Update on eggs and egg laying

Yesterday both me and my husband had our eggs for breakfast. This was the first of our own eggs my husband has eaten. I thought they tasted fine but he said he thought there was just a slight hint of the musty taste.

I read recently that if your chickens are on a medication that advises not eating the eggs,  the vet recommends a full two weeks to clear their system. I hadn’t realized it would take so long to clear from their system. It’s been eleven days since I took the jasmine out, so it should be completely clear very soon now.

With salt and pepper they were fine though and I am going to start saving them for Christmas for our family breakfast.

Bluebell’s egg was laid before first light yesterday and Treacle’s at dusk the day before. It was touch and go to see if she was going to get her egg laid by bedtime and she then came out for a last feed and water and got shut out as in the mean time the coop door had closed. I had to hold it open and wait for her to go in.

Because the days are so short now and the coop door closes at quarter past four, the girls stay out as long as they can and quite often one or two of them get shut out. I either go up just after its shut and put them in or go up just before it shuts and hold it open while they go in.

In the morning the coop door opens between quarter to eight and eight o’clock depending on how overcast it is. I go out to them just before quarter to eight and hold the door up to let them out. It’s a bit dark for me to clean up so I am now taking a torch with me.

This morning both Treacle and Bluebell wanted to lay at about the same time and were both in and out of the nest box and sometimes both in there together. Eventually Treacle laid her egg at eight o’clock and Bluebell laid hers at half past nine.

We have now had a total of thirty two eggs, twenty one from Treacle and eleven from Bluebell. These have been laid over thirty three days for Treacle and seventeen days for Bluebell. They tend to both lay three days in a row then miss a day. I think this is very good for this time of year and it is a great shame that we have only eaten a few of these eggs. The important thing though, is that we will be able to eat them from now on.

Pepper is also looking like she will lay soon, she readily squats if I hold my hand near her and has just started taking an interest in the nest box. She sat in it yesterday as if trying it out so I think she will start to lay any day now.

Because we have been extremely busy and also the weather has been awful, I haven’t managed to get any good photos recently and my blog is sadly lacking pictures, so I decided to include this one.

Two fluffy bottoms, I think they look so cute.