Amber lays a soft egg and Honey may be broody

It seems there is always something going on with the girls. This morning when I went in to clean the coop there was a broken soft shelled banty egg in the doorway and Bluebell was pecking at it.

I moved Bluebell away and removed the egg to the bin. I assumed it was Amber’s as she laid soft shelled eggs when she first started laying, Honey’s first egg after her moult, a few days ago was fine.

This turned out to be the case as Honey laid an egg in the nest box later this morning and Bluebell also laid her egg in the little coop.

A bit of history, Amber has always struggled with her eggs and I was hoping that when she resumed laying after her moult she may have grown out of this.

Her first two eggs in June were wind eggs. They were tiny, the size of marbles, and had no yolk. Her third and fourth egg were soft shelled but her fifth egg was normal. Her sixth egg was soft shelled just at one end and her seventh egg was her second normal egg.

After this she always seemed to look unwell when she was about to lay but her eggs were normal from then on. At the time I mixed limestone flour with their mash to help make stronger egg shells. I did the same thing today and will continue to do so untill her eggs are normal. Amber doesn’t seem to go to the grit like the other girls do so I wonder if this is part of her problem.

After Honey laid her egg she returned to sit in the nest box. At first I thought perhaps she hadn’t realised that she had laid her egg already as this has happened with both the little girls in the past. But this time she stayed in the nest box all afternoon.

This is a dangerous behaviour because Bluebell doesn’t like the little girls being in the nest box and she went in and pecked Honey’s comb a couple of times and made it bleed. I find this so frustrating.

An hour before bedtime when I give the girls some corn, Honey was still in the nest box. I lifted her out and set her down then sprinkled some corn in front of her and threw some out in the garden area as usual for the other girls. Bluebell came and gave her comb another peck much to my annoyance.

Honey ate her corn, went into the garden to poop then returned to the nest box. Oh dear, does this mean she is broody! Being broody can be difficult enough but when it’s one of the bantys they risk the extra disadvantage of being pecked by Bluebell.

I suppose I will have to wait to see what tomorrow brings to be able to tell if she really is broody but I really hope not.