Sharing a nest box and another broody girl

Over the last week Ebony and Flame have taken to sharing the middle nest box and I would find their eggs side by side. Vanilla also favours the middle nest box at the moment. It seemed that while just these three girls were laying they had agreed that they must lay their eggs in the same place.

Ebony and Flame had taken to sharing a nest box

These two bigger girls filled up the space in here but they seemed happy enough with the arrangement.

The day after I took this photo Ebony went broody. I had a feeling she was about to as she had been sitting on her eggs for longer than usual and she had started making the tell tale clucking sound.

At bedtime she was settled the nest box and I had to lift her to the perch in the shed. The following morning she was once again in the nest box and I lifted her out for the morning sunflower seeds.

The good thing is that she is so easy to handle and is completely docile when I lift her out. This is amazing compared to how she would peck me when we first had her last summer. It is funny how accepting of me she has become and yet Flame pecks me just the same as she did last summer.

The not so good thing is that we now only have Flame and Vanilla laying. I can’t believe that out of a flock of ten we have only two girls laying. For now it will be eggs for the weekend breakfasts only until production is up again. Sigh!

Edit

I delayed this post as I wanted to put my birthday post out first. As if the girls knew it was my birthday we had a sudden flurry of eggs. Ebony laid a last broody egg as these girls often do and Flame and Vanilla laid as usual. The surprise was that Jasmine and Cinnamon also laid after a two week break. Five eggs on my birthday. Well done girls!