Carol's Chickens

I can’t remember when we have had so many broodies in quick succession. I wonder if it’s because we have had such good weather earlier in the year than usual.

Mango and Cloud have now gone broody together. They are so in sync with each other that it’s no surprise they have gone broody together. It was if Mango was ready and waited until the next day for Cloud to catch up with her.

This is how it unfolded. The day before yesterday started with Mango.

When I lifted Mango out of the nest box she stayed fluffed up. Her egg was next to Red. Later she moved away and seemed back to normal. Sometimes they spend longer and longer in the nest box until they are properly broody. I suspected she was going to go broody soon.

The next day, which was yesterday, Cloud was in the nest box with Red.

After Cloud had been in the nest box with Red for most of the afternoon I lifted her out. Her egg was next to Red.

Cloud also eventually moved away and carried on as normal. At bedtime I was surprised to find that Mango and Cloud were not sitting on top of the nest box as usual. I checked the nest boxes and there they were side by side sitting in a nest box together. I thought this meant they were definitely broody.

This morning Mango and Cloud were once again together in the nest box and when I lifted the lid Mango fluffed up.

Mango and Cloud are broody along with Red. This means we are now down to just two girls laying, Gold and Snow. Eggs are going to be a bit thin on the ground for a while. I can’t believe with a flock of eight we now have only two girls laying. Sigh!

Edit

When I checked back later Snow was in one nest box and these three girls were together. I thought they looked so cute that I just to add another photo.

It seems to be a constant chain of broody girls at the moment. Red went broody the day after Snow. This is Red’s first time broody so I don’t how long she will be but she seems quite determined. She soon returns to the nest box each time I lift her out. She has laid a total of 66 eggs in six months, two months being at the end of last year and four months this year.

Red is completely docile and when I lift her out and put her in the run she just sits there looking a bit dazed.

Mango laid her egg next to Red. Mango and Cloud seem to like company when they lay their eggs.

Snow appeared to come out of being broody after just one day. She then started spending about half her time in the nest box and half in the run.

Today snow went back to spending all her time in the nest box. My husband suggested perhaps she wanted to lay an egg but I said I thought it was much too soon. However later today when I checked on them Snow and Red were together in a nest box. The next minute Snow came out and there was a very small wobbly egg.

This is very odd as Snow has only missed two days laying as she laid her last egg on her first broody day. She is still making the boc boc sound of a broody girl. I’m not sure quite what is going on with her.

I also suddenly realised that we hadn’t had an egg from Storm for a while. I checked my egg records and she hasn’t laid for two weeks. She has laid 13 eggs in four weeks so far this year. As she hasn’t gone broody I’m not sure if she is done already or just taking a break.

Storm is in her fourth year of laying. She laid 55 eggs in her first year, 69 eggs in her second year and 68 eggs in her third year.

This means that when I recently said we were down to four girls laying it was in actual fact three but if Snow continues to lay it will be four again. It all keeps changing so fast. We will have to wait and see how Snow goes on. It’s all very odd.

It always seems to be a case of one girl back in lay another out of lay. The day after Gold came back in lay Snow went broody so we are now back to four girls laying.

I am happy to leave her broody as after her recent weird eggs I think a break from laying will be good for her. I will just lift her out for breaks.

While trying to get a photo of her Mango was immediately interested in Snow in the nest box. Snow responded by raising her tail and growling.

Mango’s legs are in the top left of the photo as she is walking around sides of the nest box.

When I next checked Mango was next to Snow and I soon realised she had laid her egg next to her. As always an occupied nest box is the most popular one to lay an egg in. Snow looked rather grumpy about this. A little later Cloud’s egg was also next to Snow.

Later I lifted Snow out for a break and she had some water then some pellets and then returned to the nest box. We seem to constantly have at least one broody girl.

Edit

Later in the day Snow got one last egg laid as they often do when they have just gone broody. It was her her fifth wobbly egg after her two weird ones.

Snow has laid eleven eggs in three weeks since her last broody spell. Last time she took a two week break so even if she only takes two weeks again this time I still think the break will do her good. I have also put some vitamins in the water as it can’t hurt to give all the help I can.

Since Snow laid her weird eggs (an egg inside an egg) on two occasions she has laid four normal eggs. The odd thing is that the shape of her eggs has changed. Snow used to lay small torpedo shaped eggs. Her eggs are now oval shaped but they are slightly wobbly in shape. They have a slight groove around them.

It’s difficult to see in a photo but they are not quite smooth in shape.

I am glad that Snow is back to getting hard shelled eggs laid one at a time. I do wonder though, what has changed to cause this. I just hope she doesn’t have any further problems with her egg laying.

Gold went broody eight days ago and Storm followed seven days ago. Gold snapped out of it after just one day. Storm came out of it after five days. Today Gold came back into lay after a week’s break. I am expecting Storm to lay again in another week’s time.

This means we are back to five girls laying again for now. The girls are still keeping us in plenty of eggs so we are happy with that.

Snow last laid a small soft shelled egg inside another small soft shelled egg and then two days later a normal hard shelled egg inside a huge soft shelled egg. Today I knew she would lay again as she lays every two days but her posture looked normal.

When she settled in the nest box I really hoped this time she would lay a normal egg. Snow seemed to be in the nest box for quite a long time. When she came out I went to check on her egg almost holding my breath. Her egg was normal sized and had a hard shell. We were so relieved.

The huge soft shelled egg with the normal hard shelled egg inside was bigger than Red’s egg. Today Snow’s egg is much smaller than Red’s egg which is normal.

I really hope this whole thing was just a blip and she will remain laying normal eggs from now on. It is so good seeing her looking back to normal again.

