Carol's Chickens

Freckles hasn’t laid for an entire month. As she is usually our best egg layer this seemed odd. She usually only takes a ten day break when she has gone broody but this time she hadn’t gone broody but just stopped laying.

A few days ago I felt she was getting ready to lay again. If I came up behind her she would drop into a squat. She started going into the nest box for about half an hour and then would come out not having laid. I put it down to practising as a few of the girls do this when about to lay after a break.

Yesterday she looked really unhappy. She had a peculiar stance and her eyes were closing. I felt she was having an egg laying problem.

Freckles looks most peculiar and very unhappy

I picked her up and inspected her. Her vent looked normal and that odd bump is just soft feathers but it looks exaggerated because she has her tail down. When her tail is up the bump appears to disappear.

I felt helpless as I knew she just needed to get an egg laid. Some people suggest a warm bath to relax the muscles but it was getting near the end of the day and I felt that it would be likely to cause her more stress.

Freckles put herself to bed early. She was first in whereas she is usually the last little girl in. I felt this was the best place for her.

In the morning she ran over for some corn and seemed back to her usual self again. I checked in the chicken shed. Under her roost spot was an egg coloured puddle and then I spotted egg yolk on the bracket behind her perch. There was no sign of any shell at all.

It appears as if she has laid an egg without any shell. I worried about the shell being inside her but I have read that if this is so they rapidly look very unwell and she was digging and scratching as usual. I couldn’t see anything unusual about her vent.

She later went in the nest box for about half an hour and came out shouting. She was obviously unaware that she had discharged the egg earlier. She continued the day as normal.

She was soon happily perching with her flock mates.

The flock perch together

Hopefully the crisis has passed. These girls do like to worry us.

We have now had the chicks for two weeks and they have doubled in size. They were outgrowing the hamster cage and it was time to move them on to the next stage.

Yesterday I started getting the dog crate and the nest box/coop ready for them. We had to make quite a few adaptions to make the dog crate escape proof. Usually I only have girls in there for a day or two to make sure they know the coop is where to go at bedtime.

This time the chicks may need to be in there for two weeks as I need them to be big enough not to be able to put their head through the dividing chicken wire. I worry on two counts, they could get their head stuck in the wire or they could pecked from the girls on the other side.

If it turns out that the chicks outgrow the dog crate before I feel that the chicken wire is safe for them I will come up with something else to line it with. It already has a double layer of chicken wire but I could put something finer on their side. I will worry about that later.

My husband decided that instead of screwing the perch system down he would use a bolt so that it would be easier for me to remove it for cleaning. The chicks will be in this bedtime coop for up to four months so it needs to be easy to clean.

Movable perch system

My husband drilled a hole through the trough for the bolt to lock in to and put a catch above the trough to hold it in place. It can’t move or tip up but I can undo the bolt and slip the trough out from under the catch to remove it for cleaning.

Nest box/coop filled with pine shavings

The chicks have outgrown this space

This will be the chicks new home

I decided to fill the dog crate tray with soil so that the chicks get used to being on soil. It will be better for dust baths and will provide grit plus it won’t matter if it gets flung out.

We had to modify the dog crate. First we put some aluminium trays under the tray to lift it above the horizontal gaps as we thought the chicks may be able to get through them. Then we had to raise the coop on a piece of wood so that the ramp would drop into the higher tray. We then had to attach some wood between the coop and crate to block the gaps. We also put some wood on the left of the tray to block that gap.

It actually took most of the afternoon getting everything ready. I fixed a water bottle and put in a dish for water and a dish for food by the ramp where it is less likely to get soil flicked into it. The water dish probably will get soil flicked into it but the bottle is a back up.

It was now all ready for the chicks.

This morning I put the chicks in their new home and they immediately started pecking at the soil. They then found both water sources and a minute later had found the food dish.

The chicks in their new home

They find the water

They find the food

The only thing that remains to be seen is if they find the coop at bedtime. I think they will as they seem pretty smart.

I had such a lovely surprise yesterday evening when my lovely neighbour knocked on the door and was holding a beautiful flower arrangement. She said they were for me. I couldn’t quite believe such lovely flowers were for me!

She went on to say that she had hosted an event and didn’t want to leave the flower arrangement behind and that she and her husband were going away on holiday the next morning.

