Trials of a "Chicken Trainer"

My old hens were at the end of their laying years when I bought   new chicks last spring.  Since it takes about 6 months until the new hens are ready to lay, I kept the two old ones for the few eggs they did lay...  Now it's time for the new layers to start egg production and they are trying my patience.

They were avoiding the nesting boxes and trying to lay their eggs in the shavings on the floor of the roost.  I know from past years  hens like a really dark box so I completely covered the nesting boxes with black plastic so no light gets in around the lids of the boxes. Then I took all of the shavings off the floor of the roost.  Of course now I have to practically crawl in the roost to reach the boxes but once they are used to using the nesting boxes I can remove the plastic...

It also helps to have a pseudo egg in the nesting box.  When I was a child my grandfather had two gorgeous marble eggs he used.  He used to tease me to be sure and check carefully when I gathered eggs because if I gathered a marble one I would have to eat it for breakfast... So 35 years ago when I got my first chickens, I searched out a couple gorgeous marble eggs. 

My old neighbor bluntly told me that golf balls worked much better.  Over the years he has been proven right.  I kept trying though.  The hens avoided the nest with the marble eggs and consistently chose a nest with the golf balls.  Sometimes there would be 3 eggs in with the golf ball and maybe 1 egg (or none)  in the box with the marble egg.  Sometimes they would even maneuver the marble egg right out of the nest.. So I keep my beautiful marble eggs in an egg basket and fondly remember my wonderful grandfather.

And my efforts have paid off as both yesterday and today they have laid their eggs inside the nesting boxes.










The deer come each day for water and after they have checked under the apple and plum trees, they eat any sunflower seeds under the bird feeder.  Morris quietly watches their every move.  This doe has twins and the other one is just to  the left out of range of my camera.  The deer and I have learned to coexist.  I would miss them terribly if they weren't part of my day.