I am back

I have been without a laptop for two weeks. It’s probably the longest time since we first had a laptop. Luckily we have no need of it for business anymore as we are now retired but what I have missed most is being able to blog.

So for a catch up. Cloud has gone broody after laying nine eggs in fifteen days. She had continued to lay for longer than I expected so has done really well. Snow is back in lay after a break of three weeks. She had been dropping a few feathers so I wasn’t sure if she was going to lay again. Popcorn is back in lay after a break of twelve days. Red is no longer broody but not back in lay yet and has also been dropping a few feathers. Maple is still laying. So we now have three girls laying, Snow, Popcorn and Maple.

Gold is moulting and is scruffy and has only a few tail feathers left. Storm is moulting but although I am finding her black feathers she doesn’t look any different. Mango had started to moult and had pins coming through but she seems to have stopped again for now and looks fine. Popcorn had a partial baby moult and I was finding some of her feathers in the run. It has actually improved her look as she doesn’t look so noticeably plucked now. This is good as I thought she would look like that until the end of next year.

This was the last photo I took before my laptop broke. With three nest boxes and four corners of the shed to choose from Cloud suddenly wanted to lay in the shelter. luckily she only did this for one day before reverting back to a nest box. The main reason I took this photo was that her comb is amazing for such a small girl.

All the rest of the photos I have taken today.

Popcorn still has a few grey under feathers showing but a lot less than she did have.

Maple and Popcorn are the most difficult to photograph as they are not as used to the camera as the rest of the flock and are still the most skittish girls. It hasn’t helped that I haven’t been taking photos recently either so I thought I would include this one where I managed to catch them while they were unaware.

The flock has been so much more chilled since Ginger went. I was upset at the feather pulling but hadn’t realised how much it was upsetting the girls with them constantly having to move away from her.

Luckily because most of the girls have had a bit of a start to moulting they are looking better. Gold is the only one in full moult and she always looks very scruffy while moulting. Popcorn still has some grey under feathers showing but she has grown in some new gold feathers so looks much better than she did.

I feel we are back to a happy flock again and I am glad to be back here.