Carol's Chickens

Ebony and Flame have really surprised me with what good egg layers they are. Since we got them in July I haven’t had to buy any eggs. In October Ebony laid 21 eggs and Flame laid 20. In October Dandelion has laid 6 eggs and Cinnamon has laid 5.

I thought that I would include a front facing photo of Ebony and Fame as they look quite funny like this and quite different from each other.

Ebony

Ebony’s face and comb is so different from what Emerald’s was like. Emerald had such a sweet face and the tiniest comb ever. Ebony has the same sort of chunky comb and wattles as the wyandotte she is crossed with and also the same solid shape. Ebony is a sturdy, chunky, girl.

Flame

Flame has retained the game bird shape but has the gold colour of the wyandotte. Both girls look quite fierce when face on although they aren’t in reality.

Because they are still laying so late in the year I am now wondering if they are younger girls than I had thought. I have started to wonder if this is their first year as chickens lay through their first winter and don’t moult. During their second and subsequent years they stop laying and moult.

If they continue to lay I will know that this is the case and will therefore be able to age them more accurately. This would be a good thing because if they are first year birds I could potentially have them for longer.

I just assumed they were older girls as Toffee and Emerald were. The farmer may not have been certain of their age if he had a mix of older and younger girls. He keeps the game girls as his broodies for his wyandottes so doesn’t sell them unless someone like me wants them.

Toffee and Emerald stopped laying at the end of June in the first year that I had them which meant that they were at least two years old and possibly more. When I expressed surprise to the farmer that  Ebony and Flame were still laying later on in the year he said that very often if they have been broody and raised chicks, which Ebony had, they will lay a bit longer into the year.

This also intimates that he wasn’t quite sure how old they are. It will be interesting to see if they continue to lay in November which will give me a better idea if they are first year girls. Either way they are very good egg layers so far and any eggs beyond this time of year are a bonus.

We have had a few mornings lately when there has been frost on our cabin roof but this morning was the first morning that we had a ground frost.

This was one of our sedums a few days ago

This was the same sedum this morning

I said on my last post that I don’t like the cold and dark afternoons. I don’t like frosty mornings either. Luckily as the day went on we had blue sky and sunshine but by five o’clock it was dark and the chickens were in the shed with the pop hole door closed.

I find it always takes  bit of getting used to when the clocks go back. I would prefer it if the clocks were left alone but there is nothing we can do about it but grin and bear it!

The girls get so excited when I go up to give them their bedtime corn. As I go up towards the run they all run to the bottom to greet me. They then follow me up to the gate and mill around  my feet in excitement.

Cinnamon always gets the closest to me and with her breast puffed out and her neck stretched she turns round in circles. It is so funny to see. She is like a little wind up toy going round and round.

Once I have scattered the corn they all run to hoover up as much as they can as quickly as they can.

The flock having their bedtime corn

I love to see the whole flock together

The girls are very adept at picking out the corn from the pine shavings that I sweep into the run from the patio area. I thought I should mention that in case it looked like I give out a ton of corn. I carefully throw out the equivalent of a teaspoon per girl as too much isn’t good for them. It’s not good to make our girls too fat although I am sometimes a little more generous on really cold nights. Digesting the corn over night helps to produce some internal heat.

They are such a pretty flock and I love that they are so harmonious. After the corn they hang around the patio area getting ready to go in for the night.

At this time of year Speckles doesn’t attempt to stay out which is good and she usually manages to bag her favourite spot in the  back, left, corner.

The amigos go to their side perch and the rest of the girls all go to the back perch. The advantage of a bigger flock is that they keep each other warm at night. We have seven on the back and five on the side which is a good number for warmth.

I am only just getting used to them going in at five o’clock instead of six o’clock since the clocks went back. Of course it is no different to them but it feels so early to me. It is the time of year that the girls have long nights and short days. Roll on spring!

Every Halloween we seem to get spooky windows in our sitting room. We call them “the ghosts in the windows”. It’s obviously because the weather conditions at this time of year are always quite similar. It always seems appropriate for Halloween though.

