While I was washing all the chicken feed and water dishes I could hear Emerald scratching around in the chicken shed. I checked both nest boxes and they were empty. I checked on Emerald and she had made a nest underneath Rusty and Freckles bedtime perch in the opposite corner to where Dandelion sat a few days ago.
This seems to be a new trend. She looked quite settled with a little pile of pine shavings on her back. I went indoors to collect my camera.
By the time I returned she was standing in the egg laying position. I was just in time to see an egg laid before my eyes once more.
Emerald is just about to lay her egg
And she has laid it
With seven girls now laying, and a future potential of all nine girls laying, it won’t be a bad thing if some of them are happy to lay in the chicken shed. I always keep it clean and it’s a large space and dark enough for them to feel happy to lay in .
I wonder why Emerald chose to lay there but she can be funny sometimes about the nest boxes. Sometimes when she wants to lay she runs about looking a bit manic as if she can’t find the right place to lay. Maybe she gets fed up of the nosey girls (Peaches and Barley) always looking in on her.
It will be interesting to see where she decides to lay her next egg. She is a good layer, laying every other day and sometimes two days in a row. She and Freckles lay a similar amount of eggs each week. Emerald always stops laying at the end of May though. Game girls have a short season.
I am happy for any of the girls to lay in the chicken shed and we feel that we really don’t need to make another nest box now. The chances are it wouldn’t get used anyway. None of the girls went in the cat box except to flick out the shavings. It will be much better if some of the girls use the shed than having a nest box out in the run. It looks as if the girls have solved the problem for themselves.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It’s so funny what must go through their head when they look for a safe place to lay. They are either fighting over the same nest or laying in some random spot. Such silly hens.
I too wonder what goes on in their little chicken brains. You are so right about them all wanting the same nest box or choosing some random spot. You never know what they are going to do next.
How nice to get a picture of her laying her egg.
I seem to have been lucky lately to be there just at the moment of an egg being laid.
It’s always special to watch them lay; I’ve seen two this past week – but that’s the first this year.
It is quite special. It’s down to lucky timing. I have seen a few recently and wasn’t expecting it.