The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: loosey on May 12, 2011, 03:07:56 pm
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Just a bit of fun really ... I've only had my chicken a couple of weeks and they've settled brilliantly. I have 6 and get 4 or 5 eggs a day at the moment ... but only one of the lays in the chicken house!
I have had eggs laid in my hay barn, in the dumpy bags that I use to store shavings, in a pile of nettles in the pig field, on the bonfire and the other day I saw a chicken head poking out of one of my hedges so went for a look when she had finished and found 11 eggs! I've even had one lay in one of the plant pots outside the front door.
Are you chickens all very well behaved and laying in their house or do they like to mix it up a bit like mine?! ::) ;D :chook: :chook:
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On the door step, in the nook of a tree branch, under the shed, in the trailer. all over the place, i had one that just dropped her egg where ever she was at the time, one it very unfortunately occurred on the brick pile
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At this time of year, when in nature they would be hatching clutches, ours try to lay all over the place - the most dangerous is in the hay stack, as they go too deep in amongst the bales and can't always get out. We once found a long dead mummified hen deep in the haystack, with a clutch of eggs laid on top of her ???. If it gets beyond a joke then we start letting them out later in the morning so many are forced to lay in the hen houses, but some will hold out until we open up, then run at top speed to their chosen nesting site - easy to follow ;) Other times we have had hens proudly emerging from the nettles with a family of chicks in tow, but also we have lost some who have been taken by the fox whilst sitting. We don't let them sleep out unless we really can't find them - too dangerous. I could watch my hens all day - I love them 8) :chook: :chook: :chook:
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Mine lay wherever they think best but I'm surprised that they know instinctively not to lay in places chicks could not get out from e.g. an old overgrown cold frame which would give protection from the cold and wet.
Also as soon as you find their nest and take the eggs out they will find somewhere else and they are SO sly about it. You can be watching them very closely to see which way they go and they will peck about as though laying an egg was the last thing they were thinking about. Look away for a second and they have disappeared!! I'm thinking of security cameras ;D
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We had one hen in our last place that went through a spell of coming into our kitchen and laying her egg very conveniently in a basket right next to the Aga. Now that's what I call a clever chick! :chook:
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One of our girls was found in our kitchen laying an egg behind the T.V
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as ours aren't safe to free range, nowhere as exciting as some mentioned above.
which is lucky, because with the confines of a 6x4 shed we get eggs almost every day in at least 7 different places
- on the top shelf from the Redcaps (Its a playhouse, with an "upstairs" which was intended for storage, til the Reds decided to sleep, lay and p*o up there!)
-on top of the duck house (Plymouths)
-in the tiny gap between the shed wall & the duck house wall (Frizz, the bantam frizzled Pekin)
- by the main door (mind your feet!)
- in the nest box (Marans & LS)
- behind the nest box (think they must all club togehter to make a gap, as I push it back every night!)
- under the roosting bars
and quite often, one outside!
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These chicken laying tales are great and very entertaining. :) Mine are quite boring and lay in their house.
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Most of mine tend to lay in the houses, but often they all want to lay in the same next box.
My jubilee orpington though lays wherever she is at the time, almost like she gets caught short! Probably once a week she'l lay in the nest box. I've only caught her at it once though. She was sort of half crouching with her wings slightly held out from her body, then she gave a wee push and an egg popped out! :o She was in amongst all the others at the time in the middle of the lawn ::) Obviously privacy ain't top of her priority list! ;D
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mine are such good girls - in the nesting boxes ;D. I do keep a marble egg in there, it might help. Your stories sound like my broody ducks, every day I have to search the whole garden, between wood piles, in clumps of nettles, although they do not yet get into the trees, thank heavens ;D :chook: :&>
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I've tried a marble egg ... nothing!
Silly chickens! Most mornings I go into my feed room to make the horses breakfast and there is a queue of hens lining up, waiting to lay on my hay nets in the corner ... and then they have the cheek to get mad at me for interrupting!! ::) ;D
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well, they have decided that the hay nests are better, what can you do ;D ;D Maybe just strong - willed hens :chook: or might there be a possibility that the nesting boxes have some nasties in them , mites, or similar? Worth checking... :&>
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Mine mainly lay in the house though I have had one hop over the electric fence and hide a clutch in the long grass. Unfortunately the fox caught her one day and she never made it back.
In the house, it amuses me that there seem to be different 'in' places to lay. For a few days there might be a large pile at the back of the house, then that becomes so 'last week' and they all start laying round the pop holes. At least half of them lay in the nesting boxes, for which I am grateful. The house itself is just a little low but means I have to stoop to walk down it and there's always the risk of whacking my head on one of the supporting beams if I forget to duck!
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Well mine have started laying in the barns high up on top of the wall above the pig beds, really funny when I collect each night as I have to climb up the dividing fence then shimmy along the wall and normally pop the eggs in my hood and reverse the process. Only one lays in the straw boxes in there end of the barn.
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For three months the auracana/silkie laid in our outdoor cat bed! I slid the lid off and took this picture.
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I blocked access to a couple of nest sites because the eggs were too hard to reach (under the garden shed for instance). Unfortunately this has rather backfired, as they've all gone off and made secret nest sites that I haven't managed to find yet!! ::)
So, down from 6 eggs/day a month ago to 2-3. I'm going to have one hell of an omelette when I do find out where they're laying though! ;D
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Hi All,
My girls usually lay in the coop (shed!) and in one little spot - but never in the nesting box. I've had them lay under the trees in the garden but I try to keep them in until they've laid or I'd never find them :chook:
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If you'd asked me this question yesterday I would have said mine are all good girls and lay in the 2 nest boxes one in each house.....
however OH was clearing nettles from behind a shed by the ditch this afternoon and called for a container and removed a clutch of 13 lovely brown eggs! We spent the rest of the afternoon sorting the fence round the chickens to stop the one rogue chicken from getting out, hoepfully stop her going in the veggie patch and helping herself to all my seedlings as well. :chook: :)