More on the way?

This is a 9 day old chick.

The tail feather growth, when you compare it to yesterday, is amazing really.

In a few more weeks, tail feathers can be quite an accurate indication of each chick’s gender. 

Pullets push out their tail feathers faster than roosters – it would be nice to think I’ve got 7 girls and 2 boys but nature is usually closer to a 50/50 split so I won’t get too excited just yet.

I thought I’d been low on eggs, in particular the perfect smooth chalk white eggs laid by Dotty, over the past week.

I love her pure white eggs. I'm not sure when the media go sooooo into brown eggs. Every egg advertisement or cooking show always have dark brown eggs -- like it's the healthy wholemeal option!  The colour of the shell is in no way an indication of the nutrient content of the egg.

You can tell what colour egg a hen will lay by the colour of its earlobes. Pale earlobed pullets lay white eggs, dark earlobes mean she will lay brown eggs.

So today I stalked Dotty so see just where she is laying. Can you see the hole in the middle of this picture?

That’s the start of a long tunnel that goes through a big prickly pile of sticks and grass, and late this afternoon when the sun was going down I found Miss Lilly sitting in there.

I have no idea how many eggs she is on. Angelina’s eggs are due to hatch any day and then Miss Lilly, if she stays sitting, will be a mother too in about 20 days! It will be her first lot of chicks.

Tomorrow you should really meet Dottie. She's about the only one not clucky or mothering!