Drama in the nest boxes

Yesterday was a dramatic day in the nest boxes although I could say every day has it’s dramas. Yesterday was quite typical but I don’t always take photos or report about it.

One of the less usual things yesterday was that Sparkle didn’t look her usual self and had the look that I recognise as a girl about to lay a soft shelled egg. She looked a bit less enthusiastic about the morning greens and just a bit off is all I can describe it as, because it wasn’t the full poorly look that Amber used to have, but I knew she just didn’t look her usual self.

I have mentioned before that Toffee seems to like sharing a nest box which is quite unusual in itself because most of the girls like a bit of privacy when laying their eggs. Peaches and Barley in particular will growl when another girl looks in on them.

Topaz is our resident broody so she often occupies a nest box even though she doesn’t actually lay any eggs.

The process of going in the nest boxes and getting ready to lay eggs involves a lot of shouting so I am well aware of events taking place and yesterday I decided to record some of this. I also find the girls that are not ready to lay (and I have to say Barley and Peaches in particular) do like to be nosey and watch the proceedings. Honey and Emerald are close behind this pair for doing this but these two girls are the ones always on watch and often shouting about it to let me know what is going on.

So to begin, Topaz as usual took up residence in a nest box and Toffee decided that she should share.

Toffee shares the right nest box with topaz

Toffee looks in on Sparkle in the left nest box

Barley is taking a look at Toffee and Sparkle in the nest box

Just a little note for my mum, she found this really comical so I thought that I would  capture a little bit more of this. Sparkle is sitting in the nest box and you can just see Toffee’s leg as she is watching her.

Peaches joins Barley watching Toffee who is in turn watching Sparkle in the nest box

Honey also wants to see what is going on, these girls are really nosey about who is in the nest box

Emerald wants to know what is going on too

Soon after this photo I just missed Emerald on the nest box craning her neck down to look in like Barley and Peaches earlier. I will have to catch that photo another time. At this point she was as usual more interested in me.

Meanwhile Toffee went back in the right nest box with topaz

Toffee changes her mind and goes back in the left nest box with Sparkle and a few minutes later lays her egg

Sparkle then remained in the nest box for a very long time. She then came out and I checked the nest box and found this.

Sparkle’s soft shelled egg

It looked like it was just an egg yolk in a membrane but once I opened it I found it was yolk and white in a soft shell. The shell was like paper.

Sparkle’s egg

The yolk came out first then the white beside it and above is the paper like soft shell now folded. I hope this is just a blip as Sparkle’s first egg of the year had a thin shell (not as thin as this) but they have been fine since then, until now. She didn’t look too poorly and afterwards bounced right back and was soon at the food bowl. Note the lovely colour of the yolk. All my girl’s eggs are this lovely rich colour due to their varied diet and daily greens.

I wonder if  too many treats have caused the thin shell. I will give the girls a big bowl of mash today to make sure they eat what they should be eating. I will also scramble the egg and feed it back to them. I give them a small amount of sunflower seeds first thing and corn last thing or visa versa and greens mid morning, apple at lunch time and either fish, egg or yogurt once every one or two weeks. I think this is a good regime but occasionally maybe they get a bit extra when we have visitors and I have to be careful to keep the balance healthy for them.

After the musical nest box manoeuvres, Toffee laid first followed by Emerald and Honey,  once again together in the main coop nest box, then Sparkle’s soft egg followed by Barley’s egg in the left coop.

Five eggs is a good day as only six girls are laying because seventh girl, broody Topaz, doesn’t lay. It was the usual drama with a bit extra from Sparkle which of course we would rather not have, but the drama of musical nest boxes is really all part of a day in the life of this little flock.