Miss Hattie had been laying her eggs behind a sheet of plywood in the carport. For the longest time, she was the only chicken that had the run of all 45 acres. The rest of them stayed in their fenced yard. Miss Hattie lets herself out each day and she would lay her egg in her little spot, and then spend the day chasing bugs or doing whatever she pleased, without interference with the other chickens.
Several weeks ago . . probably 19 days ago to be exact, I began letting all the chickens run loose in hopes of keeping down the grasshopper population. Apparently they all figured out where Miss Hattie was laying her eggs so she found herself a new spot . . but we couldn’t find that spot. I tried watching her to see where she went but she was much to sly. I could never catch her going to her nest.
Monday I was determined I was going to find her spot. I looked behind every box and board and piece of rubble under that carport and believe me, there’s plenty of all that stuff in there. I saw two eggs that were behind several pieces of drywall that were leaning up against a wall but I waited for Vince to get home to help me get them. When we pulled the drywall back, this is what we saw:
Found the Nest!
Counting the two that were near the other end, there were 19 eggs. That’s 19 eggs thrown out! Darn Miss Hattie! I wonder if she was surprised the next day when she went to lay her egg and the rest of them were gone. For now, she’s still laying there but I grab the egg shortly after she lays it. Such a waste to have to throw out all those eggs.
Yes, I could have checked them in water to see if they were good but with the 100+ degree days we’ve had over the past few days, it just wasn’t worth the trouble. I’m sure all but a couple would have been bad. At least I know the chicken snake hasn’t been around feasting on yard eggs.
Becky in VA says
I’ve always wondered how many eggs you get each day and WHAT do you do with so many?
JudyL says
Give them to everyone who will take them! Speck gets scrambled eggs each day. At least once a week I scramble a bunch of them and feed them to the chickens.
Sherrill says
Do you ever feed those eggs back to the chickens? I never knew they ate eggs til my niece got chickens. Hattie’s gonna find herself in solitary before too long! HA
JudyL says
Yes, about once a week I scramble a couple dozen eggs and feed them to the chickens. I don’t feed them the egg shells because those go into my garden. We buy crushed calcium for the chickens.
Karen Langseth says
Best to throw them….a rotten egg is very very nasty.
JudyL says
Yep, that’s what we did.
Anne C. says
She’s a sneaky one! 🙂
AngieG9 says
Poor Miss Hattie. Just when she thought she had the wool — or the nest, pulled over your eyes. They were such beautiful looking eggs too.
Judy D in WA says
Too bad they had to be tossed out! I just found a nest with 13 in them, of course they were in the berry briers and I got stabbed taking them. I think it’s from 2 hens, there were 2 eggs there the next day. Darn chickens! Why can’t they follow the hen house rules??? 🙂
Carolyn says
DANG! can’t immagine laying themon the rocks too.
Tam says
Although I joined your blog because I’m a quilter and I have your Borders book, I look for the chicken articles first and then the quilting articles. I have a friend who resembles Miss Hattie and I think of her as the “little red hen.” Looking forward to kitty stories next since I am a cat’s person.