Carol's Chickens

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.

My new girls arrived at half past one today. They are a gold sebright who I have called Maple and a gold pencilled wyandotte who I have called Popcorn.

Maple looked like she would like to get in the other side with the rest of the flock which is a good sign. They settled in straight away and seemed quite chilled. They soon found the food. Bedtime will be interesting. I hope that like past girls if they don’t go in the coup they will settle on top of it and I will be able to lift them down and put them in.

After I posted about our first, six egg day, of the year which was the day Mango laid her first egg of the year we had one egg the following day which was followed by our second, six egg, day. I think this was also Cloud’s first egg of the year.

I saw Mango and Cloud come out of a nest box together but there were no eggs when I checked. Next time I checked there were three eggs in that nest box. I feel sure two of them were Mango and Cloud’s even though I didn’t actually catch Cloud in a nest box. They are so in sync that they always start laying very close together. This would mean all eight girls are laying and whisper it, no broody girls at the moment, although I am sure not for long.

The following day we again had one egg which was Gold’s. Then today we had our first ever, seven egg, day.

All the girls laid apart from Gold who laid yesterday. I am just amazed.

I had an e-mail today from Pippenchick saying my new girls will be delivered between eleven and two on Friday. I may wait until the following day to put out a post as I will want to take some photos. Exciting!

Edit

I spoke too soon. Snow has now gone broody after laying nine eggs in fifteen days. Having all eight girls laying was very short lived but only to be expected. Sigh!

I knew that Mango was going to lay today. She was much more vocal than usual. She kept going in and out of the nest boxes and was scratching around and throwing out loads of pine shavings.

A bit later Mango settled in the nest box. I heard the egg shout and went to check. Mango was out with some pine shavings on her back and her egg was in the nest box.

Mango went back in as if she wasn’t sure if she had actually laid her egg. First eggs can be confusing.

Well done Mango!

Red also came back in to lay after a break of eight days. Ginger has been laying her eggs in the shelter for a while. Then Gold started laying her eggs in the shelter. Then today Red laid her egg in the shelter. I don’t know why but Ginger seems to have started a trend.

We get our new girls next Friday so the girls will miss the shelter. With a bit of luck they will then start laying in the nest boxes again.

And finally this is our first, six egg day, of the year. We have had eggs from Snow, Ginger, Silver, Mango, Gold and Red. We have gone from, four egg, days to six, missing out five. Six eggs in one day is amazing!

Gold came back in to lay two days ago. She had taken a break of ten days. Cloud is now squatting as well as Mango. Cloud started squatting a couple of days after Mango started squatting. These two are always in tune. I think they will start laying very soon.

With five girls now laying we have an abundance of eggs. We now have Snow, Ginger, Silver, Gold and Storm laying. Red should come back into lay soon and Mango and Cloud should start soon. Maybe we will have all eight girls laying before the next one goes broody.

I took this photo before we ate four eggs (two each) for breakfast this morning.