Carol's Chickens

After fifteen years of poop picking in the run the level of the soil has dropped drastically year by year. Every year I top up the soil a bit when I see top soil on offer.

The original level of the soil was up to the chickens’ patio. Over time I added one step and then two steps. Six months ago I added the three stakes to stop the steps moving gradually forward each time I step on them.

Whenever I dig over the run I spade up the soil towards the steps but it gradually gets scratched away again. The block and the log are there to stop the soil being scratched away from the patio.

I tipped in the four bags of top soil. The girls love having fresh soil to scratch in. I leave it for them to gradually spread the soil.

For now the level is much improved but it’s something that needs doing several times a year. The girls love the process of the soil being added so it gives them a bit of fun as well reducing the drop for a while.

Ginger seems to have had almost a proper moult which is unusual for a first year girl. As well as dropping lots of small feathers she has also been dropping long feathers. This morning I noticed Ginger had only two tail feathers left at the angle of an open pair of scissors.

By the time I went back with my camera Ginger had only one tail feather remaining. It was difficult to get a side on photo as Ginger likes to get her beak right up to the camera. Some girls are shy of the camera but not Ginger. She wants to get up close to anything I have in my hands.

I am sure Ginger’s tail will soon be back to normal as tail feathers seem to grow the quickest. Ginger and Silver are such characters and are super friendly.

You can tell they are younger than the rest of the flock because they are always zooming around the run and are up and down the ladders and on top of the shelter and metal table. They are very curious. They follow me around the run when I am picking up and Ginger likes to get on eye level with me. She has jumped on my back a few times and she likes to tweak my hair and peck my fingers, toes and flip flops or boots.

They are funny little girls, quite adorable.

Snow laid her last egg on 27th September. At the time I wasn’t sure if she was at the end of her season or going broody. In the end she went broody for only one day then gave up. She spent one day in the nest box all day and settled in the corner of the chicken shed at bedtime and I perched her at dusk.

The following day Snow didn’t bother with the nest box again and she perched at bedtime. I think she gave up quickly as it’s so late in the year and she has now finished laying for this year.

Ginger laid her last egg on 25th September after laying nine eggs. I wasn’t sure if she was just taking a break but I realise now that she has stopped altogether. First she stopped squatting when I put my hand over her and her comb was less red than before.

Then over the last three or four days Ginger has been having a partial baby moult. I have been finding small piles of her feathers in the chicken shed and the run although she doesn’t look any different. I think this means she is finished laying until spring.

Ginger and Silver are now six months old but Silver hasn’t shown any signs of getting ready to lay. Sometimes when they mature too late in the year they don’t start laying until the spring. I think both Ginger and Silver now won’t lay until spring.

It seems we are not going to get any winter eggs this year and will have to wait for spring before egg laying starts up again.

I decided to take some up to date portraits of each of the girls. They are in the order that the girls came to us.

Gold’s tail feathers look a bit scruffy. She is still dropping the occasional feather. Red still has some loose fluffy feathers and is also still dropping the occasional feather. Ginger is dropping mostly tiny feathers and the occasional long one but doesn’t look any different.

It is good to get the moulting over in plenty of time before winter. The girls are looking lovely.

The new girls hadn’t had mash yet so I thought I would give the girls some mash and see how they got on. It is useful if they like mash because that’s how I worm the girls. Anyway Ginger and Silver got stuck into the mash straight away along with the rest of the girls.

As I mentioned in my last post Red still has a fluffy bottom as you can see above. Despite looking tatty her bottom feathers never seem to change.

By lunch time all the mash was gone so I think I can say that they all enjoyed that.

Snow’s tail is now back to it’s full length. She has laid eleven eggs in seventeen days. I think she may be going broody as she has been spending most of the day in the nest box, despite laying for the last two days, yet when I lift her out for a break she stays out for quite a while so I am not sure yet. It could be that Snow is just slowing down to the end of this year’s egg laying.

Red has been dropping piles of feathers and is looking quite tatty. She still has a fluffy bottom though. The feathers are now beginning to slow so I am hoping she is coming through her moult.

Ginger has laid nine eggs in fifteen days but hasn’t laid for the last two days so it looks like she may be taking a break. Hopefully she will start laying again soon.

Looking back at Red last year she started laying in November. Throughout November, December and January she would sometimes take a break of up to five days between eggs. From February onward she started laying every other day.

