No kidding.
First, this gorgeous rooster haunted my yard for about a month. We call him Buster. He is colored like a fabulous, iradescent Japanese water color rooster. He crowed and crowed and ate bugs. I love him.

For the past week, although we can hear him over where he actually lives, he hasn't been around.

However, in this last week, in this hollowed-out depression in my shade garden, someone has been laying eggs.

Now... do female chickens crow? Is Buster actually a girl? Was Buster scouting for a girlfriend? Are the eggs going to hatch without someone sitting on them? (My husbund volunteered...) What do I do about snakes or fox eating them? I'm worried about that.

Most.. how many eggs will a chicken lay in the same place?

What the heck should I do?

Christine

You obviously can't eat the eggs that are out there now, because they're most probably rotten at this point & will soon start to attract vermin. I'd remove them & dispose of them - carefully - because a broken rotten egg is one of the worst-smelling things on the planet.

After removing the eggs that are there now, if new eggs continue to appear, refrigerate them immediately & congratulate yourself on your free-range egg source - lol!!

Larry

This seems to be the year of birds for us. A swallow has build a nest above the light on our screened in porch. The screen has been ripped out since Isabel, so it comes and goes happily. A mourning dove has built about 6' up in the apple tree, and I have a bunch of cat bird nests. No turtles or snakes, which would be very cool.

I like the chicken and I don't mind the eggs. "Buster" gives the cats a run for their money and they deserve it.

Thanks for the thoughts on the eggs. I hope Buster comes back!

Christine

Thanks for the commentary on the "critters"

The weather this year must be good for them. We have more rabbits, squirrels and even deer then ever before. There was a wee spotted fawn in the path just over the fence the other day and we have even seen the piliated woodpecker several times.

Les

I thought, "Oh, no! The eggs are gone!" Then I realized I couldn't see them because the chicken was sitting on them!

She's a little Bantam, evidently. Black with a little red comb. She saw me and scuttled away as fast as her little legs could carry her back to the neighbor's.

Since, we've exchanged greetings a few times and she's up to nine eggs. Do I get rid of some of the older ones? Will it make her stop coming if her eggs are fooled with? I love the idea of her coming over...

Cute as can be, I must say!

Christine

Enjoy,
spiderwoman

I have a pond in my yard....the best breeding pond in the town I do think. Every year I have to give away dozens of tiny babies to neighbors or friends to keep my pond from going pea-green from so much nitrogen in the water.
I thought this year a heron that I caught on my roof one early spring morning, had eaten them all, one by one since I didn't see hide nor hair of any fish or movement for three weeks solid. I was madder than any hen could be...to think that bird picked off every one of those shubunkin fish I have been nurturing for 5 years. A month later, I saw the first of two dozen babies surfacing for a quick look around for the pellets I feed my fish each year. Sensing the heron was gone... the other fish have now come back up timidly to the surface to eat.
I feel relieved.....needless to say.

Bonnie

So.
At about 8 eggs she started brooding. She wouldn't budge, just eyed me sideways. I began to get concerned about the fox and black snakes we have, so I talked to her owner. I wanted advice, but he's very concerned about not bothering the neighbors. I couldn't convince him he should let his chicken stay in my garden, so 2 days later he came with a carrier and gathered the eggs into a straw nest. The little hen walked right in and sat down on them again. He took her home and promises to let me know when they begun to hatch. I'd love to see it!

I put a little chicken figurine that always makes me laugh under the hosta. Not quite the same.

Christine

just sunday i was watching the robin fledglings searching for fallen mulberries in the backyard. before you could say "whoa!" a sharp-shinned hawk dropped from the sky, nabbed a young robin and flew off. the ducklings also will face the raccoons, the snapping turtles, the red-tailed hawks, the wastern water snakes, the opposum, the foxes.... oh, mamma duck. why here?

Can they move mama duck and babies once they've hatched? I know nothing about this, except I now miss looking for the little hen. I was so worried about fox and snakes, though, I do feel better that she's in a safer place.

C.