Eggs

This time last year we were in the same situation as we are now - we know the birds are laying eggs, we're just not getting all of them.

The chickens are netting us 3 eggs a day at most - this from about 20 hens. We manage to find the odd duck egg (six female ducks) if we get to them before the crows do. But we're getting goose eggs. One goose seems to have gone broody, she has a clutch of 8 eggs and has made a really cosy looking nest. If she hatches them we will probably pen her and the resulting goslings (or maybe just build a pen around where she is sitting actually) to keep them safe from crows who will snatch the young.

We are in the throes of building our new chicken coop but it may be a while yet so in the meantime we have put cosy looking nesting boxes filled with straw in the two existing chicken houses and make some brash piles in the woodland where the chickens hang out to provide some cover and likely looking laying spots. We will build an overnight pen for the ducks to be housed in until they lay each night and hopefully we'll have the honesty larder up and running very soon. Summer ferry timetable (the accepted 'start of the season') is in less than 3 weeks.