The eggs go in the nesting boxes!

Chickens have always been considered one of the easiest of all farm animals to look after, you only need to provide them with food, water and somewhere cosy to lay their eggs! Yeah right, where do people get this idea from as chickens are a nightmare.

When we moved in there were over 60 chickens and cockerels, on this ratio with my basic chicken knowledge we should have been getting a nice pile of eggs everyday! hmmm then why were we only getting on average 5 a day, something had to be done.

I spoke to the local feed store lady who advised changing their feed, and the chicken man who advised chopping their heads off! drastic methods but this is Spain! Initially we thought we would go with the feed store lady and if that didn't work then the chicken man could be let loose and do the deed!

Google is an amazing tool and I set about researching the best way to get my chickens to lay, did you know there are so many websites and forums for chicken owners, sad but true! new nesting boxes were built, straw was fluffed, new chicken pen built, new feed in the feeders and we waited....

Nope it was decided that we had feral chickens that quite happily fly out every day and lay their eggs within a 2 mile radius of the finca, you name it they lay there. Basically anywhere that isn't in my nice, comfy well appointed nesting boxes....operation follow chicken had to begin! Yes we spend our days stalking chickens and following them, honestly my kids do have other things to do, but what could be more fun than following a chicken for 20 minutes, for it to walk back to where it started!

After many weeks of stalking the chickens to a virtually criminal level, we had discovered where they were laying...now we know they do lay eggs, the need to turn them into Sunday lunch can be postponed until another day. Now all we have to do is discover why they want to lay 80ft up a mountain rather than in their warm, cosy box...whoever said chickens were dumb, knew their chickens well!