My 4 yr old RIR Eggatha is beginning to reluctantly accept the 12 week old Welsumers who have joined her in the chicken run but chases them away from the feeders if she notices them. They sleep separately, Eggatha in a converted doghouse, th other 2 in henhouse. She has slept in both in the past, 1st in the doghouse w/the late Eggnes, then in the henhouse til the new ones joined the run. She seemed always to prefer the doghouse. She has regularly laid an egg daily in the doghouse til this week. Somehow she discovered she could crawl under the chicken wire door & it took me 2 days to realize HOW she was getting out. She of course laid her eggs in a jungle of iris & yarrow & isn't happy about being caught & her escape thwarted. Today no egg. Late in the day she was walking around slowly looking like she expected the world was ending & when I came out again to tuck them in, there was a white banded egg just lying on the ground nowhere near either house she has always used & not on the straw mounds here & there. She had already gone into the doghouse a good hour earlier than usual. Seemed Ok. Sorry this is s
o long but I am wondering if the strange & late egg could be result of stress or the 96 degree heat today or something else.
o long but I am wondering if the strange & late egg could be result of stress or the 96 degree heat today or something else.
