We definitely have the best chicken coop in the village.
We built a simple A-Frame structure that we split into two levels.
The top is enclosed and has special laying boxes, and the bottom is fenced.
There is a simple gang plank leading upstairs that can be raised at night.
The sides of the coop open to enable the easy collection of eggs.
We used to have our single $115 dollar egg, and a cowardly rooster.
The eggs situation now reads $135 dollars for minus 2 eggs.
We bought a lot more feed, and in order to stimulate egg-laying, we took three of our store bought eggs and cleverly let them rot over a week in the nesting boxes.
They made a pleasant popping sound when I hurled them out (in a high arc) into the surrounding grassland.
So we are now two eggs down.
At least they know who is in charge.
I lectured them severely one evening when they were all in and promised not to let them out until they had produced and egg. Just one. A single one between them.
I would have lasted longer than the seven days, but two snuck out when I opened the coop to check on the seventh day.
I didn’t give up so much as give in.
In seven days we never saw an egg of theirs.
The women in the village tell me I need to feed them crayfish eggs.
Any idiot knows this will never work.
I have a farming manual that tells me that based on the body shape (very narrow hip, very long legs) I should “Good laying hens should have … wide apart pelvic bones, and a white, large, moist vent. If they have the opposite wring their necks.”
I have heard stories of lonely farmers, typically from New Zealand, and chickens vents and will not examine mine to see if the they are white, large and moist. However, I would wring mines necks if my kids stopped paying attention for a second.
By the way, I didn’t collect the prawns especially for the chickens. Don’t be silly. I am not one of these sandal making new age tie die sorts.
I was going to use them for fishing bait, and when the weather turned bad decided not to waste them.
Quite a few coincidently did have yellow spawn on their tails.
But that was before the week incarceration, and so this didn't work either, and my results remain at minus two.
Sounds like a very frustrating situation indeed. Can anybody else be eating them? Perhaps a snake? I can't think of any other animal other than a human who would eat them and not leave broken eggshell around. Even the snake would spew the flattened shell out somewhere. It's so weird and almost funny that one of them would lay a single egg almost just to taunt you. I am visiting my mother-in-law this weekend who is a consummate egg layer. I will ask her for advice. Her hens spray eggs out like one of those tennis ball firing machines and whenever we visit her, we are in omelettes for weeks.
ReplyDeleteRight, I have come back from visiting the old M-in-L. She says that bad layers make good chicken stock. She says that if they have had that amount of time to get used to the environment, they are well fed, they are well housed and have privacy, they have 8 hours of daylight or more and they are still not laying, they are probably finished laying for good and need to have their necks wrung. She said that in winter in the UK there might not be enough light in the day to get them to lay but I don't think that would be the case with you. She also points out that the reason the person might have been getting rid of them is that they had finished their useful laying life which can be as young as two if they have been badly treated. She says that you could introduce one or two young birds to see what happens. If they're too young and still have down, the older ones might peck them to death. If Sonja puts up a lot of bleeding heart protest to having their necks wrung remind her that chickens are so dim that they don't even need their brains to survive. Search the internet for Mike the headless chicken who lived for two years with only what brain stem was left in his neck after being decapitated.
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