Once again one girl stops laying and one girl starts

Sugar has stopped laying after laying only five eggs in nine days. She hasn’t followed her normal broody pattern. She usually lays six eggs then is broody, staying in the nest box after laying and puffing herself up and when I lift her out of the nest box she is full of angry broody hormones.

This time Sugar laid five eggs then missed a day without going to the nest box. She lays every other day. The following day she went in the nest box for what I thought would be her sixth egg. Sugar didn’t lay egg number six but has been going in the nest box ever since.

Sugar doesn’t look broody though and there is none of her usual behavior. It is as if she is still waiting to lay her sixth egg. We have never seen her looking so not broody and yet she is spending most of her time in the nest box. When I lift her out she preens, eats, drinks and sometimes has a dust bath. It is without the usual frenzied speed. She then returns to the nest box.

Snow has come back into lay today after a two week break. It’s funny how the pattern continues with one girl stopping and one girl starting.

Snow’s torpedo shaped egg on the left, Sugar’s last egg in the middle and a medium shop bought egg on the right for size comparison.

I wonder if having a day of not laying after Sugar’s last egg has changed her behaviour so that she isn’t looking broody even though she is spending her time in the nest box. It is most odd.

I will continue lifting Sugar out for breaks before deciding if she needs to go in the broody crate to break her out of it. I am perching Sugar at bedtime.

Well done snow! It’s good to continue with some eggs even if they are rather tiny.