Carol's Chickens

The crocus got to shine very briefly before they got battered by the recent storms. However the miniature daffodils are just opening and giving a glimpse of spring.

Roll on spring.

A few days ago we had a visitor. I stepped out of our cabin ( work kitchen ) and there in front of me was a beautiful racing / homing pigeon. I don’t know if it was male or female but I am going to refer to it as he because I don’t like calling the pigeon “it”.

I called my husband to come and see him and grabbed my camera. He was obviously used to people and being handled because he didn’t mind being very close to us. As soon as I pointed the camera at him he came straight up to it. I am guessing he used to being photographed.

He was pecking at the patio and I felt that he was hungry so I got some corn and sprinkled it on the patio. He hoovered it up in no time at all so I did the same again. The same thing happened so I put down a dish of corn and a dish of water for him.

He so reminded me of the chickens the way he pecked the corn from the dish, stood with one foot on the side of the dish sometimes and flicked the corn out of the dish.

I resumed my work with the door open so that I could keep an eye on him. I was worried about the possibility of a cat seeing him. He had his fill of corn and then moved to the top of our gate and snoozed for a while.

By now it was heading for dusk and I was worried about him staying put and being a target for predators. I decided to line the cat box with paper and see if I could put him in the cat box with food and water and put it in the shed overnight. I would then go online and see how to find out how to get him back to his owner.

I slowly moved my hands towards him and managed to touch him but just as I was about to get hold of him he flew straight upwards and landed on the telephone wire. I felt happier that he was high up and safer but worried about him being cold overnight if he was used to being housed in a pigeon loft.

At this point I felt there wasn’t much more I could do. I tried calling him down but he wasn’t falling for that. Dusk was approaching and I was worried for him but he started looking around and moved further out to the next telephone wire.

The next time I checked he was gone and nowhere to be seen. I hoped that a refuel and a rest was enough to set him on his way home.

I just hope that he got home safely. In hind sight it was probably as well I didn’t catch him because it may have stopped him from getting home on his own however I was just following my instincts.

I looked on the internet later and it seems that I did the right things. It said if a pigeon is lost or injured to put them in a cat box or something similar with corn or mixed grains and water and bring them inside.

It gave the link to a charity organisation that help to get pigeons back to their owners. In the question and answer section it also said that pigeons can fly back home in the dark.

This was reassuring as hopefully it meant that our visitor would have found his way home.

We have had relentless rain this winter. We have just had one storm recently and another is forecast at the weekend. The crocus have been up for ages but just haven’t opened until today when we had a rare spell of sunshine.

These extra large snowdrops always flower later than the smaller snowdrops. It was so lovely to see the crocus open at last.

We have the next storm coming at the weekend but one sunny afternoon was just lovely for the garden and for the chickens perching on the branch perch above the ladder which catches the sun.

Yesterday Marmite was very vocal and I felt sure she was getting ready to lay her first egg of the year. By the afternoon she looked as if she wanted to lay but seemed to have forgotten where she was supposed to go. Marmite is our dimmest girl, nice but dim, is how I think of her!

Marmite kept going on top of the nest boxes. I put her in the nest box a couple of times but she would come back out and go to the top again. Eventually she sat down on top of the nest box. At this point I decided to put her in the nest box and close her in for a while.

I checked on Marmite a couple of times and she was settled in the nest box. The next time I went up I opened the nest box and Marmite casually sauntered out. There was her egg in the nest box so she had finally got the job done.

I am hoping that Marmite will now remember next time where to go but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Smoke’s round egg is on the right and Marmite’s egg is on the left. It is small, pale and pointed. Well done Marmite! It is good to have another girl laying.

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I have had a feeling over the last few days that Smoke was about to go broody. She has laid nineteen eggs in twenty eight days. Smoke often lays three days in a row then misses a day then another three days in a row.

This morning she was in the nest box after already laying three days in a row. Later she was joined by Flame. Flame has been laying every other day and has laid four eggs so far. Flame’s and Smoke’s eggs are usually side by side as they both like the same nest box.

When I checked a little later Flame was just coming out of the nest box. I lifted the lid and no egg was in sight. I then lifted Smoke and there was Flame’s egg. Smoke had snaffled it underneath herself.

A little later I lifted Smoke out for a break. She sat for a minute in the usual broody pose.

