May 10th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | 2 Comments »
Tags: Chickens, coop, eggs, nest box
As I have said before, I have been getting 2 eggs each day and having to throw one away. My girls like to sleep in the nest box and lay their eggs on the coop floor – it is fine when Meg does it but Victoria obviously hasn’t got the hang of it and seems to drop them from a great height causing them to crack on the hard wooden floor.
I have tried to fix this – first I thought they were laying there instead of the nest box because I had been blocking it off at night. I stopped blocking it off but unfortunately they now sleep in the nest box but refuse to lay there. As that didn’t fix it I decided to put a bit more bedding on the coop floor, but for some reason the girls have kicked it away before laying leaving an nice spot of bare wood to crack their eggs in.
My newest solution has been to make a nest area for them in the spot that they always lay in. I screwed two pieces of wood together into an ‘L’ shape and pushed it against the walls so that it forms a rectangle and will hopefully stop them from spreading the bedding around too much. I will let you know whether it works or not tomorrow!
May 8th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | 2 Comments »
Tags: Chickens, names
I have finally managed to think of names for the girls! After a lot of thought and some brilliant suggestions from Down the Lane, I have decided on the following names:
Nutmeg
Thanks to crystalj for the name suggestion!
Daisy
We came up with name ages ago in the car with my mum and step-dad.
Victoria
I don’t particularly like this as a name on its own but I really think it suits this chicken!
May 6th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, feed, tame
Today I did a bit of gardening after work, and ended up hanging around with the chickens for a while afterwards. The brown one kept trying to jump up to get the tub of meal worms I had in my hand so I put my arm out for her…
My chicken has a new feeding spot
May 6th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, eggs, soft-shelled
This morning when I opened the coop up and let the girls out there were 2 very strange looking eggs on the coop floor. One of them was like a normal egg but a bit squashed looking, and the other was small and very pointy. When I picked them up they had soft shells. I was going to take a picture of them to show you but unfortunately they split open in my hand so I had to just put them in the bin.
I’m not too concerned about this – the fact that there were 2 of them makes me think that this is not a calcium deficiency, but that they were soft because whoever laid them laid 2 eggs in one go. I think it was the grey one that laid them.
May 5th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, coop, cracked, eggs, names
Ever since the girls have started laying I have had an egg each day off of the brown one and the grey one but no more off of Daisy. This makes me think that she never laid an egg in the first place. I think the grey one laid 2 eggs in her first day – one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. That would explain why her eggs were so small. Also, Daisy has just started to do the squatting thing when I approach her from behind. The fact that she wasn’t doing this already makes me think that she is not laying yet (but hopefully will be soon).
I got another broken egg today off of the floor of the coop – the grey one is still laying there. I decided to put a bit more bedding down on the coop floor to see if that can cushion the impact a little bit. It seems like such a waste to be throwing her eggs away…
I have also been asking for name suggestions for the brown on on the forums at Down the Lane. I am going to try and keep the thread going for a couple of days and then pick one of the suggestions.
