Oh, you meant there

Just a brief update to report that — after an inauspicious start (see “Just put that anywhere,” Dec. 15) — my little flock seems to be getting the “nest” idea. Ellie, my green-egg layer, got it right the first time, and at least one of the other girls — I’m not sure who — has joined her.  And Ginny, my black Australorp, has settled nicely into a basement nest beneath the first tier of boxes.

Yesterday, I caught Lave, one of the salmon faverolles, preparing to lay in the droppings pit beneath the roost, and gently relocated her to the nest boxes. She fidgeted and fussed around for a scant minute, then jumped ship and headed back to her preferred location.  A second relocation yielded better results, though perhaps only because Lave’s egg was imminent. While I watched, she strained a few times and then dropped it gently on the straw, wondrously warm and shining with the bloom, the clear coating a hen puts on her egg to keep bacteria out and moisture in.

My girls: They do good work — wherever.

 

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Tags: animals, chickens, eggs, farming, hens, poultry