Smoke has done well to lay nineteen eggs before going broody. As the season goes on she will lay less eggs between broody spells if last year is anything to go by.

Meanwhile Ebony laid eight eggs and now hasn’t laid for a week. She is looking a bit tatty so I think that she is moulting in stages.

Marmite has recently been quite vocal so I think that she will be the next girl to start laying. Without Smoke we now have only Flame laying for the moment. We had just started to get more eggs and now they have fallen back again. Oh well, lets hope Marmite starts laying soon.

By the end of the day Smoke had laid another egg making it twenty eggs in twenty eight days and four days in a row. Smoke often lays one last egg at the start of being broody.

Yesterday morning first thing I checked the nest boxes as I do every day in case of an early egg. One of the nest boxes had a wet patch in it. My first thought was Speckles.

However when I put on a disposable glove and started to clear it I could see egg yolk and realised that it was a soft shelled egg. In fact it appeared to be a shell less egg as there was no egg shell at all.

My guess would be that it was from Salmon. Her comb has got very red over the last few days and she has been looking in the nest box. Last year at the beginning of egg laying Salmon had laid a couple of eggs with either no visible shell or soft shell. She is the only one of the current seramas to do this so it is most likely that it was her egg.

The good news is that she looks great. Sometimes the girls look really poorly before laying a soft shelled egg but Salmon looks really good as do all the girls. I am hopeful that this is just a glitch and once she starts laying properly they will have good shells.

Salmon looks really good so I am sure it is nothing to worry about. Her face and comb are a lovely red colour.

Flame laid her second egg today, two days after her first, so that’s another regular layer started. No more shop eggs needed for now which is great.

It was just over a week ago that Flame looked as if she was getting ready to lay but she hadn’t shown any interest in the nest box after that until today.

Today Flame was manic and I knew this meant she was going to lay this time. When Smoke and Ebony started laying they just chose a nest box and got on with the job. Ebony did a bit of scratching around in the nest box but that was it.

First of all Flame flicked loads of pine shavings out of the nest boxes. Next Smoke wanted to lay and whichever nest box she went to Flame wanted that one too. This caused Smoke to keep coming out and shouting. For a serama Smoke has the loudest of voices.

Eventually we closed Smoke in a nest box so that she could lay in peace and I kept checking on her so that I could let her out as soon as she laid. Flame kept jumping on the nest box Smoke was in and pecking at the closed door and making a mournful sound.

Next time I opened the nest box to see if Smoke had laid Flame jumped in with her. I checked under Smoke and found her egg and Smoke left the nest box followed by Flame.

When I next checked on Flame she was running from one nest box to the next making her mournful sound. She kept looking at me as if she wanted my help and at one point looked she was going to jump on me which she has never done before. I decided to try stroking her and was amazed that she let me. Flame has never let me stroke her before. She is usually quite indifferent to me and would just move away if I reached out towards her.

The next time I checked Flame had at last settled in a nest box. As usual she had put some pine shavings on her back. I returned a short while later to find Flame back out in the run. I checked the nest box and there was her first egg of the year.

Smoke’s egg is on the right, Ebony’s egg is in the middle and flame’s egg is on the left. It is her usual large size and pale colour. This is why it is so easy for me to tell who has laid which egg, not that I could have missed it today, with the fuss that Flame made.

It is great to have another girl laying and I just hope that Flame lays her next egg without quite so much fuss.

We got our new chicken shed in July last year. At the time we had seven little girls and three bigger girls. Before getting seramas I did a lot of research about them. I read that a broom handle is just right the size for bedtime perches for them.

With this in mind we put a broom handle perch across the back of the shed for the little girls and a wider perch across the side for the three bigger girls. This worked like a dream and the seven seramas were always perched at the back and the three bigger girls were always perched at the side.

The little girls filled the back perch and I knew that this was the maximum size of flock for this shed and in fact would have preferred a bit more space but the girls found their positions every night without any problems.

As time went on we lost three of the little girls. Now the four remaining little girls looked rather lost on their perch. There was loads of space on their back perch.

At this point Ebony started roosting on the back perch in the right hand corner where the two perches are close together. I worried that this wouldn’t be good for her feet and every evening I lifted her and placed her on the side perch.

Ebony protested at being moved and sometimes if there was enough light she would move back. I knew that the reason she was doing this was because there wasn’t much space on the three bigger girls’ perch whereas there was lots of space on the little girls’ perch. It made sense, as our biggest girl, that Ebony wanted to perch where there was more space.

