Eggs?

I haven't had much luck with carrots, and I love carrots so I really want them to do well.  They don't come up much and those that do often die when they're little. But my Dad told me a trick.  He said to lay a board on top of them after planting and leave it there for about a week.  Then prop the board up so it shades the bed for another week or two.  I sure hope it works. 

He said you can start carrots right through the hottest part of the summer this way.  So we tried it.  The irrigation water came in and soaked the soil well.

Our egg production has dropped.  It used to be about 8/day and now we're down to about 5/day.  With kids eating scrambled eggs every morning, that just isn't enough.

Production went up with the longer days but then it started declining.  Maybe our chickens aren't getting enough to eat.  We feed them grain, kitchen scraps, and weeds out of the garden.  Maybe they're not getting enough calcium.  We give them back their egg shells and occasionally a little extra calcium.  Maybe they've gone into a molt.  I don't understand molting well and there isn't much I can do about it.  Or maybe they're getting old — they are two and a half years old.  I can't do much about that either.

But we can deal with food and calcium.  We got a big bag of crushed oyster shells and a bag of commercial chicken feed.  We'll see if it helps.