A lot of fuss this morning, with Lily calling and calling anf calling.
I went out to see what was what, and found that Jasmine was encsonced in one side of the nest box, and Lily wanted to go and lay. Normally what happens is that Jasmine starts crowing to complain that her privacy is being invaded, but for once she was sitting silently minding her own business. I couldn't understand why Lily didn't just go in the next door cubicle.
I tried encouraging her in, I tried tempting her in with corn - which was a mistake as she then forgot all about laying and just wanted the corn.
Fast forward half an hour or so, and both Lily and Jasmine were clucking like mad. Rushed out to see Lily in the run and no Jasmine. Checked the nestbox, Jasmine was still in the same place but had Lily's egg beside her! Presumably Lily wanted to lay in that nest box, and had just stood on Jasmine and laid her egg.
A bit later, I saw Daisy go in and, when I checked, she was in the next door cubicle to Jasmine who still hadn't laid.
Much later, and I saw that Delilah (she of the very fragile eggs) had disappeared. I checked the nestbox again and found Daisy and Jasmine as before, and this time Delilah had decided to get in the same nestbox as Daisy and was standing on top of her. I left them to it although I realised that, with the state of Delilalh's eggs lately, this would not end well.
Much, much later, everyone was crowing at once. I went outside and collected an egg from Jasmine, an egg from Daisy, and found Delilahs fragile offering crushed. I scooped it out: I hope none of the others tried it, as the one thing we don't need is our hens getting a taste for their own eggs.
Chickens!
