Thursday, March 8, 2012

Zombie Cannibal Chickens

Ok.  Maybe not zombies. I may have zombies on the brain (pun definitely intended).  We've been watching AMC's "The Walking Dead". 

Egg production has been low. Beyond low. And it's got me flumoxed. Maybe one egg one day and then zero eggs the next.  We are not getting even one dozen eggs a week! And considering that at one time the girls were on a pretty regular schedule of 3-4 dozen per week, I'm a tad worried. 

There have been signs that the chickens are eating the eggs - yolk on the eggs left in the nest, broken shells, etc. I have always known that if an egg broke - the girls would go after it like flies on you-know-what. Now I am starting to think that they are purposely breaking the eggs.  I don't know if it's one chicken or all of them. The whole concept is gross. Yuck. 

I've done some research on the main reasons this phenomenon can happen in small backyard flocks, and I don't think that any of them truly pertain to my girls. With working full-time, it's just about impossible to gather eggs during the day.  Also, I don't honestly know which hens lay and which hens don't.  Guess we are going to have to install some sort of chicken web cam.