Carol's Chickens

I am continuing to give the girls live yogurt in the morning and maggots in the afternoon, which they love. Pepper is eating, drinking, pooping and her tail is up, she seems happy enough but still looks lop sided. Unfortunately she is not used to me enough yet, to allow me to pick her up and feel if it’s hard. The advise says the maggot treatment takes five days to work which will take us to Sunday. If it’s not improved by then I will look for a vet on Monday. I feel so awful that this has happened so early on, yet the other two girls are fine.

Pepper with her bulging crop on her right hand side

The other thing I did today was change them over from chick crumb to growers pellets as I was advised to, at the end of their first week with me. I was worried they wouldn’t like the change but needn’t have been, as they loved them. I think getting used to the maggots has got them ready to accept the slightly bigger pellets. I have also bought layers pellets ready for the next stage, when they are ready to lay, which may be around October time.

I shall be keeping a close watch on Pepper and may try to entice her into the dog crate tomorrow, where I may be able to pick her up. The other advise is to gently massage her crop but it’s a bit tricky when she doesn’t want to be picked up. I can’t stop worrying about her at the moment and do so hope she gets better soon.

A few days ago I said that pepper had just discovered the perch. The following day Poppy found it, swiftly followed by Dotty. I didn’t have my camera with me the first day but have now managed to get a picture of Dotty and Pepper, Dotty is on the left, high up.

Dotty and Pepper on the perch

They also enjoyed a dust bath together. Dotty and Pepper are always almost on top of each other, Poppy is often a bit apart. What’s funny though is that poppy likes to stretch out her legs. You would be forgiven for thinking there is something wrong with her but she often does this while sitting and while standing.

Dust bath with Poppy stretching her legs

They constantly amuse me.

Yesterday we noticed Peppers breast looked a bit enlarged and lopsided. I was pretty sure that was her crop and remembered reading about impacted crop from other peoples blogs. I looked it up on the internet and sure enough I think I am right. The advice is to give live yogurt and live maggots. It also advised not to give bread which made me realise she has had too many noodles. I thought I was being careful as I had read a teaspoon per hen, morning and evening is okay but what I hadn’t taken into account is that pepper was getting the lions share, as she is always first and fastest when it comes to food. She may have been getting two teaspoons to the other two getting half a teaspoon each. The other two girls look fine and Pepper is eating, drinking and seems happy in herself. I am kicking myself at slipping up so early on.

I think Pepper has got impacted crop, this is her bulging right side

This morning I tried to tempt them with some live yogurt (there will be no more noodles for a long time). I tried some on it’s own and some mixed with chick crumb and even topped this with a few meal worms to try to get their interest but they were having none of it. I decided to leave the little pot with chick crumb and yogurt with them and go buy some maggots. I looked on the internet and found a fishing tackle shop that sold them.

I returned at lunch time, checked in on them and to my surprise the pot of yogurt and chick crumb was empty. After lunch we decided to try a small pot of the maggots. The advice is to give them, as their afternoon treat each day and it should fix the problem within about five days. At first they couldn’t get the hang of it but suddenly they got it and loved them. It’s the first time one of them would pick one up and run off so it couldn’t be taken from her. Once they realised there were enough to go round they steadily worked their way through them then all had a snooze.

Pepper has a maggot in her beak

I feel really bad that I hadn’t realised Pepper was getting too many noodles and am really cross with myself, but the good thing is that I was able to recognize the problem straight away because of all the information I have read from the blogs I follow, this information is invaluable.

After the maggots Pepper and Dotty settled together for a snooze. Dotty was constantly preening Pepper.They are so tight together whereas Poppy will wander on her own a bit. I wonder if Dotty is at the bottom of the pecking order, preening pepper who is at the top and Poppy in the middle does her thing some of the time.

