Speckles third egg of the year

Yesterday Speckles laid her third egg of the year just three days after her second egg of the year. This is amazing for Speckles. The year before last Speckles laid twenty four eggs and last year she laid twelve so I predicted that she would lay six this year.

After Speckles laid her first egg in March I began to think that six eggs seemed very unlikely. Now that she has laid three eggs I am thinking that six may yet be possible after all.

Speckles third egg of the year

On the right is Speckles second egg of the year, in the middle her third which is just slightly bigger and on the left is Flame’s for comparison.

Flame’s egg on the left, Speckles third egg of the year in the middle and her second egg on the right

It’s a shame that there aren’t any from broody Ebony to compare because Flame’s eggs are large, compared to Ebony’s and are a similar size to a standard girl’s egg. Speckles eggs are really big as they are longer.

Vanilla started laying again five days ago after a broody break of one week and is laying every other day. Marmite also started laying again five days ago after a broody break of two weeks.

Ebony has now been broody for nearly two weeks and is showing no sign of coming out of it. I lift Ebony out of the nest box a couple of times in the morning, a couple of times in the afternoon and again before bedtime when I close the nest boxes. This doesn’t deter Ebony and she sits on top of the nest box until I put her on the perch at dusk.

Smoke is also showing signs of going broody again after laying seven eggs in eight days after a break of just over two weeks since her last broody spell. Smoke is turning out to be a serial broody.

Jasmine took a weeks break since her last broody spell then laid four eggs in a week before going broody again. Jasmine sits in the corner of the shed so I decided to close the pop hole on the second day to keep her out.  This worked as she showed no further sign of being broody and was over it in two days. I will do this again in future. Jasmine has the shortest broody spells.

Spangle and Salmon have never gone broody but this may be down to them being the poorest layers. Cinnamon hasn’t gone broody this year and has never gone broody for more than a few days until last summer’s heat wave when she remained broody for weeks.

Speckles has never gone broody. Ancona’s are not a broody breed but are supposed to be good egg layers so Speckles is very much her own mix. It is said that the best egg layers can have shorter lives as they wear themselves out so I am thinking that Speckles should be a long lived girl. She is the oldest girl we have had so far and long may she continue.

Edit

Today Speckles has laid her fourth egg of the year just two days after her third. This is three eggs in six days which is the best she has laid in a very long time, three years in fact. Speckles seems to have a new lease of life!