Carol's Chickens

After four years of poop picking the soil level in the run has dropped considerably. Although the girls scratch in it all day they only move the soil about and don’t remove it from the run so it must just be me picking up three times a day that has removed all this soil.

The soil level in the run has dropped

When I dig the run I always add a bucket of soil from other parts of the run to this spot and I have added bags of sand in the past but these things have made little impression. Steve, my eldest son, thought this was a block of concrete. In fact it is rock hard soil where I have allowed it to be compacted as it provides a step down into the run. I dig over the rest of the run at least once a week.

A small bag of sand only costs two pounds but even a small bag is heavy. I decided to buy two bags today even though I knew it would be a drop in the ocean. Even so every little helps.

I have a plan to keep on buying one bag of sand at a time and adding it until eventually I can build the level back up. I would like to put sand in the whole of the run to help it to be less boggy but the run is so big that this would be an impossible task.

We put the sand in the run and waited to see what the girls made of it.

Topaz, Toffee and Emerald were the first to approach the sand

Speckles was quite brave

I left them to it and when I returned a little later the girls all ran to the patio to see if I was going to give them their pre bedtime corn.

All the girls on the patio

I felt like the pied piper as I was stepping backwards to try to get a photo while the girls were all moving towards me. It did give me a chance to get all the girls in shot though and I liked this photo. Butterscotch had just laid her egg so she was catching up on pecking at the apple.

A little later I threw their bedtime corn into the sand to encourage them onto it.

The girls scratching in the sand

The sand is getting spread around

Topaz has the sand to herself

After the other girls had tired of the sand Topaz continued to scratch in it. She was scratching in the sand until bedtime. At least this is a start to building up the soil level and I think the girls like the sand.

Today there was a communal dust bathing session going on in the run. As usual each girl was in her own spot except for Peaches and Barley. As allways they were as close together as they could get.

Communal dust bathing

Peaches and Barley dust bath together

These two girls are such twin spirits. Note their combs are now getting red again. I am hopeful of some egg laying soon.

Yesterday Jackie and I caught up with each other’s girls. All our girls have come through the moult and are looking really good.

Chelsea has a lovely red comb and wattles

Chelsea is in her first winter and so is still laying and has the comb to prove it.

Chelsea, Blossom and Bluebell

Blossom fully feathered and looking great

Bluebell is as shy as ever and this is as close as I could get to her

Blossom looks like she is off for a stroll

Chelsea almost gets too close to photograph

Chelsea is so friendly that several of the photos of her were too close to use. Chelsea and Bluebell could not be more different. All three girls are looking good though.

I think Jackie is ready to add to her flock but she wants to wait until the weather dries up a bit first. We both agreed that both our spaces are wet and muddy and we can’t wait for drier weather. The girls are all happy though, they don’t seem bothered by the mud.

We say, roll on spring.

Yesterday Butterscotch laid our first egg this year and today she laid the second.

Butterscotch has laid the first two eggs of the year

Butterscotch is as regular as clock work. She lays eggs nearly every day for three weeks then goes broody. She takes a break for two weeks and drops some feathers while on her break. She then starts laying again. She laid the first egg of the new year yesterday on day fourteen since she started her break and she then laid again today.

Butterscotch is quite an amazing girl. It is lovely to be getting eggs again and soon maybe some of the other girls will get started. I can’t wait to have an abundance of eggs again. Butterscotch has done a good job of keeping us in some eggs through the winter months.

Come on girls, it’s time you took a leaf out of Butterscotch’s book and started giving us some more lovely eggs.

Yesterday the girls were all perched together in the sun once more. This time I thought I would see if I could get a photo from inside the run. I crept towards the girls, moving quickly, clicking all the way. I managed to get some photos before the first girl jumped down.

All eight girls are perching together

I get closer

Perching in a shaft of sunlight

The odd thing is that I took this same photo of all eight girls last winter but two of the girls were different. Last years group photo has Amber and Sparkle in it instead of Butterscotch and Speckles.

My previous flock of eight girls perching together

I took this photo in November 2015 and my friend Jackie had it put on to a mug and a note book for my Christmas present last year.

I then lost Amber in April and Sparkle in July. I got Butterscotch and Speckles at the end of July. It is quite uncanny how similar yesterday’s photo is to the one I took last year. I think the opportunity arises because in the winter if there is some sun in the run it is always in this spot. The girls like to perch together and even more so if they can find a spot of sun. Even so it is quite rare to get a shot of all eight perching especially as some of the girls will jump down when I approach with the camera.

I remember last year getting the shot on my second attempt just as I did this year. It takes a couple of days of sunshine to get the girls in this spot together, a couple of times, giving me a chance of getting a photo. I am amazed at how similar the two photos are considering that there are two different girls this time round. Another great group photo I think.

Every time Butterscotch takes a break from egg laying she starts to lose feathers. Each time this happens I am convinced that she won’t start laying again but each time so far she has.

I have been picking up a hand full of feathers each morning from beneath her roost spot. There are feathers in the spots where she takes a dust bath.

She doesn’t usually look any different but yesterday morning she had a loose tail feather. I gave it a gentle tweak to see if it would come out but it wasn’t ready yet.

Butterscotch has a loose tail feather

As the morning went on the tail feather remained sticking out

This is the first time Butterscotch has had a feather noticeably out of place

It does look odd but it is staying put for now.

