Yesterday Freckles was ready to lay her egg and had decided that she too liked the idea of the cat box. Speckles and Peaches followed her into the chicken shed.
Freckles came back out and Speckles went straight in and sat down.
Freckles behaved the same as Dandelion a few days earlier. She stood outside the cat box shouting. I had to go out on my deliveries so decided that she would have to sort it out. She could either wait for Speckles to come out or she could go in with her. Rusty and Freckles don’t seem to mind sharing a nest box with the bigger girls.
I knew that Cinnamon wanted to lay too as she was coming up to the patio and she has settled into laying every other day so was due to lay.
On my return I went to check on the girls. To my surprise Speckles was still in the cat box and Freckles was out in the run. Speckles then came out of the cat box and there was Freckles egg. It seemed that Speckles didn’t want to lay after all (she had laid the day before) and Freckles must have shared the cat box to lay her egg.
I checked the right hand nest box and there was Cinnamon’s egg, longer and slimmer in shape than Freckles and Rusty’s. Later in the day Rusty also laid her egg in the right hand nest box. This was the first day of getting three, little girl’s, eggs.
So far the cat box has been used by Speckles, Emerald, Dandelion and Freckles. That’s half of the girls that are laying. It seems a popular nest box. I wonder if the novelty will wear off or if it will remain popular. It is darker and more private, being in the shed.
I think using the cat box as an extra nest box has proved to be a success.
There is always a preferred nest box, but pecking order determines who gets it at any given time!
You are right. Lower ranking girls have to wait their turn or go elsewhere.
Nice they have a choice.
The more choice the better I think.