As one girl starts laying another girl stops

Dandelion has now laid three eggs and has laid them every other day which is pretty good going. The first one was the soft shelled egg but the next two have had good shells so I am optimistic that she will now continue to lay good eggs. She is looking better than she ever has and I think the warmer weather is really suiting her.

Dandelion in the nest box yesterday

However Cinnamon has gone broody for the first time. This means my two best laying, little girls, are taking a break from egg laying so as one girl starts another girl stops.

Cinnamon is broody

Cinnamon was in the nest box last night before bedtime so I took her out and she then went in the chicken shed. I found her egg near her roost spot this morning when I went in so she must have laid first thing.

When I saw her back in the nest box later this morning I suspected she had gone broody. I knew for sure when she raised her tail up. I lifted her out and she tried to peck me. She isn’t docile when lifted like Freckles.

When I lifted Freckles out she would stay out for a while but Cinnamon would run straight back to the nest box. I could see that Emerald wanted to lay her egg so I let her get settled in the nest box and closed the other one.

Emerald is settled in the nest box

When I next checked the nest box this is what I found.

Cinnamon and Emerald in the nest box together

I should have known that the nest box being occupied wasn’t going to put Cinnamon off. She is a determined little girl. I left them to it.

When I next checked Emerald was back out in the run and Cinnamon was still in the nest box. I lifted her to find Emerald’s egg beneath her. I put her out in the run and closed the nest boxes. I would like to break her out of it as quickly as possible.

Emerald is laying well, almost every other day. Last year she laid twice as many eggs as Speckles so she is the better layer of the two despite being older and having a shorter laying season.

It seems that there is always some drama going on. It is good to have a couple of girls laying but with the flock so small now the eggs are still not enough to entirely keep us going without buying some to supplement them.

It would be really good to increase the flock and insure that there would still be eggs when some of the girls take a broody break. I hope the warmer weather is helping my breeder to hatch some eggs.

I am resisting calling him again, too soon, but I will give him a call in a couple of weeks time to see how it is going. I would so love to add some more girls to the flock.

I still look at the girls and momentarily wonder where the rest of them are and then realise that they are all there. The flock seems so small. I look forward to having a larger flock as summer progresses.

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8 Responses to As one girl starts laying another girl stops

  1. marion.pharo says:

    They look so cute in the nest box together.

  2. Carol says:

    They do look pretty cute don’t they!

  3. Kevin says:

    Can I borrow Cinnamon to sit on some of these duck eggs I’ve got!?

  4. David says:

    She is a feisty little character, really adorable.

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