Mid-January in the Henhouse

Yesterday, Sunday, I did not check for eggs in the nest boxes until nearly 4pm.  To my dismay, there was a relatively large egg, with a lovely thick shell that had a gaping hole pecked in it and the yolk missing.  :(  Last year we had problems with predation.  I went to great lengths to set up the GoPro on time lapse, but I was never able to catch anyone in the act?!

Today I have been making a concerted effort to run out and look every hour or so. On my 11:00 visit, Butterknife (who is OMG how old now?) was in the nestbox.  I unceremoniously lifted her up--no egg.  On my 1:00 visit, just now, she was still there, this time sitting on a small egg.  However, as I approached, Ping came dashing out of the coop.  >What is actually happening still seems like a mystery.  :)

Another bit of drama first thing yesterday.  When I let them all out in the morning, Pong's comb and face was a bloody mess.  Poor honey--I think she got frostbite.  She kept shaking her head violently, because I think it probably hurt, and the blood made it feel sticky and weird.  And that kept it from coagulating.  It was just the very tips of two points. I felt badly.  I threw her into the isolation area.  Then after a not very helpful application of the wound cover-up goop (which softened it, which was good, but then contributed to continued little stubborn droplets of blood flying everywhere, I realized what I needed was the styptic powder.  Happy to say I was actually able to FIND it in the chaos of our house!  A couple of dustings with that stopped the bleeding at last, so I was able to let her back out with the gang.  I kept an eye on her off and on through the morning to make sure it didn't start again.

I have been telling myself I needed to put vaseline on all their combs and just hadn't done it.  So I grabbed it and rubbed it on her first thing this morning.  Will try and repeat the process for everyone else during my lunch hour.