If Stella had stayed on the antibiotics prescribed by the vet, Baytril, we might not have been able to eat Stella's eggs yet because you have to wait 15 days from when the chicken comes off that medication, although possibly not at the dosage she was prescribed, which was quite low. This is because it takes 15 days for an egg to develop.
However, we had trouble getting her to take the antibiotics and so were very pleased when Caroline at Surrey Poultry offered to look after her for us as she had lots of experience with poorly chickens and getting antibiotics into chickens. As it happens Caroline uses Tylan, which does not require a withdrawal period. Yesterday was only her 9th day since finishing the antibiotics.
Today there was only one egg in Stella and Doris' nest box. It was smaller than the eggs Doris has laid recently, only 50 g, although quite a jump from Stella's tiny egg yesterday, but I suspect it is her 2nd egg and the tiny white feather on it makes me think that is even more likely. Doris has laid about 6 eggs in a row, so a break from laying is quite in order. As she is a Speckeldy I think she is meant to lay less eggs than Meg who is a Columbian Blacktails and so she is likely to have more rest days than Meg.
Altogether we had 3 eggs today. One very large one from Frodo, one medium egg from Meg and one small egg from Stella.
How lovely. You'll soon be getting more eggs than you know what to do with. I'd love to have chickens but now just isn't the right time, perhaps in the future though.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jo. Yes, on a good day we're getting four eggs, which means the fridge door is filling up fast as young chickens lay an egg most days and our older chicken is laying well, too. One neighbour has already had half a dozen.
ReplyDeleteChickens need a bit of space and a certain amount of time to look after well, not to mention the initial expense of their housing. They are very rewarding if/when you are able to keep them, though.