Egg holes

One of the most disappointing finds in the barnyard is a hidden nest full of eggs. Sometimes my hennies hide nests in the garage and by the time we find them there could be 20 or more eggs!

Unfortunately we consider these eggs to be totally wasted. We don't know how long they have been there - or worse.... if one of the hens has haphazardly started to set the nest. Sure you can put the eggs in a pot of cold water to see if they sink (which means they are fresh) but with these surprise nests you don't know for sure if the incubation process has started - don't ask me how I know this.

This nest was also dirty - some of the eggs had been broken - so any egg that was contaminated was sketchy at best.  It's such a shame to find these bad nests - all that food has been just wasted.

So what do we do with a huge nest of bad eggs?  We bury them. My husband busts out the one man auger and digs some 2 - 3 foot deep holes. I always have him dig these "egg holes" inside the garden fence so the dogs don't dig them up and it's less likely predators will find them.

All those shells will add calcium and nutrients to the soil...and my hope is that it will give the worms something to eat.  After I carefully drop a couple eggs into the hole, push in some dirt to cover them, add another layer of eggs, more dirt, etc... then I will make a compost pile over that spot. The following year the soil in that area is improved and the garbage guy doesn't have to haul off a sack of rotten eggs.

This has worked really well for us. Sure we've had some horrible rotten eggs break when I've dropped them in the hole - I just quickly cover it with dirt - but so far so good. I just make sure that the last egg layer is deep enough that it won't attract unwanted attention.

As we shake off the winter and head forward into real spring and summer I'm sure we'll find more surprise nests but that is OK, we'll just find a nice spot in the garden and get digging.

Happy Thursday everyone! Have you found a surprise nest this spring?