Carol's Chickens

Barley has now laid four eggs this year so far. She has laid every other day since the first one and each one has been slightly bigger than the one before. Her comb is big and red whereas Peaches is still smaller and pale at the tip.

Speckles comb is also getting bigger and redder and she has become more vocal. She has taken to jumping on my back, like she used to, when I go through the gate. Getting near to egg laying seems to give her more confidence. Emerald always has a very small comb and it’s pale pink.

Rusty and Freckles have very red combs and faces. They look ready to start laying eggs but haven’t shown any interest yet.

I gave the girls some fish this morning as a protein boost. I love seeing them altogether like this.

The girls have some fish

Barley goes in the nest box to lay her egg

Peaches comb

Barley’s comb is back to blocking her view from one eye

Freckles

Rusty

Speckles

Comedy Speckles

Even more comedic Speckles

It took several photos to get a decent one of Speckles comb because she always turns to look up at me, which makes for some funny comedy shots, so I thought that I would leave them in.

Peaches and Speckles combs will get redder as they get nearer to laying but they are already quite different to a few months ago. I would anticipate that Peaches and Speckles will start laying in about a weeks time. Emerald has always started in March.

Freckles and Rusty are the unknown quantity. They are now eight months old and I would have expected them to have started laying by now. Oh well, I am sure they will get started eventually, in their own sweet time. I am looking forward to more eggs soon.

Until recently the automatic door on the pop hole hadn’t opened until after eight o’clock. I go out to the girls earlier than that and simply open the door and let them out and then clean up the chicken shed.

They are always happy to come out as early as possible. With the days getting longer though there has been a shift and the door has been opening at any time between twenty to eight or ten to eight depending on how bright the morning is. I decided to try holding off in the morning and to go out a little later so that I could photograph the girls coming out through the pop hole.

Ten to eight on the first morning

Rusty is the first to squeeze under the door, closely followed by Freckles

Rusty squeezes under when the door has opened only a couple of inches and Freckles comes out right behind her.

Speckles is third out

Peaches is fourth and Emerald is fifth

Barley is sixth out and has just pushed in front of Peaches

They come out so quickly that my camera isn’t fast enough to catch them all. I decided to try over several mornings to capture them all.

My second morning of trying to capture the morning tumble.

Emerald is about to come out, third, after Freckles second and Rusty first.

I wasn’t fast enough to catch Freckles.

Emerald in third place

Peaches is followed by Barley, fourth and fifth out

Speckles is last out

This was my third attempt. Rusty is first out every morning.

Barley and Freckles are out together in second place behind Rusty

Emerald and Speckles are out next with Peaches last out

It all happens so quickly that my camera just can’t keep up. Rusty is always first and Freckles second. After that it seems to be a free for all.

Okay, fourth attempt at this.

Speckles coming out in third place

As always Rusty was first with Freckles right beside her.

Emerald is last out

I couldn’t resist keeping going with this. Another attempt to catch Freckles coming out failed. The door is now opening at twenty five to eight.

Freckles and Rusty are first out as always

I must have been so lucky to catch Rusty coming out the first morning I started this. On this morning I clicked the camera as soon as the door started to open but Freckles and Rusty were out so quickly. As you can see the door has only lifted a few inches. They have the advantage of being small as well as speedy.

On day five I thought I would have one last try to catch Freckles coming out. I knew that I must click the camera at the first sound of the door lifting.

Freckles is about to come out in second place behind Rusty

Speckles once more comes out in third place

I seem doomed not get a shot of Freckles actually coming out. After five days of doing this it’s time to give up on that one shot.

I can conclude that Rusty always comes out first closely followed by Freckles. I can tell that they are all waiting behind the door for it to open and the little girls being so speedy and small means they always get out first.

Speckles is usually third and the rest seem to vary but it’s obvious that they all try to get out as quickly as they can. They can’t wait for the door to lift even though it only takes seconds. They all manage to squeeze through before the door is even half way up.

