Honey laid her egg in the little coop yesterday. Dotty laid this morning (in the nest box) and Bluebell has taken a day off after her new record of laying for thirty eight days in a row!
This afternoon Amber and Pepper both wanted to use the nest box at the same time. This is where the problem arose last time causing me to install the little coop as a second nest box. Pepper reluctantly tolerates sharing the nest box with the big girls but absolutely will not share with the little girls and last time pecked Honey’s comb until it bled.
Amber is the smallest girl and also very feisty. She took possession of the nest box first. Pepper was not happy. She shouted and shouted, louder than I have ever heard her shout before. Her face went redder than I have ever seen it before. She was livid! She strutted around, kept looking in the nest box and kept shouting.
Then to my surprise she went into the little coop and settled down.
Pepper in the little coop
We wanted to go out at this point but I didn’t want to leave with Pepper shouting or with the possibility of Amber getting her comb pecked. Now that Amber was in the nest box and Pepper was quietly installed in the little coop, I felt that I could safely leave them to it.
We returned a couple of hours later and I went to check on them. To my surprise neither girl had laid an egg. Once again they had put themselves through all that upset when they weren’t even ready. Amber still doesn’t seem to have got the hang of when she needs to lay and Pepper often takes a long time to lay and does have false alarms from time to time.
In the end though, it doesn’t matter which girl uses which coop as long as they can manage it without any bloodshed!
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I have been thinking about this ..as you have! It has got to be a power thing , I reckon in my very slight knowledge that Pepper and Amber are fighting for pecking order and by Pepper going into the small coup Amber has won a round. Round two another day .By neither of them laying in the end they had just stressed each other out … Amber did not need to lay she just needed to prove a point. You have probably thought this any way
I agree, Amber is top girl of the little girls and Pepper is top of the big girls. When Honey and Pepper had a stand off, Pepper stood her ground and pecked Honey’s comb repeatedly, Honey went on to lay in the little coop next time. Amber wasn’t backing down and as you say won that round. I also thought that the stress led to Pepper not laying. As Amber is new to laying she gets confused but Pepper hadn’t laid the day before and I was really surprised that she didn’t lay. I have never seen Pepper look so cross as she did and never heard make such a racket! It’s all so complicated isn’t it?
Hi! I’m new to your blog, but am looking forward to reading about your life with chickens. My girls are only 11 weeks old so I’ve still got time to wonder what kind of egg-laying particulars they’ll be putting me through, lol. Pepper is so pretty! She looks like my sweet Roxie.
What breed is Roxy? Do you have a blog that I could follow? You are going to have so much fun with your girls.
I will have had my girls a year next weekend and am writing a post to sum up all the happenings of my first year with chickens. If you have the staying power for a long post you can catch up with a years worth of my experiences in one go.