We went out at lunch time and her tail feather was still hanging in there. We returned in time for the bedtime corn. Her tail feather had finally fallen out.

Butterscotch has lost her tail feather

Butterscotch has a drink of water

Butterscotch from a different angle

It took all day but Butterscotch is now back to her pristine feathered self once again.

Yesterday was a cold frosty morning. Mid morning all the girls were perched together in a shaft of sunshine. They spent all morning here. They always find any spot of sun that is available in the run and they always prefer to be up on a perch when the ground is cold.

I don’t like taking photos through the wire but made an exception because once I go through the run gate the girls will jump down and come running towards me to see if I have any treats for them.

All the girls are perched up

When I see them like this I wonder why they squabble so much when getting into their bedtime positions. During the day they are happy to perch together but in the evening they are so fussy about which girls can perch next to who.

It is lovely seeing them together in harmony.

My hobby is my chicken keeping and chicken blog, my husband’s hobby is his model railway. A couple of years ago we doubled the size of the chicken run and at the same time my husband doubled the size of his model railway to fill our back bedroom.

This room had never been used by us as a bedroom and we still have two spare bedrooms for when family come to stay. We feel that as we are heading towards retirement age we both need a hobby.

A few years ago I bought some chickens to be incorporated into the railway scenery. The railway is very much a work in progress with much to be completed which is the point of it really. My husband makes all the model buildings himself from balsa wood. I painted the houses that are on the high street at the back but over time my husband has continued with the painting. As he is colour blind I sometimes offer guidance but I think that his skills have improved immensely.

He makes each building so that it can be lifted out from the set for repair or a closer look or a change of position. He has recently been working on a farm area and built a barn with a chicken coop attached so that the chickens could finally be put into the set. He suggested that I glue the chickens in place in the barn and the strip of grass in front so that they are contained and won’t get knocked as they are so tiny. Some of the chickens are not much bigger than a pin head.

Below is the chicken barn on our dining table after I had placed the chickens on it with tweezers.

Chicken barn

I put some chickens on the hay bales on the right of the barn, it is rather a large flock in a small space but we allow a bit of poetic license.

To put this into context I thought I would take some photos of the railway.

Model railway

At the back is the high street which contains the first buildings my husband made

One of the platforms, with the chicken barn behind the brick wall

A church and some more buildings

A view of most of the railway

The gap in the centre is where my husband works from and the control panel is outside on the right of the photo. This means that while he runs the trains he can view the whole set up.

A few Christmas’s ago my husband made me a chicken coop as a sort of joke gift. He said that I didn’t have to keep it but how could I not? He got the chicken from a toy shop and by luck it just happens to be a brown leghorn. It has the floppy comb and white earlobes of Barley and Peaches.

Chicken coop

I thought that as I am updating on chickens on the railway scenery that this coop deserved a mention too. I thought it was very cute and it lives on top of a cabinet on the landing which leads to the railway room, as we call it.

This is a summary of my husband’s hobby which is forever evolving, much like the chicken run really.

I have had some wonderful, thoughtful Christmas presents this Christmas. I am only going to show the chicken related gifts that I have received this year and will list them in the order that I received them.

Before Christmas, Jackie and I met up and exchanged gifts. We exchanged two gifts each but I am just showing the chicken shaped one.

Chicken bottle stopper

On Christmas day my husband and I exchanged several small gifts throughout the day. He said that he had to include just one chicken shaped gift.

Egg holder

Recently only Butterscotch has been laying and I always leave her egg on the kitchen counter to cool before putting it in the fridge. My husband said that in the summer when I could have up to eight eggs waiting in the kitchen this would give me somewhere safe to store them.

Christmas chicken

This was from my youngest son and his partner. He said that in keeping with my theme of descriptive names it is to be called “black spots on a white background”!

Chicken coasters

These beautiful coasters were from my eldest son and his wife. She had made a lovely job of painting all my chickens from the start of my chicken keeping journey. The first tile is Poppy ( who turned out to be a cockerel and was returned to the farm) and Pepper and Dotty (re-homed on a farm because of the feather plucking problem)

The second tile is Treacle who we sadly lost and Bluebell who I re-homed with Jackie.

The third tile is of Honey and Amber, who we sadly lost last spring at two years old. She is depicted with the bump on her back which we always felt was the slight deformity that probably led to her short life.

The fourth tile is Topaz and Sparkle who we also sadly lost last summer.

The fifth tile is Toffee and Emerald. The sixth tile is Barley and Peaches and the seventh tile is Butterscotch and Speckles.

They also gave me a house number which was going to be part of their last house number but didn’t get used as they moved. This was for the chickens’ shed door so I am adding it to the chicken related gifts.

The chicken’s door now has a number

It was so lovely spending time together and there was much food and drink consumed and games played and laughter. The gifts are just a small part and spending time together has been lovely but the gifts were so special and thoughtful that I just had to record them.

Since I moved the new nest boxes to the top of the little coop nest boxes the girls have ignored them except for Speckles. They have become a new favourite place for her to stand. I think she likes the extra bit of height.

Speckles likes to stand here and inspect the shed after I have done the morning poop pick.

Speckles inspects the clean shed

Speckles likes the extra height of the new nest box

This is Speckles new favourite place to perch

I am glad to see that at least one girl likes them even if only to perch upon.