www.NALF.org

www.OhioBeef.org

KY Beef Expo

My Farm Journal

Oct. 5, 2009 cont. -- 

I have a real mystery going on in the chicken house. I’ve had two hens setting on nests of at least a dozen eggs each that should be hatching this week. For the last several weeks I’ve checked on them every day making sure the hens have feed and water near by. I’ve been careful to only let the flock out of the house for an hour or two in the evening when Katie (our Border collie) and I can watch them closely. The last two evenings I’ve let them out and then had to leave for an hour or so. Last night I let the flock out about 5:00 pm and left to help close down the antique show. When I came back to shut the flock up at 7:30 I checked on the two setting hens.

The hens were not on the nests and the nests were empty of eggs!! I sifted through the nest material thinking maybe the hens had buried the eggs, but I found only two eggs and they looked fresh laid!  There were no egg shells or evidence of the more than 18 eggs that had been there just 12 hours earlier. Some critter or other must have stolen all the eggs!  Last week I’d picked up an egg that had rolled out of the nest by mistake, and cracked it open for Katie (she gets the eggs that get dirt on their shells). It was an egg full of baby chick about a week from hatching. Some critter got a whole lot of ready to hatch baby chicks for their supper last night.

Two Speckled Sussex hens (one on the left and one on the right), three Red Stars, a Rhode Island Red, a Buff Orpington and the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte hen. In the background are more hens taking a dust bath, and just to the left of the tree is the head rooster keeping an eye on everyone.