Butterscotch’s day

Today I had planned to write a post about the girl’s combs and how I can see by how red some of them are that some of the girls are getting ready to lay again. I took my camera with me each time I went into the run. Somehow as the day went along the post changed into Butterscotch’s day.

Butterscotch lays for three weeks then goes broody. Today is day twenty one. Yesterday she was in the nest box all morning and I was sure she was going broody. She has also started the clucking that she does when about to go broody. After lunch I decided to lift her and was surprised to find an egg under her. She didn’t return to the nest box after that so I thought maybe she has another day or two to go.

Today she went into the nest box first thing this morning. I took it as a sign that she is going broody as after laying an egg at lunch time yesterday I knew she wouldn’t lay one in the morning. She usually lays an hour later each day. I decided to leave her until midday then lift her out.

She was cross as she usually is, clucking away, but she went out for food and water and a scratch in the run. We wanted to go out for a few hours and I knew she would return to the nest box while we were out but I decided to lift her again on our return.

When we returned I lifted her out again and she sat flattened on the patio area.

I check on Butterscotch in the nest box and Barley has to check too

Barley has a look in the smaller nest box

Butterscotch is flattened on the patio area

As always when Butterscotch is going broody she remains flat after I lift her out. Peaches and Barley check her out.

It is as if Peaches and Barley are wondering what Butterscotch is doing flat like this

Speckles comb is getting more colour

Speckles comb isn’t as red as Peaches, Barley’s and Topaz’s but it is getting a bit more colour.

Honey is looking older

Some of the girls are one year old and some are two years old but Honey is three years old and is definitely looking older now. She is slower and more portly than she used to be.

At this stage I decided to close the little coop nest boxes to keep Butterscotch out and try to break her broody spell once more. I didn’t bother about the smaller nest boxes because she has never shown any interest in them and I thought she would be too big for them.

When I went in with the bedtime corn Butterscotch was missing. I thought she was probably in the chicken shed but decided to check the small nest boxes first.

Butterscotch is squashed into the smaller nest box

I was really surprised to see her in this nest box. The good news is that if Butterscotch will use this nest box then I feel sure the smaller girls will. Butterscotch is our biggest girl.

I can’t lift her out of here as the lid doesn’t open and she is too tightly squeezed in to take her out. Instead I put the small nest box down on the patio and rattled the corn container in front of her. She squeezed herself out and went off for the corn.

To my surprise there was an egg in the small nest box

I have to assume that it is Butterscotch’s egg as I haven’t yet seen any of the other girls go in the nest boxes. Several times when behaving like a broody she has laid one last egg. I felt quite guilty that she wanted to lay after I had closed the bigger nest boxes but at least it proves that these smaller nest boxes are acceptable. I reopened the little coop nest boxes as the drama was over.

At dusk I went to check on the girls. No girls were outside so I looked in the chicken shed.

Where is Butterscotch?

I checked the nest boxes.

Here she is

This means she is definitely broody as she is back in the nest box, after laying her egg, instead of going to bed. I lifted her out of the nest box and placed her on the perch just as the automatic door started to close.

I placed her on the perch

This photo shows how red the combs are on Topaz, Peaches and Barley. All the other girl’s combs are still paler. Butterscotch has a black comb but I know her routine so well. She lays for three weeks and today is day twenty one and then she goes broody. She has laid fifteen eggs this time and I am certain today was her last one for a couple of weeks.

She takes a two week break so it will be interesting to see if Peaches and Barley start laying during this time. Topaz is a law unto herself so I can’t speculate when she will start laying.

It would be lovely to have some eggs from some of the other girls as Butterscotch has single handedly kept us going through the winter. Butterscotch is an amazing character.