She said that she had missed my birthday the week before (I didn’t think we did birthdays) and that she knew that I would look after them and enjoy them.

As I had just poured a glass of wine I invited her to join me and we had a good catch up. Her husband came looking for her a little later and both our husbands had a beer. We viewed the garden and of course the girls and the chicks.

The flowers are sitting on the end of the dining table as they are too large to sit anywhere else. The scent is lovely too.

Beautiful flower display

I was so touched to be given these and will enjoy them for as long as they last. What a lovely surprise!

Yesterday Speckles laid an egg after exactly three weeks break. Her poop seems less sloppy recently. I hope that laying an egg is a sign that whatever was going on with her is getting better.

Speckles lays an egg

The egg on the right is Emerald’s and the egg to the left of it is Speckle’s larger and paler egg. I couldn’t resist adding Cinnamon’s egg at the back on the left and Dandelion’s tiny egg in front of it.

Speckles has been driving us mad with her shouting/screaming in the afternoon when Emerald goes in to lay her egg. She has done this every other day for the last three weeks.

Yesterday while Speckles laid her egg Emerald watched from the ramp of the nest box. About an hour later Emerald went in to lay her egg. For the first time in three weeks Speckles didn’t shout.

Has she had a light bulb moment and realised that as she herself has just laid an egg, Emerald has gone in to lay an egg and not disappeared? It certainly does seem like that.

We are hoping that Speckles will continue to lay and will stop shouting every time Emerald goes in to lay. Chickens are more complicated than we sometimes might imagine!

When the chicks get too big for the hamster cage they will have one of the nest boxes (actually called small animal houses) as their coop just we have always used before for this purpose. The draw back with this is not having a perch and so the chicks having to sit amongst the night time poop.

I have tried to come up with ideas for a temporary perch before but nothing was really successful. As the chicks are going to be in there for a longer period than previously, probably four months, I feel it’s more important to try to come up with some sort of perch. Also from the way they spend time on the platform in the hamster cage I feel that they want to perch and it would also help them with the eventual transition to the chicken shed.

Yesterday I looked for something that would be free standing to add to the nest box, when needed for new girls, but that could be easily removed when it reverts back to being a nest box again.

I first tried the pet shop but found nothing suitable. I then tried the pound shop which is next door to the pet shop. I found myself in the gardening bit and picked up a herb trough. I thought it could be repurposed and at a pound it didn’t much matter if it didn’t work.

I thought the chicks could perch on the edge of it but it would be better to have a perch that they could grip all round. I thought a thick bamboo stick would be the right size and I could attach it with wire to the herb box through the gaps either end of the trough.

I set about this and was quite pleased with the result. This could sit in the nest box/temporary coop and be removed when no longer needed but kept for the future when needed again.

I plan to half fill the trough with pine shavings for easy poop picking. We also plan to screw it to the floor of the little coop nest box so that it can’t tip up. We will use just one screw in the centre to hold it place and I will keep the screw driver in my chicken store cabinet so that I can remove it at any time.

My movable perch system

The perch in situ

I got Freckles to try it out

I used Freckles to demonstrate as she is the easiest girl to pick up. In the photo Freckles was just leaving as I had to plonk her on the perch and then grab my camera. I wasn’t quick enough to catch her on the middle perch.

It will sit lower than this as I had just plonked it on top of the shavings but when properly installed I will clear the shavings and place it on the floor of the little coop then fluff the shavings around it.

I think this will work. Time will tell!

I know that I have done similar posts to this in the past but it still greatly amuses me how the little girls lay such different sized eggs. Cinnamon who is the smallest of the little girls lays the biggest serama egg and Dandelion who is the biggest of the little girls lays the tiniest serama egg.

A selection of eggs

On the left for comparison is a medium sized, shop bought, egg. Next is Emerald’s reasonable sized egg and next is Cinnamon’s egg. On the right is Dandelion’s tiny egg.

On the good side, Dandelion should never experience a prolapse. Her little eggs me smile every time.

We have now had the chicks for a week and I think they have almost doubled in size already. I needed to clean out the hamster cage. I poop pick every day and clean the water bottle and food dish but I want to change the shavings and thoroughly clean the cage once a week.

I decided to do this in the morning while the chicks were in the bathroom. I moved the chicks to the cat box while I cleaned their cage. My mum had asked me to try to show a comparison of their size so I decided to take a photo of Blue in my hand.

