For the first time in all our chicken keeping years, we have no girls laying, at this time of year. Snow who was our only girl still laying went broody three days ago.
Snowflake before her hadn’t gone broody so I was hoping Snow wouldn’t but she has! She has laid twenty six eggs in a month and a half. She wasn’t committed though. As no girls are laying it has been easy to just close all the nest boxes and Snow didn’t seem at all bothered. I have now opened them and she hasn’t shown any interest so I think she is through it already. Hopefully this means she will start laying again in a couple of weeks time.
Storm has had a two break from laying and is now being very vocal so I think she may be about to come back into lay. Her moult is very gradual and she never looks much different. Her tail has grown back in but is just a bit shorter than usual at the moment.
Gold is molting more heavily. I am finding lots of her feathers in the chicken shed and the run. She now has only one tail feather left. It is three weeks since she laid which is a week longer than usual so I am not sure if she will come back into lay this year due to her early moult.
Mango and Cloud are getting their feathers back in now. It’s a month since Cloud last laid and two months since Mango laid so I think they are finished for this year.
It is three weeks since Sugar laid so she may come back into lay soon but she only lays for a week before she goes broody again. Sugar is so much better than last year as she is laying good shelled eggs and therefore not looking unwell before laying.
Sugar still sits a lot of the time but it suddenly occurred to me that if I didn’t break her from her broody spells she would spend most of her time sitting in a nest box. I think therefore she is used to sitting a lot and it doesn’t bother her. I feel it’s better for her to sit in the run instead of a nest box. With this in mind I am not going to worry about her. She has obviously adapted and it is just her way of life.
Autumn looks pristine and continues to sit in a nest box or the chicken shed each day without laying.
Red’s comb is still very small and she isn’t squatting so I think it will still be a while yet before she starts to lay.
So there we have it, a lovely flock but no eggs to be had. I am sure we will start to get some eggs again soon. As I always say, as long as the girls are happy and healthy, I am happy.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Lovely pictures, I am sure you will soon be getting eggs again.
I think Storm and Sugar may start soon and Red has got to start eventually. I am hoping that Snow and Red will lay through the winter this first year.
After three days of no eggs Sugar laid today. Hurrah!
Well done, Sugar. Hopefully, you’ll have Snow back laying shortly. Ironically, the one who looks most like a layer is, in my view, Autumn. She’s a real enigma. Nice pictures of the girls.
I know, Autumn couldn’t look more like a laying girl if she tried. She has the most red face, comb and wattles of all the girls. It really is so odd but she does look healthy.