Carol's Chickens

Yesterday I went up to the chicken run with my camera and just happened to catch Shadow laying her egg. This was her fourth egg, in just under two weeks, since she started laying.

This time she was in a different nest box. Shadow was in the favourite nest box next to the store cabinet. When I checked on her she was already in the standing position ready to lay.

Some of the photos are a bit blurred because I had to take them very quickly and this doesn’t allow time to focus properly. Shadow was so quick to lay her egg and leg it out of the nest box, instantly, that I didn’t manage to get all of her with her egg. By the time I clicked the camera she was already moving out of shot.

The first eggs are always small and usually gradually get bigger. I think she laid it quickly as it was small but I was surprised how quickly she left the nest box after laying.

Once out of the nest box Shadow briefly gave the egg shout. It was the first time that I had heard Shadow shout. She is now a proper grown up girl. Well done Shadow!

Shadow has now laid three eggs which I saved for today’s breakfast. I used them for scrambled egg as I could put all three together for a one person portion.

I wanted to crack Shadow’s eggs into the bowl first to see how they looked. They look great and are all an even size and all had good shells. Next I added the only Ebony egg we have so far and one of Smoke’s eggs to make enough scrambled egg for us both. And delicious it was too.

In other news the girls are now going in at night without me leaving the chicken shed door open a bit. I continued doing this throughout the freezing weather as I didn’t want any of the girls to be out in the cold for a moment more than they needed to be.

Now that the weather has warmed up I decided it was time to see if they could get in through the pop hole before it closed. I started four days ago and was pleased and rather amazed that on the first night all the girls were in in time.

Smoke and Shadow were on the chicken shed floor so they had obviously left it late and it was then too dark for them to get up on the perches. I placed them on the perch.

The next night all the girls were in and perched so it didn’t take them long to work out that they needed to get in a bit sooner. They have been perched every night since then.

Hurrah! The girls are now back to getting in on time without any help from me. Hopefully they will continue to do this, probably until next winter, when the short days catch them out again.

That’s all the news from the chickens until the next girl starts laying which I have a feeling won’t be too long.

I say that it’s our first, three egg day of the year, but it’s also our first, more than one egg day, of the year as well.

This morning Smoke laid her second egg this month. She laid her first egg this month two days ago. Soon after Smoke laid Ebony laid her first egg this month. After a few days of practising she got the job done.

Smoke had laid eleven eggs in January before going broody. Ebony had laid two eggs in January.

A bit later in the afternoon Shadow laid her second egg a week after laying her first. Shadow laid both her eggs in the nest box by the gate.

From the right is Shadow’s first egg and then her second egg which still has a little streak of blood but it’s smaller than the streak on her first egg. Next is Smokes first egg this month followed by her second one today. On the left is Ebony’s first egg this month which is a little smaller than her eggs usually are but that’s normal when starting up again.

What an exciting day. It is so lovely to be getting eggs again. It will be interesting to see how long it is before Sugar starts to lay.

Ebony is getting ready to lay again and has been practising over recent days. Smoke doesn’t need to practise. When Smoke is ready to start laying she just settles in a nest box and gets the job done. It’s a month since Smoke last laid.

Today Ebony and Smoke both wanted the same, favourite, nest box at exactly the same time. There was shouting. Smoke settled in the favourite nest box, next to the store cabinet.

Ebony went into the same nest box and Smoke left. Smoke settled in the nest box next door and all went calm and quiet. A bit later I heard the egg shout from Smoke and both girls were out in the run. I checked the nest boxes.

No egg in Ebony’s nest box so it was a false alarm but in Smoke’s nest box there was her egg.

Smoke’s egg is on the right and Shadow’s first egg is on the left for size comparison. Smoke’s first egg is always a bit smaller than usual and her next egg will be a bit bigger than this one. Smoke’s eggs are always almost round.

It looks like the egg season has begun. It will be lovely to have our own eggs again but I expect more nest box dramas to come!

When Shadow started to squat for me a few days ago I knew that she was getting ready to start laying. Yesterday Shadow was very vocal and was going in and out of the nest boxes.

Shadow went in the nest box by the gate in the afternoon and she was very vocal. She then went quiet and settled down. It was quite late in the afternoon.

At dusk I went to check and all the girls were in the chicken shed. I checked Shadow’s nest box and there was her first egg. It was a typical first egg, small and with a blood streak on the shell.

What a clever girl to get her first egg laid in the right place.

For size comparison I put a fifty pence piece to the left of Shadow’s egg and a shop bought, medium sized, egg on the right.

Well done Shadow! What a clever girl.

I have never posted so infrequently but there really hasn’t been much to post about recently and the weather has been awful.

It seems to swing between being really wet or really cold. We have had weeks of rain and now a week of freezing temperatures is forecast. I will be going out first thing every morning with water for the girls.

