Butterscotch was back in the nest box first thing this morning so I decided to lift her out and shut all the nest boxes. I would like to break her of being broody as quickly as possible and I hoped this would be before the other girls started laying. I felt this would be the last time I could do this as once there are other girls laying I will just have to let her be broody but make sure she comes out several times a day. Usually if I shut her out of the nest boxes she loses interest in just a couple of days.
Butterscotch is looking for the nest box
Butterscotch beside the blocked smaller nest boxes
I blocked the smaller nest boxes as I felt that if she went in one of these I wouldn’t easily be able to get her out again.
A disgruntled Butterscotch
Butterscotch decides to sit next to the smaller nest boxes
Barley checks her out
Barley then went into the chicken shed and started scratching around in there. I wondered if she was getting ready to lay and decided to put one of the smaller nest boxes in the chicken shed in the hope that if she did want to lay she would use that.
A little later my husband was by the chicken run when he heard a commotion. He said Barley was standing over an egg besides the food dish. Once again I felt really guilty that I had closed the nest boxes just as a girl wanted to lay.
It did prove that yesterday’s egg was Butterscotch’s though. Butterscotch’s eggs are a beige colour and are round. Peaches and Barley’s eggs are pure white and are oval. This first egg was long and slim. It doesn’t always show up in a photograph so I took one of the eggs laying down and one of the eggs stood up.
Barley’s egg is on the left and Butterscotch’s egg is on the right
Barley’s egg is quite different from Butterscotch’s egg
Now that she has laid her egg I will leave the nest boxes closed until at least mid morning tomorrow. Last year Barley started laying a week and a half before Peaches and missed a few days between eggs before getting into her stride so I may just have time to dissuade Butterscotch from sitting in the nest boxes. I will have to keep an eye on Barley and make a decision as we go along.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Brilliant news; more to follow soon, I hope. My new pullet layer is the originally-named Buffy, my buff rock – 3 eggs in 4 days, which is quite something at the moment. Of the older hens, only Anne of Cleves has been laying, every other day, although today, not quite through the moult, Eton, one of my marans, produced her first egg in two months. Maybe the tide is turning?
I think you are right, the tide is turning, it is that time of year. I was so taken up with getting Butterscotch through one more broody patch that I almost missed Barley getting started. The odd thing is that after Topaz practising for more than a month and not producing, Barley took me by surprise because she just had one look in a nest box (no practice) and then laid an egg. I just hadn’t realised she was ready. Topaz makes such a meal of it and Barley just gets the job done. I think that it may have taken her by surprise too. Maybe if the nest boxes had been open it wouldn’t have made a difference. It is a constant challenge trying to read these girls but of course also very rewarding.
Well done that girl ! I noticed when I saw the girls the other day how red her comb was . As they do everything together I’m sure it won’t be long before peaches follows suit….another sign of spring on its way .
I am so pleased to have an egg other than from Butterscotch and when both Peaches and Barley are laying egg production should be up enough for us to have our own eggs on weekdays as well as weekends. Hurrah!