A further update on the flock

Toffee and Emerald are in the full swing of their moult now. Toffee has lost her tail and Emerald is looking really shabby.

Toffee has lost her tail

Emerald is looking really scruffy

Toffee no tail and Barley playing at bookends

Peaches meanwhile is busy at the mash

A very tatty Emerald joins Toffee and Barley

Meanwhile Topaz and Honey are in the nest box

Topaz is still in her perpetual broody limbo. She has a lovely red comb and wattles but her only desire is to sit on eggs. On the odd days that none of the girls lay she doesn’t bother to go in the nest box but as soon as a girl is in there she will join them. She will then sit on their egg until I remove it and then she comes out shouting in anger.

Sparkle doesn’t look happy despite a lovely red comb and wattles

Sparkle has been looking pretty much back to normal lately then yesterday she looked like this. I recognise this look and felt sure she was about to lay a soft shelled egg. The good news is that if she is about to lay again she must be over her recent health problems. The bad news is that I rarely see her eating the pellets and if she is not eating enough pellets she will struggle to form a good egg shell. I am so familiar with this stance.

Because of this I have been putting a dish of mash out each day to try to encourage Sparkle to eat more. The problem is I can only try to tempt her but can’t force her to eat. The other girls are loving the mash but I don’t see Sparkle at the dish very often.

My only hope is that if she gets a soft shelled egg out okay she will then return to normal. She did lay a soft shelled egg when she laid her first egg this year and was fine after that.

This morning when I went out to the girls first thing I looked in all the nest boxes as I do every morning just in case there has been an early egg laid. In the left little coop nest box I found an egg with no shell at all.

Ann egg with no shell

After I took this photo I lifted it out for a closer look and there wasn’t even a membrane round it. I have never found an egg with no shell at all before. Sparkle looks fine this morning and I have again put a dish of mash in the run.

I really hope she will gradually regain her appetite and get fully back to normal. Once she lays an egg with a proper shell I will really know that she is back to normal.