aterrel
Hatching
Hello! New here, so be patient. I have an interesting situation. For several days now, I have had an 11 month old Cinnamon Queen, "Bubbles", that has started laying white banded eggs, some are soft, some not. One day, she laid one on the ground outside the coop. Sometimes, I find them in the coop, like they fell as she roosted, broken, of course. She has completely skipped laying anything for 3 days and today, she laid two white banded eggs in one day, in the nest. I only have one other hen, as I lost 3 to coyotes more than 3 months ago. "Bella" is an Australorp and the dominant hen. Her eggs are completely normal. I have two chicks who are old enough that I have been slowly introducing them to the older ones over the past few days with no apparent problems. Bubbles seems very healthy and I use no artificial lighting. I am having suspicions that Bella is hogging the nest and causing Bubbles to be stressed and "holding It"...ha! I Often find her running around the coop squawking because Bella is sitting on the nest. I have two nest boxes but for some reason, they both prefer the one. What can I do, if anything, to get Bubbles to chill or get them to use the other box? Is it possible the chicks are causing the stress? I have moved this from another topic not relevant to my issue. Sorry, I'll get better. And yes, I supplement their feed with oyster shell, occasionally.