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!

New Life on the Farm

Yesterday we talked about losing a baby goat.  It was odd, because Domino seemed to be the strongest of Annie's triplets.  When he got sick, though, it knocked him down quickly.  We're on the final day of treatment for the other affected buckling, and he seems to be progressing nicely toward a full recovery.  It's always sad to lose an animal you weren't expecting on losing.  That's just the way it goes, however.  Animals are remarkably resilient and time marches on.

As if to get our minds off of the loss of Domino, we looked over during evening chores to see a momma hen come strutting up with her feathers all fluffed out with four baby chicks following closely behind her!  We went from being sad about the loss to being happy about new life in an instant.

We have hens that get broody all the time, but we don't let them set.  This hen got wise and decided she'd go find a hiding place, lay some eggs there, hatch them, and raise her babies without us having a say in the matter.  I looked and looked and finally found her hiding place.  In the bull pasture (that we call the bull pen), there is an old dog kennel under a chicken tractor.  I opened up the end of the tractor so that Buckwheat, the billy goat, can get inside when it is raining.  The momma hen figured she could get inside too!  I found the eggshells left over from the hatched out chicks.  I also found two un-hatched eggs.  Perhaps they weren't fertilized?  We try to have 1 rooster for every 10 hens to ensure fertilization, but sometimes that ratio doesn't work out.

We also found one baby chick that hatched out, but for whatever reason, didn't survive.  This happens from time to time.

At first the momma hen keep her little family far away from us and the rest of the chickens.  Slowly, she began to bring them closer, especially when I threw some hen scratch and laying pellets her way.

She began to teach her little ones how to scratch hay out of the way to expose the feed.  She was a good teacher.  The chicks imitated her actions and soon were scratching, pecking, and eating - just like momma!

I put out a pan of clean water for the chicks and we'll keep a close eye on them.  It'll be fun to watch them grow up!

Don't Ever Eat a Rotten Egg

Ever since we cut down the big Water Oak tree that died, we've had a big pile of wood that I have been meaning to cut up and use for firewood next year.  It doesn't really bother me, and I'll get to it when I get to it, but it has created a good place for chickens to hide.  Hens are notorious for finding new places to nest.  

I happened to be walking past the wood pile this weekend and something caught my eye.  It was a nest that contained 11 eggs.  They were dirty and there was no telling how long they had been there. 

Normally, when I find nests like this, we feed them to the dogs.  Both Big Boy and Promise make quick work of fresh, or not so fresh, eggs.  At this time of the year, our hens aren't laying too many eggs, and I don't like feeding the eggs to the dogs.  I for sure don't want to risk eating an old egg found in a hidden nest! However, fortunately there is a trick for determining if an egg is fresh or old.  Now, let me preface this by saying I would never give or sell eggs found in a hidden nest.  These are for personal consumption only.

Testing an egg for freshness doesn't require any expense or testing equipment.  All you need is a 5 gallon bucket filled with water.
 

Gently place the eggs that you found in a hidden nest into the bucket of water.  If any of the eggs float, they are rotten!  Throw them away - better yet, bury them in the garden, being careful not to bust it before it is in the hole.  If the egg stays on the bottom, but one end tilts up, it is a little old, but not rotten.  If it lays flat on the bottom, it is a fresh egg.

As you can notice in the photo below, ALL of the eggs are lying flat on the bottom.  These eggs are fresh and our family will eat them up.

The reason this test works is that there is a small air pocket in the egg when it is laid.  As an egg ages, the porous eggshell allows fluid inside the egg to evaporate while simultaneously allowing more air into the egg and the air pocket in the egg expands.  As the air pocket expands with age, the egg will float off of the bottom.

Even though all these eggs are fresh, we'll still eat them first as putting them in water washes off the protective "bloom" that the hen coats the egg with that protects the contents of the egg from bacteria.  If you wash this off, the life of the egg will be diminished. 

So... if the egg won't sink, you'd better re-think (eating that egg!)