Wow, I have a lot of reading to catch up on! The few times I've been home, I've been trying to catch up on my sleep with some power naps. Between staying up late helping kids with HW (which we start late due to wrestling meets, harp lessons and such), trying to get dinner cooked, the loud storms we have been experienceing, and my husband who sounds like he's sawing down a forest every time he sleeps, seems like I get no sleep, and I'm so exhausted that the laundry piles just grow, the mail pile is spilling off the counter....
Cute chick pix ... I'll go back and look this weekend. Getting out the last of the last-minute holiday gifts people requested I make this week ... The extra $660 I made this week is nice!
CR- I'm buying a bell from you. I'll PM you sometime after we cut a Christmas tree ... assuming the weather cooperates. (If not, I think I'll just pick a tree up at QFC). I'm not in a rush for the bell, so any time is fine. It's not a gift.
What I came on here for ... What causes a hen to lay an egg with a soft shell? My New Hampshire who started laying eggs 10 days ago laid 6 eggs in 6 days, then I thought she took a 2 day break and had another good egg Tuesday and one this afternoon. I pulled out the trays under the roosting bars in my eglu today and found a full-sized softshell egg on one of the trays, and evidence that there may have been a second soft-shell that was partially eaten as their appeared to be egg insides with no shell on the litter tray. (I had last cleaned the trays on Sunday afternoon - I usually do this daily, but the weather has been so nasty!). Until this afternoon, after I found the eggs, the New Hampshire was the only gal of laying age in the Eglu Cube (The others are 19 weeks, but don't have any bright red bits on their faces). Her hard eggs have always been in the nesting box. Last week I caught her ignoring the layer food and chowing down on chick developer, so I mixed hen food with the chick food and added a tray with oyster shell and grit.
Tonight I moved my 2 other hens (which should lay any day - they are both squatting and doing the butt waggle whenever I come near) back into the Eglu cube. Initially the RIR and New Hampshire started their fight again, but the RIR quickly decided the NH is just too big, so now she avoids her. Can't wait for fair weather to let them roam again, or at least a roof and raccoon guard on the 10'x10' dog kennel. (I did manage to get the panels mostly straight again - sometimes being overweight has its advantages.) The Catawba wooden coop is just too difficult to use in we weather. The doors are too difficult to open, I'm always planing them down, sawing bits off, and then I can't get them shut without a hammer and a prybar.
