Carol's Chickens

Speckles seems to like the shelter. She likes to sit in there and once laid an egg in there. Yesterday she was sitting on top of the shelter. She seems to have claimed this shelter as her own.

Speckles finds a new place to sit

They do like to find a new place to sit.

Since my lovely husband gave our rose a hard prune in readiness for our new fence we have reclaimed an extra strip of garden. The rose used to extend out to the chicken run leaving us just the brick path next to the run to squeeze down to do any maintenance. Now we have a strip of garden beside the chicken run.

We now have extra garden

The trees in this area are all self seeded and we are leaving them to create a sort of hedge. We intend to keep the rose back on to the fence in future to keep this strip of garden so that it makes it more accessible for us to get in here and maintain the rose and the chicken run if necessary.

It is also lighter in the run for the girls. When I laid the first row of these bricks last year the rose was grabbing me and I was fighting it. Now we can walk on the brick path with ease.

It is the first time this end of the garden has been tidy as the rose was daunting to tackle. It will be interesting see what it looks like as the season progresses. I think it will be good to have it under control and to have a neat fence and more space in the garden.

It was just over two weeks ago that I took this photo of Speckles bottom.

Speckles bare bottom

Speckles has pins on her bottom

Compare it to this photo. She has rows of pin feathers and the gap is closing up. As the fluffy feathers open the gap should fill in.

I am so pleased that her new feathers have come through so quickly and  that they aren’t being pulled again. Hopefully this means that the problem has passed without becoming a habit and she will soon be back to normal.

I really think it was the stress of the girls being confined to only half of the run that triggered this and now the girls are fully integrated the problem seems to have passed. This is really good news.

The first set of tulips are going over and the next bunch are just getting ready to open.

Another clump of tulips in a sea of pulmonaria

Bluebells

There are bluebells all around the garden, plus some whitebells and pinkbells. There are more of these every year but that’s okay. I love the garden in the spring.

I have been trying to get some good close up photos of the three amigos to update my “meet the flock” page. I haven’t done this before now as I have been waiting for Dandelion’s head feathers to grow in.

Her long tail feathers fell out and regrew very quickly but the pin feathers on her head have taken forever to open. They are still not all fully opened but it’s been two months this weekend but I am getting impatient with waiting.

Cinnamon is the most difficult to get close up photos of because she is the most shy and also she doesn’t keep her head still so any close ups I get are often blurred.

Apricot

Dandelion

Cinnamon

The three amigos

Their close up

This is my favourite photo of the three of them so far. What beautiful little girls.

I put the water bottles above the ladders to insure the three amigos could always get to water. Apricot got the hang of it straight away and we had seen Dandelion drink from it occasionally but I couldn’t get Cinnamon to get the hang of it.

Cinnamon always drank from the water dish as if she was really thirsty whereas the other two didn’t. I tried to teach Cinnamon how to use the water bottle.

I held her with her beak to the nozzle while I tapped it to release a droplet but she just didn’t get it. I tried putting her next to another girl drinking from it but again she didn’t get it.

Today I decided that I would remove the water bottles and hey presto! For the first time Cinnamon was drinking from the bottle.

Cinnamon drinks from the water bottle.

Who would have thought it! The day I was going to remove it she finally got the hang of it. I have now decided the water bottles can stay. It will give me peace of mind that if we are out on a hot day she will always be able to get to water.

She is the slowest to cotton on to anything new but she got there in the end. Well done Cinnamon!

Yesterday there were a few sweet moments of togetherness in the flock. In the morning it involved egg laying and in the afternoon it involved dust bathing.

We had our first, five egg day, of the year. This time three bigger girls and two little girls. There was a lot of commotion as several girls wanted to lay at the same time and in the same nest box. Eventually Speckles, Emerald and Barley got their eggs laid and things calmed down a bit.

Freckles and Rusty then settled in the nest box together.

Freckles and Rusty share a nest box

They look so sweet together

Shortly after this photo Freckles laid her egg and a little later Rusty laid her egg.

During the course of the day most of the girls had a dust bath. It was really good to see the three amigos dust bathing together before I went out on my rounds. Later Peaches, Barley and Speckles were dust bathing and then Freckles followed by Rusty once she had laid her egg.

