Carol's Chickens

This afternoon I set up a third feeding station in the bottom end of the new girls run. Then I mixed the girls together. Today they didn’t seem to be taking much notice of each other. I ended up leaving them together all afternoon. The new girls didn’t go to the ladders at all. I think we are finally getting somewhere.

I could tell that Mango was getting ready to come back into lay after a break of two weeks. She was very vocal and was looking in the nest boxes. Once I opened up so that the girls could mix Mango settled in the new girls’ little coup. As usual anything their side must be better.

Mango went on to lay her egg in the new girls’ nest box.

Red also laid for the second time since her broody break. Snow, Ginger, Storm and Silver also laid giving us our first, six egg day, for ages.

Two more girls back in lay has given us a boost but Snow and Gold will probably go broody soon which will put us back again. They have reached their normal amount of eggs laid before going broody.

I am so pleased that mixing went better today and will try leaving the flock together all day tomorrow. Friday will be a month that the new girls have been with us and they can then go on to fifty fifty growers and layers pellets so if it continues to go well I will try mixing them full time.

It seems that it is difficult and then it suddenly seems to change. I am feeling more confident about them being together now. I will see how it goes tomorrow.

Edit, again!

Snow has now gone broody after laying her regulation eight eggs in fourteen days. She returned to the corner of the chicken shed, where she lays her eggs, in the late afternoon.

Mixing the girls has gone slower than I expected. I tried putting Mango, Cloud and Ginger on the new girls side to take the worst chasers out of the equation. It didn’t work. Gold, Storm and Silver who had taken no notice of the new girls before now constantly chased them.

The next day I put Gold and Snow in with the new girls. They took no notice of the new girls and the four got along fine but it’s not really helping with getting them mixing.

Yesterday I mixed them and it seemed to be going fine for a while. I thought we were making progress but then suddenly the new girls were constantly being chased again. They once again ended up at the top of the ladder.

At this point, photo above, I thought it was going so well but then suddenly the chasing started again. The new girls were getting stressed so I separated them again.

In other news, on the egg front, there has been a slow down. Cloud remained broody for nearly two weeks. The odd thing is that the day Cloud went broody, Mango stopped laying. She hasn’t laid for two weeks but hasn’t gone broody either.

Red hasn’t yet started laying after her broody spell but I think she will come back into lay soon. Storm is only laying two or three eggs a week. Gold, Snow, Silver and Ginger are laying. They are now alternating the days they are laying so are we are getting two eggs a day. Snow and Gold will probably go broody again soon though.

It will be good when the new girls start laying to get a few more eggs. First though I need to get them mixed. They always get there in the end so I guess I will have to just keep giving them time together.

Edit

Red has just laid an egg after a break of eleven days. Well done Red!

Both yesterday and today I gave the new girls an hour with the main flock. It went about the same both days. Snow, Gold, Silver, Storm and Red took no notice of the new girls.

As I expected it was bottom girl Cloud that was first to kick off. Cloud and Maple went at each other with ruffs raised until Cloud chased Maple away. Next it was Ginger who chased both Maple and Popcorn and grabbed their feathers at the back of their neck. Mango briefly chased the new girls but not to the extent of Cloud and Ginger.

The new girls retreated to the top of the ladder and stayed there. At this point I decided it was pointless to carry on as they were not mixing anyway so I returned both lots to their own sides.

While the girls were mixed I moved the new girls’ dishes to the chickens’ patio area otherwise I knew pellets would get flicked out into the dirt and dirt would get scratched into the water. The main flock saw these new dishes as far superior to their own of course.

On the second day I had planned to put Cloud and Ginger on the new girls side so the new girls could have a more peaceful time mixing with the rest of the flock but as soon as I opened the gate the main flock rushed in. I decided to leave them all together and try this plan the next day.

It started off the same with the main flock not seeming to notice the new girls. As soon as Cloud and Ginger noticed them though they chased them until they retreated to the top of the ladder again.

Tomorrow I will try again with my plan to put Cloud and Ginger on the new girls side. I will choose my moment and be a bit more careful when I open the gate. It is early days yet and they have plenty of time to get used to each other.

Today I switched the girls on the opposite sides of the run. Maple and Popcorn immediately went down to the bottom of the run.

At the end of their first week the new girls found the ladder and the branch perch above it on their side of the run. I just never had my camera on me whenever they were on the ladder.

I stood behind them and tried to guide them towards the patio.

I gave them an hour on the opposite sides.

