Carol's Chickens

I am not happy with the change in the bedtime routine. I just don’t understand why the two bigger girls have suddenly decided that they want to perch outside at bedtime.

We are rarely ever away over night but I want to break this habit in case we ever are. When it rains this perch gets dripped on and if the girls were to stay here and it then rained during the night they would get soaked which would not be good at all. Once it is dark the girls would be unable to move from here.

Emerald and Speckles new bedtime spot

While the bigger girls are not going into the chicken shed first it has changed the perching habit of the little girls. Without the bigger girls on the back perch the little girls no longer go to the back perch.

Freckles and Cinnamon now perch on the left hand perch

Dandelion and Apricot now perch on the right hand perch

I like the fact that they are in twos now rather than Freckles being on her own. This is how they perch every night that the bigger girls don’t go in first.

I go into the run and tell the two bigger girls that they must go to bed now and they jump down and head into the shed. Sometimes just telling them is enough and sometimes I have to go over to them and direct them.

Emerald and Speckles head into the chicken shed

The final line up

Once the two bigger girls have perched on the back perch I then lift all the little girls across to the back perch. It’s funny how they look like a row of headless chickens apart from Speckles watching over them.

While it is still quite cold I prefer the girls to perch together for warmth. Once we get into warmer weather I will let them perch where they want as long as it’s inside the chicken shed!

I think what is happening is that the bigger girls perch over the hatch while it’s still light there. They don’t seem to realise that on the patio area it is getting dark and they should go in.

I am going to try getting them down from the perch over the hatch earlier and keep an eye on them to keep them from returning there. I hope that I will be able to persuade them back into the habit of going in first. Only time will tell!

I thought I would do an update on how the flock is at the moment and add current portraits of all the girls to demonstrate what I am talking about.

There have been changes in the flock behaviour since the surge of hormones at the beginning of egg laying and yet at the moment there are only two girls actually laying, which this late in the year, is unusual. The weather has been much colder, for longer and later, this year which I think has a lot to do with the delay in egg laying.

When Speckles had her first surge of hormones just before starting to lay she underwent a complete personality transplant. From behaving like a gentle, caring, surrogate mother hen, to the little girls, she changed to being aggressive to them. She chased them away from treats, pinned down Cinnamon on occasions and pecked Dandelion’s comb to the extent that it has left black spots on the tip of her comb.

Freckles was also effected by the onset of hormones preceding starting to lay and proceeded to give Apricot a hair cut in the same way that she had done to Rusty the year before. I absolutely hate plucking so this was upsetting to me but as with Rusty she snipped the feathers rather than pulling them so it isn’t as bad. I hoped that as with Rusty this stage would soon wear off and I am happy to say that it has. We haven’t seen Freckles do this for a while and Apricot isn’t looking any worse so the faze seems to have passed once more.

On to the egg laying. I realise that I was mistaken in thinking that Emerald had laid her first egg. What lead me to believe this was the fact that she appeared to be getting ready to lay as she piled pine shavings on to her back one day. A few days later there was an egg that was slightly smaller than the eggs Speckles had been laying so I thought that this was Emerald’s first egg.

We have never seen Emerald actually go in to the nest box at all and after Speckles had been in the nest box a couple of days later there was another egg of the same size so I realised that all of the eggs must have been Speckles. Emerald has shown no interest in the nest boxes at any time since then. Emerald usually starts laying at the beginning of March so I can only think that the later than usual cold spell we have been having has delayed her starting.

Speckles laid five eggs in ten days at the beginning of March and then stopped completely. She hasn’t laid for ten days now. There are a couple of things that I am putting this down to.

Before the last cold spell I dug the run over and while Speckles was in her new, aggressive role, she got all the worms that I dug up. Usually they would be shared between all six girls but she kept the other girls away and had a feast of worms. This is a new lesson that I have learned from and I won’t allow this to happen again.

Speckles had so many worms that her crop looked unusually full at bedtime. With Cinnamon her crop often looks full but it isn’t usually noticeable with Speckles. After this she started doing sloppy poops. I put it down to the over load of worms.

Next the snow and dreadful weather came and Speckles was obsessed with eating snow. She continued to do sloppy poops. I have read on Terry’s Hen blog in the past that some of her hens were obsessed with eating snow and then had sloppy poops so I wasn’t overly worried.

Once the snow melted Speckles was just as obsessed with drinking the dripping snow melt water giving herself  a wet head in the process. She hasn’t shown any sign of drinking extra water from the water dish though.

By now I was a bit concerned that she was still doing sloppy poops coupled with no longer egg laying. I researched sloppy poops from chickens and what it said was that if a hen is looking healthy and happy whilst doing sloppy poops it’s nothing to worry about. Speckles looks happy and healthy, is eating well and has a huge red comb. It went on to say that too much protein can cause a hen to drink more and therefore produce sloppy poops. Bingo! Overload of protein from too many worms followed by eating snow and drinking snow melt water.

