Our hens, Sage and Onion are just over two years old and egg production has been falling recently until about three weeks ago when it abruptly stopped. I was a bit surprised that it stopped so suddenly but they both seemed to be well and healthy and we just assumed that their egg laying days were over.
Today though whilst out in the garden my husband chanced upon these....
There were ten eggs, one of them still warm - it was the familiar egg-laying clucking that made him investigate what was happening in the undergrowth.
Up until three weeks ago we were getting an egg every other day so ten eggs would suggest that three weeks ago egg laying shifted from coop to garden. I wonder why? Everything looks just the same inside the hen house no obvious reason for the change of location.
We have collected the eggs and wait to see where the next egg turns up. I'm assuming that the eggs are safe to use as long as they look ok. Any suggestions for encouraging laying in the hen house?
7 comments:
knowing nothing about hens and egg laying i can't be of any help, but i am happy to see that the girls are laying for you again... you can make lots more of your lovely lemon curd!
hope you are weell and the week has been good to you,
with love
ginny x
Red mite in the coop? That can stop them wanting to...
or jus sheer hennish bluddy minded ness I am afraid...
The eggs should be ok if only 10 days old, but I would crack each one into a saucer individually to check.......
You can find out by putting them in a bowl of water as well and seeing if they sink or float....
I would keep them shut in the run until they have laid in the house for a week..to re fix them on laying in the right place....that, or move the hen house to where the shrubs were, or clear fell the shrub.....
Hens...you have to love them, don't you ;-)
Ah, I was going to recommend the 'float test' but I see CW beat me to it. :) Good luck enticing your hens back into the henhouse!
x
Thank you for the advice. The eggs seem to be fine.
After moving the eggs, we found another one laid in exactly the same spot the next day. I am now following the suggestion to keep them shut in for a while but in the last two days there have been no eggs at all.
They are crossing their henny legs to keep the eggs in, out of pique!
Shutting them in till they get the message has worked for me...is all I can say...
But I do let mine out into the Orchard pen, where there are few places to hide eggs...and I don't let them out to fully free range in 4 acres until about 5 pm.....when I know they have all layed..
its whatever works for you in YOUR garden....
;-)
Today I kept the hens in until mid afternoon and an egg was laid in the garden just a few minutes after letting them out!
Since she keeps going back to the same place I think I will just collect the eggs from there and not worry too much about getting her back into the henhouse.
Glad you found the eggs. My first girls stopped laying around 2.5yrs - we getting one egg every couple of days from 6 hens. They moved on to another home and we got 6 new girls. If we'd had room we'd have kept them all.
Did you manage to get them laying back in the coop?
Libby
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