Time often seems to pass at different speeds. We all know how it slows down when we are clock watching, waiting for a certain time to come round and how it speeds up when we have a limited timescale to get a job completed.
The years seem to fly by when you look back. A few days ago my husband commented that it didn’t seem like a year ago, already, that David Bowie passed away. I have been waiting to pass the four to six weeks contagion time for mycoplasma. Of all the research that I have done, six weeks is the longest time given before being safe from it, so I am counting on the longest time span to be on the safe side.
It is five weeks today that Pebbles went so there is just another week to go and this six weeks seems to have taken the longest time to pass. It seems a lot longer than five weeks ago that Pebbles went.
I think the flock is safe now but I just want to pass the magic six weeks to feel complete peace of mind.
I would really love to add two more seramas but will not do so until this six week period has passed. I feel that if anything happened to one of the little girls the other would be left on her own and in the same way that chicken keepers like three or more in case of this, I would like more seramas so that one will never be left on her own. I also feel that four little girls and four bigger girls will be a really nice balance for the flock.
Although the flock mix happily together they are definitely two groups. Although they sometimes all perch up together, the two little girls are always at one end of the group. I have never seen them sitting in a mixed up order. Very often they are perched separately like in these photos taken yesterday.
Freckles and Rusty perch in a shaft of sunlight
The four bigger girls perch on the other side of the run
Freckles and Rusty beak to beak
I think it would really be good for the flock to have some more of these little girls and I can’t wait to get more, but wait I must, so the next week will probably pass very slowly.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It will be a really nice size flock with two more little girls.
One more week is not long,I am sure you are getting excited.
It isn’t long but it does seem to have slowed down. I am not allowing myself to think too much about until another week has passed then I will call our guy and see if he has any for sale.
Are you going to the same breeder you got Rusty and Freckles from? I hope so as, by the end of another week, you wuill have the proof that you have been sold healthy birds, on the inside as well as the outside! I love the final photo of the beak-to-beak stance – they are so very appealing.
I am definitely going back to the same breeder. He didn’t keep his sheds as clean as I like but I am happy that these two are healthy and robust little girls. I too love seeing them beak to beak. They are so sweet. I would love to get some more soon but I think it would be best to wait for better weather though. I will wait for as long as my patience holds out.
Hello Carol, my husband and I liked your blog. We have chickens. We bought 7 white leghorns on Oct. 4 2013. We gave them to amish woman, and bought, 5 red chickens from her. The white chickens laid extra large eggs, but did not lay regularly. They were not as friendly and calm as the red chickens.
We feed our chickens organic laying pellets. No antibiotics. no GMO feed, no chemicals.
We do not have a rooster. I laughingly told my husband he is the rooster, as the red chickens crouch down for him. The amish woman said the chickens are broody, when they crouch down like that. My husband puts his hand over their back and neck, and shakes the chicken. When he lifts his hand, the chicken shakes all over, as it does when it is in dust bath. Another chicken will come up and pluck sleeve, as if to say, “come on, its my turn now.”
I am glad you like my blog, thank you.
I have no rooster either. They make too much noise and don’t lay eggs so unless you want to breed chickens there is no need for a rooster.
The chickens crouch when they first come into lay and they will also do this for a rooster to show they are receptive to the rooster’s attentions. It isn’t a sign of being broody. We have had a broody hen in the past and they will sit in the nest box even if there are no eggs to sit on. They stop laying and want to sit in the nest box most of the day only coming out to feed and poop and dust bath occasionally.
Some breeds are more prone to going broody than others. We gave our broody girl to a farmer friend of ours as she would lay eggs for a month and then go broody for a month just sitting in the nest box and not laying then two weeks more out of the nest box before laying again and then the cycle would start all over again. This meant she was always taking up space in the nest box and she got picked on because she would just sit there. She was a goldtop called Butterscotch. We felt she would be happier on the farm.
It sounds like you have good layers.