The F&F hens start laying eggs.

One of our hens, Lady Penelope, has started laying. In the month that we’ve had her, she’s turned from a nervy little pullet into a beast of hen, and a chatty one at that. She now happily sits on our laps, and is always the one singing away in the coop in the mornings to let me know that no, 6am really is still too late to be letting her out. She has the sweetest friendship with Florence, our second hen. The pair range around their garden together, taking it in turns to gobble up willowherb or dandelions, and then they lie down together in their dust bath, wriggling and jiggling about ever so happily as they clean their feathers.

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I’d keep hens even if they didn’t lay eggs. In fact, I’ve become so besotted with my girls that I’d almost forgot that they were here to lay. But then Lady Penelope started to behave a little differently. Though Florence is a wriggler of a bird, Lady Penelope is a grumbler, and normally hates being picked up. She’d run away from you squawking loudly if you even thought about scooping her up into your arms. A week ago, she stopped running, and started squatting on the ground, wings vey slightly raised and her body low. And she didn’t then mind being picked up. This, and a comb that was growing redder and redder by the day, suggested that Penelope was getting ready to lay. Hens squat to prepare themselves for the approach of a cockerel when they can lay. So I started to get rather excited, as one of my girls was clearly going into business.

And when I trotted up to the coop this morning I found this in a nesting box:

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This is a soft-shelled egg, which young hens often produce for the first few goes when they start laying. It’s because the hen hasn’t, up until laying, been taking on enough calcium. We’ve got a grit and oyster shell mix in the run at all times for them to eat, and Lady Penelope will soon be producing proper hard-shelled eggs. Some people like to eat soft-shelled eggs, but I’m a bit queasy about them. What do you think I should do?

3 Responses

  1. GeraniumCat

    Have to admit that we don’t eat soft-shelled eggs, but then they are often damaged before I get to them anyway - if they’re not damaged, they usually get added to the dogs’ food in the afternoon. I add calcium to their drinking water if the soft-shelled eggs persist, which can happen with elderly birds. Yesterday I collected 7 eggs from our new girls, and we’ve had our first blue eggs from our Columbines - very exciting.

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  2. Perrig

    First: do the happy dance! Second: pull down your recipe books that contain your favorite egg-laden recipes. Third: forget the books and just cook them up for breakfast, marveling at their beauty and perfection. Woop, woop-time to celebrate! Congrats to you and your girls.

    Reply

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