A few weeks ago, our Barred Rocks stopped laying in their nest box.  Something must have clicked in the lead hen's head, because she suddenly decided it made a lot more sense to lay her eggs hidden back under the weather flap of the chicken tractor.

A quarter of the time, I'd catch the first hen to lay and move her egg to the box, then the other hens would lay in the right place.  Another half of the time, we found the eggs before dragging the tractor across them.  The rest of the time, the eggs got smashed and Lucy got a treat.

Last week, I tossed a golf ball in the nest, hoping it would act as a nest egg and prompt the hens to lay in the right place.  Sure enough, the ball did the trick!  The few times I manage to outsmart them, I'm awfully glad that chickens are none too bright.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.