Carol's Chickens

A couple of weeks ago Dotty ate one of my earrings. It was a gold stud and when I looked in my jewellery box I found that I had a spare identical earring. I must have lost one many years ago and bought an identical pair which gave me the spare, so the simple thing seemed to put that one in my ear in place of the “lost” one.

Last night at bedtime I was having a bit of together time with the girls. I was sat with my arm resting on the coop handle and Bluebell jumped onto my arm, she prefers to have a perch. Dotty as usual jumped onto my shoulder and Pepper jumped onto my lap. I think this is the first time I have had all three girls sat on me at once.

Suddenly Dotty once again swiftly removed my earring from the same ear as before. It was a bit difficult for me to do much about it with three chickens sat on me. Again I reached up and found the earring missing but the back still there. With three chickens sat on me and the earring back being super tiny, I lost it. I thought I had managed to push it into my pocket but couldn’t find it later.

I couldn’t find the earring so can only think that once again Dotty has swallowed it. She now has a matching pair!

I have now replaced the gold studs with some tiny ruby studs. I hope these will be less shiny and therefore less attractive to Dotty. I don’t know what else to do as it would be difficult to keep taking them out every time I go into the girls as I am in and out all day. I feel like I need to wear ear defenders but that’s not practical either and as anyone who wears earrings will know, if you leave them out the pierced hole will close up.

I hope this pair will stop Dotty taking them. She is so quick and accurate that I feel nothing but a quick tug and can’t tell the earring has gone until I put my hand up to check. I am amazed that she pulls it from the back without making contact to my skin and therefore not hurting me.

I hope the earring don’t harm her, she doesn’t seem to be effected by it at all. I do hope this is the last earring she swallows!

I bought some tuna when Treacle was poorly to try to give her a boost. Over the past couple of weeks I have been gradually using it up by giving it to the girls as a treat, and it’s become their number one favourite.

On the day that I gave them the last of the tuna, I decided to photograph them. As soon as they see the white dish they get really excited and they mob me as soon as I go in through the gate. I can barely get the dish to the ground before they fall on it as if they haven’t eaten for days!

The tuna is gone in seconds, it’s a feeding frenzy! I snapped five photos in as many seconds and have included them all to show the speed that the tuna disappeared. There is tuna in the dish in the first photo and none left by the fifth.

Tuna

Going

Going

Going

Gone!

They clearly enjoyed that!

Dotty laid an enormous egg a few days ago. We saved it until today as on a Sunday we treat ourselves to a bacon and egg breakfast. I suspected it would have a double yolk so I broke it into a dish. Sure enough it did have a double yolk, our first from our girls.

Our first double yolk

When poor Treacle was ill, her comb shrunk to half it’s size and was pale and grey. Since she has gone I have noticed how bright red and healthy the other girls combs are.

Dotty has taken the longest time to mature which I think was because she was born a month later in the year than the others. Now she has matured she has the brightest red comb and although she only started laying eggs nine days ago, she now lays the biggest eggs. Maybe this slower maturing has been good for her.

Pepper and Dotty are both dominiques but I think they are quite different from each other. Pepper is more squat, lower to the ground, Dotty is slightly taller, narrower and more upright. Dotty has the black mark on her beak which is becoming more noticeable, a good instant way to tell them apart.

Dotty’s bright red comb and wattles

Pepper’s comb

Pepper’s comb looks dirty but actually she has little spiky grey feathers around her comb and some are just sticking over her comb.

Dotty’s beak has a little black mark on it

Pepper’s comb and wattles

Bluebell has a floppy comb

Yesterday I cut down one of the bushes in the run. It was an ancient hebe that had been dying for years and had finely given up. I was going to dig it out but my husband suggested leaving the bottom branches to provide another perch for the girls. Up until now the girls didn’t seem to notice it, but today Bluebell discovered it could be used as a perch.

