Chickens and Eggs

This  past weekend we found that two of our new chickens have been laying clutches of eggs around the orchard.  Near the house Viviano discovered a nest of blue-green eggs (in the photo at left).  We have since noticed that one of the new Americana chickens named "Ruby" runs straight out to this nest every morning as soon as she gets let out to lay a new egg there.


One of the new black sex-link chickens also had a clutch of eggs at the back of the garage that she had been laying.  On Monday night she didn't return to the chicken dome with the other chickens and instead stayed out to sit on her eggs.  She's been sitting on the nest since then, so it seems that she's trying to hatch them now.  This chicken chose a semi-protected spot in the tall grass next to the building, inside a roll of chicken wire that was lying on its side to make her nest.  To help keep the rain off I leaned an old piece of a fiberglass shower wall against the building above her.  Hopefully a coyote doesn't want to bother with coming so close to the house and getting through the chicken wire to eat her during the three weeks she'll have to be sitting there on the nest. 

Above you can also see Viviano offering grass to the new Maran hen at the edge of the garden.