Carol's Chickens

On frosty mornings the girls are quick to find a shaft of sunlight to perch in, preferably on the high perches away from the frosty ground.

The whole flock perch together in a shaft of sunlight

Perching together on a frosty day

I love seeing the whole flock perching together like this.

The little girls just love me to hand feed them some spinach leaves. Rusty especially likes this and if I hold out my hand she will come running. Usually once she starts on the spinach Freckles will run to join her.

Rusty loves to be hand fed some spinach leaves

Rusty pecks the spinach from my fingers

Rusty eats the spinach down to the stalk

Freckles joins Rusty

Freckles gets her share of a spinach leaf

Once again we are down to the stalk

I had to hold the spinach leaf with my left hand and click away with the camera in my right hand. Considering this I thought the photos weren’t bad.

There are times when I swear I can read what my girls are saying or thinking. I know they don’t think it in the words that we do and that I must not humanise what they are thinking but even so there are some times when I feel that I can read them like a book.

Today was such a day with both Rusty and Speckles.

Speckles used to jump on my back for the morning seeds and late afternoon corn. Since the onset of winter and the shorter days she has changed this habit. She no longer does this at those times but has taken to waiting on the wooden table when I do the midday poop pick. As soon as I am stooped near the wooden table she steps on to my back and rides with me to whichever  perch I next stoop near and then she steps on to that perch.

I am just setting up some background to her behaviour to explain what seemed to happen today.

Rusty and Freckles always like to perch together but Freckles with her straight feather type is a much better flyer than Rusty. On the ground Rusty is  faster at running than Freckles. Rusty makes us laugh when she puts her head down and holds her wings out to help her run at super speed. My husband says she reminds him of a kid in the playground pretending to be an aeroplane.

This difference between the little girls abilities means that there is one perch that Freckles can get to which Rusty can’t. I watched today as Freckles flew up to the high branch perch outside the hatch. This has no ladder beneath it and Rusty can’t get up to this perch.

I could read the dismay in Rusty’s manner. She was anxious that she couldn’t get up to be with Freckles. She would jump to the perch by the metal table and look at the perch where Freckles was but they were divided by the mesh. She would run through the hatch and look at up at Freckles. I could read just how much she wanted to join Freckles but she just couldn’t work out any way to get up.

Meanwhile Peaches and Barley were at the other end of the perch and Emerald was in the middle. Speckles was also getting anxious because she wanted to join the bigger girls on the perch too but there wasn’t a gap for her on the lower part and Freckles was on the higher, more difficult part to reach.

This has never happened before but after pacing and looking up at the perch Speckles came and stood by me looking up at me. She continued looking up at me as if beseeching me to help her get to the perch. She then walked past me and jumped on to the wooden table and looked back at me. I went and stooped by the table and she stepped on to my back. I walked with her on my back to the perch and stood next it. She stepped from me to the perch and settled with the rest of the bigger girls.

Meanwhile Freckles flew down and joined Rusty. They then made their way to the other perch with the ladder and settled together on that high perch.

I could read Rusty’s anxiety at not being able to get to Freckles, which would be quite easy for anyone to read but I swear it seemed like Speckles was asking for my help to get her to the perch. I didn’t simply pick her up because I know she doesn’t like being picked up but I am sure she felt she could entice me to help her from the table.

I had my camera with me so I took photos as we went. I tried to take a blindly aimed photo of Speckles on my back but missed her completely.

Freckles is on the high branch perch outside the hatch

Rusty is patrolling underneath and Speckles is on her way through the hatch to the perch. The girls have to jump up at the end where the three bigger girls are as it gets too high at the top end. Only Freckles is able to fly up to the higher part.

Speckles goes to the wooden table looking at me the whole time

Speckles steps from my back to the higher part of the perch

Speckles moves to the highest part of the perch and Freckles flies down

Once Freckles was down the little girls were together again

The four bigger girls settled together

The little girls made their way to the other high perch

Rusty does her standing on one leg trick

The little girls are happy perching together as usual

It really did feel like Speckles was communicating to me today. These girls really are amusing with their funny little ways.

I am experiencing a bit of a lull with my blog at the moment so I thought I would share my new Christmas mug.

Christmas mug

It’s not only pretty but it’s, fine bone china, so lovely to drink from too.

The girls are all fine but I just haven’t managed to get any good photos. The mornings have been frosty again and I have had to defrost the waters but the girls don’t seem to be bothered by the cold.

Rusty checked out the grit container this morning and I felt a moment of excitement (eggs soon?) but I think it was probably just curiosity.

It will be a month Friday that we lost Pebbles and I keep anxiously checking the girls but they all seem in good health so I am becoming more positive that the flock is going to be okay.

I would like to add a couple more seramas to the flock at the end of January when the six weeks contagion period has passed and hopefully the weather has improved. I can’t wait to add new girls but I know that I must be patient.

