Egg Thieves

In May, the Golden Girls lived in the turnout pens of the kennel building.  John and his boys built a fabulous chicken condo for them, complete with nesting boxes and windows. The Girls ignored it, except for Rose who layed her egg neatly in one corner inside.  Dorothy and Blanche preferred to lay their eggs in a large plastic dog crate inside the kennel building. At night, rather than going inside either the kennel building or the deluxe chicken condo, they huddled up against the fence, regardless of weather.  There were several nights when it was raining and blowing hard and I went out in my waterproof jacket to carry soaked hens inside the building.

They just like what they like.

About six weeks ago, there were more than just 2 eggs in the dog crate. The eggs were inside a very satisfied snake, looking like a cartoon character with 2 big lumps in his middle. I considered leaving him alone, but then it kind of annoyed me that he felt like he was at McDonald's.  I dragged the crate outside the door, grabbed a shovel and killed the snake.

In June, I moved the Girls down to a long dog run with a nice big white dog house and a large pecan tree for shade. They enjoyed it a lot, catching new bugs and roaming the grass. They laid their 3 eggs daily, right inside the dog house on a bed of cedar shavings, always nice and clean, like a present to me. After a week, production slowed down to 2 eggs a day, then one, then none for a couple days in a row.

I ususally picked up the eggs when I got home from work. Then, on a Saturday morning, I went to gather up the eggs and, you are right, inside the dog house was a large, fat snake just coming out the entrance. He slithered away as I stood there, watching him leave with my breakfast. The kennel snake had family.

He stayed away for a few days and I moved the Girls to a run at the other end that had a giant red dog house, big enough for me to get inside if I crouched. Like clockwork, 3 eggs appeared in the corner every morning.  Then 2.  Then none.

Last Saturday I gathered eggs early, as the 34 new chickens are starting to produce about 9 eggs daily. Sure enough, inside the Girls' house was another snake.  This time I had a shovel by the fence, and that was that.

On Sunday, 3 eggs.  Monday, 3 eggs.  Tuesday, no eggs.  Wednesday, no eggs.

I now have an official snake shovel and I know what I will be doing this weekend.