Bella's nine eggs.
Bella seems to be getting on beautifully with her egg laying! Even Fay seems to want to get in on the act!
Bella seems to be getting on beautifully with her egg laying! Even Fay seems to want to get in on the act!
Bella's nine eggs.
Fay has decided that it is time she started roosting in her nest box. For a female that has not been roosting there prior to nest building, this is normally a sign that she is about to start laying eggs.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Ten eggs! When is Bella going to stop?
So far she has laid an egg each day since she started on Saturday 11th April.
Bella is starting to sit on the eggs for significant periods of the day.
This is a sign that she is coming to an end of egg laying and will soon start to incubate the eggs.
Bertie continues to feed her from the mealworms put out nearby by Elizabeth.
Directly Bella has taken the mealworm from him, Bertie turns to go ...
... leaving Bella to enjoy her meal by herself.
Of course later, when there are chicks to feed, this is a sensible strategy as is gives the female more room to feed them.
Bertie is back with another.
Notice that this is only part of the mealworm. Bertie has removed the head before bringing it to Bella.
Again, there is no hanging about by Bertie.