My favourite photo is the very first one I took which captures Rusty perfectly, flattening herself, to get under the door as quickly as she can. What an escape artist. She can get through a very small gap. It’s been a fun and interesting exercise.

I am going to repeat that first photo here to save you having to scroll back up to see it again.

Rusty is first to squeeze under the door

I always take lots of photos so that I get the shot that I want but time and time again the first photo is the best one and the one that I go with. I don’t think I could repeat this photo no matter how many times I tried. It captures Rusty’s eagerness to get under the door absolutely perfectly and this little routine goes on every morning.

Yesterday afternoon my husband decided to tackle the job of pruning our unruly rambling rose that’s next to the chicken run. We inherited this rose when we moved in and it’s extremely fast growing and vicious to prune.

The only reason we have put up with it is because it provides a screen between us and our neighbours as the fence behind it is quite low (it is our neighbours fence). It is problematic though as we have had to go next door when it blew into their garden and push it back over to our side where we secured it to some posts.

It also grows out on our side taking up a lot of room. My husband decided now was the time to give it a severe prune. This provided entertainment for the girls.

My husband has an audience

It’s chicken T.V.

The girls usually go to bed at about four o’clock but they were so interested in what was going on that they stayed out later than usual. They watched every move that my husband was making. These girls are so nosy and so easily entertained.

This rose is going to provide a future project but that’s for another day and another post.

I had hoped this would fizzle out but Rusty looks a bit worse today.

Rusty’s head looks worse

I have been through this before so I know how hard it is to stop this once it becomes a habit. I am giving protein and trying to keep the girls occupied.

The problem is that these two are totally inseparable. They sit together all the time and they appear to enjoy this. I think separating them would be cruel.

I plan to limp along until the end of the month then all being well add some more seramas to the flock. I think this twosome needs mixing up and more little girls would possibly change the dynamics a bit. I think being part of a bigger group of little girls will be good for them.

The integrating process will give them something else to focus on and maybe if they become part of a bigger group they won’t be so obsessed with just each other.

We just need to get through this next cold spell as I don’t want to bring seramas from a breeding shed into freezing temperatures and also there is a restriction on movement of birds until 28th February because of the bird flu.

How I wish I could add more seramas right now but I must hang on for a few weeks more.

A few days ago I noticed that Rusty’s head feathers looked short and pale. I put it down to her moulting some head feathers.

A day later we noticed that Freckles was pecking at Rusty’s head while they were perched together. My heart sank. I couldn’t bear this to be happening again. Why does this keep happening to my flock! They have plenty of space and plenty of interest in the run and my research says that due to their small size seramas are happy in a small space. To seramas our run is a huge space.

It isn’t malicious either because Freckles and Rusty are the best of friends and are inseparable, but that in itself means that they are always sitting together and there is plenty of opportunity for Freckles to peck at Rusty.

The only positive thing is that they moult continuously and therefore new feathers should come back in rather than having to wait a year and with her silky feathers it’s not so obvious that she is missing feathers.

I think we need to add some more seramas as soon as possible. I think that these two are like a flock of two within the larger flock and need more girls of their own size to interact with and to mix it up a bit.

The next week is forecast very cold and frosty though and also because of the bird flue there is restricted movement of birds until after 28th February. This means we may have to wait to the end of this month before thinking of adding more girls.

Rusty’s head is missing outer feathers

Rusty with her head up

Rusty with her head down

Rusty and Freckles at the food dish

The good news is that we haven’t seen this happening over the last few days. It just seemed to be on one day. Maybe Rusty’s pins were just too irresistible. I really hope that this is the case.

I had thought that as we lose girls we would replace them with seramas in the future so to have this problem among the little girls would be so awful. I am hoping that this is just a blip.

The day before yesterday we had our first egg of the year. I thought that as it was so tiny it must be Freckles egg.

This morning for our Sunday breakfast we had the last two shop bought eggs plus the small egg, half each. Once in the pan the yolk was a similar size to the medium sized shop bought eggs but the white was really tiny.

