The drama of Flame’s first egg

We had even more difficulty with Flame finding out where to lay her egg than with Ebony. This a problem that I had never expected.

Chicks or point of lay hens just seem to find the nest boxes. I am always amazed that the girls’ first eggs have always been laid in a nest box or a corner of the chicken shed. They just seem to find the right place to go quite naturally.

I am now learning that this isn’t so when you take an adult hen from one environment to another. These game girls have been used to their set up and seem to be finding it really difficult to get used to our set up when it comes to where to lay their eggs.

By late afternoon yesterday I realised that Flame wanted to lay her first egg since joining us. She was stalking around the run and was making a melancholy sound almost as if she was crying. I recognised that sound from Toffee every day when the corn had been consumed and she realised that it had ran out.

I herded Flame to the patio area. I showed her the nest boxes with the lids open and with the lids closed. I put her in a nest box but she ran straight out again. I herded her into the shed but she came back out. I shut her in the shed briefly but she was crashing about in distress so I had to let her out again.

I put a nest box in the run but Flame wasn’t interested. Dandelion liked the nest box in the run. Dandelion kept settling in there and I would move her to the nest box on the patio but she would march back to the one in the run. I felt this would deter Flame from using it so we played this game for a while. After four times I gave up and moved the nest box back to it’s usual spot on the patio.

Dandelion was not pleased at me spoiling her fun and proceeded to shout and then laid her egg in the run. What has got into these girls!

Meanwhile Flame  kept exploring the wooden shelter so I piled some straw in there. I put the cat box in the run with straw in it. I put a washing up bowl of straw in the run. I put piles of straw in corners. The problem with this was that if Flame did sit briefly on any given heap of straw the other girls would come along and turf her off.

All of the girls scratched in the straw and soon had it spread over the entire run. We tried closing off the triangle part of the run with the wooden shelter. I heaped straw in there and shut Flame in on her own. Once again this distressed her and she spent her time pacing up and down the wire.

By now it was nearly bedtime so I opened up the run again. I knew that the little girls would soon go in the chicken shed and Speckles and Ebony would perch on the branch perch and then Flame would be free to settle.

Sure enough she settled on the straw in the wooden shelter. When I went back a bit later her egg was on the straw and she was perched on the perch above the hatch. Phew! What a drama.

Flame lays an egg

Flame’s egg is on the left and is lighter in colour than Ebony’s egg next to it. Next is Cinnamon’s egg and on the right is Dandelion’s tiny egg. Dandelion laid after a weeks break and her egg is even smaller than usual.

I hope these girls soon get used to our nest boxes because we are worn out by all this drama. I never imagined it was going to be this difficult. It’s as if they are making up for settling in so well by causing mayhem with their egg laying antics.