Dust Bathing

This afternoon five girls were enjoying a lovely dust bathing session.

Five girls dust bathing

Having a lovely time

Amber is not with them because she wants to lay her egg.

Amber wants to lay her egg but can’t decide which nest box to use

This morning Honey was in the nest box when Sparkle wanted to lay. Sparkle eventually went and laid her egg in the little coop on the right. This is the first time she has even looked in there so I am quite pleased as now she knows she can lay in there it should make it easier in future.

Shortly after this both Dotty and Pepper wanted to lay at the same time. They were both shouting about it. Dotty took possession of the coop on the right and for the first time Pepper went in the coop on the left. She deemed it unsuitable and after going in it a couple of times she rejected it and continued to shout her displeasure.

I checked back a little later and both Dotty’s and Pepper’s eggs were side by side in the coop on the right.

I wondered if they don’t like the other coop because of the way it faces perhaps making it too light. I decided to turn it so now the two coops are back to back and the ramp now faces the fence. You can see the new position in the photo above with Amber.

It remains to be seen if this will work. At the moment we have five girls laying as Topaz hasn’t started yet. I feel when we have six girls laying we will need all three nest boxes to be in use.

My husband says even if we had six nest boxes they would still all fight over one. It will be interesting to see how long it is before any of the girls lays in the new one.