I know that it can take a few weeks for things to work their way through a hens system so I think this is what is happening. I will not allow a bean feast of worms to take place in future.

On to the little girls. Freckles and Cinnamon have been laying since the end of February. Both girls are really good layers and lay every other day and occasionally two days in a row but Dandelion and Apricot have yet to show any sign of wanting to lay. Again I think the late cold weather may be having an effect plus the fact that Dandelion had such hard time with the mycoplasma.

So there we have it, just two out of six girls laying. I don’t mind though as long as they look healthy and so on to the portraits of the girls.

Speckles has a magnificent comb

Her comb is so big that she gets it dirty while pecking around in the run

Emerald

Freckles

Cinnamon

Dandelion has dark spots on her comb

Apricot has a hair cut

Apricot’s feathers have been snipped on her head and the back of her neck.

Apricot

Apricot still looks good though, luckily it only shows at certain angles and she is still fluffy.

Despite the lack of egg laying the flock look happy and healthy and are all eating well and dust bathing and doing all the usual chicken things so I am not going to worry too much.

My lovely husband came back from a trip to the supermarket this morning with a bunch of flowers for me. They are astramaris which are really long lasting flowers. They usually last a good few weeks.

Astramaris

A lovely surprise and a bit of colour on a drab and dreary day.

Since the weather has changed the bedtime routine has changed and not for the better! Emerald and Speckles have taken to perching over the hatch at bedtime. Emerald settles there first and then Speckles joins her.

The little girls gather around the pop hole to go in or if I go up later they will have perched inside but Emerald and Speckles show no sign of going in. They always used to go in first and were followed by the little girls. I really think that if I didn’t move them they would stay out for the night. I am not happy about that!

I move them from the perch to the table and then shepherd them towards the chicken shed. Emerald goes in first followed by Speckles. It is a pain having to do this every night and I worry that if we were ever away overnight they wouldn’t go in. I can’t understand why they have suddenly started doing this.

Emerald and Speckles perch here at bedtime

Speckles comb is amazing

I shepherd them towards the chicken shed

They trot off like naughty children looking a bit sheepish. I am sure they know that I don’t want them to do this. I just hope that I can break this habit. I think I will try moving them a bit earlier and see if I can get them back to going in first.

Today the sun shone and for the first time this year it felt spring like. The girls enjoyed sitting in the sun and at one point Freckles was dust bathing in a shaft of sunlight. She looked as if it was so blissful that she was dozing as Emerald looked on.

Freckles dozes in a sun filled dust bath

It was so lovely that for the first time this year we felt like visiting the garden centre. The squirrels have had most of our crocus and between the squirrels and the bad weather our bulbs are dismal this year apart from the miniature daffodils which seem to survive anything.

You can often get a bargain at this time of year on bulbs in pots. Because they are past their best they get reduced but it’s a great way to be able to plant while you can see what you are getting and they will be at their best again next spring.

At the first garden centre we bought three large pots of crocus and tulips that were reduced from nine pounds to three so three for the price of one. I felt quite pleased with this.

The second garden centre on our route didn’t have anything I wanted. Then we swung by our local D.I.Y. store and the pots of bulbs were reduced to as little as sixty pence. I was like a kid in a sweet shop and got a whole collection for under six pounds.

Pots of crocus and tulips

Hyacinths, crocus and miniature daffs

My bargain collection

An injection of spring colour in the garden

I bought the three different colours of hyacinths that were there. There was only one colour of crocus but that’s better than nothing and I added one pot of miniature daffs as they were so cheap plus the pot of tulips which I split into two lots.

I planted them all around the garden giving lovely splashes of spring colour. It is so good to feel spring like at last.

Today is the first day of spring believe it or not. Yesterday our spring flowers looked like this. Today the paths are clear but there is still snow on the garden.

Miniature daffodils peeping through the snow

What a winter this has been. It has felt like a really long winter and much harsher than most years. There have been times when I really felt that Dandelion wasn’t going to come through this but she has hung on in there.

The bigger girls have given up laying since this last cold spell and Only Freckles and Cinnamon have continued to lay. Speckles last laid a week ago but Freckles and Cinnamon have continued to lay every other day and Freckles two days running a couple of days ago.

This time last year I was struggling to get the three amigos (Dandelion, Cinnamon and Apricot) integrated. We collected them on the twenty fifth of February and by this time I was hand feeding them dishes of mash and had temporarily put water bottles at the top of the ladders as I was worried that they were being kept away from the food and water.

There is no way, this year, that I would dream of adding new girls to the flock in this sort of weather. It shows what a different sort of winter we have had compared to last year. At the end of February last year I felt the weather had warmed up enough to add new girls. This year it will be a while yet before I consider it warm enough to add new girls.

