Carol's Chickens

Today there was a lot of nest box activity. Mango has been squatting, vocal, going to the grit and oyster shell and looking in the nest boxes so I knew she was on the verge of laying her first egg of the year.

There has been lots of flicking pine shavings out and Mango was very interested in Gold who was in the next nest box.

Red is a creature of habit and only lays in the nest box next to the chicken shed. She was unhappy about Gold occupying her favourite spot and there was some growling from these two girls.

The dispute attracted Mango to go and investigate. Once Mango left the nest box I lifted Gold intending to move her next door but found that she had actually laid her egg so I put her out in the run. Red soon settled to lay her egg.

On the right is Storm’s egg and next to it is Mango’s egg which is a good size. Next is Gold’s egg and on the left is Red’s egg.

Gold has been spending more and more time in the nest box over the last few days. Although she laid today she later returned to the nest box so I suspected she was broody. She has laid ten eggs in just over two weeks. It seems to be a pattern that as one girl starts laying another stops.

For the rest of the day Gold stayed in the nest box and returned after each time I lifted her out. She is definitely broody.

The broodies seem to be starting early this year, sigh!

I gave the girls some yogurt this morning.

I love doing this and getting group photos. The girls get yogurt splattered all over themselves but when I return later they are all cleaned up. They are very good at cleaning each other and the dishes look almost licked clean.

They do love a yogurt treat.

Snow was out in the run this morning instead of in the nest box. I expected her to return to the nest box but she stayed out in the run all day. After only three days of being broody she is done with it already.

Snow is such an easy broody girl. She allows me to take her out without any protest and always goes to the food and water and then preens or dust baths before returning to the nest box. She allows me to perch her at bedtime and stays put.

I think this may be why Snow comes through it so quickly. I looked back at last year’s egg records and when broody she only took a two week break each time before she started laying again. This means it won’t be long before Snow is laying again.

Autumn is still sitting in the nest box every other day. She puts a few pine shavings on her back and comes out shouting but no egg. I am now certain she won’t lay again but the odd thing is that she doesn’t seem aware of that.

Gold is hard to photograph without it being really close up. As soon as I point the camera at her she is right in my face so I thought I would go with this photo as it’s so typical of her.

A happy flock of girls and still plenty of eggs with plenty more to come.

On the same day that Storm laid her first egg of the year Snow laid her last egg before going broody. We had one day of four girls laying before it dropped back to three.

Snow has laid seventeen eggs in one and a half months.

Luckily Snow is a docile broody. I have been lifting her out for a break and she goes straight to the food and water and then back in. I am also lifting her from the nest box at bedtime and perching her in the chicken shed. She accepts being perched and stays there.

Storm approached Snow when I lifted her out and Snow puffed herself up. I didn’t get to my camera quick enough but the next moment Snow did her “look how tall I can be” pose and I caught that instead.

Snow does look beautiful in this pose and her face is very red. For now I am going to leave her to it as there are three girls laying and Mango and Cloud will probably start soon too so it’s not possible to close the nest boxes. I will just make sure she gets plenty of breaks.

Luckily there are still plenty enough eggs for us.

Today at last Storm settled in the nest box. She has been very vocal leading up to this. Red and Snow were already in the nest boxes so after much fuss Storm settled in the third nest box by the gate.

A little later Storm had laid her first egg of the year. Storm lays quite a good sized egg for her small size.

Red’s egg is on the right then Gold’s egg then Snow’s egg and Storm’s egg on the left. Well done Storm. We now have four girls laying and plenty of eggs.

Today Mango and Cloud were the helpers of the dust bath rather than dust bathing themselves. They love to help with dust bathing and do this together too.

Autumn once again sat in the nest box for about half an hour and then came out shouting as if she had laid an egg. There was no egg though. This is the same behaviour as last year after February first so I am now convinced that she probably won’t lay again.

A hen is hatched with all the eggs she will ever lay and these eggs develop within her ovaries. They have all the eggs they will ever produce stored as ova within their ovaries.

If a hen is a sporadic layer she may lay her quota of eggs over a longer period of time. If a hen is a prolific layer she may lay all her eggs over a shorter period of time. A hen may slow right down when older and then suddenly lay an odd egg in later life.

If a hen is stressed or unwell she will stop laying but once she is well again she will resume laying.

I wonder if Autumn only had forty five eggs when hatched and is now finished. We will never know until such a time as she lays again or doesn’t lay again.

Autumn’s instincts are obviously telling her that she should be laying. Eggs are not stuck or backing up though or she would be very unwell. This makes me think that the eggs may have run out but she doesn’t know that.

Snow’s eggs are so tiny that we have two each at a time. They have lovely orange yolks. We had these for breakfast today.

They were delicious!

When I lifted Mango to put her in the chicken shed last night she too squatted. Mango and Cloud’s combs are red too. I think all three game girls will start laying soon and we will have lot’s more lovely little eggs.

