Amateur homesteading

I had to resurrect this thread to share.  Due to some unruly chicks our hens were temporarily laying on the floor instead of in their nest boxes.  Penelope, the hen who went broody last year and raised our mail order chicks, apparently hid a clutch of eggs in a corner and has been sitting on them.  We found her sitting on 11 eggs.  I didn’t want that many, and was discussing it with my husband.  A few days later she was down to five, a more reasonable number, though I was confused about the missing eggs.  After some thought we decided to let her keep them.  She is now down to four eggs.  I don’t know if she is losing them in the bedding when turning them over or what, but she is obviously NOT mother of the year material  oh oh

At this point I put the remaining four eggs in a dish pan lined with wood shavings so that she hopefully doesn’t lose any more.  Now I have to go digging around the floor and behind the food storage can to see if I can find the seven missing eggs before they rot and explode 


Just checking: there couldn’t be a sneaky lizard or little snake or fox or something, that likes to gulp whole eggs, hiding out around there? I know you’re careful and will have taken every precaution...just wondering. 


She still has four, and we’ve found some in the bedding on the floor.  She was rolling them a lot and I think was just losing count

Here is proud poppa. He’s not looking hIs very best at the moment since they’re all molting.  His name is Russel Crow, because he‘s pretty to look at but can be a real *** sometimes  oh oh


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