[muntjac]

if they are not laying in the boxes there is a reason  the box top may be to low or not wide enough .put clean hay /straw in plumped up and deep , make sure your rosting perches are not directly over the boxes as well nobody like being chit on from above  

[Aunt Sally]

Oooo...   I'll have to try that when summer comes  :!:

[Vivian]

Thanks for the photos, they are a great help.  I have seen small amounts of chickweed and fat hen in my garden when weeding but not alot.  Don't suppose they eat ground elder !!!!!!! That is one weed I have in abundance.

[Vivian]

With regard to the nest boxes.  They did have a lid on them which I thought might be making the birds a bit frightened so I propped it up well out of the way just this week.  They could probably do with some more hay in.  I think there has been one hen having a look in one because the hay this morning had been shaped into a nest and a feather I had placed in it to let it know where to go had been thrown out.  I am hoping once they start to lay in ernest they will then gat the idea.

[Barry J Scott]

I hope Vivian does not mind me posting my first egg news here but I thought it pointless to make another post when this one was right at the top.

I got my first egg today  

I got home from work and headed straight down the garden to work on the run.  I checked on the girls and there it was

Some untidy lady had emptied the nest boxes of all the straw except one.

It is 68 grams and I expect it is from the light sussex cross as she is the only large fowl in lay.

[Aunt Sally]

Wonderful Barry, the first egg is so exciting.  Well every egg is exciting to me.

Can I see muntjac going  :roll:

     

[Barry J Scott]

Congratulations Aunt Sally for some how resisting the urge to say eggciting  

I am so chuffed, I have been calling everyone.

Oh and here is a pic.

[Aunt Sally]

How are you going to cook it  

[Barry J Scott]

Not sure yet,  recenly I have enjoyed Eggs benedict.  I'm not posh or anything, just like to pretend I am  

[muntjac]

now folks .. the first EGG is a massive moment in the chicken keeping world for new members of this illustrios group , what delights are held in the mind from this first EGG  . will you fry it , boil it , poach  it , make a quiche out of it . the concoctions are endless , but wait
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS IS YOUR FIRST EGG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 take a small nail punch holes in iether end  and putting a needle in  poke it about a bit inside . now taking your lips and putting them over the thin end hole blow gently and lo and behold the EGG  will out ........ now take the shell the remaing EGG and put a little piece of sellotape over each of the holes . take a chicken shaped EGG  cup mount the EGG  in the EGG  cup  and using a small piece of well polished  mahogany wood stick the EGG cup to it ,now taking a small brass preinscribed  plaque have
                !!!!!!!!!!THIS IS MY FIRST EGG !!!!!!!!!!!!
dont forget to date it .,,. and you can proudly display the EGG for all your nieghbours friends and family  to share ,,,,,,,,OR  SEE BELOW






























or you drop the blooming thing on ya way back to the house with it
LMAOOOOOOOOOO

[Vivian]

Don't mind at all.  Congratulations I know how you feel.  About preserving the egg Munkjac - I used to keep geese and one time Gabrielle laid an egg 10 oz in weight.  I got my other half to blow it (with great difficulty) and it has pride of place in the china cabinet mounted in a wine glass.

[Zak the Rabbit]

how wide does the hole need to be, just the nails width?

I fancy doing this when i get my first (just building the run now). I guess if the nail etc is sterile then the egg could still be used to cook. Hmmm, scrambled egg, hmmm...

im at work and gettin hungry

[muntjac]

affirmative zak mate