Egg Ritual

Baa-AH! au-au-a-a-bwua-AH! au-au-a-a--ba-AHH!!" The sound of Mellow's histerical bleating could even be heard through the window.

Who knew such a little chicken could bauwk as hard as she did?

Here's a recording of Mellow's noisy "buaa-AH's!"


Soon, the little white heads of Lime and Lemon popped out of the doghouse in confusion. Not knowing what to do, they added in soft cluckings of their concern for their dear little flock member Mellow.
 I noticed that Spice was sitting in on of the nesting boxes. Mellow stopped her loud bauw-AH-kings and ran back into her little hideout: the doghouse as soon as I arrived. Apparently, it was another call for attention on her newly laid egg; I spied a small light brown egg nested among the pine needle bedding (under Spice).

For some reason all the girls like the nesting box on the top left corner, they lay their eggs there everyday. Once in a while though, I do find eggs on the bottom box too. Another acceptable place to lay eggs is the doghouse. The chickens love to hang out there all day. I took a peak today on the other side of the chicken enclosure where the doghouse was positioned. Here's what I saw when I looked inside the doghouse:

Lemon stands up and stretches after laying her egg.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Now back to Spice. . . 

Spice was well settled in the favorite nesting box among the chickens. I could tell that she would soon lay an egg as she started panting heavily.

Spice prepares to lay her egg.

Still wet, her egg pops out!

Soon after the egg was laid, Spice hopped out of the nesting box, and Lime who had been observing for a a while, decided to hop in.

Settling in. . .

Quite the comical expression. Doesn't lil' Lime look so motherly for a change?

After a LONG time, Lime finally jumped back out, fluffed her feathers, and headed back to the doghouse. Well, I guess that's all the egg laying they will do today!

The Downfall of Spice

Ever since Spice was a little chick, she was born a leader. Spice made it very distinguishable at a young age that she was very confident and never feared or doubted her abilities as top hen. But recently I've been noticing a change in the flock. Spice no longer pecked at Charcoal when she got in her way. I was even more surprised when Charcoal even disrespectfully tried to confront Spice. My suspicion was that there was a change in the pecking order.

Lime tries to clean Spice's beak. Spice in the meanwhile, domineers her way through this pesty insolence again.

Usually the way I test the ranks of each chicken, is I hold. .  . for example Spice. I'll grasp her feathered body and move her slowly up and down, let's say in front of Charcoal to see her reaction. *this technique doesn't work 100%  of the time though*. If Charcoal freaks out and makes a dive to the side to avoid the conflict, I will know that she is a lower statues than Spice. However, if Charcoal does not waver her stance and instead raises her head to meet the confrontation growling, she will be confirmed as higher ranked in the pecking order.

This was one problem.

As Spice's head bobbed up and down rudely in front of Charcoal's face, Charcoal snapped."This is an abomination!" she bauwked in her low and dangerous monotonous voice. Charcoal's head shot up and warned of a quick peck of obedience about to be executed. I lowered Spice's head to avoid any unnecessary blood to shed.

I wondered in confusion. Where had the proud, confident, and courageous Spice I had always known disappear off to?