Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We are still not getting a lot of eggs at the moment (see entry on 9th) although today we have reached the dizzy heights of SEVEN!!! We have now identified at least eight birds who are laying: some being new ones we have bred this year. With any luck, we may get a few more youngsters starting soon. In addition, after 21st December, the days will start to get a little longer which will mean more daylight hours.
The other issue we have regarding our small egg numbers are magpies!!! Magpies are the 'foxes' of the bird world: cheeky, daring and total thieves and they love eggs! Usually we don't have a problem with magpies stealing our chicken eggs as all our nestboxes are inside houses/the barn and have roofs. However, as we mentioned on 9th we do get chickens laying in our rabbit hutches which are outside in open runs. The White Leghorn's egg is fine as that is laid inside a sleeping compartment but the Light Sussex, shown here lays in the open compartment and the magpies simply have to wait patiently (can you spot one in the left hand photo?) and then swoop in. We try to get to the egg before they do but this is not always possible. It doesn't help that once she has laid, the Sussex rather loudly then announces it... for several minutes!!! We hope the problem will be solved when we move the quail to the barn and the rabbits to the quail house and we can then shut the hutches up for the winter: more on this no doubt another day!!!