Dotty has been looking ready to start laying again over the last few days. She has been going to the grit, squatting if I get close to her and sneaking a look in the nest box. Dotty started laying again after her moult, laid for a month, then stopped for a month.
Yesterday she and Honey wanted to lay at the same time and in the same nest box. Dotty would stand by the coop door while Honey was in the nest box and shout louder than I have heard her shout for a long time. Honey would pop out and Dotty would go in and then Honey would shout louder than I have heard her too, for a little girl it was a big shout. The girls always make such a drama of this. There are two nest boxes but they always want the same one and the big girls will not share with the little girls.
Finally Dotty got her egg laid and shouted again to let me know. I collected Dotty’s egg and Honey settled in the nest box, the next time I checked on Honey she had just laid her egg. At last peace resumed.
All five girls are now laying
The interesting thing is that the eggs look different even from the same breed. Bluebell’s egg is on the left and being blue, of course, could never be mistaken. What I find interesting is Pepper’s egg is next and is always a uniform oval shape and has a little bit of colour. Dotty’s egg is in the middle and her eggs are always a longer shape and paler. Next is Amber’s egg which is smaller than Honey’s on the right and also has a little more colour than Honey’s.
I love being able to tell the girls eggs apart (most of the time).
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Hurrah for Dotty ! I can’t wait to get back to more eggs . We are on one every other day at the moment . It drives me nuts as I refuse to buy any and basking a cake or making my favourite quiche us out of the question .
At worst we were down to one a day with an occasional day of none (this was due to Bluebell not stopping even though it’s her second winter) but now are back up to two or three a day. I too refuse to buy any. We always have a little cooked breakfast on a Sunday and two weeks running, at the leanest time, we shared one egg between us. This Sunday for the first time we had two banty eggs each, hurrah! The egg famine is over and I now have nine eggs in the fridge plus we had eggs for breakfast.
Whoops I need to learn how to spell.
Don’t worry. So many times I look at my comment just after I have put it out and notice a mistake. I always think “too late now, they will understand”.