Dotty is preening Pepper while Poppy does her own thing

Today Pepper managed to jump onto the lower branch of the apple tree. Poppy and Dotty were looking up at her as if to see if they could join her. Poppy jumped on to the same branch, knocking Pepper off (there is only room for one at a time). Dotty couldn’t manage it as she is too little at the moment. I then moved them toward the branch we have put in for them and Pepper soon perched on that. So now they have discovered something new in their world. Pepper returned to the perch later in the day. The other two don’t seem to have caught on yet but I am sure they soon will.

I had a few comments from the “Down the Lane” forum expressing worry that if my run was open topped  the chickens could escape via the tree or predators could get in. I just want to let everyone know that I have “Knowels Chicken Net” (which was recommended)  and is very tough, over the top and there are no gaps anywhere. I intend to keep the apple tree pruned beneath the net and if it proves a problem in the future will cut it down or take it out. At the moment I feel it adds some interest to their enclosure.

I thought it would be nice to show portraits of my girls. It was more difficult than I thought it would be, as they are such a tight trio that it was difficult to photograph them separately. I had to keep the camera on them and snap as soon as one left a slight gap between herself and her flock members.

Pepper

Poppy

Dotty

You can see that Dotty, being two weeks younger is less developed with a smaller tail. Don’t tell her that though as she acts as if there is no difference and is the fastest mover of the three.  They are adorable and I can’t imagine life without them already!

I took some noodles as a treat to the chickens first thing this morning, as so far it’s the only thing apart from their chick crumb that they will eat. They were not immediately visible, but I soon found them sitting behind the coop. I called to them and they came out to see if I had anything for them. I held out a piece of noodle and Pepper first, followed by Poppy came and gingerly took it from my fingers. Dotty was not brave enough yet but does like to take it from one of the bigger girls beaks.  Soon Pepper and Poppy were happily taking the noodle from my hand. In fact every time we go in now they come over and watch our hands to see if we have anything for them.

Dotty takes a bit of noodle from Poppys beak

My youngest son and his partner came to visit the chickens today. I think they thought they were pretty cute. We showed them how they took the noodles from our hands.

We also blocked off the nest box today so that they would learn to roost on the perches. When we checked in on them at bed time they were jumping on to the coop where the nest box was, as if to try to work out if there was another way in. Eventually they settled for the perches. I felt quite pleased that we have achieved this already. It was quite amusing to see Pepper, who has allocated herself as top hen at the moment, calling the other two to go in and settling them into place before getting herself into position.

We seem to have come a long way in a few days and I already love them so much. I so look forward to getting out each morning and to see what they are up to.

I checked on the chickens first thing and they were out happily in the dog crate. I decided to leave them and wait until the rest of the family were up to unleash them into the wider world.

My eldest son and his partner stayed with us last night to see the new arrivals as soon as possible and see how they react to their first day with us.

After breakfast we went in and removed the dog crate so they could enter their bigger world. They went straight to the feeder and water which I though was a good sign.

All three come out and head for the food

We decided to tackle putting on the leg rings, it was much more difficult to catch them than we thought it would be. We managed to pick up Pepper and get the purple ring on but the others were having none of it and either hid behind the coop or under the big shrub. We decided to leave it for another day as we didn’t want to stress them.

Putting a purple leg ring on Pepper

We gave them some noodles as a treat which they loved. I got this idea from “Spice Girls“. As the day progressed and we kept checking in on them, they became much braver and gradually explored the whole of the enclosure and were comfortable with us being close to them. In the afternoon they had their first dust bath under the shrub with Dotty the smallest and youngest being the first and most vigorous to do so.

The first dust bath

At 7.30pm we went to check on them again and found that they had already put themselves to bed. They were all in the nest box and chirruping away to each other. I do want them to use the perches eventually but as they are getting settled in, have decided to leave them be for now. We were pleased to hear them sounding so happy and feel they have come on in leaps and bounds for their first day.

We had an unexpected day off today, so decided to leave for Dorset at 7.30 am, which meant we arrived at Chalk Hill farm at 9.30am just as they they opened.