Bluebell finds a new perch

Now Bluebell has discovered a new perch it should only be a matter of time before the other girls find it!

Every time I go up to the chickens they crush themselves into the smallest corner of the run because it’s the nearest corner to me as I walk towards them.

The girls rush to the corner

Here is where they first greet me

They always look as if they think they could squeeze through here to get to me quicker. They then follow me up the path and wait with excitement by the gate, especially if I am holding white pots which they know means yogurt.

They get so excited and soon have yogurt all over their beaks and are covered in flecks of it.

Pepper has yogurt on her beak

Bluebell gets her beak in the yogurt

Dotty gets her beak in the yogurt

It’s not long before the pots are empty and you would be forgiven for thinking they had been licked clean. It’s amazing how a beak can get every last little drop of yogurt.

This morning the girls were all shouting as they all wanted to lay at once. Bluebell lays every day for about a week before taking a day off. Pepper lays for a couple of days then misses a day and hadn’t laid yesterday and Dotty laid her first eggs four days in a row then missed two days, so I knew they were all ready to lay.

I went and checked the nest box a few times but no eggs. When it was time for me to go out I went to check again, still no eggs in the nest box which I thought a bit odd. Then something caught my eye on the coop floor. I took the side panel off and to my surprise there were three eggs nestled together in the middle of the coop floor. When I picked them up I got a bigger surprise. Dotty’s egg was twice the size of the other two eggs. It looked like a duck egg! How on earth did she lay something that enormous!

Dotty’s giant egg

Dotty’s egg is on the right, Pepper’s in the middle and Bluebell’s on the left. I imagine this will probably have a double yolk and will post later if it does. Dotty is certainly making up for up starting her egg laying later than the other girls. No wonder she missed a couple of days. Dotty is full of surprises!

Since we lost Treacle, Pepper has taken her place as top hen. She is a good top hen as she is a mild character and doesn’t peck much. Pepper gets the biggest worms when I fork over the garden area and is always last to bed. As she has grown in confidence she has given Bluebell a quick peck when she gets in her way, to show her she is now top.

Bluebell goes to look in the coop many times a day, which she never did before we lost Treacle. I am sure she is still looking for her. The girls stick closer to me at the moment but they look healthy and there is harmony in the flock. When I give treats, I now put down one dish instead of two and there has been no squabbling.

I did consider whether to get another hen or perhaps a couple of bantams but realise it would be selfish as it would be for me not for the flock. It could upset the flock as it’s not always easy to add new members and as they are calm and happy now, I decided the best thing is to stay as we are. If we ever got down to two girls then I think I would add another two, but now think we should take time to enjoy these three girls after our recent upset.

I have thought over past events many times and know that I must stop dwelling on it as we will never know why Treacle became ill.

Dotty has laid four days in a row before taking a day off  which is really good as a new layer. Yesterday she had been going in and out of the nest box in the late afternoon. When I went in to do my evening sweep up I opened the nest box to see if she had laid yet. There was no egg but Dotty jumped into the nest box from outside of the coop and settled down so I gently closed the lid. I resumed my sweeping up and a few moments later she emerged from the coop. I looked in the nest box again and sure enough there was her egg, all toasty warm. She had a quick feed and drink before going in to bed.

I still really miss Treacle, it is strange not seeing her rush to greet me and I miss her big brown splash of colour when I go up to the girls. I have to remember to give a quarter less when I dish out the treats and in the morning my clean up is noticeably quicker with a quarter less poop to pick up, but there is harmony in the flock at the moment and I am determined to enjoy these girls and do the very best for them that I can.

After losing Treacle, I felt I needed to spend more time with the three girls. I suddenly realised how healthy and vibrant they look. They have bright red combs, fluffy bottoms and are very active. Maybe while trying to build up Treacle, I got these girls to their peak. It also made me realise that whatever was wrong was in Treacle, because these girls couldn’t look more healthy.

