Egg laying patterns

I find the girls egg laying patterns quite interesting. I have an egg chart and record all the eggs. I wondered before they started laying,  if I would be able to tell Pepper’s and Dotty’s eggs apart as they are the same breed. In fact it turns out that I have never had a problem.

Pepper’s eggs are a slightly paler cream colour and a traditional oval egg shape. Dotty’s are a shade darker and a less smooth shape, almost as if there is a band squeezing the middle slightly. Bluebell’s eggs are obvious because they are blue but they are also a much rounder shape. Honey’s eggs are slightly larger than Amber’s but that may change over time if Amber lays more frequently.

The big girls eggs

Dotty’s egg is on the left, darker in colour and less smooth in shape. Pepper’s egg in the middle is smooth and pale and Bluebell’s egg on the right is blue and round.

All five girls eggs

Dotty’s egg is on the left followed by Pepper’s, Bluebell’s is in the middle and Honey and Amber’s eggs are on the right.

Another pattern is where the girls lay their eggs. Since we put the little coop in as a second nest box, Pepper has only laid in the little coop and never returned to the original nest box. Dotty on the other hand has never shown any interest whatsoever in the little coop and has only ever laid in the original nest box. Bluebell and the little girls will randomly lay in either the little coop or the nest box.

The next pattern is how many eggs they each lay and I have found from my records that each girl is very consistent. If I take the last month a week at a time, followed by the months total, with the girls in their pecking order, starting with head hen, it looks like this:

Pepper – week A – 2, week B – 1, week C – 3, week D – 2    Months total – 8

Dotty – week A – 5, week B – 5, week C – 4, week D – 5    Months total – 19

Bluebell – week A – 6, week B – 7, week C – 6, week D – 7    Months total – 26

Amber – week A – 1, week B – 2, week C – 2, week D 3    Months total – 8

Honey – week A – 4, week B – 3, week C – 4, week D – 3    Months total – 14

The average eggs per week is:

Pepper – 2, Dotty – 4.75, Bluebell – 6.5, Amber – 2, Honey – 3.5

Bluebell lays the most eggs which is exactly as I would expect because she is a hybrid and they are bred to be good egg layers. The other four girls are pure breeds. What I find interesting is that Pepper and Dotty are the same breed and yet Dotty lays twice as many eggs as Pepper. Amber and Honey are also the same breed and yet Amber lays twice as many as Honey.

I am sure this is just pure coincidence but another little pattern is that Pepper is top hen and lays less than Dotty and Amber is top between her and Honey and lays less than Honey.

Another thing that I have noticed is that the girls that lay the least eggs struggle with their egg laying more. Bluebell breezes into the nest box lays her egg and is out again in about quarter of an hour. The other girls take about half an hour but Pepper takes by far the longest. She will sit for two and a half hours sometimes to lay her egg and sometimes after a couple of hours she comes out without laying an egg at all.

Amber always looks stressed before she lays. She always has her wings pointed  downwards before she goes on to lay.

Amber

This is how Amber looks before she lays her eggs. She stands with her wings pointing downwards.

This information doesn’t really have much relevance but I do find it interesting.