Poor Honey

Yesterday, late afternoon, Honey looked unwell again. She looked as if she was going to lay another soft shelled egg.

I had decided that at bedtime I would help her to the perch again and settle her in the nest box as I had done a few days ago. There was no need. Honey went into the nest box in the main coop and settled in there before any of the other girls came in to roost. Honey stayed there until I put the rest of the girls in. I have never known her to put herself to bed early like this before so she must have been feeling very poorly. At least she had the sense to go to the nest box.

Poor Honey goes to bed early

This morning she was back to her normal self again but I found no trace of an egg or shell, either in the coop or the run. This is a mystery. I wonder if it was laid outside and the girls demolished every trace of it. Usually I find some remnant so I can’t be sure what has happened here but I am just glad that Honey seems fine again now.

Yesterday I also found Sparkles egg with calcium deposits on the shell. I am going to stop giving the girls crushed egg shells for now as it doesn’t seem to make any difference to Honey and never made any difference to Amber in the past but the deposits show the extra calcium is too much for the rest of the girls. I took a couple of photos but with the egg being small (bantam sized) it doesn’t show up very well.

Calcium deposits

There are six calcium deposits on this egg

I put this egg down to Sparkle because it a slightly darker colour than the other eggs and some of the deposits are also a darker colour. They look just like little blobs of crushed egg shell.

Peaches and Barley’s eggs were normal this morning.

I hope this is just a blip with Honey and once she gets into the swing of egg laying she will return to normal. I have a little niggling worry that maybe she is going continue like Amber and I will have two girls struggling with egg laying but I am holding on to the thought that she laid three or four like this last summer then continued normally from then on.

It still remains to be seen how Amber will be when she starts laying. Amber is still quite vocal in the mornings and has a quick sit down in the nest box but doesn’t stay long so she isn’t quite ready yet. I keep thinking how great it would be if she doesn’t have a problem this year but I am not holding my breath.

We have now had Honey and Amber for two years next month and we have thought that we were going to lose Amber on many occasions but we still have her so we intend to make the most of these two for as long as possible. My husband says you can never tell and maybe Amber will out live them all but we both feel that as long as we have her it is a bonus. At the moment she is looking really good and I am keeping every crossed it stays that way.

Edit

I have just been in to do my midday poop pick and found the remains of Honey’s shell. I missed it this morning as it had been in the dirt. It was paper thin, much thinner than her last one which explains why she didn’t look unwell last time but did this time. I really don’t know what is going on with her and can only hope with time she improves.