Heeeerrreee Chickie Chickie!!

The ladies are laying pretty consistently now ~ we get at least 2 eggs a day and most days 3.  But they are getting smart those little ladies, especially Martini!  I realized that she wasn't producing recently and had read somewhere that some hens may find different spots to lay because they want to protect their eggs (and wisen up to the fact that every day they lay an egg and it goes missing!  She was acting extra funny one afternoon and was pecking at the sliding glass door to go in the house while we were out in the garden.  She was so persistent that we finally let her in and she layed an egg behind the curtain! So I wasn't surprised to find that there weren't eggs in the nesting box over the next few days.  I went in the yard one day while she was "missing" and took a broom stick and was going through the bushes to see if I could find her...and wouldn't you know she came out from UNDER THE DECK with a broken eggshell in her mouth!!  Then I looked under the deck and saw that she had laid 3 other eggs under there!  I took the broom handle and nudged them out so Cam and I are going to have to work on getting under the deck blocked off.  For the next couple days I made sure to just keep her in the closed run until she was done laying the egg, this way she had no place else to go. 

So yesterday when I went in the yard and called for the girls and Layla and EggBerta came a running I figured Ms. Martini was in the nesting box. Nope.  not there.  My next guess was the house....nowhere to be found inside.  I thought "The deck again?" but got on my hands and knees and she wasn't there either.  Now I was starting to panic.  Cam was looking for her as well and it was very bizarre for her not to be there while I was feeding their favorite treat.  Then I remembered we had been cleaning earlier and had the front door open.  At one point i caught the dogs running on the front lawn, and I realized she could've come in the back door and walked out the front door!  OH NO!  I was a little frantic and grabbed the chicken scratch and started up and down the street calling for her!  I saw a plastic bag in the road I thought was her ~ luckily the wind blew it before I freaked!  "Heeeeerrrrrreee chickie chickie chickie!"  I was all the way to the corner when Cam yelled from the front door that he found her.  Guess where she was this time...in the Compost Bin!  What a crazy chicken.  We recently cleared out the compost bins so we can actually start composting in them, and she snuck in the bottom and laid her little egg.  And it wasn't until today that I realized how silly must've sounded walking up and down the street  

"C'mere Martini!"  "Heeerrrre chickie chickie" "Heeeeere MARTINI!"

The neighbors must think I'm nuts!



LayLa, Slim, EggBerta, Stanlie, Martini
(posing for Fathers Day)