It may seem an obvious question, but believe me, I do have a good reason to ask!
Our girls are both, it seems, a little prone to letting stress do funny things to their laying routines. Yesterday, my husband finished building a shed adjacent to the chicken pen, and my mum mowed the lawn up there too. The neighbours kids then decided to get on their trampoline and make noises like someone was butchering them one limb at a time! The poor girls were therefore very bewildered and frightened for a couple of hours during the early evening.
About two hours later, Henrietta, our BO, was looking a bit ruffled and ended up laying a soft shelled egg on the grass. I had thought that maybe stress had led her to lay today's egg too early, and it hadn't stayed in her long enough for the shell gland to do it's work.
However, when I left for work today she was sitting on the nest, singing a quiet little egg song and flicking straw around, just like she was going to lay as normal. I couldn't be late for work to wait around and see if she actually laid anything, but am wondering if perhaps her hormones are telling her it's time to lay an egg, but actually, there's no egg waiting there.
What I'm dreading is that she's started doing what our bluebelle Bella has been doing for months now - laying up to FOUR soft shelled eggs a day! Yes, I tell you no lies - FOUR. And suffering dreadfully for it.
If Henrietta starts doing it, I'm going to have to accept that the causes are environmental or dietary, rather than pathological, for them both to be doing it. Up until now, we'd been thinking only Bella was affected, and that she must have something seriously wrong with her reproductive tract.
Anyway, the original question: what could have driven Henrietta into the nest this morning, when I know she only laid her last egg at about 8pm last night? Do hens' hormones tell them that it is time to lay, even without the presence of a physical egg?
Our girls are both, it seems, a little prone to letting stress do funny things to their laying routines. Yesterday, my husband finished building a shed adjacent to the chicken pen, and my mum mowed the lawn up there too. The neighbours kids then decided to get on their trampoline and make noises like someone was butchering them one limb at a time! The poor girls were therefore very bewildered and frightened for a couple of hours during the early evening.
About two hours later, Henrietta, our BO, was looking a bit ruffled and ended up laying a soft shelled egg on the grass. I had thought that maybe stress had led her to lay today's egg too early, and it hadn't stayed in her long enough for the shell gland to do it's work.
However, when I left for work today she was sitting on the nest, singing a quiet little egg song and flicking straw around, just like she was going to lay as normal. I couldn't be late for work to wait around and see if she actually laid anything, but am wondering if perhaps her hormones are telling her it's time to lay an egg, but actually, there's no egg waiting there.
What I'm dreading is that she's started doing what our bluebelle Bella has been doing for months now - laying up to FOUR soft shelled eggs a day! Yes, I tell you no lies - FOUR. And suffering dreadfully for it.
If Henrietta starts doing it, I'm going to have to accept that the causes are environmental or dietary, rather than pathological, for them both to be doing it. Up until now, we'd been thinking only Bella was affected, and that she must have something seriously wrong with her reproductive tract.
Anyway, the original question: what could have driven Henrietta into the nest this morning, when I know she only laid her last egg at about 8pm last night? Do hens' hormones tell them that it is time to lay, even without the presence of a physical egg?