The ghosts in the windows

It is spooky that they always appear like this just in time for Halloween.

The weather has been amazing for October with warm days and sunshine but that is about to change. Cold weather is forecast and yesterday after a sunny morning the temperature dropped as the day went on and in the afternoon we had a hail shower just after I had taken these photos.

My husband has just cleared the veg plot ready for the winter. There is a row of leeks remaining and one patch of potatoes at the bottom left of the photo. He planted the self seeded primulas from the veg plot into little terracotta pots.

The veg plot is ready for winter

A lone, late, flower on the hosta

We have cut the others down but have left this one a bit longer to let the last flower have it’s time.

A late yellow poppy

A late echinacea flower

This shrub is still flowering

Lavender

Campanula still going

A few late roses

A few fushia flowers

A late anemone

A mass of rose hips

Some red spikes

Himalayan honeysuckle

Sedums

I love the way the sedum flowers get darker later into autumn but still give a lovely splash of colour.

We always try to last out without putting the heating on until November and I stay in flip flops until then too but last night we gave in and switched the heating on. This morning I put my boots on for the first time since spring.

We are only a few days early and it feels like winter is on the way. I don’t think there will be late summer flowers in the garden for much longer.

I have been trying to get some updated portraits of the girls over the last few days. With a bigger flock it isn’t so easy to get good shots of each of the girls. The five amigos are the most difficult as they are less used to the camera and tend to move away.

It has made me realise that I need to take my camera in more often. When I am cleaning up they move around my hands taking no notice of me but when I pointed the camera at them they moved away.

It’s interesting to see how the flock has changed over the last few months. Spangle and Smoke have had a few little spats and I think Spangle has now taken the top position of the amigos with Smoke in second position. Spangle is the easiest of the amigos to photograph because she doesn’t mind me getting close to her with the camera. She is the least timid of the amigos.

Marmite is bottom of the amigos and is the most timid in general. Even the inseparable Sienna and Jasmine recently had a little spat but I couldn’t tell who won the top position between those two. They remain above the amigos but below Dandelion and Cinnamon.

The other major change is Ebony and Flame’s behaviour and it is a change for the better. They finally seem to have settled into our set up and now always lay their eggs in the middle nest box. They no longer shout when their counter part is in the nest box. Flame no longer runs around manically looking in all the corners of the chicken shed and she has stopped scratching down to the wood in the shed and nest boxes and has stopped scratching the shavings out of the shed and nest box.

Ebony and Flame now go quietly in to the nest box and lay their egg and I can’t tell you how much better that is than the performance they put on when they first came to us. I think that it took them some time to adjust to the change in our nest box set up to what they were used to at the farm but they are settled into the routine with us and have become part of our flock. I almost regretted getting them in the first few months but I am now  much happier with them.

The amigos have also grown up and no longer cheep but have developed their adult voices. They still spend their time together but are also more confident about being apart at times. At bedtime the routine is now quite settled. The amigos perch together on their side perch and all the other girls perch on the back perch.

It is also difficult to get clear photos as the girls are always on the move but this was the best I could do over a couple of days.

Speckles

Ebony

Ebony had just had a dust bath so she has a dusty back.

Flame

Dandelion

Cinnamon

Although cinnamon is slightly blurred due to her movement I felt that this photo captured her character.

Sienna

Jasmine

Spangle

Smoke

Vanilla

Salmon

Marmite

Vanilla and Marmite now have their tail feathers back but Marmite and Smoke still have a few pins on their heads.

I am very happy that I have such a lovely flock and they all get along happily. They are such pretty girls and Ebony, Flame, Dandelion and Cinnamon are still laying eggs.

We are getting to know our car and so far we are very pleased with her. A few friends and neighbours have  been round to admire her. Yesterday my youngest son and his fiancee visited to have a look at her and we gave them a spin in her.

Us girls took the back seat and it was really roomy and comfortable and was a very smooth ride.

