Flame lays her first egg of the year

This morning while Smoke was in the nest box Flame decided that she wanted to lay her first egg of the year. Of course she really wanted to do this in the same nest box as Smoke.

I knew that Flame was ready to lay as she always makes quite a mournful sound when she is about to lay. Flame had taken a look in all three nest boxes and the chicken shed but she kept coming back to the one that Smoke was in.

Eventually Flame settled next to Smoke and Smoke allowed her to share the nest box.

A little bit later I checked again and knew by Smoke’s behaviour that she had laid her egg. I reached under her and removed her egg. A little later still I checked back again and Flame was out of the nest box but Smoke was still in there.

I lifted Smoke out and found that she had been sitting on Flame’s egg. I wondered if she was about to go broody again. She has laid nine eggs in fourteen days.

Smoke shouted very long and loud after I had lifted her out but she didn’t return to the nest box. Maybe she will lay for a bit longer. A little later Shadow laid giving us our second, three egg day, of the year.

On the left is Flame’s white egg and next is Ebony’s beige egg, next is smoke’s egg and on the right is Shadow’s egg. Flame’s eggs get bigger once she has been laying for a while.

In other news I have now solved the mystery of what happened to Marmite’s feather. I said in the comments on my last post that Marmite’s feathers were back to normal but that there was no sign of the feather in the run.

The next day Marmite’s feather was sticking out again but not quite as much as before. I thought that she must have preened it back into place. A bit later that day it was sticking out just as much as in the photos I had put on my last post.

Today I saw Marmite preening on the bottom rung of the ladder. Her feathers looked normal again and I thought that she must have got the feather back in place again.

I then went in to poop pick the run and there was her feather just underneath the bottom rung of the ladder. It appeared that it was annoying her after all and she was intent on sorting it out.

One thing that it has shown me is that the girls are able to sort this kind of problem out by themselves so in the end I did the right thing by leaving it be. I am glad that it has resolved itself without my help.