Storm is back in lay

Storm laid today after a two week break. She really made a meal of it. It was so odd because when she started laying, this year in February, she just went straight in a nest box each time and settled down until she got her egg laid.

Today it was as if she had forgotten where to lay or no where was good enough. She was being very vocal and going in and out of each nest box. She would then run to the shelter and dig in the corner. Then she would go to each corner of the chicken shed.

This went on for ages. At one point I checked on her and she was settled in the corner of the shelter. I took a photo then she moved back to the nest boxes. She settled in a nest box for a while and then went back in the shed. Finally she laid her egg in the chicken shed.

Phew! I hope she doesn’t do this every time. She did this sometimes last year and Dot can be like this too.

So we now have five out of seven girls laying with only Sugar and Autumn not laying and we have plenty of eggs.

Sugar has now gone past the time that she started laying last year so I am hoping that perhaps she won’t lay.

We have realised that her behaviour has become dependant on the weather to a certain extent. On windy or wet days Sugar spends all day sitting in the shelter only coming out for treats, food, water or dust baths.

But on sunny days Sugar is out in the run much more and is more active. I am therefore hoping that she may be out in the run more once we get into the summer. She is also quite zippy to the treats but I notice that she eats much slower than the other girls. She can’t compete with them so I try to give her some treats away from the rest of the girls if I can.

Sugar is definitely not quite right but hasn’t got any worse so as long as she has quality of life we will leave her as she is and wait to see what happens next.