The main flock have been desperate to get into the new girls’ side but once in there they wanted to come back out again. The new girls also clearly wanted to get back to their own side. I decided that was enough for the first day and put them back on their own sides.

I think what they really want is to be together. The next step will be to give them some time together. Maybe tomorrow.

Today Red went broody and both Snow and Gold came back into lay. Red went broody after laying ten eggs in nineteen days. Snow had taken a break of fourteen days and Gold had taken a break of eight days.

Cloud has now been broody for eight days and shows no sign of coming out of it. She is really determined.

I knew Snow was about to come back into lay as she always practices the day before.

Gold doesn’t practice first. I went up to check on the girls and saw that Gold was in the new girls’ nest box. She had forced her way under the dividing wire. Gold has done this a few times. She is determined to get into the other side and I have found her sitting near the new girls a couple of times. Luckily they don’t take any notice of each other. I have to keep fortifying the barrier.

I left Gold until she had laid her egg and then retrieved both her and her egg and fixed the dividing wire again. I will be glad when the girls can be mixed as it’s really difficult keeping both Gold and Storm out of the new girls’ section. They try to slip past me every time I go in and succeed every now and again. I have to pick them up and take them back to their side.

We have had the new girls for two weeks now and they need to stay on growers pellets for another two weeks. Over the next few days I will start switching the new girls to the other side of the run to get them used to it. I will then start mixing them for short, supervised, periods of time to see how they all get on.

It will be good to get back to one flock again and I am hoping that by the end of the next two weeks the new girls and the main flock will be used to being together.

When the laying girls have laid I have been closing the nest boxes but Cloud is quite determined at the moment. I knew Red needed to lay so had to leave the nest boxes open.

I took one photo from the open lid and another from the ramp. The nest box next to this one is empty.

This is obviously the current favourite nest box. Some girls (Ginger) don’t like to share and others are happy to share. Red is so easy going she doesn’t mind who wants to share with her.

Cloud has now gone broody. She has only laid seven eggs in eleven days.

I lifted Cloud out of the nest box and she didn’t move. Her feathers are raised and her eyes look manic.

I am surprised she has gone broody so quickly and after so few eggs. She has laid them in quick succession though. She has laid missed a day then laid two days running then missed a day and repeat.

We are beset with broody girls at the moment. At least we still have plenty of eggs.

Gold went broody two days ago. She isn’t determined at all though and after two days she is over it. Snow on the other hand has been broody for a week. She is the most determined broody of our current flock. She is beginning to come out of as she is spending longer in the run when I lift her out. She still returns eventually though. Hopefully she is nearly through it.

I close the nest boxes once all the laying girls have laid but it’s tricky with six girls still laying.

These two are so in sync with each other. No doubt they will go broody together at some stage.

The new girls are doing really well. The main flock have taken no notice of them at all so I am hopeful integration should be quite easy.

The information in the e-mail with their arrival date said they need to be on grower pellets for a month. It said then they can move onto fifty fifty grower pellets and layer pellets for a further month before going on to just layer pellets. At the stage where they are on half and half the whole flock can have this so that they can be mixed together.

I plan to start mixing for short spells on their last week on grower pellets so that when they move on to half and half they should be ready to mix full time. I am looking forward to getting the whole flock together.

Tonight for the first time since Snow went broody she perched in the chicken shed instead of sitting in the corner before I moved her to a perch. I think she is now through her broody spell.

When I opened the new girls’ little coup Popcorn was the first to venture out.

This gave me the chance to get a good close up photo. I opened the hatch and closed the side gate so that they had half the run. They soon ventured out into the bottom part of the run. I had to top up their food and water dish which shows that they are eating and drinking well.

Popcorn also had a dust bath while the main flock were dust bathing on the other side of the wire. This is lovely to see as it shows that they are happy and settled. They have settled in very quickly.

At the end of the day they put themselves to bed again. All I have to do is go in and close up their little coop. These girls seem really bright and cotton on quickly. They are making it so easy for me.

The day before the new girls arrived Silver was the only girl to lay. We are on an every other day cycle with egg laying at the moment. The day the new girls arrived we had another, six egg, day. Storm, Gold, Ginger, Red, Cloud and Mango laid.

All this happened while the new girls settled in but I felt the arrival of the new girls deserved it’s own post to introduce them.

And, the most amazing thing, when I went to check at dusk, the new girls had put themselves to bed in their little coup. I don’t think we have ever had new girls put themselves to bed on the first night. I was absolutely blown away by this.

This has been the most amazing start. Hopefully this means they will put themselves to bed every night. This has been the easiest start ever and I am so happy with how things are going.