Chickeneering

Our sex-links haven't showed much in the way of motherly instincts. They kick all of the hay out of the nesting boxes and sometimes crack their eggs on the wood. I don't know if that's because they drop them from on high or they're kicking them around.

Shane spotted one "eating an egg." I shooed the hen out and found he was at least partly right. 

One of the eggs was cracked, but it wasn't obvious which. The hen had been pecking at mess and not the egg itself.

Chickens will eat eggs. It's an undesirable habit to say the least. Fast action was required. I removed the clean eggs, washed out the mess, and pitched the bad eggs.

The nesting boxes would have been better designed if they were slightly deeper with a threshold. For a quick fix (with Shane really wanting to help), I cut and stapled in some drawer liner. I hoped the padding would make an egg less likely to crack on teh wood. I refilled the boxes with hay, and left it a day.

By morning the hens kicked out all the hay started to rip up one of the mats. Shane, also, had left the hose on at a trickle. The hens were near swimming in mud. The soft landing probably saved an egg that one girl kicked out of box. I almost didn't see it lying camouflaged.

I stapled back the pad and it seems to be working now. Or the ladies have decided it's "not food" and stopped pecking at it. I'll have to monitor it. I took a break from chicken duties since Carrie came home, but with her out it's all me.

Bonus story - I saw bugs swimming in the waterer under the porch a couple of weeks ago. Carrie said, "Don't worry! Chickens eat bugs." I still thought it was gross, but she had a point. 

Fast forward to this week, and I opened up the waterer to clean it out and refill it.

Mosquitos poured out. At least forty of them.

The bugs had been mosquito larvae. Some must have swam up inside the waterer to become adults. Then they'd been trapped until I opened it up.