Weird Eggs!!

So the 'old' girls are slowly getting used to the 'new' girls and the bullying from Doris and Bessy is calming down. I even saw Edith run up and steal some food from under Doris' nose and then quickly run away. Doris got it back but Edith put up a fight! Myrtle however is still being a big bully though! Edith and Edna also hang about in the coop if they are a little unsure, which means Myrtle is now VERY noisy if she wants to go in and lay and can't as they are in there. They often sleep in the nest boxes too which means they now seem to have poo in them a lot. I am going to have to find a way to close them off at nights so they sleep on the perches. I also had to put Edith and Edna back in last night as the didnt go inside before the others and therefore wouldn't go in. We will get there though.

We have also had a couple of very weird eggs. Yesterday I found two 'eggs' in the perches. I had also found a similar one a week ago. The shells are paper thin and one is very small. All my research tells me that these are the first few attempts of the pullets (Edith and Edna) as they start coming into lay. Its a little odd as we did not have these eggs with the others.

Wierd Eggs

The other odd thing is that we only had one normal egg yesterday, I believe from Bessy. Myrtle spent most of the day sitting in the nest box, but eventually came out to free range in the afternoon (after some persuading with probiotic yogurt). She never did lay yesterday and neither did Doris, and that's the first day since Doris started laying that we haven't had a white egg. They also seem to be laying later in the day. Not sure if that is due to us now being in autumn, and the days being darker for longer, and colder, or if they are going into moult (which I believed wouldn't happen until next winter).

So far today we have only had 2 eggs (Doris first, then Bessy) - so that makes 3 eggs, in 2 days from 5 hens! Not good!


P.S. Due to the reduction in egg production, and the increase in demand; we are now doing a 1st-come-1st-served system. Once we have a box of 6, I'll publish a post on here and the first people to request them can have them (for the usual £1).
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