Hello all,
thanks HF for your information, i never though that chickens would eat tuna?! Might try that out at some point. Yes I am a girl by the way! I got worried when Gertie started to look a little droopy for the second time but seeing as it was dark and she went to roost with the other girls I decided to leave it till the morning (and to try to stop worrying)!
Gertie looks like she's made a full recovery now, I've been out keeping them all company this afternoon in the autumn sun and she was running around, curious about everything, making her little noises, following me about etc. She even jumped up on top of the coop, doing a balancing act on the edge of the sleeping area while i put new bedding in there! There was no sign of a second soft egg either.
We got some yoghurt for them and put it in a little plastic container. They were a bit dubious about the plastic container at first but then they got stuck in to the yoghurt, Gertie in particular seemed to really enjoy it, she was wolfing it down! They kept going straight from the yoghurt to the layers mash and getting it all stuck round their beaks and in their combs and then trying to peck it off each other. So funny.
We did give them a small cuttle fish bone as well but they werent interested in it at all. We get the oyster shell tomorrow, so that's another good thing.
Thanks everyone for your help! I'm going to be doing some regular posting on here from now on, learning all about the antics of other peoples chickens!
PS - does anyone know how to post a picture on here? I'd really like to put one of Gertie up...