Up dates on the girls

I think some of the girls are getting ready to start laying. Oddly Autumn has stopped laying. She laid her last egg on the first of February and hasn’t laid since. She goes in the chicken shed and sits as if she thinks she should still be laying but comes out later with no egg.

Both Storm and Gold have been very vocal recently. Gold also squats when I come up behind her. They have both been investigating the nest boxes. It’s going to be a race to see which one of them lays first.

I think these two girls will start laying soon. They are later this year than last year but I think it’s probably because this spring has been mostly dark and wet. Last year Gold started laying in the last week in January. Storm started laying in the first week in February and Dot started laying in the second week of February.

This morning when I went in to poop pick the chicken shed I was alarmed to see quite a big patch of blood on the back perch and splashes of blood in the shavings underneath the perch. I picked each girl up in turn and checked them. I couldn’t see any blood. I checked bottoms, combs and feet. All the girls looked okay apart from Salmon having a bit of a mucky bottom.

I tried to remember which girl was perched on the back, right hand, corner. It is usually Sugar and Salmon that perch there. I picked Sugar up again and had a closer look. There was nothing to see. I then picked up Salmon for a closer look. I saw a spot of blood on one of her tail feathers so I knew it must be from her. I had a closer look at her mucky bottom. I tried to wipe off the poop with kitchen paper but found a small ball of poop attached to her feathers that had set hard.

I got a bowl of warm water and a wet and dry cloth. I picked her up and soaked the ball of poop until I had softened it enough to free it. I dried her and set her back down.

There was a speck of blood on Salmon’s vent. I wonder if she had had to push hard to poop past the lump and that had caused her to bleed. She looks fine but I will be keeping a close eye on her.

Salmon is the eldest serama we have had so I know she is the most vulnerable. She hasn’t laid for the last two years so I hope that she won’t ever lay again. I hope this was just a blip but I will be checking her regularly.

Sugar is the other most vulnerable girl as she had problems laying last year. She started laying half way through March. It would be good if she also stopped laying but I don’t suppose that is going to happen.

Sugar has been absolutely fine all winter while not laying. We will just have to wait and see how she gets on when she starts laying this year and hope for the best.

Edit

I went back out to the girls a couple of hours after I had written this post. I checked the nest boxes again and found that Storm had laid.

Well done Storm!