Carol's Chickens

Sometimes two girls want to lay their eggs at the same time and they manage to squeeze into the nest box and lay their eggs side by side. It’s unlikely that all three girls would want to lay their eggs at the same time but it did happen once. They got round this by all three laying their eggs on the coop floor. I found the three eggs so close together that they were all touching each other. I have no idea why they all have to lay their eggs in the same place!

I have noticed that if two girls are in the nest box together, the third girl still outside will be shouting. It does worry me sometimes that it will disturb the neighbours. Chickens chattering is a lovely sound, chickens shouting is not so good. I am not sure if it’s because one girl doesn’t like being left out on her own but whichever of the three it is that’s left out she will shout equally as loud.

Today it was Pepper that was left out of the nest box and shouting so I went to see what was going on. I lifted the nest box and Pepper came to look from inside the coop. I popped back with my camera and Pepper joined me to look from outside the coop this time.

The other thing I have noticed is that Bluebell doesn’t like to leave if another girl is sitting on her egg. She will look for it and will often only leave the nest box once I have removed her egg, so today I reached under Dotty and took Bluebell’s egg from under her. Who knows what goes on these little chicken brains?

Three in a nest box

Room for two?

I think there is!

Is my egg still under here?

I’m reluctant to leave

What’s happening outside?

After I had removed Bluebell’s egg, Bluebell left Dotty to get on with laying her egg. Pepper went in to lay shortly after and was sat on Dotty’s egg but these two girls don’t seem to be bothered by this. It is only Bluebell that gets very possessive of her egg. This has happened several times, she either shouts or won’t leave the nest box when another girl sits on her egg. Once they have finished and left the nest box or once I have removed Bluebell’s egg, she settles back to normal. They are fascinating little characters.

First an update on Bluebell after her broody afternoon in the nest box the day before yesterday. Yesterday Pepper and Dotty laid an egg but Bluebell missed a day and behaved as normal. It’s unusual for Bluebell to miss a day after only three days in a row as she usually averages about twenty in a row, so the missed day may have had something to do with her broodiness. Today she laid her egg early this morning and her behaviour is still back to normal so I think the missed day broke her short broody spell.

Today we decided to take the cover off the garden part of the run. I have been thinking about this for a while as I want the girls to have direct sunlight but worry that if we have a wet summer like last year we will back to mud and the girls constantly having muddy feet. We are trying to come up with ideas of some sort of cover that could be pulled across during wet spells and opened up when dry. We have decided to leave the triangular corner bit covered for now.

The run with the cover on

Inside the run with the cover on

Pepper and Bluebell obscuring my view

Inside the run without the cover

Umbrella down

The girls reaction to the closed umbrella

We then decided to close the umbrella to allow more sun into the run but the girls don’t like the umbrella closed. They retreated to the safety of the coop roof. I left the umbrella down for a while to see if they would get used it but when I went back to check on them they were all hiding behind the big bush. I relented and put the umbrella back up and normality was immediately restored! I am not sure if they will ever get used to the umbrella being closed.

I am wondering if the spring weather is making Bluebell broody. Pepper often takes quite a long time to lay her egg, often up to an hour but Bluebell, who is our most prolific layer tends to go in, get her egg laid and back out again in a very short time.

Yesterday both Pepper and Dotty laid their eggs in the morning. Bluebell went into the nest box in the late afternoon. I kept looking out for her to come back out but she stayed in the nest box. I opened the nest box a couple of times to make sure she was okay and she was serenely  sat in there. After more than an hour had passed I went to check on her again as it was so unusual for her to be in there so long. I decided to feel under her and see if she had laid her egg and sure enough she was sat on a very warm egg. Had she just laid it or had she been sat on it for sometime?

Bluebell then went out into the run and sat with the other girls for a little while in a dust hole. She then returned to the coop and sat on the coop floor. I have never seen her do this during the day before and when I went back a little later she was back in the nest box.

By now it was getting towards dusk and the other two girls were going through their pre bedtime routine of feed, drink and peck around. Bluebell then came out of the nest box and had some water then some grit. She didn’t seem interested in the pellets so I put down a few sunflower hearts to tempt her. She ate a few then went straight back into the nest box.

