Rear guard

[rick]

This may be a silly idea so I thought I would run it by you all before subjecting Blaze to experiment - but it seems that she will be laying soft eggs now until she either moults and stops for the winter (maybe for good) or runs into some other difficulty. Trouble is the other girls now know that she has the problem and she wont go into the nest for fear of being pursued so ends up dropping it randomly. Because she doesn’t go in the nest it isn’t exactly egg eating (they don’t associate eggs in the nest with what comes out of Blaze) but it is encouraging them to peck her rear, particularly last thing in the evening. Trying to find a solution that doesn’t involve separating her for the foreseeable future.



I think the reason why it's in the evening is that is where she is in her cycle because a few days ago it was at 8pm and this evening it was after she had settled to roost (last night also as there was flapping that i didn’t know the reason for - Aerial hears her drop the egg.) Probably hanging on till dusk and she feels safer maybe.

 

[dinosaw]

Give it a go Rick, whether it will survive her sitting down for the first time you won't know until you try, it would need to be angled outwards somehow otherwise it is just going to get matted with poo in no time. It sounds like she is holding the eggs in, mine do this when I accidentally leave the pophole down all day and they don't feel safe laying.

 

[rick]

Thanks dinosaw. I think she is holding it in. Will find some material for a saddle and give it a try.