I considered if it was possible to make the back perch wider in the corner that Ebony liked to perch. I went back to researching the correct size perch for different breed’s of chicken.

My research showed that different sized breeds, such as standard sized birds and bantams, need different sized perches and in a mixed sized flock there should be different sized perches available. It said that the way to measure it is that the hens toes should not meet around the perch. There should be a gap between their toes but equally their toes shouldn’t be stretched out so that it would be difficult to grip the perch.

With this in mind I checked Ebony’s toes on the smaller girls’ perch and found that there was still a good gap between her toes. I tried Flame and Speckles on the smaller perch too and it was the same with them. I also checked the little girls’ toes on the small perch and the size looks perfect for them.

This has put my mind at rest that Ebony is fine on the little girls’ perch. It will be less stressful for her to leave her to choose where to perch at night. Since I been leaving her to it she has roosted in the back corner spot every night.

Notice how different Spangle looks in the photo above and the photo below. She has lost most of the black plumage. She is our most, changed girl, ever.

I am happy with the space that the girls now have and having checked their feet on the perches I am now happy to let Ebony perch where she wants to.

Sometimes it is good to research these things again for peace of mind. I want our flock to be as happy as they can be.

On another note I am really pleased with this shed. I recently cleaned out the shavings and replaced them. It is so quick and easy to do this and it only takes one small bale of pine shavings instead of the large bale that the old shed took.

This shed is so easy to keep clean and to keep red mites at bay. I have also checked if there is any condensation over the winter and there hasn’t been any. This is definitely the best chicken shed we have had. The girls look happy with it too and the space is perfect for them.

At the moment we still have only Smoke and Ebony laying. Smoke has laid eleven eggs in fifteen days and Ebony has laid six eggs in thirteen days. Smoke is a really good layer. She will eventually go broody though.

Flame hasn’t shown any interest in the nest boxes since the day when she was in the nest box putting pine shavings on her back. This is surprising as I thought that meant she was ready to start soon.

Speckles also hasn’t shown any interest in the nest box since that day either. There have been wet poops under her roost spot since that day though. This, I think, is definitely proof that this is a hormonal thing for her. As soon as her comb goes red and she starts looking ready to lay she starts with wet poops again.

Speckles seems absolutely fine in herself though and this has now been going on for the last few years so I am not worried about her. I think it will probably be a while before she lays if at all.

Spangle was just being nosy about why Speckles was in the nest box and also hasn’t looked in a nest box since that day.

Marmite hasn’t yet shown any interest in the nest boxes and she is the second best, little girl, layer.

Salmon also hasn’t shown any interest in the nest boxes which doesn’t surprise me as Salmon and Spangle are erratic layers.

Salmon is still wheezing though. This has now been going on for a long time. I have treated with tylan several times and at one point went on for three weeks and it made no difference. My experience with myco in the past has been that once treated the strong girls get better and the girls with any other under laying problem or weakness decline until we lose them.

Salmon has proved different. Salmon hasn’t got better or worse and seems absolutely fine in every other way except that she has a wheeze. I can tell when she is nearby because I can hear her. This is so odd. We have wondered if she has some sort of blockage causing her wheeze although at the back of my mind the prospect of myco is always there.

There is nothing to be done but just wait and see what happens with Salmon. Apart from her wheeze she behaves just like any other of the girls.

The flock looks great and I am very happy with them. The number at the moment is a good number. The only reason I increased the flock size when I brought in the five amigos was that I wanted to guard against losses as the seramas seem so fragile.

I had only ever added two or three at a time before. I think it was the right thing to do as I lost five girls last year which was a blow. The flock size now is perfect and there is ample room in the smaller chicken shed.

I just don’t want to lose any more. That’s a daft thing to say though because, of course, we never want to lose girls. I just hope that we can keep this flock as it is for a long time. I am always aware that the vulnerable ones are Speckles because of her age and Salmon because of her wheeze.

I just hope that despite that we can stay as a flock of seven as long as possible as the flock is so lovely as it is now. I know that things never stay the same in chicken world but I hope that it does so for a good while to come.

I love seeing snowdrops in the garden even if they are in drizzle.

They do provide a bit of brightness in what has been a very wet winter.