Speckles is moulting and sitting around in dust holes during the heat. Smoke came out of being broody more quickly than usual. She was broody for just under a week and as usual started staying out for longer periods.
I closed the nest boxes at the end of the day for two evenings and she perched in the chicken shed and then no longer returned to the nest box.
Two weeks on and Smoke would usually start to lay again but instead she is also moulting. I am finding a little heap of feathers under her roost spot in the mornings.
Marmite looked uncomfortable again yesterday afternoon and I knew another egg was coming. This morning she looked fine once more and her soft shelled egg was actually in the nest box. It’s the first one in ages that has made it to the nest box and it was partly intact this time.
As it was so hot I decided to give the girls a treat of mash made with ice cold water and topped with frozen peas.
The girls love this and it’s a great way to get all the girls in shot and to cool the girls down. It won’t be long before the dishes are emptied.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
All looking lovely xx
Aw, they do look lovely don’t they! xx
Lucky girls, getting cold treats.
They needed some cold treats. Well actually it was just Ebony who was feeling the heat with her black feathers as she was beak panting. Although Marmite also has black feathers she was fine because seramas can take the heat as they originated from a hot country.
They’ll have relished their treat. Poor Marmite – it’s an ongoing problem.
Marmite has laid another egg since then. She looked humped in the afternoon but not for as long a period this time. In the morning her egg was in the nest box and the shell was really thin but intact. We ate it for breakfast to use it straight away and it was really thin but it’s the first of her eggs we have been able to eat for a long time. It seems that she is improving but I have thought that before and she slides back again so only time will tell. We can but hope.