Ominous!

Well my sister was my wake up call this am - apparently she was knocking on  the door and ringing the bell for 5 minutes before I answered! We spent the morning chatting and I got my belated Birthday presents - 2 bottles of Fizz, a chicken scarf and a fabric chicken picture she made herself with her new all singing all dancing sewing machine!  We walked Portly, who was delighted to see my sister again and went into a complete frenzy,  and as the weather had turned dull and grey, we decided to wait and see if the clouds would lift and had lunch. Mid afternoon we set off for Cotehele! On the way I stopped at the veg stall and gave my name and number to the son who was as pleasant as his dad and thanked me for admitting to the damage I had done - I looked at the wall again and it was definitely to blame as built at a silly angle and just asking to be hit!!
At Cotehele I took the mini hay bales once more whilst sister did the Cutting Garden, the Veg garden, the pond and beds and the Orchard! We came back via the NT shop for fudge!
Mini drama on the allotment at chicken bedtime - Estelle did not come out of the coop for treats. I lifted her out and realised she was breathing heavily, she had a full crop so I massaged that, then checked her rear end. Oh dear, prolapse. But noticed a crushed egg shell, all folded together, poking out as well as her internal reproductive tract, it does evert slightly when an egg is laid but then retracts. She was obviously having difficulty expelling the egg as it was not hard, for some reason not enough calcium in the shell layers to make it hard which is why she was straining and caused the prolapse.So took hold and pulled! Out came shell, then the egg in its sac! I pushed the everted tract  back in with my finger ( ! ) and held it there, rather like you used to have to do when the children were on rectal valium for severe epileptic seizures! A manual buttock clench!! 
When I put her back on the grass she immediately started eating her egg then  walked around a bit like John Wayne  before going back in the coop! I will check her again in the morning - hopefully like Tilly it will be a one off. They get calcium in their feed and they get oyster shell grit, so think some malformation or early expulsion of the egg was the cause - hot weather and therefore reduced intake of food can also cause it -  she is getting on a bit in age too! 
Funnily enough I did get spooked on the plot this evening - there was the sound of a howling, snarling dog, the mist was coming into the valley, it was dark by the time I left - at one point fearing the arrival of the  snarling dog I considered shutting myself in the coop with the hens! Not sure what my sister would have done if I failed to reappear - and for once I had not taken my mobile with me! Luckily I made it back without incident! But it sure felt ominous up there!