House MD 221B Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Please Note: I'm not worried (this time lol) I'm purely intrigued. Pennyapple is a large bird, she's over 3 years old and still lays pretty much daily. She has always laid above average sized eggs. However since we've had the new girls she has laid 2 Extremely large eggs, both double yolkers and over 100g about the size of an average fist (we checked her vent both times terrified she may have hurt herself) But at no point has she done this before, so my question is this? Could these eggs, be some hormonal, psychological, or other physiological response to the new girls? Perhaps she's feeling a bit maternal, or maybe it's completely random. It's just an interesting coincidence that she's only done this since the new girls. the rest have returned back to their normal above average size. I'll try and post a picture in a bit, but one was over 110g. What else is interesting is she appears to be grooming Valentine to be the new Head Chicken, she's even been given Pecan's spot in the nesting box. We're starting to wonder if perhaps Penny never really liked Pecan all that much, but she tolerated her because she was her only companion hence the repeated pecking and feather plucking (3 different types of anti-peck were used but she got used to all 3 each time.) And she doesn't do it to any of the new girls. So maybe she just doesn't care for Peaky like we thought she did. She has shown other protective and maternal signs for the new girls, especially with cats etc. Just wondering has anyone else noticed similar experiences, both egg size, and behaviour changes with new introductions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackian Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 This is so interesting . I am not sure about the eggs but something similer to your girl being trained by Pennyapple made me think. We had two "old girls " left so got two "new girls " to join them 3 months ago. The two new girls went around together all the time.We had to have one of the new girls Eva PTS only 2 months after having her as she broke her leg . This left little Rosie who was bottom of the pecking order and very tiny and always slept in the spare coup with Eva and now she was on her own and lonely. . For two days little Rosie wandered about on her own crying. On the third day we noticed that Poppy one of the older girls was on her own while all the time Rosie was with Clover the top old girl...They were together like a shadow all day and Poppy stood back...That night Poppy went into Rosies coup to sleep and little Rosie went in with Clover.... The next day Rosie had stopped crying and everything went back to normal...We felt that Clover had been consolling Rosie and teaching her how not to feel so sad and on her own. She still stands back as bottom chook but is with them. No such thing as a dumb chick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
House MD 221B Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 That is interesting, it also may help explain why our Peaky went and slept on her own in the Classic when we moved them all to the Cube. Now there is only the cube, and Penny allows Val in the roost with her, and Willow and Peaky are out on the roosting bars, usually with Phoenix and Fenton, but the last two nights, Fenton and Phoenix have both tried to sleep on TOP of the cube lol, and both nights we've just popped them back in, hopefully they'll get the idea. Although they can't have been cold because they weren't huddled together or anything. They are funny little things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
