Eggs

Yesterday when I went out to the chickens the automatic door was just opening and the chickens scrambled out, then I noticed Bluebell’s egg in the doorway. It’s the first egg not in the nest box  and I can imagine Bluebell being taken by surprise and in the rush to get out an egg arrives! Luckily she is always last out and it landed on the shavings, so was fine.

Today we tasted Treacle’s egg from yesterday and Bluebell’s egg from this morning (laid in the nest box at first light). They still taste the same and I felt quite depressed about this. I then realized that the only thing I hadn’t replaced was the sunflower hearts which I give as an occasional treat. I bought new and gave the existing ones to the garden birds so as not to waste them but the new ones have a two year date on them so I don’t think they could be the problem.

Bluebell’s egg this morning has caught up in size to Treacle’s and is so beautiful (such a shame)!

Bluebell’s egg on the left and Treacle’s egg on the right

It then struck me that I had found Bluebell’s egg stronger than Treacle’s even though it was more recent. This got me back to thinking it must be the jasmine because Bluebell had discovered that she could step across from the cabinet into the jasmine itself to reach more leaves whereas Treacle as my biggest and heaviest girl couldn’t do this as it wouldn’t take her weight. Maybe we just need to give it more time. If nothing has changed by the weekend I won’t know where else to go with this, but must remain positive that it may be better by then.

My husband says we will be the only people to keep chickens as pets with no eggs but I have to keep believing we will resolve this. I said we will look back at this and say “remember that awful time when we couldn’t eat our eggs?”.

Another improvement with the girls egg laying skills is that both Treacle yesterday and Bluebell today seem quite happy to settle in the nest box ready to lay while I do the morning poop pick in the coop. They now seem quite at ease with me being there while they go about their business.

Pepper also readily squats now when I hold my hand over her so she may start laying soon. This would give us a good comparison as only Treacle and Bluebell worked out that they could get at the jasmine from the cabinet and I never saw Pepper or Dotty do that.

The girl’s are doing so well at their job of egg laying that it seems so unfair that they can’t be eaten. I will keep up the daily tasting and hope for normal eggs soon.