The Eggs and I

The Cordelia situation has become a bit of a farce. I went into her nest box yesterday and discovered another pulverized chick beneath her. I am now of the opinion that she hasn't stood on them at all but that the shell has broken, exposing dead chicks. This one was white so it looks like the shaver eggs had been fertile after all.

I cleared out any dirty eggs that were obviously not going to hatch and threw out the nest box. I've made her an alternative nest with fresh hay and she's comfortably ensconced on this with her remaining eggs. I will give her a couple more days and then throw the rest out as I have a nasty feeling they're not going to amount to anything.

When eggs fail to hatch you have to ask why. Cordelia has done a great job incubating them so either the roosters weren't firing on all cylinders or the eggs somehow got cold which seems unlikely. This is also the tail end (scuse the pun) of the chicken breeding season here in New Zealand as it will soon be autumn so perhaps this was also a factor. Whatever the reason it has been an immensely disappointing exercise.

Piper spent three days away before returning Friday morning. She wasn't very hungry and disappeared Saturday but turned up again on Sunday spending all her time asleep in a patch of grass near the rabbitry. If only Angel would come home now my mind would settle.