I thought the girls deserved another treat. Of course it’s not really Christmas mash it’s just a big dish of mash but the girls don’t care. I always put the mash in one big dish rather than spreading it around the run because I know that once the first girls tire of it Speckles will move in and get her share.
A big dish of mash
A treat for the girls
Speckles is getting braver
I was quite surprised by how brave Speckles is getting. There was a time when she would never have got this close to the other girls.
On another note I think Butterscotch is going broody again and yet she is still laying at the moment. The day before yesterday she missed a day and yesterday morning she went straight into the little coop nest box after the morning sunflower hearts. An hour later she had laid her egg and was back out in the run but she was making the tell tale clucking sound.
By late afternoon she was back in the nest box. As she had already laid her egg I decided to lift her out and close the nest boxes. She walked around them looking for a way in.
I gave the girls their pre-bedtime corn and they started making their way into the coop, all except Butterscotch. It was almost dusk and I knew the coop door was about to close but she made no attempt to go in so I opened the nest box and let her go in. Once the pop hole had closed I lifted Butterscotch out of the nest box, opened the big door to the chicken shed and put her on the perch. She stayed put and I closed the door then closed the nest boxes to stop her going in one of them at first light this morning.
As she had laid her egg at half past nine yesterday I knew that if she was to lay another egg today it would be from half past ten onwards. I opened the nest boxes at half past ten and decided to leave her until lunch time. I didn’t want to shut her out if she was going to lay again as I did that once before and felt so bad when she laid her egg in the run.
At half past twelve I lifted Butterscotch and to my surprise she had laid another egg. I was so glad that I had left the nest boxes opened but now that she had laid I decided to close them again.
Butterscotch usually lays for three weeks before going broody but this is her record as she has now laid for thirty days. Previously she had laid twenty eggs then twenty one eggs then fifteen eggs. This time she has equalled her best of twenty one eggs. Well done Butterscotch.
It seems that she does want to go broody but she thinks she hasn’t finished her clutch yet and she just wants to sit on her eggs. I will just play it by ear and see how she goes.
Click here to see the history of my flock.