For insurance purposes we had to provide photos including right side, left side, front, back, interior, milometer and engine. So I thought I would show some more shots of her.

We have renamed her Febe

Her previous owner named her Connie. I have always liked to try to name our vehicles from the letters on the number plate so she has now become Febe (pheobe). I think it really suits her.

Milometer

Engine

This is the engine after my lovely husband spent some time cleaning it. The car is serving it’s purpose of giving my husband a bit of a hobby as well as being a vehicle for us to have fun in.

We have also joined the morris traveller club so we are really getting into the whole spirit of it. It has given us a whole new interest and I feel we are going to have good times ahead with Febe.

I know that I have done a few posts about eggs recently but I am still amazed by our eggs and couldn’t resist another one.

I am amazed that Ebony and Flame are still laying so late into October. Dandelion continues to lay her tiny eggs and Cinnamon has just laid again after a two and a half week break. I am amazed at the size of this egg. Cinnamon always lays quite big eggs for her tiny size but this one was bigger than usual, maybe because it’s the first, after a break.

The latest eggs

They were all laid on the same day so there was no doubt who the eggs were from. On the left is Flame’s white egg, next is Ebony’s egg, next is Cinnamon’s egg which isn’t that much smaller than Ebony’s egg and on the right is Dandelion’s little egg.

I am amazed at the difference in size of the little girls’ eggs especially as Cinnamon is smaller than Dandelion.

We are still getting a plentiful supply of eggs from these four girls and can eat as many egg based meals as we like without running short. I can only imagine how many eggs we will be getting next year when all twelve girls are laying. We will be able to give some to friends and family once more.

We have our car and we are thrilled with it. It is two weeks since we looked at it because of both us being busy and then the sellers being away. We found ourselves with an unusual day off yesterday as we both had no lunch deliveries. We contacted the owners of the car and they were okay with us going to collect it at half past one yesterday.

The lady that owned her was sad to see her go but also glad that we had contacted her to collect at short notice so that she didn’t have time to dwell on the car going. She had owned and looked after the car for ten years but felt that as she was no longer driving her regularly it was time to let her go.

We took my van so that my lovely husband could drive her home while I followed in my van. He was both excited and nervous of driving her for the first time on an hours journey home but it went perfectly.

Once home my husband took me for a spin in her and we filled her with petrol. We then parked her on the drive with my van behind and were pleased to find that both vehicles fitted with a good six inches to spare behind my van. It is unfortunate that we have to have the large bin on our drive too but we need it for our business.

Our, new to us, car

I photographed it at the owners property as there was more space than there would be on our drive.

Morris traveller

And here she is on our drive

We are going to buy a waterproof, breathable, cover for her but it is forecast to be dry and sunny for the next week so we have time to sort that out.

We feel sure that we will have a lot of fun with this car. After twenty years of driving vans we now have a car for ourselves and for pleasure instead of mostly for work. We intend to drive her and enjoy her and look after her as best we can.

I love seeing our flock all together. When I started my chicken keeping journey I thought that I would be happy with just three girls. Over the years it changed into extending the run and extending the flock.

I now love having a flock of twelve and can’t imagine having just a few girls. I especially love those moments when they all come together.

Last night I thought that I would try to capture this when giving out the bedtime corn. As I go up to the run I always talk to the girls and the entire flock run to the bottom end of the  run to greet me. As I walk past the side of the run the girls follow me up.

I go through the gate and the girls crowd around my feet on the patio area. I have to be very careful where I place my feet as I try to move through the girls to the cabinet for the corn.

I usually scatter the corn out into the run so that all the girls can get a share but last night I sprinkled a little on the patio area and quickly snapped a few photos.

Our flock

It’s difficult to get all the girls in shot and Ebony is only just in the foreground.

Having some bedtime corn

What a colourful little crowd the flock is. I scattered their corn into the run and they quickly hoovered it up. They then spend some time scratching to make sure that they haven’t missed a bit. I love to see them like this.