I went back after dusk to check on the girls and the coop door had shut but Pepper and Dotty had settled on the coop roof and Bluebell was still in the nest box. Since the better weather Pepper and Dotty sometimes decide they want to sleep out. I always check on them and lift them down from the coop roof and pop them in then close the door again. I had one last look in through the nest box and Pepper and Dotty were on their usual perch while Bluebell was still in the nest box. I wondered if she was going to spend the night there.

This morning I went out just after first light and they were all in the garden part of their run as usual. I poop picked the coop and there was no poop in the nest box, it was just in the usual roosting spot. I think Bluebell must have joined Pepper and Dotty soon after I put them in. She is behaving normally this morning so I will just have to see how she is when she lays her egg today.

Bluebell has been wagging her tail from side to side recently and I did a bit of research on this. Some people said their hen would do this when their cockerel was nearby. Some people said when their hen had chicks she would point her tail downwards when the chicks were doing something she didn’t want them to do and would wag her tail when they were doing something correctly.

This seems to tie in with Bluebell getting a spring feeling. I have read a lot about broody chickens but have not experienced it myself. I have read that some people leave them be and some people try to break them out of it. It could be a problem for my flock as they only have one nest box. They do sometimes sit in there two at a time when two want to lay at the same time and sometimes if they all want to lay at once the odd egg gets laid on the coop floor. This isn’t a problem as its got a thick layer of pine shavings and is always clean as I poop pick first thing every day.

The other concern is that if a hen is really committed to being broody, she will only come out once a day to do an enormous poop, have a quick drink and feed, then back to sit again. This can cause the hen to lose weight and condition.

I will see how Bluebell progresses before deciding on any action. If like yesterday she only sits for part of the day then returns to normal, I will leave her be. I would only try to break her of it if she was in the nest box all the time and I hope it won’t come to that, also this could be a one off so it’s a case of seeing what happens today.

Breaking a broody involves cooling the hen down. It’s recommended to sit the hen on the bare metal tray of a dog crate with food and water available until her temperature is lowered. Some people put wrapped ice blocks in with them and during hot weather others sit the hen in a bath of cool water.

I hope not to have to do anything this drastic but have read up on this in the past because it’s good to have as much knowledge as possible in case it’s ever needed. I believe in letting nature take it’s course if at all possible.

Over the last week spring has arrived at last after a long cold winter and the garden has suddenly filled with spring colour.

Spring colour

Best of all though is the effect it has had on the chickens. The feather pulling stopped as suddenly as it started. I had read that when the feathers are plucked out they don’t regrow until the next molt which would be autumn but over the last week I was sure that I was seeing the beginning of pin feathers on Pepper’s bottom and Dotty’s neck. Then I started to notice downy feathers appearing on Dotty’s head. Today I realised that she no longer has a bare head, hurrah!

Dotty’s bare head just over a week ago

Dotty’s head is no longer bare

Pepper is still a bit scruffy but her fluffy bottom is slowly coming back

Bluebell still has a bare patch on her neck but it’s not so obvious

I think because the dominiques have very downy feathers they lose and replace some of them all the time so have more of a chance of their feathers regrowing. I am so pleased to see Dotty’s head feathered again.

Dotty’s now fluffy head

Dotty has also now joined Pepper with a dirty comb but they have been doing so much dust bathing over the last few days that I suppose it is inevitable. How lovely it is to see her getting fluffy again, although she still has a bare neck which she is hiding here.

I have also noticed Bluebell has started wagging her tail from side to side and wonder if this some sort of spring ritual to attract a mate. Spring has made both the girls and me feel happier.

Today I got the girls some maggots. I raked a heap of wood chip and leaves then buried the maggots in it to give the girls something to scratch for.

Looking for the maggots

Scratching for maggots

They spent a very happy time scratching for the maggots and I am sure none of them managed to escape. The girls continued to scratch long after the maggots had been eaten, just in case.

This seem to tire them out and they all went for a short snooze followed by an extended dust bathing session in the sun. They were all three writhing in their dust bath and showering dirt over themselves. Bluebell was actually purring with delight and we could tell they were enjoying the sun and had a lovely afternoon. It was difficult to tear ourselves away from such fun and go and get on with our work!

