An eggsperiment—update (France)

The details are being hatched.

(France, September/October 2011)

Update 280112:  It’s been a long incubation, getting this blog hatched.

I’d been cutting greens for the rabbits—whose hutches are within the same enclosure as the hens’— and would immediately, while still in the field, conscientiously pick off the minute escargots that clung to the stems and leaves.  On one occasion, just as I was about to feed the greens to the rabbits, I noticed that I’d missed out on a couple of escargots, so I picked them off and threw them onto the ground, which were instantly pounced upon by the hens.

It set me thinking that the hens might welcome the change in their diet (of grain and vegetable scraps from the kitchen) and the escargot shell would provide the calcium for egg-shell-making.  Besides, even if I couldn’t make much of a dent in the escargot population, it might help save some of the wooden boundary posts—the chap in the village was complaining only the other day that they chomp through his fence posts at an alarming rate.

The next foray into the field saw me equipped with not just the bucket and knife for the greens but also a big plastic yoghurt tub and teaspoon for the escargots.  (The teaspoon is for scooping up any escargot dropped, as it’s difficult to pick up the tiny pests with one’s fingers.)  

I soon discovered that another field was so densely populated with the creatures that, instead of picking them singly off each rabbit green or blade of grass, I could just pick up a dried thistle branch and shake off all the clingers-on into the plastic tub, or scrape huge clusters off the boundary posts, thus filling up the yoghurt tub within five minutes max and saving myself a lot of work.

I’d then approach the hen enclosure, rattling the tub to build up their eagerness in anticipation as part of the training (see also blog entry Pig training).  Sure enough, the hens would pounce on the little tit-bits tossed over the fence, especially the turkeys who absolutely relished them.

My eggsperiment produced results within a day, much sooner than I’d expected.  Jeanette reported egg production up by 50%: the 20 hens and turkeys would normally produce about eight eggs a day in the summer, but after my twice-daily supply of escargots, we’d get 12 per day.  In the end, we were giving the eggs away to people in return for things like their helping to plough the fields, say.  

I will be repeating the eggsperiment this coming summer, just to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence, and report back.  Watch this space!

(France September/October 2011)