewhere.  I certainly hope we never find the missing clutch of eggs.   


Duke and The Girls


Good Girls- Sweetness, Sophia, Bowling Ball (BeBe), and Baby