Bluetit Diary    Apr 2021 (4)

An egg! Ella has laid an egg!!

I have been checking first thing each morning and up until now, nothing has been happening.  Now at last Ella has started laying!

Scruffy is still slowly adding to her nest.

It's a pity about the cobwebs. Both boxes seem to have them this year.

At first it wasn't obvious that Ella had laid a second egg. However, now you can clearly see it!

Two days have passed, and Ella now has 4 eggs.

Another shot of Ella's eggs.

Ella has laid another egg again this morning.  She now has 5 eggs.  I wonder how much longer she will go on laying.

This is a much better shot of Ella's 5 eggs.

Ella now has 6 eggs.

Ella spent much of yesterday sitting on the eggs.  Today she has been sitting on them most of the time.  I think she must have started incubating them.  If that is the case, she may lay one last egg tomorrow, and then stop.

Ella still only has 6 eggs.  I think that means she has stopped laying and started incubating. 

Six is a reasonable, but definitely lower than average egg count.  We normally get 8 to 10 in a clutch and occasionally as many as 11 or 12 (excluding those occasions when two hens have laid them of course).  Our Field Guide says usually 7-12, sometimes 5-16!  We've never had more than 12 eggs laid by one hen.