a tale of two biddies

Yesterday, my loving man completed work on new nest boxes for our chickens.

They went from using a kitty litter box (the kind with a roof and a door) to this.

From 2010-02-03

A state of the art, multi-layer, nest box condominium.  Nice, huh?

Here's the problem.  Remodeling is so hard on a chicken.

Here's the good part.  Chickens are followers.  If you can convince one of them that this is the place to go for laying eggs, everyone else will follow.

So, you see my task at hand.

The poor darlings start 9-ish in the morning, and there are currently three of them who have been previously waiting in line to use the nest box because they're apparently on the same schedule.  Well, this morning, with the old nest box removed and everything just different, they were walking around in circles squawk-squawk-squawking, looking for the missing nest box.

I knew this would happen; therefore, i was on egg watch most of the morning.

I was hoping that i could convince them by mere suggestion, to settle in to the new boxes.  So i put the first two squawkers in the boxes to check out the new digs.

From 2010-02-03

MYRTLE:  Psst!  Hattie!  What do you think?

From 2010-02-03

HATTIE:  Looks like she got us a three-holer.

From 2010-02-03

MYRTLE:  Lacks a little in privacy, don'tchathink?

From 2010-02-03

HATTIE:  Well, it wouldn't if you would keep your head on the other side of that wall and pay attention to your own business.  EXCUSE ME PLEASE.  

About then, Myrtle decided she'd had enough of this and flew the coop...or at least the nest box.

From 2010-02-03

HATTIE:  Myrtle?  Where'd you go?

From 2010-02-03

MYRTLE:  I'm blowin' this joint!

And with that, Hattie followed the stubborn and rebellious Myrtle out of the coop to wander around and eventually come back, their egg-laying instincts forcing them to find a safe place to lay.

Which is when i knew i had to take more drastic action to help them get used to the new digs.

From 2010-02-03

MYRTLE:  I told you we should've blown this joint.

HATTIE:  Myrtle, shut up and lay an egg already!

However, Myrtle did not lay an egg right then.  Instead she busted out of that joint, true to her word, and issued some scathing edicts from the rafters, which echoed throughout the eggland woods.

From 2010-02-03

But in the end, Myrtle did lay her egg.

From 2010-02-03

The one on the left is legit.  The other one is to fool the girls.

In fact, we got all the previous layers and one newbie today.  FIVE EGGS.

Hallelujah.  I'm 1/4 of the way to 100% production.