Continuing on from yesterday's theme of eggs and stupidity.... as I have said quite a few times we have 22 chickens. They have 8 nest boxes to choose from. They lay their eggs in the boxes 99% of the time. They are let out in the late afternoon from their relatively large run for a stroll around the garden - there are no fences to keep them in, but they never leave the property. When it starts to get dark they all find their way back to the chicken house and settle down for the night. They all follow this routine and seem more than contented. Well at least 21 of these chickens follow this routine! There is one chicken that thinks she is above the rest and has her own special nest - in a pile of rubbish beside our house. She has a mystery door which she uses daily to get out in order to lay her egg in her special nest. She is the only chicken that uses the mystery door and she will often use it 2 or 3 times a day. The only problem is that the mystery door is a one-way door and we have no idea where the door is! Every day my husband tells me he has solved the problem and secured the mystery door but every day the same chicken is wandering around the garden when I go to collect the eggs etc. Unfortunately being a one way door it means she can't get back into the chicken house where all the main food and water is so I have to let her back in at least 2 or 3 times a day. She is more than happy to go back in... only to get back out whenever she feels like it. I don't understand why all the other chickens see her going out but never follow - they love wandering around the garden. I guess I should be grateful that she lays in exactly the same place every day and I don't need to go searching in the garden each day to discover where the next egg is hiding....
How far are you from the neighbors? Or from your own fields? Don't your chickens mess with your and your neighbors' crops?
ReplyDeleteMine have a mystery door too, and like your husband, I think I close it every day only to find that the next morning they are eating the neighbors tomatoes, or (even worse) scratching in the area where my wife has baby cabbage sprouts growing (YIKES! I have a hidden stash of my own cabbage spouts to replace anything the chickens ruin - before Tomoe sees it, of course!)
Worst thing is, the other day when I was away, a tanuki found the hidden door and was attacking the hens. The neighbor saw it and shooed it away. When I came home three were gone -assumed dead. Two days later, two of them appeared alive in the neighbor who saved them's garden - causing trouble, of course. (one poor ukekko is still MIA)
The cost of the "sorry about the trouble I caused you" omiyage was more than the price of the eggs they produce.
I love a good mystery. Stick with it Tom, the little critter is not as bright as you.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a little escape artist on your hands. And I love hearing that she has her own favorite spot to lay the eggs. Knowing how gorgeous your chicken houses are and also your egg laying nest boxes, to lay the eggs...yet she chooses to lay over there. What a chicken. Definitely have to admire her for that.
ReplyDeleteAnd see, she's not trying to be a bad influence on the others either. She's not saying....follow me other chickens. She just doing her own thing. ; ) : )
I would love to just sit at your house one day all day with the sole purpose of just watching out for her and seeing if I could find her mystery escape hatch! : )