Evidence, finally!

For the last two weeks, I have not received an egg from Dominique. It's been a mystery. The only two things I could think of was that she was too hot, or something was getting her one egg each day.

She had not run out of water. She was not panting. Since Dominiques are mostly black, I thought maybe she would get hotter than lighter colored hens. I don't think she is too hot.

Each time I went out to feed her, I sort of looked around for an egg, hoping maybe she just decided to lay eggs elsewhere. Nothing! Today, I found half an egg shell right in front of the table that holds her Rubbermaid house. It was very wet inside as though it had just been broken open.

It is either a snake or a rat. If I had a trail camera, I could get to the bottom of this quickly! There is no material in her nest box where either could hide. However, there is another Rubbermaid box with leaves and a trash can on its side with grass clippings/leaves from the mower bag.

No matter how difficult it is for me, I suppose I must get a rake and poke around in the grass clippings to see what I can find. This won't be pretty or easy. I will have to drag the rake around the house!

So, now I know! Well, I know she is laying an egg and something is getting it. I doubt Dominique is eating her own eggs.

The next thing will be to check her nest box every hour all day long and see if I can get to the egg first or see something getting it or trying to get it.

Your turn
If you have hens and have lost eggs to wild thieves, what else besides a snake or rat could enter a very secure enclosure? Any tips to discouraging egg thieves? I know for a fact no other larger animal can get in. Does snake repellant work?

What was that?

broken breakfast

As I closed the hens' door to their pen, I fed them so they could eat before sleep. Moments before, I had found the first egg since December 16th, and was so happy I could have it for breakfast. Usually, I eat two, but I will eat one. Patsy Cline lays eggs only half the size of Thelma's so it takes two eggs for breakfast.

 

I did not want to climb the steps to put the egg in the kitchen, so I put  the precious egg in the yogurt container that held their dinner of oats. I put it carefully in the car so it would not break.

 

When I got out of the car back at home, I was foolish and carried a "lazy man's load"--too much. I put one foot out of the car , stood, and dumped the egg due to having too much in my hands and arms.

 

I felt something touch my pants and heard a tiny noise. What was that? It was pitch dark, so I had to bend so far to even see it. My heart sank as I looked down. Breakfast was broken. I have no more eggs.

 

Three hours later, nothing has eaten it.

 

Today, exbf will fetch me some of my frozen eggs, frozen for just such an occasion this winter when egg production dropped off. I hope these hens get enough light as sunrise comes earlier each day since the winter equinox.

 

I know--to others it's just an egg. To me it was my breakfast.

UPDATE: I have another egg today. So, maybe the few minutes of extra daylight are helping the hens lay. Plus, exbf got a half-pint jelly jar with five eggs out since I want to make pound cake.  I asked him to bring in two jars 4-oz. jars with two eggs in each one. So, I will be set until he comes next week, even if the hens lay no eggs.

 

Your turn

Have you ever ruined or had ruined the last of anything that you planned to eat?  Have you broken your only egg? Tell me and entertain me, please.

 

 



When You Break an Egg

Two broken eggs--one laid Wednesday; one laid Friday

ten-day-old eggs should have been eaten first!

Do you ever have a time you would consider a good time to accidentally break an egg? Just what I thought. NO! It's not usually easy to recover from accidentally broken eggs.  I did  break an egg in my pocket once before. Yuck! And, here is a picture of my pants at another time. Yes, that is an egg in the pocket, oooozing out. Look through the comments for Wendy's funny response.

Today, I was going through eggs on the counter to get the ones with the oldest date. I had bacon cooking and was going to scramble eggs in the remains of fried bacon. Don't think I added that much grease to my eggs. I poured all the grease into a 1/2 pt fruit jar and was going to scramble them in a greasy skillet, drained of all grease.

Butterfingers Me accidentally knocked two of Thelma's eggs to the counter. So, no matter the date, I scrambled those, actually two eggs from yesterday and the day before. That was a pretty good recovery. Usually, I scrambled one of Thelma's eggs (large and brown) and one of Pepper's eggs (small and white). Not today. I had two gigantic eggs from Thelma. Recovery was easy!

Later, I was going to release the girls, throw out food, and rush to get tires on my car. Since Pepper had left me an egg, I put it in my pocket to keep it in the car so I did not have to climb the stairs to the door! I was in an extra big hurry since the tire store closed at noon, as did the bank. Because I was out of checks, I had to withdraw cash from the bank, get back to the tire store, and get all this done so they would have time to get the tires on without rush. When did banks quit giving out counter checks to be used in stores?

As I approached the bank door, I felt something cold on my thigh. Yes, I had broken an egg in my pocket AGAIN.  I stood talking to the teller, cleaning egg from my pocket with some paper towels I had gotten from the ladies' room and putting it all into a waste basket dragged from a nearby tableside. It was disgusting.  It was getting close to the time for them and tire store to close. Otherwise, I could have retreated to clean my pocket.

"Why do you have a fresh egg in your pocket?" Imagine this said in a low, incredulous tone, almost as though the speaker thought you had taken leave of your senses.

When I arrived at the tire store, limping (knee and back) and trying to hold my pants off my leg a bit, the owner looked at me perplexed. When I told him what happened...."Oh, good god!!!" By this time, egg had managed to drip to my ankles despite my best efforts.

When I finally got home the egg had sort of dried. Yolk was even on my panties! Recovery was not easy.

Earlier, I put my egg and bacon in a Tupperware bowl, along with a T tumbler with milk and another with orange juice. A mad dash to the car and a mad dash across town to pick up a friend did not diminish the taste of breakfast I ate on the run. Oh, this was two chores before the bank and tire store. Breakfast was delicious.

Your turn
Anyone besides Wendy and I who break eggs in pockets? Rolling them out of the bowl onto the counter?

Ooops!...I Did It Again

"It may seem like a crush
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I got lost in the game..."

Or something like that.

Today, I did it a little differently, "lost in the game."  . . . I came in from chicken and garden duty, exhausted and hot, piddled around (Brits, not what you think). I had gotten an egg and put it in my left pocket as always. But, for some reason my cell was there instead of my keys. The keys were in the right pocket where the cell goes. Unaware of all the confusion in my pockets, I came in and sat down in my chair. That is when I heard the crackity-crush noise in my pocket. As I sat down in my chair, I knew immediately it was an egg, breaking, being crushed against the side of the upholstered chair and my upholstered thigh and the cell phone!
As I tried to get to the kitchen sink, pulling my pants down as I went, trying to hurry and walking as if on egg shells (pun intended), I could not do both. I don't know why I thought tippy-toe would help anything. I finally got the pants off and held them over the sink. Ugggh, how disgusting. I had to turn my pocket inside out with one hand, pushing the egg as I used a paper towel with the other to drag it out. Imagine my surprise when I dragged out the cell phone covered in slimy egg white.
Oh, yuck. I wiped the cell phone clean in a hurry and ripped the back off. The egg goo, the white did not go inside the battery compartment. SAVE! In 20 months of getting eggs and putting them in my pockets, I have only broken an egg twice. What is it, twice in the last month?

Does anyone know how hard it is to clean egg white from a cell phone?

Wendy related her story here of three crushed eggs in her hoodie front pocket. She understands.

Your turn
Who else has crushed eggs in the pocket? Or, just in the wrong place and on your person? Oh, Wendy, you can relate your story again since I am too lazy and hot hot hot to look for it. I think putting my hands in raw eggs is just about the most disgusting thing ever.