“What mystery is that?” you ask. Well – lately, we’ve been wondering what happened to our ladies’ egg production numbers; one here, two there, never consistent. After we moved them in with the Littles, numbers were a disappointment. I kept saying, “when things have calmed down, numbers will go up” or “when the weather warms up, numbers will go up” — it just wasn’t happening. 

Finally, yesterday we found out what was happening. Our friends John and Bernadette were visiting from Ramona (California, dontcha know), and we were taking them around to see the set-up and meet the animals.  While we were in the chicken coop I noticed we were short a couple of chickens, “Where’s Maeve? And I think we’re missing a sister!” So, she went around to make sure no one was dinkin’ around outside. Nope! No stragglers. Then we saw one of the walls wiggling. Sue had stapled tarps to the inside of the coop and stuffed them with straw as insulation for the coldest part of the winter.  The chickens have decided that the walls make excellent nests… never-mind the wonderful nesting boxes that were built just for them, oh no! they’d rather risk getting stuck down in the walls and lay their eggs there!  Sue found a small cache in one nook – with a very angry chicken!  She shooed her out and stuffed more hay down there.

Later, I went back to check their feed and water for the night, and found two of them nesting in the walls again! One of them right next to the nesting boxes. Plus more eggs! Silly chicks. Today, while checking the feed and water, I found more evidence of wall nesting and three eggs! So, now it’s like an Easter Egg Hunt every day! We’ll see if we can make the nesting boxes more enticing. Every day is an adventure!
As always,
Thanks for reading

Today’s Weather: We’re back to winter again. Rainy and cold most of the day. Sue had to drain some of the water out of the rain barrel again today. Who knew it would fill up so fast and so often? Yesterday afternoon and through out the night we had intermittent Thunderstorms withe the requisite lightening displays. Very dramatic. The high was 54° and the low was 36°.  More rain predicted for tomorrow with a high of 58°.

Egg Report: Three!  Now that we know where to look for them, maybe the numbers will stay steady.