Everyone on the Shawhan farm is enjoying this wonderful, beautiful weather! Eli, the Amish chicken farmer down the road says it was an early spring, an early summer, now an early fall. Unfortunately for the Chicken Lady, I think that means it will be an early winter too. I'm not the only one who doesn't like early evenings and two months of no sunshine...the chickens are linked into natural light as well. It seems that with the hot spell behind us, the ladies are kicking it into high gear and we are now in mass egg production!
To accommodate the higher egg numbers, Dan and I had to make some changes. We thought maybe we should start collecting eggs twice a day since so many accumulate in the nest box and some have been broken, probably due to so many hens coming and going...plus one nest box is more popular than the same identical two. Whatever. I tried doing this but it seems that at noon all boxes are occupied by more than one chicken. So I just left them alone. Plus we still have chickies who prefer to lay in the steer hay trough, which to a point is fine, if the steers don't break them, but it's a pin in the who you know what to climb over the fences.
We did have a nest box provided in Kennel Bar which could occupy six hens at a time:
This was given to the girls from Grandma Janet, Old Fart's wife. Every now and then we would fine a lonely egg in the top box, but one would think more of the hens would use it. To possibly help with the large number of eggs we get a day, Dan made a modification to this box and we moved it into Cooptown...so hopefully it becomes more appealing to the girls.
Dan thought maybe it was too open for a chicken's desire. So he cut up some boards and screwed them to the bottom to make the box itself more enclosed. Maybe this will make the hen feel more secure and she will find this a more desirable place to lay.
(Prissy was in heaven today since Dan was using power tools!)
I added some straw, which the chickens will probably just scratch out, to hopefully make the new and improved nest box more to their liking. Then we moved it into the coop itself, right next to the door. I'm pretty happy with the looks of everything. I was worried the coop would be too crowded, but it fits quite nicely.
The whole time we were working on this "Hotel California" was in my head, hence the name of this post. As you know by now, I like to name things: Kennel Bar, Cooptown, so this box I've decided to name Hotel California.
It has 6 comfortable vacancies, complete with a straw mattress to fit your laying needs. Surrounding attractions include, a full corn buffet 24/7, a selection of roosting rails and an oyster shell bar, all open 24/7. Fresh water is available daily and access to Kennel Bar is open from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. during the summer months. Call us today to make your reservation!
...cluck... cluck... cluck...
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