I just hope that we are finally through with the really cold weather and that spring is truly on it’s way at last.

I worm the girls twice a year, in September and March, so worming time has come round again. I use flubenvet powder which needs to be given for seven consecutive days.

I have in the past added the powder to various treats but eventually I found that the most simple way to give it is in dishes of mash. I make up three small dishes of mash and sprinkle the powder on top then mix it in a bit.

The girls all equally love the mash and all quickly get a share. By the end of the day all the mash is gone so I know that all the flubenvet has been consumed.

I took these photos a few days ago as it is now day four of worming. The snow came along and those posts needed to go out while they were relevant whereas the worming is following this same pattern for seven days.

Worming the girls

Three dishes but this one is clearly favourite.

Three dishes of mash with flubenvet powder mixed in

Speckles tries the next dish.

The girls play musical dishes

Suddenly all the dishes are popular. There is a bit of chasing round but eventually as the novelty wears off the girls settle down and they all a get share.

The funny thing was that later in the day the first dish was empty then later still the second dish then by the end of the day the third dish was empty. Instead all of the dishes going down equally they disappear one dish at a time.

I don’t care what order they eat from the dishes as long as all the girls get a share. For me this is the easiest way of worming the girls. I think they rather enjoy having mash for a week.

It snowed all day yesterday but it was wispy and blowing around and so didn’t settle. By the evening though the freezing temperature had allowed it to settle. I took a photo from our front window of our vans during the evening.

Our vans last night

We must have had more snow during the night because this was the same view this morning.

Our vans this morning

The garden table by our back door

I measured the snow on this table and it was two inches.

The back garden

The garden has disappeared under the snow

The table next to the chicken run

The chicken’s water was frozen so I took it indoors and defrosted it under the hot tap. The chicken’s automatic door hadn’t opened because the snow on their patio roof had made it really dark. I let the girls out then dug the run over as it was covered in snow.

I left the chicken shed door open but the girls wouldn’t come to the patio area as it was too dark and they headed for the small shelter.

I got the step ladder out and cleared the patio roof as best as I could to let in some light. Once it was light the girls came to the patio area and had a good scratch about in the chicken shed.

By late morning there was some sunshine and everything was starting to thaw.

Signs of spring underneath the snow

The snow was dropping away and revealing spring flowers underneath. The problem now is that it is forecast to drop in temperature to minus one by four o’clock this afternoon and the remaining snow will freeze.

We will have to be really careful on the paths but tomorrow it is due to start warming up again. Hopefully this will mean that the remainder of the snow will disappear tomorrow and we can get back to normal again.

I really hope this is the last of it for this year. I am sure that we are all saying roll on spring!

Yesterday it snowed on and off all day and the temperature barely got above freezing. The girls spent most of the day in the shelters. I left the chicken shed door open for most of the day but they weren’t interested preferring the shelters.

Speckles and the little girls spend time in the small shelter

Cinnamon can just be seen behind Speckles

Emerald is in the large shelter

I felt sorry for Emerald on her own in the large shelter. It’s a bit of a squeeze for the bigger girls in the small shelter and Emerald rarely ever uses it.

Speckles has left the small shelter to join Emerald

I was quite pleased to see Speckles join Emerald and keep her company in the large shelter.

Speckles has joined Emerald in the large shelter

Emerald was preening the tiny feathers on her legs and I had to wait for her to finish by which time Speckles had dozed off.

Speckles dozes next to Emerald

I am glad that this cold spell is only forecast to last for a couple of days because I think that the girls are as fed up of this weather as we are.

Freckles and Cinnamon are laying their eggs at virtually the same time at the moment. This causes the usual mayhem that comes from them both wanting to lay in the same spot.

The current favourite spot is the corner of the chicken shed. The shed is big enough that you would think that they could sit side by side in the same corner. But no! That is not acceptable. They both want the corner to themselves.

Yesterday Freckles settled in the corner first. Cinnamon did a lot of shouting and stood watching over Freckles.

Cinnamon wants Freckles spot

As Freckles is top girl I was surprised to see that Cinnamon managed to usurp Freckles from her spot much to Freckles annoyance.

I don’t know how she managed it but Cinnamon got Freckles spot

I lifted Cinnamon to see if she was sat on Freckles egg because I was so surprised that Freckles had given up her spot. There was no egg. Cinnamon is a very determined little girl.

Freckles was not happy about this

Freckles was shouting but I couldn’t capture it because every time I opened the shed door she stopped. She was however stretched to her full height.

One very cross girl

A very cross girl comes to the pop hole to see me. I was busy for a while but my husband went to check on them and there were Cinnamon’s and Freckles eggs side by side in the corner of the shed.

So much drama at egg laying time, with so much space to choose from, but such determined little girls. All was quiet once more and two more eggs added to the egg rollers. Sigh!