I am sure this is the same thing happening with Ginger. The shorter days are probably contributing to less eggs at the moment.

This morning I managed to get a photo of Ginger properly settled in the nest box. This time Ginger didn’t move when I took her photo.

In other news Red is moulting big time. There are piles of her feathers all around the run and in the chicken shed each morning. I am surprised she isn’t bald. She actually looks surprisingly good in spite of the huge number of feathers I am picking up every day.

Red is the last girl to moult so it will be good to have them all through it before the cold weather arrives.

Snow is still laying and has laid six eggs since she started laying again. Ginger has now laid seven eggs in eleven days. She is a good little layer of tiny eggs. Silver isn’t looking at all ready to start laying yet.

The bedtime routine continues to work really well. Gold has continued to perch on the corner perch and this makes it easier for the rest of the girls to settle out of her way. All is in harmony with the flock which is lovely.

Ginger has laid five eggs in eight days but she has been really elusive to catch in the nest box. It has never taken me this long to catch a girl in the nest box.

Ginger must be in and out really quickly for I haven’t, until now even seen her going in, coming out or even looking in a nest box. The give away has been the pine shavings thrown over the ramp.

Today I knew she was due to lay and Snow had already laid. I kept popping up to see if she was in the nest box. Once some shavings had been thrown over the ramp and Ginger was being quite vocal I knew that she was getting close to laying.

I decided to leave my camera in the chickens’ store cabinet and sit with a book on the top patio just outside the run. Ginger does not like being seen in the nest box. Every time Ginger disappeared I lifted the nest box to take a photo but she shot back out again. This happened three times before I finally snapped a photo of her in the nest box.

I came indoors to put the photo on the lap top then went back to see if she was still in the nest box. Ginger was back out in the run and her egg was in the nest box. She is a fast layer. Never has a girl been this tricky to catch in the nest box and even then I only got one photo and another of her tail disappearing down the ramp.

Finally I have a photo. Well done Ginger, on her fast egg laying skills.

Over the last few days I had felt Snow was getting ready to lay again. She was having a twirl around the nest boxes. She has moulted in two halves but has now stopped dropping feathers again. Her tail feathers are almost at their full length.

Yesterday it looked as if she was getting ready to lay. I decided to take a photo of her in the nest box and was surprised to find her next to Ginger’s third egg. Ginger had only laid the day before so has now laid three eggs in four days. Ginger is so quick to lay that I have yet to catch her in the nest box.

Later in the afternoon I checked again and Snow had laid in the corner of the chicken shed. Snow’s egg was it’s usual torpedo shape and until now Snow had laid our smallest eggs. Ginger now takes that spot of laying our smallest eggs.

Snow’s egg is on the left, the next three are Ginger’s eggs and a medium shop bought egg on the right for size comparison.

Snow laid her last egg on 5th October last year and she was the last girl to stop laying. I wasn’t expecting her to lay again this year as all the other girls have stopped laying about a month earlier than last year. But she has surprised us. Well done Ginger and Snow.

Ginger obviously gets her eggs laid quickly because today she laid her second egg and I missed her in the nest box again. To be fair she had already laid it first thing this morning when I first went up to the girls. I knew to check the nest boxes because once more the pine shavings had been thrown out over the ramp.

The second egg on the left is slightly bigger than the first one which is usual.

I thought Red may have gone broody because she spent all day in the nest box laying her last egg. She usually lays eight and this time laid nine. Anyway she hasn’t laid since four days ago so I think she has just come to the end of her laying for this year. Red has laid for eleven months now so she is due a break.

As Red stopped laying Ginger started. Ginger laid her first egg the day after Red laid her last egg so we still have one girl laying which is lovely.

I thought Ginger was getting ready to lay her first egg. Her face is red although her comb is still tiny. She was squatting and more vocal then usual. She had been looking in the nest boxes. Yesterday both nest boxes had pine shavings thrown out onto the ramps.

I went to check on the girls and more pine shavings were thrown out of the nest boxes so I checked inside. There was a tiny egg in the nest box next to the store cabinet. I had missed catching Ginger in the nest box but there was her first tiny egg.

What a clever girl! First eggs are always so special and she laid it in the right place which always amazes me. It never ceases to be exciting. I am sure I will manage to get a photo of Ginger in the nest box next time.

I have now changed the the pellets over to just layers pellets. Well done Ginger, what a clever girl.