Yesterday morning straight after the girls had had their morning sunflower hearts Topaz and Butterscotch took themselves off to the nest boxes.
Topaz is in the nest box again
Butterscotch is also in the nest box
Two girls in the nest boxes at the same time
Topaz was in the right hand nest box and Butterscotch in the left. About an hour later I checked on them again and they were both back out in the run. I checked the nest boxes and there was an egg in the left nest box. This egg had to be Butterscotch’s egg because she doesn’t go into a nest box and come back out again unless she has laid her egg. If she was broody she would stay in the nest box. It also had the satin sheen that her eggs have.
This afternoon the same thing happened again. Both Butterscotch and Topaz went into the nest boxes at the same time. This time Butterscotch was in the right hand box and Topaz in the left. A short while later I heard Butterscotch give her egg shout. I went and checked and sure enough her warm egg was in the right hand box and Topaz was still in the left box.
I thought to myself that if Topaz laid a bit later I could still presume the egg I thought was hers three days ago was actually hers. If she didn’t lay I may have to revise my thinking and conclude that it was Butterscotch’s egg after all.
I checked back fifteen minutes later and when I lifted the nest box lid Topaz stood up and came out shouting her head off (as before). There was no egg! I think I was mistaken about her laying an egg a few days ago. Topaz always has lots of false alarms. It’s seems as if she believes she has laid an egg.
This further confused me because I thought Butterscotch hadn’t laid for a few days and was about to go broody again. If the egg I thought Topaz had laid was Butterscotch’s after all then she only actually missed one day which is quite normal. What threw me was that she usually stops laying after three weeks and goes broody but she has now been laying for twenty three days which is a bit longer than usual for her.
I now think that Topaz isn’t laying but is just practising ready to start again soon. Her egg laying has always been somewhat confusing with lots of practice and false alarms. Topaz is such an unusual girl and therefore more difficult to read. She certainly keeps me on my toes.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Tricky girl…she’ll probably send out a tiny egg first to warm up! ?
Does that mean Butterscotch laid two eggs in a day!? Mine tried to do that, and one time it worked, but the other time we got a second egg that was “alien” created, and looked plastic. ?
No, there was only one egg on that day but I thought it was Topaz because she was in the nest box when I found it and I hadn’t seen Butterscotch go in. I thought that Butterscotch had missed laying that day but I now think that she had laid it earlier and then Topaz went into the same nest box so I thought it was hers. It’s a shame all the eggs are the same colour because it makes it so hard to tell. They have very slight differences sometimes but mostly I go by seeing who has been in the nest box and gives the egg shout. This is where Topaz fibs to me.
Well there’s a disappointment.
At least I will know when Blossom is laying again and I can get excited .
Topaz is so difficult to read because she does this so convincingly. She sits in the nest box for over half an hour, she comes out shouting and then when I look in there is no egg. I wasn’t expecting Butterscotch to continue to lay beyond her usual three week period so that further confused me. On the good side Topaz will start eventually but in the meantime Butterscotch is still laying which is a bonus.
There’s a thesis to be had in Topaz – such a quirky bird!
She really does defy all the rules. Comments said she will lay tomorrow and I agreed but she misled me once more. The odd and further confusing thing is that she goes in the nest box at the same time as Butterscotch. Butterscotch didn’t lay today and Topaz showed no inclination to go in either. She is indeed a quirky bird!