Carol's Chickens

Despite having no tail I have had the feeling that Flame was about to start laying again. For the last few days she has been looking in the nest box.

This morning Ebony was in the nest box. When I next checked Flame was settled in beside Ebony. They looked so sweet together that I went indoors to fetch my camera.

By the time I returned Flame was standing up in the egg laying position. I positioned my camera through the nest box door and saw that she had just laid her egg.

It is three weeks since Flame laid her last egg. I am surprised she is back in lay already when she has been moulting and has just lost her tail feathers. Having said that the feathers have stopped dropping now and when I looked back at last year she has followed the same pattern.

Flame moulted in July last year after being broody and started laying again after three and a half weeks. It is good to have Flame laying again as Ebony has been our only egg layer for the past week.

We had our last four eggs for Sunday breakfast and I had thought that I would need to buy some soon. These two girls may just keep us going for the weekend breakfast eggs. Well done girls.

I swear Speckles tail is growing before my eyes. It seems slightly longer than yesterday.

Flame’s tail seems shorter but that’s because what I thought was a short new tail feather was actually a last tail feather waiting to fall and now it’s gone.

I thought it would be fun to get a photo of the two tail-less girls together. Not easy! I just set up a good shot when Salmon photo bombed it!

I thought it was fun so kept it in. Salmon’s tail looks very long in comparison to these two bigger girls.

It won’t be long before there are normal tails all round!

I am now picking up a full punnet ( which is what I use for poop picking ) of feathers from both the run during the day and the chicken shed in the morning.

I photographed Speckles and Flame again yesterday, just the next day, from the photos taken for the previous post and more tail feathers had fallen out.

I don’t suppose it will be long before Speckles last tail feather falls out. I always think the girls look very odd without their tails. Tail feathers do seem to grow back quickly though unlike head feathers.

The new tail feathers will already be there underneath and will soon grow to their usual length. These girls will soon be back to normal.

And the next day:

As I had expected it wasn’t long before Speckles had no tail. She does look quite cute though.

It’s funny but every year I am surprised by how early the moult starts. First Speckles was dropping loads of feathers and now Flame.

I checked back to July last year and I had taken some photos of Flame with no tail and I had titled my post “The moult has started early this year”.

I have also been looking back through the history of the flock and we collected Speckles in July and she promptly dropped all her tail feathers. I had to wait for her tail to come back in to get a good photo of her for my history.

So it is odd that every July I think that the moult has started early when in fact it actually starts at this time every year. I am going to try to remember that in future.

I also wondered if eggs would cease so I looked back at last year’s egg record. Flame started laying again after her moult and stopped after the first week in September so hopefully she will start laying again later this year.

Flame’s moult is faster than Speckles. They both look okay though and the most obvious thing is their tail.

It’s actually far better to moult in summer than winter so it’s probably not a bad thing. I am sure they will both be back to looking their best soon.

With the recent mixture of sun and rain everything in the garden has gone mad this year and got really big.

It all looks amazing but we will have to have a big chop back at the end of the year.

I recently noticed that Flame has spurs. It’s usually cockerels that have spurs but there are no hard and fast rules with chickens.

I have just researched this. All chickens have buds on their legs from which spurs can grow. In most hens they remain latent but spurs are not uncommon on Mediterranean breeds. Flame isn’t a Mediterranean breed but as I said before there are no hard and fast rules!

Chickens have three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards. The spur is a little higher up the leg.

On Flame’s left leg you can clearly see her fourth, backward facing, toe and then above it the spur. On cockerels this can be scythe shaped and with a sharp point.

Luckily on Flame the spurs are short and blunt. I don’t think we have anything to worry about especially as she is such a placid girl.

Flame is definitely all girl as she is our best layer and goes broody a few times a year. In fact what made me notice her spurs was that I was hunkered down on her level trying to block her from joining Smoke in the nest box.

Over the last few days I have been closing the nest boxes after the girls have laid to try to break Flame out of being broody. It has worked as she has now given up. She had been broody for a week.

Flame lays five to six eggs a week compared to Ebony who lays four to five eggs a week. I used to say that Smoke was the best layer of the little girls but actually her constant broodiness means that isn’t really the case any longer. For the last two months Smoke has only laid seven eggs and then gone broody and taken the rest of the month off. Salmon has never gone broody and lays between ten and fifteen eggs a month.

There are definitely no rules when it comes to chickens. I quite like that Flame is a bit different with her spurs. All chickens are so individual which is one of the things that makes them so interesting.

This is the part of the garden that the girls look out on.

I think it is one of the best parts of the garden. I love the way everything intermingles.

Two days ago Smoke came back into lay after three days of dropping feathers. Smoke stopped dropping feathers and she laid both days.

On the same day Flame went broody. Smoke and Flame are our two best layers but I suppose it is lucky that they are not broody together, as they have been in the past, because that drastically reduces the amount of eggs we get.

With Flame occupying the favourite nest box there is a lot of shouting when Ebony or Smoke want that nest box too. However Salmon and Flame are happy to share. It’s so sweet to see them side by side.

If only all the girls were so happy to share. It is so much more peaceful that way. I have to collect the egg as soon as possible though or Flame would happily sit on it.

Yesterday we picked the first broccoli from our garden veg patch. We will be having it with our Sunday roast dinner.

We know that it is caterpillar free due to the net cage we have grown it in and the more we pick the more it will sprout again.

The first of each crop is just that bit special.

Speckles is moulting and sitting around in dust holes during the heat. Smoke came out of being broody more quickly than usual. She was broody for just under a week and as usual started staying out for longer periods.

I closed the nest boxes at the end of the day for two evenings and she perched in the chicken shed and then no longer returned to the nest box.

Two weeks on and Smoke would usually start to lay again but instead she is also moulting. I am finding a little heap of feathers under her roost spot in the mornings.

Marmite looked uncomfortable again yesterday afternoon and I knew another egg was coming. This morning she looked fine once more and her soft shelled egg was actually in the nest box. It’s the first one in ages that has made it to the nest box and it was partly intact this time.

As it was so hot I decided to give the girls a treat of mash made with ice cold water and topped with frozen peas.

The girls love this and it’s a great way to get all the girls in shot and to cool the girls down. It won’t be long before the dishes are emptied.