We feed them like queens; fresh greens, grain, left over salad, baked potatoes, homemade bread, cornmeal cake and every tasty thing a chicken could desire. We build them a chicken palace complete with roost and cozy laying boxes. And what thanks do we get? Certainly not eggs! Half the time they snacked on them themselves! Totally grossed me out at first. We tried checking the boxes religiously, stuffing it chock full of hay and sawdust and Clay even crafted a decoy egg out of wood so when they pecked it they'd get discouraged. But, nothing worked.
Enter, the egg catcher:
Clay built them some new nesting boxes with slightly slanting floors and I crafted some "egg nets" out of cute fabric and ribbon.
We tied the four corners of the nets to angled nails beneath each nesting box.
And gave it a few test runs with the wooden egg, which after its failed job as egg decoy became a toy for Sam. It worked brilliantly! The egg rolled gently down the sloped floor and through the hole, landing cradled in the flowered net beneath, and out of the reach of bored chicken beaks.
Meanwhile, Nellie and Rockefeller dug holes in the flower beds to nestle in and Sam kept them company. He calls Rockefeller, "Rocker" and dotes on both of them.
