Nest Box Traffic Jam

The temps outside are about -30 with the windchill right now here in Vermont.  Not a car on the road and all is quiet outside, except for the loud wind..

However, inside the chicken coop there is a traffic jam of hens waiting to get into their preferred nest box.

I have 7 floor level nest boxes, but since I put up the "high rise" milk crate, this is now the only "hen approved" egg drop.      Almost immediately after the last screw was drilled into the wall the hens started using this box.   Most visit this box every day.  In fact my egg production went up the day this box was installed.     Really.


Now I am desperately searching for another old milk crate 9x10x17 to put in the space to the left of it so there wont be so much pressure on this one by every hen in the coop.  

There have been a few "issues" with having only one nest box that the girls love:

Long lines, loud noise and frustrated hens, just to name a few.

Amber, one of my blue egg laying pullets, takes a little more time than the others....
So Mrs Howell gets right up there and encourages her to hurry up.

As Mrs Howell coaches Amber on the finer details of laying an egg in the proper time....

 the huge Buff Orphinton, Adele, forms a line at the rear and starts loudly clucking encouragement to get this line moving!

Soon Mrs Howell is clucking louder to remind everyone that she is next in line and has been waiting for 20 minutes.

Adele, is my deaf hen, and she clucks louder than any hen I have ever heard, probably because she can't hear herself.... so the noise level goes UP in the coop.  With Mrs Howell trying to "out cluck" Adele, it became too much for my sensitive, cold ears, so at this point I went and got a cup of hot chocolate and came back hoping my absense would rush things along.

It didn't.

As they got more anxious, they moved closer to and got into the nest box with little Amber....

The little pullet on the bottom was being heckled, pecked and crushed.

I moved the 2 larger hens to the perches and kept guard until the blue egg was finally laid and Amber safely on her way out of the box.

 

I waited 5 minutes for the rest of the hens to borrow the nest and grabbed all the eggs in the nest box and headed to the house to make breakfast.

Here are a few frosty photos of my walk back to the farm house.

I brought out more warm water for the flock to enjoy.

After a drink they tried to find some sun beams to soak up.

And then they all ended up on the porch asking me for treats.

They are a hard bunch to say no to, so I brought out some black oil sunflower seeds.

Then I went back in and enjoyed the delicious quiche made from my hens eggs and the veggies I raised this summer.  Fresh, hot and healthy!

My brother is coming this weekend to build me one more nest box about the same size as the popular one.       He is a beekeeper and the unofficial guardian of a flock of wild turkeys that visit him every day.  I am trading him some fresh eggs from grateful hens for his carpentry skills.

I will let you all know if my egg production increases again, with the second high rise nest box.

Anyone taking bets?

What kind of nest boxes do you have and which ones do the hens prefer ?

Porch Pullets

I transplanted some kale plants from the community garden to my garden. I had heard that kale gets sweeter after the frost and I wanted to taste the difference.
I still have lots to learn about kale, especially how to cook and enjoy it.  I haven't really been able to enjoy it.  Seems too bitter for my taste buds, so I need to try different methods to make it more appetizing for me.  Plus learn how to cook it.
There were 14 rows of kale at the community garden this summer and not many people took advantage of those prolific, free, vegetables. We could of paved the streets with it as we tons of it.

Anyhow, I brought 5 robust plants home and dug them into my garden.

Here they stayed and thrived for an entire week.......

The hens ignored them.

Until yesterday......

They stripped them clean 5 minutes before I went out to harvest some leaves for lunch.

Oh well......On to the next project.

Part of getting ready for winter is moving my chicken tractor Winnebago to the near side of the chicken coop away from the path of the snowplowers.
The advantage of doing this is that it is now in the sun for most of the day.
The Winnebago also mates up to the back end of the chicken coop so the hens can come out on the worst of days and have protection, sun, and a place where they can have lots of hay and scratch to peck around for.

Soon I will have to roll up my final 100 feet of poultry netting before the ground hardens.
But right now I like that it is up and I can pen the hens quickly when I see the coyotes too close to the farm.

I also had an additional nest box put up higher than the floor models so my new pullets have a choice of where they put their eggs.    My resident engineer brought his drill and had my old milk crate in place in 60 seconds.

As soon as he exited, the flock came in to check out his work and have a snack.

In just 5 minutes, the new pullets left a massive gift in the floor nest boxes.

I always love finding eggs.

Having been egg-less since September 7th, this is a thrill.

Today was kefir day and the flock just loves the magical drink.
I always make extra and I think this healthy drink has helped my moulting hens get their feathers back much sooner.

 Then it started raining.

  And the entire flock ran for the porch.

They preened themselves and ate window bugs and made funny little noises.

Here they stayed all afternoon while the rain came down in buckets.

This side porch seems even larger now that I have removed all the hanging plants, fall flowers and other objects of summer.

The hens appreciate that, I am sure.

Where do your flock friends hang out during wet weather?