September 8, 2012

I solved the mystery

I solved the mystery of where the rogue hen was holing up overnight by wriggling on my stomach underneath Mario's trailer in the haybarn and squinting between the big round bales. We'd found several eggs in the vicinity so I figured she must be in there somewhere. Sure enough, I could just make out a chicken-shape at the end of a narrow dark tunnel between two bales, too far away for me to reach. But not exactly fox-proof. Plus — all those eggs? Waste of time being broody, chicken, with no cockerel around.

Well I just left her there, but later John chased her out with a broom handle, and later still Alessio managed to retrieve the eggs by pulling them out one by one using an ingenious tool he made by banging two nails into the end of a long stick. Completely ridiculous idea, we scoffed, but he got them all out and only broke two. And the chicken  had been sitting on a stash of 18 eggs!

Most of them were off, but we had an omelette for supper. The chicken seems untraumatized and doesn't show any signs of trying to re-make her nest. At least not in the bales. We're still getting only one or two eggs a day from three hens, so who knows whether one of them is making a hoard somewhere else?

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