Speckles has been very vocal recently. In fact she has had spells of really shouting. I then remembered her doing this last summer before laying her six eggs.
Speckles has halved her number of eggs every year so if she follows her pattern she could lay three this year.
Along with the shouting Speckles has also had a brief sit in the nest box near the gate which is Ebony’s favourite nest box. Speckles only spends a few minutes sitting and it is as if she is reminding herself that this is where she needs to go if she does need to lay.
At one point when she was in the nest box I got my camera as I felt that I needed proof that she really was sitting in the nest box. The next day Speckles sat in the same nest box again but this time Ebony joined her as she needed to lay her egg.
I got my camera again as I thought they looked so sweet together. As soon as I had taken the photo Speckles left the nest box and Ebony went on to lay her egg. So far Speckles has only spent a few minutes in the nest box each time.
They look so sweet. Not so sweet when they are shouting though. Egg laying does cause a lot of noisy girls. I don’t think Speckles is quite ready to lay yet but she is definitely thinking about it.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
They do look cute together.
They do don’t they! I think Flame is ready to start laying again too. Flame has also been checking out the nest boxes and has been very vocal too.
Flame just laid her first egg since she was broody at eleven o’clock this morning. Hurrah!
Speckles is looking really good and the fact she has gone into the nest box suggests that she will lay, even if her tally is really low.
That’s what I thought but she hasn’t shown any more interest since I wrote this post. She may need a bit more working up to it.
I really don’t understand the scenario you are describing. I have 6 chickens (4 RI Reds and 2 Blue Whitings). They give me 6 eggs a day, occasionally 5. My chickens are 1 1/2 years old.
It sounds like you don’t get many eggs at all. Is this true?
OmaForFour
No that isn’t the case at all. I don’t explain because I only have a few regular readers and they know my flock well. Speckles is my oldest girl at eight years old. She has gradually laid less eggs over the years. In the last few years she developed a hormonal problem. When she looks as if she is coming in to lay she does very wet sloppy poops and drinks lots of water. Over the last couple of years she laid only twelve eggs then six the next year so I expected at most three this year if any. She is well in every other way and it doesn’t matter to me if she lays or not as long as she has a good life. During the winter when the girls don’t lay Speckles returns to normal as it’s the egg laying hormones in spring that start her off. Occasionally she has moments when she thinks she is going to lay and sometimes does and sometimes not.
My other girls are all three years old and all lay well. I get plenty of eggs. Out of the six girls that lay I usually get between three and five eggs a day. Chickens will gradually lay less eggs as they age so your girls are at their prime for egg laying. Some of my girls go broody too so that means they take a break from laying and return to laying when they are through the broody spell.