MollyHSmith
In the Brooder
- Jun 11, 2023
- 12
- 26
- 41
My birds are just starting to lay.. hooray!
My chickens free range during the day and sleep in their coop at night. I have nesting boxes in their coop with some fake eggs in them, but they seem not to care about those I found one egg in an empty/unused coop a week ago, but since then they havenāt shown up again. Yesterday morning when I let them out, one of the hens RAN toward a pile of brush in my yard. She crawled in and laid down, and our rooster was keeping watch along the perimeter. Later that day, I climbed in the pile and found a little nest with four eggs!
Iām in Texas, so brush piles typically mean snakes. I went to move the eggs yesterday, and noticed a dead rat beside the nest. Not sure if it was there before or what. I retrieved the eggs and moved them to their nesting boxes. I havenāt seen that hen laying on them since then.
My questions areā¦ how do I get them to like their nesting boxes? The brush pile isnāt safe (and weāre under a burn ban so I canāt get rid of it yet ). Andā¦ if she doesnāt sit on these eggs, are they safe to eat since they were beside a dead rat?
I also have ducks that have started layingā¦ and theyāre easy, they just lay in the middle of their coop and forget about them
My chickens free range during the day and sleep in their coop at night. I have nesting boxes in their coop with some fake eggs in them, but they seem not to care about those I found one egg in an empty/unused coop a week ago, but since then they havenāt shown up again. Yesterday morning when I let them out, one of the hens RAN toward a pile of brush in my yard. She crawled in and laid down, and our rooster was keeping watch along the perimeter. Later that day, I climbed in the pile and found a little nest with four eggs!
Iām in Texas, so brush piles typically mean snakes. I went to move the eggs yesterday, and noticed a dead rat beside the nest. Not sure if it was there before or what. I retrieved the eggs and moved them to their nesting boxes. I havenāt seen that hen laying on them since then.
My questions areā¦ how do I get them to like their nesting boxes? The brush pile isnāt safe (and weāre under a burn ban so I canāt get rid of it yet ). Andā¦ if she doesnāt sit on these eggs, are they safe to eat since they were beside a dead rat?
I also have ducks that have started layingā¦ and theyāre easy, they just lay in the middle of their coop and forget about them