Honey

Late afternoon I checked in on the girls and found Honey in the penguin position. I recognised this from Amber’s egg laying problems but Honey has never had a problem with her eggs. She had laid yesterday and generally lays every other day and sometimes two or three days in a row and all with good hard shells.

Honey had her wings down and a concentrated look on her face. The next thing I saw was egg white dripping out from her vent. I was alarmed as I thought this meant an egg had broken inside her and that would be a very bad thing.

I called my husband and we both watched her and we could see that she was straining. Then her egg dropped out and I picked it up quickly before the other girls descended on it.

I was relieved to see that it was complete but with a small tear in it which was where the white was leaking out and it was soft shelled. This is the first time Honey has ever laid a soft shelled egg. I don’t know why this should be as nothing has changed with their diet.

Tomorrow the girls will be back on mash with limestone flour and cod liver oil and I will be keeping their egg shells to dry and crush and add to future mash.

I hope this is just a one off.

Amber meanwhile still has a very swollen face and isn’t laying (which is a good thing) but other than that she is completely her normal self. She seems brighter than she was at first and is eager and fast to the treats, is eating, drinking and pooping normally, is scratching, dust bathing and pecking at the lower ranking girls. I think this means she is feeling better but I think her face will take time to get back to normal and I am not even sure if it will get back to normal.

It feels very solid and the farmer said it is possible that it could burst. Amber is impossible to pick up other than at bedtime or in the nest box (which she is not going to at the moment). She hates being handled and I don’t think it would therefore be possible to take her to a vet. I have shown her photo to the vet and the farmers and they agreed that I was doing the right thing for her.

I have researched and some with a similar swelling had it lanced by a vet but it just filled up again. The general opinion seems to be if the hen is fine in herself to leave her be so we are going to wait and see how she goes. At the moment she seems happy but it just looks awful. She wouldn’t win any beauty prizes.

Meanwhile all the other girls are fine and the chicks seem settled in their new home. They are scratching, dust bathing and sitting in the sun in their favourite spot on top of the hatch. They are eating and drinking and chirping and are just so cute.

There always seems to be something else around the next corner to challenge us.