Those Darn Chickens

I love having chickens. I really do.

But, I don't like them getting in my garden. And eating ALL of my ripe tomatoes. Every last one. From 3 dozen plants. Seriously?! They got in while we were away on Saturday and by the time we got home, the damage was done. And now that one knows there is a way in, several have done it. The kids and I chased 8 of them out after dinner.

And eggs. You'd think for all the free, wonderful, almost pizza sauce food they've been gorging themselves on they'd be laying machines. Nope. We got one egg yesterday. ONE!

So, we decided to go on a little egg hunt today. We've walked the perimeter of their usual locations a few times and have come up empty handed. But, today, they exposed a new area we hadn't checked. Under the deck. Under a pallet. And under a little bit of landscape fabric. Lela decided to hang out for a while after laying her egg today and we caught her....red winged?

We found 6 eggs and several that had been cracked and eaten. But, we did find one exciting thing!

One of these things is not like the others! We got our first pullet egg! We think it came from Amelia, our Barred Rock. Or my little therapist. She has started doing the "submissive squat" over the last week and we have read that this is a tell tale sign that a pullet will soon start laying. Either way, we found it and it's cute. And for the time being, our fall gardening plans are on hold until we figure out our fence...