Pastoral Farms

I just moved the Leghorn pen, the slow way, inch by inch, pull this side, pull that side, straighten that part, pull again … etc.

I checked for eggs there this morning, much earlier, and noticed dirt next to the pen, and a hole right there. There were no eggs in the pen. Victoria had said yesterday that there were 3 eggs in there. I hadn’t gotten them, they should have been there today. But they weren’t, and I can venture to say what it was. Not really a guess, just a “didn’t see it” but evidence is high enough to understand it.

Doggie ate baby bird today. Doggy must have dug next to and under the hennie pen to get those eggs. They don’t have a nest box in there right now, so they’d be available if they were near to the side of the pen. Doggy has never done this before. Dug, yes. Dug into the pen? No.

There are several white feathers all over the pen. It’s my guess that he did the deed earlier this morning, he was out loose all night. He had been in his crate all afternoon because of the thunderstorms, so I let him out last night to run free, didn’t put him in his own pen out there. I should have. He just must have scared the whities, and some lost a few feathers in fright, they all were there, and looked aright. [yes, that's it, "aright" not a mispelling!]

I just didn’t realize that the baby birds would be out of their nest so soon, or that the dog would dig to get eggs ever. Dumb me. I knew previous to yesterday that I wanted the dog put away from about then on “because of the possible mocks out of nest soon”. Kick myself a bit there.

So I finally decided it’s best to move the hens further from that hole the dog made. I moved them a bit, then more, then figured since I was doing it inch by inch and I’d done that much, it’s not much harder to just keep going and move them out to totally fresh grass. I’m bad about it when Frank’s not here and I don’t feel well. So now that I’m thinking on it I do need to give them a box again. I’ll try and get them one a bit later, the sun is brutal at this hour still.

I did get one egg from that pen this afternoon. The A-frame biddies haven’t laid a thing in a few days, and just one egg before that, and very little before that. They look fine. Nice and red combs and all that. Figuring it’s time to turn on a light for them. Already. I don’t know, and don’t feel like looking it up, how much daylight we have this week each day, or how soon it gets down to much lower. All in all, the hens have laid when they’ve wanted to, in their second year, and don’t go by conventions sake at all. God knows why, but we don’t.

So when it comes down to it, those three eggs the dog got *most likely* really add up to be missed at this time of the year, especially seeing as the A-Framers haven’t contributed to the pot at all recently.

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