Today its raining on the Cape. It has been cloudy all day with occasional showers from the skies. I went to check for eggs this afternoon and I found Dolly and Autumn both sitting in adjacent boxes. Dolly was sitting on two eggs and Autumn was sitting on air. Then in front of the nesting boxes, lay 2 rouge eggs. The buff Orpingtons were also in the coop. They went back and forth, staring at the two Silkies in the nesting boxes then staring at the eggs. They must have been thinking, ” Not this again!”. Funny, the same thing crossed my mind. Yes, I had been waiting for Autumn to become broody since she was the last of the Silkies that had yet to this Spring. However, Dolly is now, once again broody. This will be the fourth time since December. She was an excellent mother this Spring, but as Chocolate is no longer with us, her chances at motherhood are no more.
So, how do rouge eggs get there anyway? I am not sure what exactly happens. I guess this is where a coop cam would come in handy! Sometimes these eggs are warm and sometimes they are stone cold. Sometimes they are the Silkie eggs and sometimes they are from one of the larger girls. They are never broken and I have been finding them everyday for the last 5 days.
I have seen the broody girls attempting to roll eggs from adjacent nesting boxes into their own. I also have seen the chickens higher up on the pecking order, evict the broody hens from their preferred nesting box when they are ready to lay. Could it be that sometimes the hen that is ready to lay her egg clears the nesting box of any preexisting eggs? All I know, is that there is an awful lot of confusion over these rogue eggs from the Buff Orpingtons and myself. I wonder if this mystery will ever be solved?
4 thoughts on “Rogue Eggs”
I have a question for you on a totally different topic. Do your Orpington's ever get pale in the face? Mine does. It's like she wears her emotions right on her face. It was hot yesterday and when I got home, she was very pale, panting and had her wings open. I gave her chilled fruit and hosed down their run again to cool it off. Two hours later when I checked in on her, she was fine and back to having a bright red face. Her comb and wattles are always red.
Just curious. I've posted to BYC to no avail and thought I'd reach out to another BO owner.
You know, I thought that Oyster Cracker, my largest and fluffiest BO, was not feeling well. A couple weeks ago summer's heat arrived. She was pale. Since then, she is pale off and on. Everything else is normal. Funny thing is when she is pale and I give her love with petting, holding and sweet talk, she reddens up again. I don't think they do well in the heat. I had never seen that before either. I agree keep them cool. I've been putting large blocks of ice in their water. Glad to know I'm not alone 🙂
Thanks for replying. I reposted to BYC and others did respond that some of their hens do the same thing. So I think it's in the range of normal.
Last night I let the girls out to free range for about an hour. Ginger's face was bright red. as it got dark, I scooped her up and held her in my lap and stroked her. Her face slowly lost all it's color and went to very light pink. She was totally relaxed in my lap and cooing so I think she was happy.
It's very strange.
Thank you too Flock Mistress, I was actually thinking of doing a blog post if it continued 🙂