Another soft shelled egg

This morning when I went in to clean the coop there was a broken soft shelled banty egg in the doorway again. It was once again Bluebell pecking at it that alerted me to it. I quickly cleaned it away.

I am certain it was Amber’s egg as Honey has never laid a soft shelled egg and Amber’s last egg was also soft shelled. When she started laying in the summer she laid two soft shelled and one soft at one end then they were normal from then on. This is her second soft shelled egg since she has started laying again after the moult so it seems it is following the same pattern again.

I have been giving the girls limestone flour mixed into their mash for a week now but I guess like last time it takes a bit of time. Amber has always struggled with her egg laying. There is one improvement though. During the summer Amber always looked ill and miserable before laying then fine afterwards even when her eggs were normal. This time she looks fine and doesn’t seem to struggle before laying.

Amber soon returned to the nest box which is also something she tends to do. It’s as if she doesn’t realise she has laid an egg and the fact that it was in the coop doorway seems to indicate that it took her by surprise. She was determined to stay in the nest box even though Bluebell kept chasing her out. Bluebell had already laid her egg earlier that morning so it isn’t because she wants to be in there. Bluebell doesn’t like the little girls in the nest box which is really annoying.

I shooed Bluebell out a couple of times and Amber got chased out a couple of times only to return to the nest box again. Eventually Amber gave up and went out into the run. Why is the banty’s egg laying always such a drama!

Amber in the nest box with Bluebell harassing her.

You can just see Bluebell in the top left corner of the photo. I do everything I can to protect the little girls from Bluebell’s harassment but I suppose they have to look after themselves when I am not there. Bluebell’s behaviour still drives me nuts though and it’s a good job the little girls are such feisty characters.