Yesterday Autumn settled in the nest box again. Once again she was in there for about an hour and then came out without laying an egg.

I am now thinking that this isn’t a practice and maybe she isn’t going to start laying after all. Last year she started laying in October and continued to lay up until her last egg on the first of February. This is about when some girls start to lay and I would have expected her to continue laying. She had laid forty five eggs.

Not only that but Autumn didn’t resume laying through the summer. But after she had laid her last egg on first of February Autumn continued to sit in the nest box every other day as if she expected to lay. I had wondered if she would start laying again this spring but she is now following the same pattern of sitting in the nest box but not actually laying.

I wonder if she is one of those girls who don’t lay many eggs and she has already come to the end of her laying period. In the past Topaz who was a bantam gold laced wyandotte only laid eight eggs. If Autumn continues to sit in the nest box without laying then I think it’s likely that she may not lay any more.

The odd thing is that she obviously thinks that she should be laying and goes through the motions. Only time will tell.

Red, Snow and Gold continue to lay every other day and sometimes two days in a row meaning that some days we are getting three eggs a day. Storm continues to be very vocal and I think she will be next to lay.

Mango and Cloud are still the most bonded and together, chooks we have ever had. They do absolutely everything together and yesterday were dust bathing together.

I have now finished treating Sugar’s legs and feet and she has bounced back once more. I am hoping that like Autumn, Sugar will be okay now.

So for now everything is good in the chicken run, touch wood! Even if Autumn doesn’t lay there will be plenty of eggs once the other girls start laying so all is well.

It’s been a race to see which girl would be next to lay their first egg of the year. Gold has been squatting for a while and very vocal. Storm has also been very vocal. Then yesterday Autumn also squatted and she had been looking in the nest boxes for a few days.

Yesterday Autumn settled in the nest box and I felt sure she was going to lay. Later she was out in the run and no egg. Sometimes the girls have a bit of a practice before they start laying. I felt sure that Autumn would probably lay soon.

Today it was Gold’s turn. Gold kept going in the nest box and scratching around but not settling down.

I checked back a bit later and Gold was settled in the nest box.

I then realised Gold had laid as she started moving her egg around.

I arranged the eggs in size order with Red’s egg on the right, Gold’s egg in the middle and snow’s egg on the left. Well done Gold!

I don’t think it will be long before we have a few more girls laying. It is so good to have plenty of eggs again and I think I can now stop buying eggs.

Edit

Later in the day both Red and Snow were in the nest box and both laid an egg despite the fact that they had both laid the day before. This gave us our first, three egg day, of the year.

This morning I gave the girls some fish.

Snow laid six eggs in two weeks and then stopped. She hasn’t laid for just over a week now. Hopefully she will start again when the other girls get started.

Red has increased her laying to every other day. She has now laid like clockwork every other day for the last three weeks so she seems to have hit her stride now. Gold squatted in front of me yesterday so I think she will start laying soon.

Sugar is doing okay so we are hopeful she will continue that way into the summer. They are such a lovely happy flock.

We have been having a battle with Sugar’s feet. First we noticed that Sugar was limping. When I inspected her feet I realised her toe nails had got so long and curled around that a nail was pressing against her ankle. I clipped her nails and have checked her regularly since then and now regularly clip her nails.

After clipping Sugar’s nails her limp disappeared so we thought all was well. Some time after that Sugar was limping again. I checked her feet and couldn’t see anything wrong. As her limp continued I kept checking and realised that cracks were appearing on her toes.

I thought this indicated that she had scaly mite again so I treated her with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks again. This was about the time that I had finished treating Autumn. Sugar’s limp disappeared and I thought we were okay again.

It is very difficult to tell if Sugar has scaly mite because her scales are already raised from the first time and scaly mite are microscopic so can’t be seen. Also she had never pulled off her scales like Autumn so until she was limping there was no way of knowing.

Like Autumn Sugar improved while I was spraying her legs and feet so I had to conclude it was scaly mite causing her to limp. But also like Autumn soon after I stopped treating her she started limping again so I treated her again. Recently Sugar started limping again.

I am now treating her for the fourth time and once again she has improved. It took four treatments to clear Autumn so I am hoping that this fourth treatment will clear Sugar.

As always I have researched this endlessly. I have asked why the treatment hasn’t worked and it says (as I thought) that only one mite or egg left behind will start the whole process over again. By reading other people’s experiences it seems that sometimes it can be cleared with one treatment but sometimes it can be very very difficult to clear. I can only keep going and hope that like with Autumn I can clear Sugar of this with continued spraying.

At the moment Sugar appears well but I am mid way of this current round of spraying. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Snow has settled into laying every other day. Red is a bit more erratic with her laying and often misses a few days. Autumn’s face and comb have now turned red. Gold also has a very red face and comb and has looked in the nest boxes a few times.

I think there will more girls laying soon which will be lovely.