Chickens And Egg Laying

[taichiperson]

Our neighbours have 5 chickens, and let them roam free during the day. They come into our garden, and my neighbour has said that it's fine for us to keep any eggs they lay here. We recently found a little clutch of eggs in a sheltered pile of dry leaves. The eggs are all brown (one of the hens lays beautiful blue eggs) but some are large and dark, others are smaller and lighter. What I'd like to ask is - is it likely that it's more than one hen laying in the same place? Does one hen lay the same colour same size eggs, or more mixed? Should we remove all the eggs, or leave one? I wondered whether removing them would discourage them from laying more.

[RATTER15]

Yes, the hens eat them!

[RATTER15]

There you go, savage little things lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Kb4pJUrdk

[Barmaid]

Some friends of mine had a Roo (Ghenghis) who was a proper nasty so and so (you wouldn't enter the chicken field without a hockey stick). He saw the fox off twice. Unfortunately, Mr Fox won on the third attempt.

[taichiperson]

Re ticks, the implication is that hens eat them. We've only recently had ticks on our property - we're hoping it's not a permanent situation, and the same with midges. If 'our' hens like mice, they'll be happy as Larry!