We collected our three Dominique Hens and arrived back home at 12.30pm. We transported them in a dog crate with pine shavings in the tray and a dish of chick crumbs. They were very good during the journey, one of them eating, all three dozing and sometimes gently cheeping. We had been advised to keep them in the coup the first day.

They were a bit anxious as we took them up the the garden to the pen and coup. We put the crate against the coop door, then opened it and they couldn’t get in the coup quick enough! We put a dish of water and a dish of chick crumbs in the coup but decided to leave the dog crate against the door as a small run if they decided they wanted to come out. Also we thought it would allow air and light in as it seemed a bit harsh to shut them in all afternoon.

They made a bee line for the nest box and we decided to have lunch, then check on them again. When we went back they were all three hanging in the doorway, eating, drinking and looking quite happy.

We kept checking on them throughout the afternoon and sometimes they bravely ventured out into the dog crate. If anything scared them such as when they stood in the food bowl and it tipped it up, they all scuttled back into the safety of the coop nest box area.

Our Dominique Hens First Hours in Their New Home

We have an automatic opener on our coup which reacts to light so I am going to leave the dog crate at the door (the coop door will shut at dusk and open at dawn), with food and water in it. This means at first light if they want to venture out they will have a small space with food and water but will have to wait for me to supervise them going out for the first time into the big, wide world of the big pen. I shall no doubt be out early to see what they are up to.

Two of them are ten weeks old and one is eight weeks old. The younger one is quite obvious as she hasn’t got all her feathers on her back yet and has a much smaller tail. One of the older girls is already more adventurous than the other two, but they hang together in a pretty tight trio.

I wanted names for them that describe their pretty, grey speckled appearance. I have decided on Dotty for the youngest and Pepper and Poppy (as in pepper corns and poppy seeds) for the older girls. Dotty will have no leg ring, but Pepper will have a purple leg ring and Poppy a green one so that I can tell them apart until their personalities come through. We may attempt to put the leg rings on tomorrow. I can’t wait to let them out properly tomorrow. When I last checked on them they were all happily exploring the dog crate and I think they will love getting out into their bigger world.

I have been in touch again with the farm breeding the Dominiques, and they have two strong chickens at two months old that are ready for me to take, as well as some further chicks that are a bit too young and need another couple of weeks to be ready to leave. As its a two hour journey each way at best, I said I would rather wait and take three together. They reassured me that the two are not going anywhere but with me, that its better for them to be a little older and they are happy to keep them until three are ready.

So with this in mind we are now thinking of collecting them on the last weekend of June or the first weekend of July. In the mean time I still feel like I am looking after invisible chickens, as I am attending to their space. I have pruned the apple tree to keep it from taking up too much of their space and as well as the pots of green things chickens like to peck at, I have planted them their own vegetable patch. I needed to thin the pak choi and chard from the vegetable plot, so I planted a seed tray of pak choi to grow on for them later and planted the extra pack choi, chard and a broccoli plant directly into their pen. They are spoiled before I even have them. The guy at the farm said they will be in chicken heaven with me. I so hope he is right!

While I was in the pen today with the gate open, I noticed a few bees came in. This led me to thinking that once I have chickens and the tree is in blossom, I could occupy the chickens with something tasty and leave the gate open for a bit. It’s a bit down to luck whether any bees come in but may be worth a try.

Two of the three apples on our tree

I am so excited about getting the chickens but as I have now invested so much time waiting, I have to hang on in there and focus on the fact that once I have them, I am in for the long game, so it will be worth the wait. They will be spoilt and I will love and appreciate them all the more for the wait.

This is a very brief update. I have just inspected the apple tree and we have three apples, which doesn’t match over thirty last year, but shows that some bees have been getting in. Maybe this means I could catch some and put them in next year to get a few more apples. All is not lost.

All I need now is chickens as well. hopefully not much longer to wait.