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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Solving the Henhouse Mystery


“Hey!  Come ‘ere!  You gotta see somethin’!” The Boss motioned me to enter the chicken yard and pointed toward the hen house.

“See anything odd?”

I looked around the henhouse, where then hens were hanging out and “talking” over the events of the day.  No…nothing odd in the nest boxes, the vents were still open so I could see outside…nothing there either.  As I turned to leave, still puzzled at what he found so amusing, I looked up by the timer for the electric door.  There between the bracing was an egg.


An EGG?

He laughed when it was apparent that I finally saw it.  Did he put it there as a joke?  No, he really didn’t.  He was as perplexed as I was.

…and the plug for the electric door switch kept getting pulled out.


What was going on?

Earlier I had heard a great deal of commotion in the hen-trailer.  So much so that I left my hoophouse work and went into the chicken yard, fully expecting to find a hawk or some sort of predator.  The dogs were on alert, too, so I wasn’t imagining things. The hens greeted me expectantly, scattering as it became apparent I was not bringing food offerings.

Nothing amiss, I went back to work.

This happened several days in a row, but I could never find out what was going on.

The next day, the Boss found TWO eggs in the bracing over the door.


Now, obviously there had been hens up there.  But, how? Why? was it just a fluke?

Never one to leave any mystery unsolved, I began regular visits to the hens.

Well…hello!
Well, hello ladies!


There are two hens at the the top of the trailer, wandering around a little. But, no eggs.

I still haven’t quite figured out how they get up there.  It couldn’t have been easy, since hens are NOT known for their great abilities of flight.

On my next trip, there was only one hen, but two eggs. I missed the actual egg laying, but the eggs were still wet when I found them, so they were really fresh.


Okay, we’ve solved part of the mystery.
the rest of the hens are content with the nestboxes

I have no idea WHY they do this.  Maybe their favorite nest box is being used.  Maybe they want some extra privacy. (although why they are practicing the buddy system baffles me) Maybe they have some wild bird gene…(no, not a possibility at all)

ready to lay an egg

But, now this has become a regular occurrence.

Proving once again…

Actual farm life is far stranger than fiction.

Lessons Learned:

Remember to look up!  That would be literally and figuratively.
Hens “think” differently than humans. (if they think at all) Did you read  this one?
There is always something you’ve never seen before…always!
I probably need to get out more if I can write an entire post about a couple of eggs!






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