I am looking forward to having a flock of eight girls once more and I think four bigger girls and four little girls will be a nice balance. I am also looking forward to the day when we have eggs once more.

The weather is supposed to warm up later this week so that will be good too. The days are also getting slightly longer so we are going in the right direction. I am looking forward to better times with our flock this year.

I gave the girls some fish for their New Year’s Day treat.

Fish for New Year’s day

The girls have some fish together

Enjoying their fish

The girls enjoyed their fish treat. Happy New Year to all my readers and families and pets. I hope 2017 is a good one for one and all.

We have been having some seriously frosty days recently.  The water dish has been frozen in the mornings and I top it up with hot water and then remove the ice. I keep an eye on it during the day to make sure it doesn’t freeze again. It’s in a sheltered spot on the patio so doesn’t freeze solid like the bird bath does.

The good news is that the little girls don’t seem at all bothered by the cold. I was worried about how they would cope with cold conditions but they seem absolutely fine.

I think that it is draughts and wet conditions that bother seramas and as our run has plenty of sheltered areas and is fully roofed it seems that is suiting them okay which is a relief. My research says that if they look hunched and miserable they are cold and our two are very active, always running about or perching on the high branch perches with the bigger girls, which must be less cold for their feet than the frozen ground.

They are eating well and pooping plenty and are generally interested in everything. They run to the treats and absolutely love to be hand fed. I give the girls some spinach leaves every morning and the little girls love me to hold out a leaf for them so that they can peck at it more easily. As soon as I hold out a spinach leaf they come running to me at speed.

This morning I decided to give the girls a dish of warm mash as it was really frosty.

Warm mash on a frosty day

The little girls have the mash to themselves

The little girls are quite brave at attempting the mash while the bigger girls are around the dish but they also have it sussed that they can have the dish to themselves a little later.

These two girls don’t miss out on anything and are totally unfazed by the bigger girls but most of all I am really happy that they also don’t seem at all bothered by the cold. It doesn’t usually get much colder than it is now so I think these little girls will be fine.

Freckles and Rusty love pecking at the pine shavings in the chicken shed. Every morning when I poop pick, they keep me company, pecking away together.

Sometimes when I go in to the run they appear to be missing. I soon spot them pecking away just inside the pop hole. I assume they like this spot as it allows in enough light to help with their pecking. There is nothing to be had in the shavings but they just love to scratch and peck in them.

Freckles and Rusty pecking together

Rusty’s close up

In this photo you can see that Rusty’s silky feathers are more like hairs.

Pecking in unison

And again

Freckles and Rusty are a really close pair and are always together. What ever one of them does the other will do too. They are never far from each other and they are an incredibly cute pair.

My husband said that he was determined not to buy me any chicken gifts this year but he saw something that he couldn’t resist. I often remark that when Peaches and Barley stand on the high perches and stretch their necks upwards to watch us in the garden, they look just like rubber chickens.

He saw this and just had to get it for me.

I instantly named her Funky Chicken

We decided to hang her from the chicken’s door

Funky Chicken’s new home

My husband also bought me some lights for inside the chicken shed. At this time of year the mornings are so dark that I poop pick the chicken shed by torch light.

Chicken shed lights

These lights have batteries and you just press the globe to switch it on and off. It means I won’t have to take a torch in with me.

We always buy each other several small gifts as there isn’t much that we need at our age but these sort of gifts are thoughtful and fun. I really like my Funky Chicken.

I wished the girls a happy Christmas first thing this morning but they didn’t look impressed!

I took them some yogurt as their Christmas treat before we had breakfast and they were much more impressed with that.

Rusty and Barley are first to the yogurt

Rusty loves the yogurt

All the girls tuck in

Peaches and Freckles share some yogurt

Rusty and Freckles have yogurt beaks

I think I can say that these are six happy girls.

I would like to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and New Year. Thank you to all  those of you who comment which makes my wittering worth while. I have also appreciated all the support through the difficult times this year. Wishing a happy and peaceful New Year to you all.

Yesterday I gave the girls a dish of mash. I just put out one dish as the girls share quite well and even if the little girls get chased away from the dish they always return for their share once the bigger girls have moved on.

I thought I would put the dish down and then take some photos but once the dish was down and I bobbed down with the camera all the girls ran to me and straight past the dish of mash. It is quite endearing to see them run to me even if it is just to see if I have anything else for them.

The girls ignore the mash and run to me

Rusty is always the quickest girl to run to me.

They decide to have some the mash

Sharing the mash

Rusty is always quite brave around the bigger girls

Rusty is a feisty little character and is not put off by the bigger girls.

Emerald has been having a long moult. She has been dropping a few feathers a day since the summer and has recently lost her tail feathers. It has been so slow that it has hardly been noticeable apart from her shorter than usual tail which shows in the photo above.

A few hours later the dish of mash was empty. I like to give this treat as I then know that the girls have eaten a good portion of their pellets along with the treats.