Dotty

Bluebell and Pepper

It was the first sunny day in while so after sweeping the shavings from under the coop, I threw them out into the patch of sun with a few grapes, to give the girls some fun scratching.

Pepper

Unfortunately I couldn’t catch Pepper facing me, but she is a huge ball of fluffy feathers.

Fluffy bottoms

I think the girls are missing Treacle as I have noticed changes in their behaviour. This morning when I cleaned out the coop all three girls kept coming in the coop. At first I thought that they surely couldn’t all want to lay at once. Then I realised that they seem to want to stick close to me. They would go in through the coop door and out the side panel where I was kneeling while cleaning. They stuck by me the whole time where as they usually wander off into the garden area.

Later when I went in and stood by the coop they all jumped onto the coop roof and were milling around me. By this time Bluebell and Pepper had laid an egg but they still all three kept going into the coop. I think that because they can’t find Treacle, and she spent time on her last day in the nest box, they are looking in there for her. Bluebell who was closest to her was going in the most.

Bluebell keeps looking in the coop

Bluebell never usually goes in the coop if she doesn’t need to lay. I think this is a time of adjustment for us all.

While doing my weekly clean and sweeping out the shavings from underneath the coop I went through them to see if my earring may have dropped under the coop but no sign of it, so it looks like Dotty definitely ate it!

By late afternoon, after much scratching about in the nest box, Dotty laid her third egg in a row, giving us a three egg day! Way to go Dotty!

Unlike the other girl’s Dotty laid her second egg the day after her first. There was a lot of egg laying noise going on and I went to take a look at Dotty on the nest but Bluebell was determined to get in on the act too.

Bluebell seems to want to join Dotty in the nest box

Bluebell watches Dotty in the nest box

I thought that Bluebell wanted to lay as well but then I saw what was causing her interest. Bluebell had already laid and her egg was laying beside Dotty. I took the egg away and calm settled.

Dotty about to lay her second egg

Bluebell finally left Dotty to get on with it and when I went back a little later, there was Dotty’s second egg. It wasn’t quite as long as yesterdays but still paler than Pepper’s with little white specks on it. I think I will probably continue to be able to tell Pepper’s and Dotty’s eggs apart. Well done Dotty! Dotty started her egg laying, by laying two days in a row, maybe she is trying to make up for lost time. It will be interesting to see she lays another one tomorrow.

The morning after losing our lovely Treacle, Dotty surprised us with her first egg. I had began to think this day would never come. My “time warp” baby has finally grown up at nine months old. Her egg is paler and longer and more pointed than Pepper’s and a good size for a first egg,

Dotty’s first egg

There is  a little smear of blood on the tip.

Dotty’s egg is on the right, Pepper’s is in the middle and Bluebell’s on the left

Dotty’s first egg is s good size

I think Dotty ate my earring yesterday. She loves to jump on my shoulder and I know that chickens are attracted to shiny things. She has often taken a peck at my earring but I usually just try to hide it under my hair. Yesterday she took a peck and I put my hand up and found the earring back, but the gold stud had gone. I searched for it and couldn’t find it so think she must have swallowed it. The worrying thing is that the stem of the earring is quite sharp. My husband said not to worry too much as they swallow sharp bits of grit. She seems absolutely fine. I have read on another blog of someone else having this happen.

Pepper has also taken to jumping on my back whenever she can. She always looked like she wanted to jump on me but couldn’t find the courage and she can’t jump from the ground to my shoulder like Dotty as she is a plumper chook but if I sit on my little chair she will now jump on my lap and if I go to the nest box or the store cabinet she is straight on my back. I am not sure why they like to do this but I don’t mind as I like the interaction. I do have to make sure I am not wearing anything good to visit them though or I end up with a muddy back. I have an old fleece which I wear for the chickens and sometimes have them two at a time on my back. They are funny girls. I am looking forward to the summer when I can sit with them on my lap in the evenings again.