Two days after Snow’s weird egg she once again had the awful posture that meant she was struggling again with an egg coming.

Soon after this Snow went in the nest box. All the laying girls had by this time laid their eggs. Next time I checked Snow was back out in the run. In the nest box was a huge egg. When I picked it up it was soft but I could feel a hard shelled egg inside it.

Red lays the biggest egg of all our girls and Snow’s was even bigger.

The outer egg again had no proper yolk just a strange bit of something and a lot of white. Inside the inner egg was a normal egg.

I immediately changed the water back to plain water. It’s obviously not a lack of calcium problem but just not enough calcium to make two egg shells at once.

If the outer shell had been hard Snow would have been in real trouble. It would probably either have got stuck or caused a prolapse. It’s flexibility was probably what enabled her to pass it.

I have seen on you tube people cracking an egg with another egg inside so I set about researching this. It is called counter-peristalsis contraction. A formed egg travels backward and becomes embedded inside a second egg in development.

It is supposed to be rare – one in one hundred thousand. Why does it have to happen to us!

I watched videos of eggs being cracked. They were all from standard sized birds and were really large. Most were a hard shelled egg inside another hard shelled egg. One was a soft shelled egg inside a hard shelled egg. I didn’t find any that were a hard shelled egg inside a soft shelled egg. The other difference was that all of them had a yolk in both eggs.

This worries me as I wonder where the yolk has gone. There was no information on why this happens or how to stop it happening. Snow also has a slightly mucky bottom which is never a good sign.

Snow usually lays every other day and she has still been laying every other day. This means she has been producing an extra egg on the days in between and then laying both on the second day. This would explain why she had sat in the nest box on the in between days but not laid.

This is extremely worrying. If she continues to do this I think we could lose her. I can’t understand why this is happening when she was laying normally last year and this year until now and I have no idea what can be done to help her.

This happened yesterday and today Snow sat in the nest box again. I was hoping she would get a single egg laid but once more she came out of the nest box without laying.

That means we will have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next. At the moment she looks okay though. We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Yesterday we were worried about Snow. She had the posture we have seen many times before. A humped shape to her back and tail down whereas she usually has her tail straight up. We recognise this as having a problem getting an egg laid.

Snowflake, Snow’s predecessor laid big eggs for her size and when coming in to lay on her second year couldn’t get her egg laid and we lost her. I had always been thankful that Snow laid tiny torpedo shaped eggs which meant that it was unlikely she would suffer the same fate so this was rather worrying. I wondered if she had produced a bigger egg and was struggling to lay it.

At bedtime I perched Snow in the chicken shed and she stayed perched. I hoped that in the morning there would be an egg under her roost spot. In the morning Snow was back to her usual self.

When I looked in the chicken shed sure enough there was something under Snow’s roost spot. It wasn’t a larger egg after all, it was if anything even smaller than her usual eggs but it was soft shelled.

This is unusual because up to now even the tiniest eggs have had a yolk. It is very odd and not something we have come across before.

The second soft shell was as thick and tough as the outer one so not the membrane. Also for two days before this Snow had sat in the nest box but come out without laying. I hope this is just a blip and next time she will be back to normal.

Luckily I have some liquid calcium that can be added to the water. This product wasn’t available when we have had problems with soft shelled eggs in the past. Pippinchick recommended it and sold me some last time I had chickens from them.

I have added it to the water straight away in the hope that by the time Snow lays again she will have absorbed some extra calcium.

In other news Gold has gone broody again already. This seems very soon to be broody again but she has been laying her eggs in quick succession. She laid seven eggs in ten days, laying sometimes two days in a row and sometimes three days in a row. She only took a one week break last time so I am hoping it will be the same this time.

Yesterday we had our first, five egg, day of the year. Cloud was the only laying girl who didn’t lay as she had laid the day before. Mango and Cloud are recent layers and only lay every other day whereas the other girls sometimes lay two days in a row which is how we ended up with five eggs from six girls.

Tho funny thing is we haven’t yet had a, four egg day. We had our first, three egg day, at the beginning of March and have had eight, three egg days, since then. Five eggs from six laying girls is amazing and I wonder if we will ever have have a, six egg day, but it seems unlikely.

From the right we have Red’s biggest egg followed by Gold’s next biggest and most white then storm’s roundest egg. We then have Mango’s egg and on the left Snow’s egg which is the smallest but not quite so pointed as usual and with a white patch on the pointed end where there is less pigment than usual.

I don’t think Autumn will ever lay again as she still goes in for her, sit, every other day but doesn’t lay. Sugar is an unknown as she started laying again in May last year. With the problems she has had with her feet I don’t know if she will lay again but she may surprise us.

The eggs are plentiful though and we are very happy with our girls’ offers.

This morning Snow was in and out of the nest box.

Snow later settled and laid an egg. She had only taken a two week break from when she laid her last egg.

Well done Snow! We now have five girls laying, Red, the three game girls and Snow. That should increase egg production.

Edit

Today, the day after Snow laid, Gold also came back into lay. She had only taken a one week break since she laid her last egg. I didn’t manage to catch her in the nest box but she had been in and out earlier. Later her egg was in the nest box and is bigger and whiter than the game girls so I knew it was her egg.

This now gives us six girls laying. We should be getting plenty of eggs now.

Yesterday I managed to catch Cloud in the nest box before she laid her second egg of the year. I don’t quite know why but I like to get a photo of each girl in the nest box as they start to lay.

Today I had the first sighting of the year of a slow worm in the garden.

We know we have a thriving population of slow worms in our garden because we always see them between March and September. This one was a medium sized one. It’s always good to see them for the first time of each year.