Lost and Found

For some time now, one of our hens has been leaving the flock each night for a destination unknown to any of us. Each morning, she rejoins the group and spends the day foraging with them – but seems to prefer her solitude during the night. But where exactly does she go? It’s been a mystery that I’ve tried to solve several times, but get too bored or run out of free time to follow her long enough to know where it is that she goes. Alas, I finally stumbled upon her hiding place, and it was right under our noses the whole time. While fetching the mail today, I peeked under the front porch, which I do most times that I am walking past it in hopes of discovering some sign that this is where that hen might go. Well, today I finally saw a whole clutch of eggs that gave away the hen’s secret nest. I’ve looked in that particular spot many times, but it’s the deepest and darkest area with the least amount of height under our porch, so I was never able to see very well in there. For some reason, today I bent over a bit more than usual and poked my head in a bit farther, and hey! there’s a bunch of eggs in there!! Twenty nine eggs to be exact. I removed every last one of them (oh, my poor legs!), and the chickens tried their best to eat one of the eggs that I accidentally cracked open. Now, we will be able to gather one more egg each day; I plan to put a nestbox in that spot to help keep the egg poop-free, and make it easier for me to spot the egg. Victory!