The first day

The first day was more difficult than I thought it would be. Everything seemed calm when I was out with the girls first thing. I went upstairs for a bath and looked out of the window to see Bluebell and Topaz really going at each other through the wire. They were both chest thumping and pecking through the wire.

I ran out to them and sprayed water at Bluebell but she didn’t stop. I threw some sunflower hearts as a distraction and she finally stopped.

I had my bath then we had some work to do. We could hear the big girls shouting at the top of their voices. We had a very stressful morning with me keep running up to the girls and trying to calm them and my husband stressing about the neighbours especially with it being a Sunday.

Dotty had laid her egg in the little coop earlier in the morning and now Bluebell was in the little coop and Pepper was shouting to get in. I lifted the lid to find to my horror that Bluebell’s comb had been pecked and was bleeding.

Bluebell’s comb is bleeding

I then checked Topaz and sure enough her comb was pecked and bleeding too.

Topaz has a bleeding comb

I found this quite upsetting, I thought all the girls would be safe with the wire between them but they obviously both pecked each other.

I then thought that Bluebell may be in the little coop because she had been pecked rather than wanting to lay. She had laid four days in a row already and Pepper didn’t lay yesterday so I thought her need may be more urgent. I lifted Bluebell out and let Pepper go in.

Bluebell continued to shout her head off and my husband suggested we put a crisp box in with some pine shavings as another nest box. It’s under the dry covered area so a crisp box will do the job for now.

The new crisp box nest box

Bluebell in the crisp box

A few minutes later when I checked them again Bluebell was settled in the crisp box. I felt quite guilty that she obviously did want to lay after all. A little later I found Bluebell’s egg in the crisp box. This is quite pleasing as it means that it’s one problem solved and the crisp box has been accepted as a nest box.

After all this fuss Pepper left the little coop an hour later without laying an egg. Pepper always takes the longest time to lay her eggs and does often have a false alarm.

Amber went into the nest box and finally laid her egg after nine days since her partly soft shelled egg. This egg was normal.

I then saw that Honey and Topaz were sparring through he wire.

Honey has a go at Topaz

I only took this one photo as I already had my camera in my hand and wanted to show what the little girls look like with their ruffs raised. I then immediately went to break it up as I didn’t want Honey to get pecked.

Every time Topaz has been sparring with the old girls Sparkle stands on the little coop roof as she is in the photo above. It must feel like her place of safety.

Shortly after this Sparkle went into their little coop and laid an egg. What a clever girl. It is the same size and colour as the other little girls but slightly more matt in appearance. Topaz then went into the little coop and had a practice but didn’t lay, so I think she will soon be ready too.

I then went round to my neighbours next door and also next door but one to apologise for the noise (the house the other side of us is empty at the moment). Both neighbours were fine and said they didn’t mind at all and I promised them both some eggs soon.

All the shouting and sparring seemed to occur around the egg laying time and after they had all laid things were calm for the rest of the day. It was a stressful and noisy morning but dare I hope that things may be a bit calmer now. I do hope so.

At dusk I went and got the old girls in as usual and Topaz was in the little coop already and Sparkle on the ramp. I thought I could ease her in but my presence caused them both to come out again. I realized that I was probably rushing it and decided to leave them a bit longer. I went back ten minutes later and they were both in so I closed the coop.

The end of the first day which was more difficult in the morning than I had hoped but much calmer in the afternoon. We can only wait to see what tomorrow will bring and hope it gets easier.