Another plan

It was such a good day yesterday with Flame back with the flock and Flame and Vanilla staying apart that I thought we had cracked it. I was gutted when I opened the pop hole at bedtime and Flame went straight in and sat down with Vanilla immediately forcing herself underneath Flame and Flame accepting her.

But as it was said in the comments it was progress so I just to have amend the plan. Tonight at bedtime I will put Flame in the dog crate before opening the pop hole. It is no hardship to Flame to spend the night in the crate as she would spend it on the chicken shed floor anyway. It is really easy to put Flame in the crate and she is calm and settled once in there.

It is much easier and less stressful having the flock together during the day and only separating Flame at night. I will do this for a couple of nights and then try again or continue until Vanilla starts perching at bedtime.  This has to work sooner or later.

Flame

I can never understand the mentality of broodies. Flame has shown no sign of being broody during the day. She spends the day out in the run doing all the normal chicken things. So why does she switch back at bedtime!

I wonder if she thinks that her “chick” no longer needs her during the day but still needs to be kept warm at night. Who knows what goes on in their little pea brains!

In other news Jasmine looked like she was getting ready to lay again. She has only had a break of eleven days but then again last time she only took a break of seven days. Jasmine couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get in the pop hole as she likes to lay her eggs in the chicken shed just inside the pop hole.

However Jasmine did go and look at a nest box so she knows that they are there and she has laid in a nest box in the past before she took to the habit of laying in the shed. Therefore I decided to leave it to her to work out that she would need to use a nest box.

Jasmine looks for the pop hole

Jasmine checks out a nest box

Jasmine checks out the pop hole again

I returned a short time later and Jasmine was settled in a nest box. What a clever girl she is.

Jasmine settled in a nest box

I went back to check and Jasmine came out of the nest box shouting. I checked and there was no egg. This isn’t unusual for these girls. Spangle, Marmite and Salmon often sit in a nest box and come out without laying. It seems to be a serama thing and Jasmine may need some practise.

Jasmine returned to the nest box and this time she laid a very, small, round egg. Well done Jasmine.

What was very odd though is that I checked the next nest box and there was Flame with some pine shavings on her back.

Flame in the nest box with pine shavings on her back

This would signal that Flame is getting ready to lay again. Perhaps she had stopped being broody but had got lulled into thinking that she had a chick in Vanilla. It is all very odd.

I checked back later and Flame was still in the nest box. I lifted her and found that she was sat on a serama egg which I think belonged to Salmon as she had been in the nest box earlier. I put Flame into the run and she ran off and started scratching about. I really have no idea what is going on with her.

Flame stayed out for the rest of the day so I think she may be coming back into lay and also needs a bit of practice.

I will put Flame in the crate overnight and put her back in the run in the morning. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with our crazy Flock. I am  much happier with this progress than the previous situation with Flame and Vanilla glued together all day. I can much better cope with just a night time separation and feel more confident now that we will soon move past this and back to normality.