A little later Emerald was dust bathing with Apricot joining in and pecking and scratching very close to her. This was heartwarming to see.

Emerald and Apricot dust bath together

Emerald and Apricot

Apricot and Emerald

They were very happy in very close proximity to each other. This was so lovely to see. I think we finally have got them mixing happily.

In February my husband gave the huge rambling rose on our fence a really good prune. This rose was already in the garden, and well established, when we moved in ten years ago. It does provide a good screen between us and the neighbours but it is very fast growing and lethal when pruning.

Behind it the fence panels and posts have rotted away. My husband gave it the hardest prune we have ever given it so that we could see what was going on with the fence. The rose had blown over into the neighbours garden in the winter and we had to go round and push it back again. My husband attached some poles to the fence to tie the rose to, to keep it from blowing over again.

The rose has a hard prune

The rose was up to the top of the remaining pole and it’s pruning has left the garden very open and overlooked. The fence is rather low and is in worse condition than it looks in the photo.

The poles and broken trellis are removed

A few months later

The rose is growing back

It is actually our neighbours fence but they have a young child and are now paying for child care so Mum can go back to work and money is tight. We have talked to them about the fence and have explained that we are happy to pay to have it replaced as it would benefit us both and as we have a wall on the other side of our garden we haven’t had to pay for any maintenance of our boundaries (except for the fence at the back behind the chicken shed). They reluctantly agreed.

We have been waiting for the last two months for our usual guy, who did our chicken run and back fence, to fit us in, but he is snowed under with work. We had a brainwave and asked our other neighbour, all round handy man, if he would be able to do the job. He quoted us a price and we agreed for him to do the work.

Our plan was to make the fence a bit higher than before by putting gravel boards in first and then the fence on top. Then we would tie the rose to our side of the fence making it easier to manage and easier to keep on our side.

On Monday morning work began. The old posts were taken out and the old panels removed. It was odd seeing it so open.

The old fence panels are removed

The holes were dug out for the new posts. Today the new fence panels are up.

The new fence panels are up

The rose is tied back to the fence once more

We are really pleased with this. We now have more privacy from the neighbours and we will be able to manage the rose and to keep it on our side. Knowing how vigorous this rose is we feel sure it will soon cover the fence once more. A job well done and an improvement for us and the neighbours.

At the weekend we got our veg plot started. My husband dug it over and then dug in the contents of our compost bin.

We had had potatoes chitting for a while and he planted a row of earlies. They are beside the path, from the labelled stick, down to the step. He then planted broad beans at the far end on the right and runner beans at the near end on the left.

Veg plot

It’s a bit empty at the moment but it’s too early to plant anything else yet. We have only planted a few runner beans as we intend to plant some dwarf beans later. We will also have tomatoes and courgettes and we have some fir apple potatoes chitting but they need to be planted later. We may add a chilli plant as that did well last year and we will decide what else to plant as we go along.

We have gone for different types of potato this year as last year’s were not very successful. We are hoping to have better luck this year but you never know how the year will turn out. It is good to have made a start though and makes us feel like summer is on it’s way.

Yesterday was the first day this year that all four bigger girls laid on the same day. It’s the fourth, four egg, day but each time before it’s been three bigger girls and one little girl. Today both little girls laid. Shame they didn’t lay yesterday and give me a record, six egg, day. But all the laying girls in two days is pretty good going. I am loving all the eggs.

All four bigger girls laid yesterday and Rusty and Freckles laid today

From left to right they are Emerald’s, Speckles, Rusty’s, Freckles, Peaches and Barley’s eggs

Speckles still lays the biggest egg. Peaches and Barley’s eggs are the whitest in colour.

Rusty’s egg is on the left and Freckles tiny egg is on the right

Rusty’s eggs have remained bigger than Freckles eggs. Freckles eggs are very round. It has been a week since Freckles last egg so it’s good to see her laying again and without a problem this time. I don’t know what caused her little blip.

Her last tiny egg that she laid a week ago had a good, hard, shell (we have eaten it now) so I don’t know what the problem was. However she had no problem today so hopefully all is fine with her.

I never tire of all these lovely eggs and plan to have scrambled egg for dinner one night this week. Thank you girls.