Dotty missed laying an egg yesterday after the soft shelled egg the day before but laid a normal egg this morning. Dotty was the only one to lay today but both Pepper and Bluebell had a record egg laying run so deserved a day off. Bluebell had laid twenty two days in a row! All the eggs have been normal since the day of the two soft shells so it seems it was just a glitch.

I have recently tried the girls with cherry tomatoes and they love them. They have to work a bit harder to get into them than either normal sized tomatoes or similar sized grapes.

The girls check out the cherry tomatoes

Lets both go for the same one

Because they are a bit harder to get into, Dotty who will always take the easiest route, will try to take one from Pepper rather than break into her own. Pepper tolerates so much from Dotty where as she wouldn’t allow Bluebell to take something from her. These two are really close!

Pepper laid an egg this morning and it was back to normal so hopefully yesterday was just a glitch. This is her sixth egg in a row which is the most in a row she has laid so far. Bluebell also laid this morning and her egg was normal as usual and at twenty two eggs in a row she has just beaten her previous record. Dotty didn’t lay today but she had laid thirteen in a row which was also her record too. I think the longer days are causing the girls to lay more frequently.

I put the new plants in the thyme lawn today and gave the dead plants I took out to the girls along with a few dandelions.

Dead plants and dandelions

All heads down

They had great fun scratching and pecking at anything I took out of the garden. It took me a while to get the job done because as I dug up worms, I took them in to girls. The girls love watching me doing some gardening because they know they will get the worms.

The lawn with the new plants in

The plants look a bit lost in the lawn at the moment but this is a work in progress. I decided that rather than dig out all the thyme I would just dig out a bit to put each plant in. This way it will keep the weeds down and give the remaining thyme a chance to possibly recover as there are a few bits of green coming back.

I will buy something in flower each month and keep adding to it so it fills up with year round colour. It will no longer be a lawn but there  is no point struggling to keep the thyme lawn if it’s not going to work. It’s a shame as I have enjoyed having a thyme lawn before but this one was just not working! beyond the veg plot is the chicken run.

When I went back in to girls they were enjoying a dust bath.

Dust bath in the sun

Afternoon dust bath

Twist and turn

They were having a lovely time writhing about in the dust bath. They always look so funny and I think they enjoyed the days sun as much as I did.

Much to my surprise this morning when I went out to the girls just after first light, I found two soft shelled eggs on the floor of the coop. They were Dotty and Pepper’s eggs.

Soft shelled eggs

I would say that Pepper’s egg is on the right and Dotty’s egg on the left because Pepper’s eggs are always smaller than Dotty’s and because Dotty laid yesterday morning but Pepper didn’t lay until yesterday afternoon so I am really surprised that she has laid again so soon.

This is my first experience of soft shelled eggs and I really hope this is just a glitch and not another ongoing problem as we do seem to lurch from one problem to the next.

We have had three days now of no feather pulling and really feel we have passed through that now, so could do without going straight on to the next problem.

Bluebell laid her egg a few hours later in the nest box and it was perfectly normal. Bluebell (and Treacle before she died) have always laid very hard shelled eggs but Pepper and Dotty’s have never been so hard even though there is a hopper always filled with grit and oyster shell which they all help themselves to.

My theory is that because I had increased giving things to the girls to peck at, to distract them from the feather plucking, they have not been eating so many pellets and this may have upset the balance. I noticed yesterday for the first time that they hadn’t eaten many pellets. They also don’t seem to like the feeder raised up and flick much more of their food onto the floor, so today I have put the feeder back on the floor and already much more of the food has been eaten.

I had been giving them extra greens and also corn on the cob each day which they had never had before. I am going to return to their former routine of some spring greens mid morning and an apple mid afternoon and nothing else besides their pellets but some extra protein sometimes as a boost.

Dotty’s egg today was the thirteenth day in a row and Pepper’s was the fifth in a row. Bluebell’s was the twenty first day in a row, she is a really prolific layer. Dotty usually lays ten in a row then misses a day and Pepper usually lays three or four in a row then misses a day. Bluebell usually lays anywhere between fifteen and twenty one in a row then misses a day.

