A day of high excitement as Fantail's eggs start to hatch! It all started at about a quarter to nine, when we noticed that Fantail seemed to be delving around at the bottom of the nest for ages. We soon discovered why!
What's Fantails doing down there?
All is revealed - it's a piece of eggshell! An egg must have hatched!!
The books say that sometimes the shell is eaten, and sometimes it is removed from the nest and dropped outside. In all the egg hatchings that we have seen, the hen bird has eaten at least the first few eggshells. Producing such a large amount of calcium to make the shells for a clutch of eggs must place an enormous burden of the hen's body and it is little wonder that she takes every opportunity to replace that calcium as soon as possible.
Some more shell is being eaten, and when Fantail leaves the nest we can see that there are now only seven eggs.
At last Fred comes in with some food. Several beak touches take place before she takes it.