Freckles first egg (for real this time!)

I have known for days that Freckles was going to lay soon. She has been very vocal, squats if I put my hands near her, and has been going in and out of the nest box. This morning I felt that today was the day.

Before I went out to deliver my lunches she was shouting. I didn’t know she would be, or could be, that loud! For a little girl she has suddenly found a big voice.

When I got back at lunch time my husband said that she had finally laid her egg. He had no deliveries today and could hear her shouting from inside our cabin (work kitchen). He left the egg where it was for me to see.

Freckles first egg

She had laid it in the right place, clever girl.

Comparison with a medium sized shop bought egg

On the egg stand

Side view

Freckles egg is half the size of our other bantam eggs, it almost falls through the egg stand. I would always be able to tell the little girl’s eggs now that I have seen one. It had a little streak of blood on it, which is often the case, with a first egg. What a clever little girl she is.

I am thinking of starting the integrating process very soon but I knew that if I let the main flock into the new girls area they would go straight to the new shelter and scratch all the shavings out. I suddenly had a light bulb moment! I took the shavings out and put them in the main chicken shed and then I took the card board out too. I then filled the tray with dry soil.

This can now become a permanent winter feature and it won’t matter how much scratching goes on. It may even be used as a dust bath. It might also be more attractive to the new girls. I put Apricot in to try it out and she did have a little peck at the soil before coming back out. A small improvement.

An alteration to the shelter

I should have thought of this in the first place but I put pine shavings in it because that was what the new girls had been used to before.

If I am brave enough I may give the girls a little bit of supervised time together before bedtime. Watch this space.