The first egg of the year in the front of the frying pan

Today Barley went into the nest box and I realised that I had probably made a mistake.

Barley is in the nest box

Emerald and Speckles come to have a look

Peaches comes to have a look

There is a bit of a meeting about it

After the other girls dispersed Barley settled into the nest box. When I returned about five minutes later she was outside the nest box pecking at a bit of apple and there was a warm egg in the nest box. All the other girls were perched in the run so there was no doubt that this was Barley’s egg. She was so quick that it’s not surprising I didn’t catch her in the nest box the other day.

Because we ate the other eggs for breakfast we now don’t have any eggs to compare the size with but we both think that this one is a bit bigger than the last one. She must have just laid an extra small egg as her first one. I photographed it in the egg stand as the best comparison I could make.

Second egg of the year

First egg of the year

The first photo is today’s egg and the photo above is from the day before yesterday. We definitely think today’s egg is a bit bigger.

Well done Barley! I feel a bit silly now for assuming it was Freckles but it was so small. Barley seems to be starting to lay a bit earlier each year which is a bonus. Last year Peaches started two weeks later and her comb isn’t as red as Barley’s comb so I imagine it will be a few more weeks yet.

Hurrah for the start of the egg laying but we will still have to wait a bit longer for the little girls to start.

Every winter we have a pheasant visit the garden. I don’t know if it is the same one of course, but it is odd how a single, beautiful, male pheasant chooses to visit our garden regularly at this time of year.

Last year I took some photos of it on the path just outside the chicken run. This year I have tried to get photos but it is so nervous and it’s really difficult to get anywhere near close enough to get a decent photo.

We have speculated why it visits our garden as opposed to the neighbouring gardens. We have wondered if it actually comes to visit our girls. It spends a lot of time in the ferns at the side of the chicken run. Oddly enough the girls are not bothered by it’s presence. They shout at cats and they freeze and listen to the sounds of kites but they take no notice of the many squirrels or the pheasant.

A few days ago this was the closest I managed to get.

My photo of the pheasant

It’s on the step in the centre of the photo. A rubbish photo but I had already tried for many days and each time it got away from me. A day or two later my husband had a go.

My husband’s better photo of the pheasant

Then today the pheasant was once more in the ferns beside the chicken run and my husband said it appeared to show interest in the girls and they also appeared to be interested in it. Peaches and Barley went to the wire for a closer look. The little girls just watched from their position on the perch beside the ladder as did Speckles from her position above the ladder.

The pheasant visits the girls

Frustratingly, my husband took several more photos after this one but the camera malfunctioned and said the photos could not be accessed, grrrr!

The pheasant and Peaches and Barley were studying each other through the wire but showing no signs of aggression, just interest. It is very odd but interesting.

The reason I titled this post “winter visitors” (plural) is because I thought it would be a good time to mention another subject. I don’t want to jinx this by saying this but …. this is the first winter since we have kept chickens that we have not had a rat problem. Every year we used to spend time fortifying the run and still they got in. We always felt that it was next doors decking on the other side of the run that was where they were coming from. They would chew through the fence panels or dig under.

Last year we so fed up with it that we had our fencing guys come and put marine ply in front of the fence on the chickens patio with a layer of chicken wire in between. Then we got them to put the marine ply against the fence beyond the patio and sink it to our layer of horizontal roof tiles buried below the soil. It doesn’t look greatly attractive but I think this is what has done the job. Rats can’t seem to get through from next door any more.

We have recently had a couple of cold and frosty weeks which always caused us to have a rat problem in the past but this year we have had no sign of any rats. I am so elated that we seem to have finally managed to keep them out.

I am always afraid to say something like this and have put off mentioning it until now but I really think that the marine ply has stopped rats being able to chew their way through. So the rats have stayed away this year (so far and hopefully for good) and the pheasant has continued to visit our girls but doesn’t seem to cause any upset so all is good with garden visitors or lack of them!

I am so excited to have the first egg of the year today. The disappointing thing is that I didn’t see any of the girls in the nest box.

