Sugar has now set the record by going broody after just six eggs in eight days. The serial broodies usually lay for two weeks so one week laying is ridiculous!
Smoke has laid eleven eggs in sixteen days so is probably going to go broody soon and in fact has laid for a few days longer than she sometimes does.
They had both been laying for two days then miss a day then two days again. Because of this I closed the nest boxes and blocked the pop hole yesterday as it was Smoke’s day to miss a day.
This then means that Smoke will lay first thing in the morning after her missed day. Therefore I closed the nest boxes and pop hole just leaving Smoke’s favourite nest box open in the hope that sugar wouldn’t go in while Smoke was in there.
Sugar settled near by the bottom of the ramp to the nest box that Smoke was in. I checked back just as Smoke had laid so closed the nest box before Sugar could go in.
My plan is that once Smoke goes broody too I will keep everything closed. I would really rather not have these two sitting in nest boxes when it’s getting colder. I think they would be better moving around in the run.
It’s looking like it’s time to start buying eggs!
Click here to see the history of my flock.
You never seem to get long between the girls going broody, but it must be good to get it over before te very cold weather comes.
The broody spells are getting closer and closer together! Maybe it’s because they know it’s year end.
Oh noooooo!!!! Are you going to put Sugar in the sin bin again?xx
No, not this time. Smoke has also gone broody today so no more eggs. As we now have no egg layers I am going to just keep everything closed up. That’s the plan for now, anyway. xx
I wish you the best of luck – they may well come back into lay – and re-start the cycle! When I was a boy, we once had a hatch on Christmas day, with a cross-bred bantam: some are just engineered to attempt to be mothers!
Smoke has always laid and gone broody in turn throughout winter but it’s Sugar’s first winter after starting to lay so it’s new for her. I think she is so like Smoke that she will probably be the same, they seem to be so alike and in fact Sugar is even more intense than Smoke. I didn’t think I could have a more serial broody than Smoke until Sugar and she has proved even more so! It is quite sad in a way that as you say they just want to be mothers but sadly in my run that cannot be.