Hidden Nests

Since taking Astro to the slaughter house, we've moved Aussie into the bull pen that Astro once inhabited.  Now there's only Clarabull out with Rosie, Luna, and Clarabelle.  Each evening when we do late afternoon chores, the cows all come in for their feed.  Except for Clarabull.  He doesn't get fed anything at night, but we bring him in the corral and separate him so that he won't drink all of "our" milk overnight from his momma, Clarabelle.

I always have to climb over the fence and walk up to him.  He's eating on the tall grass and is in no rush to be locked up in the corral.  I get behind him and push on his rump and coax him slowly toward the barn.  As I was walking I noticed a hidden nest that our hens laid in the tall grass in one of the paddocks.  No telling how long they've been there.  I don't trust them, so I'm not going to pick them up.  They may all be rotten, and I'm just going to leave them alone.  Perhaps a hen is setting on them and just stepped away to get to the hen scratch that Tricia just threw out in the barnyard.

Most of the hens are predictable and they lay their eggs in the hen house nesting boxes.  Those that don't, lay their eggs in the hay near the round bale.  There are always a few hens that are unpredictable.  They'll go off, lay a nest, set on the eggs for 21 days and show up with some babies behind her. 

We've been experiencing a serious problem with a hen or hens.  We have a hen or hens that have picked up a very bad habit of eating eggs.  Each afternoon there are broken eggs in the nesting boxes that have been eaten by chickens.  So wasteful!  Then, the yolk gets all over the unbroken eggs in the nesting boxes and make cleaning the eggs a major chore.  The uneaten egg yolk/white drips down into the hay in the nesting boxes and with 95 degree heat, begins to smell really bad.

We've read all about this 'cannibalism.'  We keep the bin of oyster shells full, so we know it isn't a calcium deficiency.   We are feeding them plenty, so they shouldn't be so hungry that they feel the need to eat the unborn chickens.  To top it off, this is the time of year where egg production drops substantially.  We want those eggs to make it back to the house, NOT getting eaten by chickens.  It is a bad habit that we need to stop right now!

Perhaps the hidden nest in the tall grass in the photo above that Tricia and I found is hidden by a hen that doesn't want her eggs eaten by other hens.  Therefore, she's laying them in the tall grass where the cannibals can't find them.  Smart girl!