![\"Topaz](\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SDC18018.jpg\")
<\/a>Topaz has a lovely red comb and wattles<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Topaz is being very vocal and is looking in peak condition<\/p><\/div>\n
I love the way the other girls in the background are all looking at her as if wondering what all the noise is about.<\/p>\n
<\/a>She is walking around the little coop nest boxes and shouting<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>She is having a good old shout in between pecking at the shavings<\/p><\/div>\n
Topaz is my anomaly. She laid six eggs in her first year and eight eggs in her second year. The rest of the time she plays at being broody but doesn’t commit to it. She likes to sit on other girls eggs and stops laying herself.<\/p>\n
In her first summer she started laying in June. She laid one egg on the twenty third of June and another on the twenty seventh of June. She laid one egg on the second of July. She then laid another egg on the ninth of August and then again on the eleventh of August. She laid her final, sixth egg, on the eleventh of September. Soon after that she started her moult.<\/p>\n
This year she was the first to start laying again. Hurrah! I thought. She laid her first egg on the eighteenth of January then another on the twentieth and then on the twenty seventh of January. She laid again on the fifth, twelfth, fifteenth and twenty third of February. She then laid her final, eighth egg, on the third of March.<\/p>\n
That was it for Topaz. She didn’t lay again all summer and once again started to moult at the beginning of September.<\/p>\n
I was so surprised when she didn’t lay any more last year but this year I won’t be surprised. In fact I would actually be surprised if she did lay more than one clutch. With all my research I have never come across another hen like Topaz. She is unique. Some people complain that their broody girls don’t lay much but Topaz is exceptional. Not laying much doesn’t quite go far enough. But there you have it, she is my unique girl and we will just have to wait and see if she remains the same this time round. I suspect she will!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday at about mid day I heard what I think of as the egg shout. I was surprised because only Butterscotch is laying and she had laid late in the afternoon yesterday so this would be too early for her. … Continue reading