Hatty laid her first egg of the year on Friday 19th January. To read more about it, click on this link.
Up until today I have only collected three eggs. I thought it was a little strange as Hatty normally lays at least one egg every other day. By my reckoning she should have laid about 9 but as it’s the start of the laying season and it sometimes takes awhile to get into a regular pattern she might have laid about 7. So the 3 eggs I have collected aren’t alot.
As it happens I’ve just read an article about why hens might not lay and I’ve been mentally ticking off the reasons which don’t apply. I certainly haven’t changed the type of food she eats or introduced new birds into the flock. I don’t think she’s had a fright or got herself too cold. The days are getting lighter so she should be laying more not less. In the last few days I have begun to worry that something might be wrong with Hatty, but she seems fine and as bossy as ever!
Over the last week I have been following her about, like an egg detective, when I let her out in the morning. On Sunday I thought I’d cracked it! She went straight to the mill house and sat in her favourite place. I followed slowly and cautiously trying not to make a sound. I caught sight of her through a hole in the wall and happy with the thought that an egg would soon be on it’s way I snuck off.
What a wily bird she is, she must have heard me because when I returned later feeling sure she would have laid, I found no egg.
My husband reported tonight, that my father-in-law had spotted Hatty sitting on top of a pile of silage wrap this morning. I sprang into egg detective mode straight away and headed for the silage wrap mountain. With stick in hand to aid the search, I rooted through the plastic and sure enough there at the top, I found two white eggs.
Only two, I hear you cry! Well, it was dark, the eggs are fragile and I didn’t want to break any, the silage wrap mountain is as tall as me and you never know if a family of rats have happily nested underneath the mountain, which I can tell you I do not wish to meet! Particularly when it is dark.
Anyway, now that the hiding place has been found I will have another search in the morning. So watch this space for more breaking news!