Sunday morning. We get a lot of egg-announcement type crowing. Lots of it. Non stop. When it goes on like this, it usually means that someone is hogging the nestbox, and someone else wants to lay.
I got up and went outside to have a look. 6 hens looked at me, as though butter wouldn't melt in their beaks. None of them was crowing. Not even Florence, who I'd seen crowing when I looked out of my bedroom window.
I peeped into the Cube, looking through one of the air vents. I could see that Custard (one of our 4 youngest girls) was sitting in one of the nest boxes, and Lily was standing on the roosting bars trying to get into the same next box. Using the one next door clearly wasn't under consideration.
I watched, and saw Lily trying to get into the nestbox with Custard. Custard wouldn't budge. In the end, Lily sat across Custard. I left them to it and went back to bed.
Later, I got up, showered, dressed. Went out at 10.00 to let the Girls out and noticed that Lily and Custard were missing. They were now side by side in the nestbox.
At 10.50, I went out to see whether we had any eggs, and found Lily and Custard still squashed together. I opened the egg port, and gently felt around underneath them, pulling out 3 eggs. One was definitely Lily's (white), one was Florence's, and the third one was either Custard, Roobarb or Tilda's. I need to see them side by side to be able to tell which is which.
Once I removed the eggs, the Girls came out of the nestbox.
Surely Custard isn't going broody already?! It's only February!
I got up and went outside to have a look. 6 hens looked at me, as though butter wouldn't melt in their beaks. None of them was crowing. Not even Florence, who I'd seen crowing when I looked out of my bedroom window.
I peeped into the Cube, looking through one of the air vents. I could see that Custard (one of our 4 youngest girls) was sitting in one of the nest boxes, and Lily was standing on the roosting bars trying to get into the same next box. Using the one next door clearly wasn't under consideration.
I watched, and saw Lily trying to get into the nestbox with Custard. Custard wouldn't budge. In the end, Lily sat across Custard. I left them to it and went back to bed.
Later, I got up, showered, dressed. Went out at 10.00 to let the Girls out and noticed that Lily and Custard were missing. They were now side by side in the nestbox.
At 10.50, I went out to see whether we had any eggs, and found Lily and Custard still squashed together. I opened the egg port, and gently felt around underneath them, pulling out 3 eggs. One was definitely Lily's (white), one was Florence's, and the third one was either Custard, Roobarb or Tilda's. I need to see them side by side to be able to tell which is which.
Once I removed the eggs, the Girls came out of the nestbox.
Surely Custard isn't going broody already?! It's only February!