I would say that a week ago if I held my hand out flat, palm up, I would have been able to sit all three side by side in my hand.

Blue in my hand for size comparison

Sarah, the breeder, said that they could escape through the grill of the cat box when we collected them. I don’t think they could now. The grill happens to be laying in the bath. I put the cat box in the bath while I cleaned the hamster cage from the bidet filled with hot, soapy, water.

I think the chicks were quite glad to get back to their hamster cage. I don’t think it will be long before they outgrow the cage but I am hoping that by then Blue will get the feathers in on her bottom, which is bare at the moment, all bar some pins.

Blue is definitely developing a bit slower than the silkie girls. They do seem to be growing before our very eyes though. They remain utterly adorable.

The mixture of sun and rain has made the garden so lush. We have also taken out a lot of pulmonaria and replaced it with more interesting plants which has injected a bit of variety and colour.

The garden is looking amazing

Everything is lush

In the distance you can just a little white figure which is Freckles watching me from the branch perch.

The chicks are doing really well. Usually when we have new girls there are lots of posts with photos of them discovering their new surroundings. With the chicks being in a hamster cage there isn’t any of this to show as yet.

They are already developing their characters though. At first it looked as if Blue was going to be top of this trio as she was first into everything, food, water, bedroom quarters, scratching and digging. But this has now changed with the silkie girls growing faster than her. Lemon has now become top of this trio and is also the biggest of the three. Lemon has done a little chest bumping with both the other girls.

The chicks have quickly got used to the plastic cup coming into their cage to fill up the food dish and are not at all bothered by it and don’t move out of the way but they really don’t like my white, disposable gloved, hand, coming in to poop pick. I don’t blame them as in a small space such as the hamster cage my hand is a bit in their face but what surprised me was that Lemon pecked my gloved finger on several occasions. She is feisty.

We are really pleased with the chicks progress and they are adorable to watch. They cheep all the time and eat and poop at quite a rate. They peck at everything including the floor and the sides of the cage.

They continue to go to the bedroom quarters between eight and nine o’clock depending on how light or dark the day is (I leave the curtain open at the bathroom window for them) but we can still hear them cheeping from in there and when we turn on the bathroom light a little face will appear at the window but they never come back out until morning.

What clever little girls they are.

The chicks are visibly growing before our very eyes. They can jump up and down on the hamster cage platform with ease now. The two silkies are faster growing than the frizzle who is noticeably smaller than them at the moment. Lemon is the biggest of the three. They are always busy, chirping constantly and eating all day long.

The chicks are growing fast

Lemon, Jasmine and Blue

They like to stay close together

They are never far apart and do everything in unison. They are a very cute threesome.

Today Cinnamon has started taking notice of the chicks. She has been pacing up and down the wire desperate to find a way in.

Cinnamon is eyeing up the chicks

It’s typical that it’s our smallest girl that wants to get at them. Cinnamon was the same when she was on their side of the wire looking out at the bigger girls. For a tiny girl she has always been a feisty one.

Emerald continues to want to lay her egg with a little girl. Today it was Cinnamon’s turn. She has now laid her egg next to each of the three little girls. Cinnamon chose a corner of the chicken shed instead of a nest box and Emerald followed her. It seems as though Emerald likes company when she is laying her egg.

Emerald got her egg laid first. She is pretty quick at egg laying and shortly after Cinnamon laid hers.

Emerald and Cinnamon in the shed together

They look so cute together

The chicks seem to spend most of their time in the food dish. Blue remains the one to dig the most. They stay pretty tight together.

The chicks are a day older

Jasmine in the middle is rather crowded by Lemon and Blue

Jasmine has a yellow stripe down the middle of her breast

This photo isn’t great because she wasn’t still and so it is slightly blurred but it’s difficult to get a shot of her breast so I kept it in to explain the naming. Blue and Lemon both have lemon colour on their heads. Jasmine has a slightly darker yellow colour (like the colour of jasmine hence the name) and has a stripe of this same yellow colour down the middle of her breast. Blue has some dark blue colour in with the black.

They will grow into their colours as they get bigger and it will be easier to tell the difference between Lemon and Jasmine. I have always liked using colour, descriptive, names.

The chicks seem to be happy in their new home. Integration will be “fun” but we are a long time away from that yet so I am just going to enjoy this easy bit when they are contained in a small environment.