Lotti, our Exchequer Leghorn, has been behving even more erratically than usual.
She hasn't laid for a couple of weeks. Well, there haven't been any of her eggs in the nestbox. Florence, our Australorp, is broody, and I had caught her egg eating one day so I did wonder if she was eating Lotti's eggs.
After a week of no Lotti eggs, I walked round the penned area to see if I could find a secret nest. After 10 days, I did it more carefully. I couldn't find any.
Lotti and Poppy both fly out of the penned area to come to the door for corn. This is despite having a wing clipped. Usually they arrive, and either try and get into Tilda's kitchen apartment, or fly onto my arm for corn. For the last few days, Lotti has run away and I've only managed to catch her by (a) extracting her from the TildaLarder as she's stealing the food, (b) going outside with corn and throwing some into the main run (and she runs in after it), or (c) waiting until she crouches and then scooping her up quickly.
This morning, she wasn't having any of it. I chased her round the garden, a bit too close to the cats exit-to-the-front for my own comfort. And then she disappeared. At first, I thought she was hiding between a small shrub and the wall, but she wasn't there. And then I saw the white of an egg shell.
And then I saw the black and white of her feathering. Underneath a wall climbing plant, between the climber and the wall. I moved it slightly, and then I moved her. And there was a mountain of eggs.
I decided that I'd move her and the eggs into the cube, to try and get her back into the habit of laying there. I thought I'd do it after breakfast.
Of course, having a Leghorn's fast metabolism is somewhat incompatible with being a broody. After 30 mins of exquisite silence, she was in the kitchen trying to raid the Tilda Larder. Sadly for her, DH had closed the door to Tilda's apartment when he was accessing a cupboard, and he'd fogotten to open it again. (Tilda wasn't in there, of course). She then let me lead her back into the main run so she could eat there, and she now seems to have forgotten about the eggs. Until tomorrow.
Maybe I'll shut her in the Cube for a few minutes with some of her eggs when I let the others out tomorrow morning. Or something. Anyway, I was able to get a pic of the eggs (above), but not one with Lotti sitting on them.