I think this egg is Freckles first egg. The egg is tiny and is creamy beige in colour. I haven’t seen the little girls go in the nest boxes but I have seen them going to the grit and they are eight and a half months old now. I have been checking the nest boxes every day just in case.

Barley followed by Peaches are usually the first girls to lay and that is usually half way through February with Speckles starting at the end of February. These three girls also lay pure white eggs and the biggest eggs of the older bantam flock. Emerald lays a beige egg but doesn’t start laying until March. Game girls have a shorter season.

I am assuming that it would be Freckles as she looks more mature than Rusty and silky feathered seramas are known to mature a little later plus Freckles comb and wattles are really red.

The amazing thing is that she knew where to lay it. I always wonder how they know the first time. I shall be keeping a very close eye on the girls over the next few days to see if I can catch her laying.

A tiny egg in the nest box

The tiny egg compared to a medium sized shop bought egg

The two eggs in my egg stand

I have examined past photos of the girls eggs on this egg stand and they were bigger and whiter than this egg. I think it must be Freckles but I can’t wait to catch her in the act to be absolutely certain.

Freckles and Rusty

Freckles comb and especially her wattles are very red in colour. I can’t wait for the next egg now. I was beginning to think these little girls were never going to start laying. Hurrah!

The sitting room mark four! We both agreed that we couldn’t live with the last colour for even a few days. It was totally wrong. We both really disliked it and wanted to change it as soon as possible. It reminded us of a not so great pub! It’s a good job we are not busy at the moment.

We have made more work for ourselves because painting a lighter colour over a bold colour would need two coats. We decided to mix our own and add a little bit of the bold colour to the previous colour meaning we didn’t need to spend any more money. We felt this would make the previous shade a little warmer without risking another colour that we may not like.

Different shades of paint

The paint pot on the right was the previous colour, the pot on the left was the offending bold colour and the little pot in the middle was our trial mix. It’s only a subtle change but we didn’t want to mix too much and risk not liking it and having to do it yet again. We both agreed that this needed to be the last time for now.

The bureau has been in and out of the alcove like a yo yo! It’s fortunate that we don’t have carpet and have been able to slide it along the floor boards.

The difference between the two colours

I started on the fiddly radiator

A wall of each colour

T.V. corner

Opposite wall

The finished room

Curtains closed

We are so much happier with the room now. Steve (eldest son), you will probably say it doesn’t look any different in the photos to the time before the bold paint job, but we can see the subtle difference. You can see it for yourself on your next visit to us.

We feel that there is now enough of a contrast between the shade above and below the dado rail and it has satisfied us that a bolder shade is not for us! We don’t want to repaint this room for a very long time! We are feeling much happier with it now.

We recently repainted under the dado rail in the sitting room to provide a bit more contrast between the shades above and below, see here. We said we would live with it for a while before deciding if it needed to be a bolder shade.

I liked the shade but knew my husband would like a bolder colour that would provide more of a contrast. I suggested we go for it and go for a much deeper shade this time. In the words of the late, great, Leonard Cohen “you want it darker” (his final album title). I used the swatch colour cards to match a shade to the curtains. We both agreed that this shade appeared to match the colour of the curtains.

My lovely husband started to paint. Gulp! That looks much bolder than I had expected. We told ourselves it would be okay when it dried.

Ooops, that shade is nothing like the curtains. I soon realised that trying to match the curtains was a mistake.

Repainting again

The first wall is done

The wall behind the settee

T.V. corner

The first wall with the furniture back in

Bureau corner

Curtains closed in the evening

The room in daylight the next morning

Message for eldest son Steve – you can’t say the photos don’t show the difference this time!

The colour is all wrong. It is too orange. I wanted the terracotta colour of the curtains, this colour is called jungle ginger. I think we will have to have “painting the sitting room mark four”. We did say that it is just a job that takes a few hours so we can redo it until we get it right.

I think we need a shade that is in between the last one and this one. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! We would always have wondered if a really bold colour would work. I feel sure that the next shade is going to be just right.