Our chickens have been one of the most profitable parts of Prairie House. The eggs from them have provided enough income to pay for lots of things here. Production normally drops in the winter but ours recently had dropped too far. We looked for a hidden nest but couldn't find one anywhere.

Today one of the chickens was making lots of noise and carrying on. I went to check to see what the problem was. I guess I'm a little nervous since the bold coyote incident last weekend. Apparently another chicken was on the nest she wanted. The best nesting sight there is, obviously. Sure enough there WAS a hidden nest. Apparently they have been hiding them there for quite a time as there were more than a dozen eggs--some previously frozen and broken, most currently frozen.

The hidden nest is way back in the corner of the barn under a shelf. There is no way to collect the eggs without getting down on hands and knees and crawling there. Almost makes it tempting to just leave the eggs there, but we had NO eggs left in the refrigerator for sale today after our customers came. We even sold a dozen of the "dirty" eggs which we save for ourselves to be able to meet customer demand.

I couldn't see them, but I think I heard the chickens snickering while I was crawling on the ground! Those tricky chickens.

Sneaky little birds, aren't they?