Despite the awful weather I think Shadow is getting ready to start laying soon. Her voice has changed and she is very vocal at the moment. Both Sugar and Shadow have been scratching and pecking in the nest boxes and they both have red faces and combs.

I have been hovering my hand over their backs to see if they will squat which is always a sign that they are getting near to starting to lay. Neither girls were squatting until a few days ago when Shadow started to squat for me.

I have been trying to get a photo but keep missing it. I hold the camera in one hand and touch Shadow’s back with the other then click. Each time the squat is so brief that by the time I have clicked Shadow has raised up again and then bounces out of the way.

Shadow and Sugar are fine for me to get close to them and take close up photos but Shadow doesn’t appreciate me touching her.

I think that Shadow may be just a bit older than Sugar as her voice is more mature. When we first had these two Sugar was always the first into everything and Shadow would follow her everywhere.

These days they are more independent. They have little spats between the two of them. They run at each other with chests out. Then just recently at bedtime I first noticed that they weren’t always perched together and then noticed that shadow would give Sugar a peck at times during the bedtime line up.

There is no doubt that Shadow has become the top girl of these two. The pecking order always has to be established but it is surprising when such a tight little pair begin to do this. They still spend a lot of time together but they are happy to be apart too. Our youngest girls are growing up.

I have talked recently of how sometimes the flock seems to divide into two parts of bigger girls together and little girls together. There are other times when the flock are very definitely all together.

The weather has recently made the flock stick very closely together. First there was the snow which when it settled on the chicken run roof it made the run quite dark.

The entire flock formed a very close bunch in front of the large wooden shelter. This spot had the most light as the light came through the weld mesh at the side of the hatch. The girls didn’t move far from this spot.

On the second day, with the snow still settled, there was blue sky and sunshine. The entire flock perched on the branch perch above the ladder where it gets the sun at this time of the year.

After three days of the snow being settled it disappeared after a night of rain. It has rained every day since. This morning while I was cleaning the chicken shed it bucketed with rain. This is quite noisy on the chicken shed roof.

I looked to see where the girls were and the entire flock were inside the large wooden shelter or standing just in front of it. I didn’t have my camera with me though. The three bigger girls were perched inside the shelter. The little girls were either perched in the shelter or standing just inside and a couple of them were standing in front of the shelter.

It always amuses me to see the flock go to the shelter when it rains because the run is roofed and it is dry at the top end of the run. I think it is the sound of the rain on the roof that sends them in to the shelter when it rains heavily.

What is endearing though is that in any kind of odd weather the girls form a very close unit. At these times they are very much one flock.

The day the girls all perched together in the sun I took a photo from outside of the run in case they jumped down once I went through the gate. I kept this photo because it shows Flame who was at the back and not easy to spot in my photos from inside the run.

It warms my heart to see the girls together like this.

Yesterday it snowed from nine o’clock in the morning until twelve o’clock lunch time. The flakes were the biggest we have ever seen and the snow was the sort that sticks together and settles quickly. It was quite dark in the chicken run.

Over night the snow froze and this morning it was crunchy. Today we have blue sky and sunshine so I took two photos of the same views.

We are being ultra careful as it is thawing and freezing and although it looks beautiful it is treacherous. When I go up to the chickens I walk on the crunchy snow.

I have had to take the chickens some water first thing in the mornings as it freezes overnight. We are not used to this. The sun today is most welcome though.

Although our flock of nine girls get on together very well and are often all together there are also times when they are a flock of two parts.

Sometimes the three bigger girls will be perched together while the smaller girls are hanging out together elsewhere.

This perch is Flame’s favourite perch and very often if she is missing from the flock I will find her here but at other times Ebony and Speckles will keep her company.

This perch recently rotted at the ends and fell down. Because it is the very favourite perch we rescued it. My lovely husband cut the ends off and nailed it back in place. Despite being a bit shorter it still remains the favourite perch so it was worth saving.

I love to see the bigger girls hanging out together.

There isn’t a lot going on in the chicken run at the moment. It’s an in between time of year. Shadow and Sugar are showing an interest in the nest boxes.

They like to spend time on the ramps pecking at the pine shavings and some times scratching the shavings out of the nest box but I don’t think they are actually ready to start laying yet.

However it does mean that they will know where to go when they are ready to start laying. I don’t anticipate any problem with them laying in the right place.

Yesterday was very cold and I decided to give the girls some warm mash as a treat.

It didn’t take long for the mash to disappear.

In other news Ebony laid two eggs at the end of December and another two at the start of January but hasn’t laid since. Her last egg was the soft shelled egg eleven days ago.

Smoke has now gone broody so that’s the end of egg laying for the moment. Smoke has been laying for a month and has laid seventeen eggs which is pretty good for her between broody spells.

So after having unexpected eggs in December and January there will now be a lull and I don’t expect any more eggs until February. You never know though as these girls are often able to surprise me. I will be reporting back when we get our next egg.