I really think this must be due to diet (not enough pellets) because it’s really strange that it’s happened to both Pepper and Dotty at exactly the same time. They are both the same breed (dominiques) but Pepper is a month older than Dotty and Dotty started laying two months later than Pepper, so she was a month older when she started laying.

I think that as they are laying so regularly at the moment it probably doesn’t take much to upset the balance.

I broke the eggs into a bowl and the soft shell was more like skin. Dotty’s egg was normal inside but Pepper’s egg had no white, this may be why it appeared so small and may be due to her laying less than twenty four hours apart.

I scrambled the eggs with a little olive oil and water to give back to the girls so as not to waste them and also return the goodness to them.

Scrambled egg

They really love this and it was gone in minutes. I will need to see if the next eggs return to normal or if it continues in which case I will start giving lime stone flour to improve the egg shells. I really hope they take a day off tomorrow then return to normal but we will have to wait and see.

The weather has warmed up and for the second day running I haven’t seen any feather pulling or found any feathers in the run hurrah! I can’t believe after all my stressing about this and trying everything I could think of, that with a change in the weather the girls have just stopped this behaviour in an instant. I really do hope this is it now and this awful stage is over.

With a change in the weather our thoughts also turn to the garden and our thyme lawn seems to have died. With the amount of fun the girls got from the dead shrub we gave them recently we have decided never to throw away dead plants again but to give them to the girls.

The dead thyme lawn

A very sad looking lawn

A green thyme lawn

The thyme lawn last summer

The lawn should be green then a lovely mass of purple when in flower. It’s been struggling a bit round the edges  for the last few years but I have never seen it look like this before. As thyme likes good drainage I dug in sand and gravel before planting it five years ago. I think what has happened is, that because we had such a wet summer followed by a wet start to winter, I just hadn’t noticed how dry it had become recently. I think the ground has dried out and most of the thyme has died.

We decided to buy some new plants to mix in with the thyme plus we will take some from our existing flower beds. We have an abundance of primroses that have self seeded everywhere so can be transplanted into the lawn.

The girls will get all the dead thyme that we take out, but this is a project for this weekend.

Some new plants

I have dotted out some new plants to try out but they do look rather lost at the moment. This may be an ongoing project for a while.

I am so relieved that the feather plucking appears to have stopped and really hope this has passed now. It’s just such a shame that Dotty has a bare neck and head but hopefully she will be back to normal eventually.

After a long really cold spell, at last the weather has changed and today was warm and sunny. It was also the first day in ages that I haven’t seen any feather pulling and haven’t picked up any feathers from the run.

My friend and fellow chicken keeper, Jackie came to visit the girls. She came bearing a gift for them, a sack of dried leaves.

We discussed the fact that a few weeks ago we had a sunny weekend and the feather plucking ceased, causing me to think we had turned the corner with this problem. The cold weather returned and so did the feather pulling. We now believe that the stress of losing Treacle triggered this habit and the unusual late cold weather helped to cause it to continue.

I have heard that rabbits and chickens know when it should be spring and that a late spring can effect their behaviour. The girls were so much better when we had a sunny weekend and the only difference for them today is again a change in the weather.

The forecast is showing an end to the prolonged cold spell (the coldest March in fifty years) and warmer spring like weather on it’s way. I am really hopeful now that if it stays more spring like perhaps this behaviour will be at an end.

I was on the verge of thinking we would have to separate Pepper but was dreading it as the girls are so close and I am uplifted to think we probably won’t have to do this. The girls have been dust bathing today without pulling any feathers and have been sitting on the big perch for the first time in ages. They have also been perching on the ladder, as well as using it to peck at the cabbage.

We emptied the leaves into the run for the girls.

As usual Bluebell is the first to check it out

Getting closer to the leaves

Starting to scratch

The leaves are soon scattered

Completely scattered

The girls had great fun with the leaves, thank you Jackie. Jackie thinks that the girls don’t look too bad apart from Dotty’s neck and agreed with what others have said that they look happy and healthy. We are hopeful once again that another corner has been turned and maybe we are coming to the end of this problem. I really do hope so.