Yesterday morning I realised that Butterscotch had been in the nest box for about three hours. She is usually only in there for half an hour so I decided to lift her out. She had laid and had been sitting on her egg.
I wondered if this meant she was feeling broody again. I decided to shut the coops and she wasn’t too bothered but she was quietly clucking to herself which is a sign.
This morning Butterscotch went straight into the coop first thing. After she had again been in there for three hours I decided to lift her out. There was no egg.
Is she broody?
She stayed quite flat
I moved her off and shut the coops. I thought that as no one is laying it would be good if I could nip it in the bud.
Butterscotch
Butterscotch is looking good. She has grown back the feathers that Honey pulled from her back, during the integration period.
Butterscotch protested about being locked out and when some time later she was still clucking away I decided to let her back in. I didn’t want to stress her and thought perhaps she really did want to lay.
I checked on her another two hours later and found her sitting on an egg. This is egg number twenty one which beats her previous record of twenty. I am so glad that I had let her back in. I lifted her out once more and shut the coops again. I still feel she is wanting to go broody.
An hour later I was pleased to see her in a dust bath.
Butterscotch leaving her dust bath
By the time I got my camera she had just stepped out of the dust bath.
Peaches and Speckles
I just had to include this photo because a short while ago Speckles would never have let me get this close to her. She is standing in Butterscotch’s dust hole.
I shall keep a close eye on Butterscotch as it would be good if I could stop her going broody again especially as she is the only girl laying any eggs. In the end though if she is determined it will just have to be.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Buttersccotch is indeed a very good layer – for her genes, to produce around 20 eggs between broody spells is really good going! She may well continue through the winter (silkies are purported to be good winter layers), but I suspect her laying will always be punctuated by spells of broodiness 🙂
I think you are right. It’s funny but at the exact twenty egg stage I could tell there was a change in her. Even though she laid again today her behaviour is different and has all the hall marks of about to go broody. I guess I just have to accept that that is how she is going to be. At least she is a good egg layer in between unlike Topaz!