Carol's Chickens

Yesterday morning we had some snow. Peaches, Barley and Speckles were once more in the shelter. They have definitely made it their own at the moment. I don’t know why but Emerald shows no interest in the shelter and the little girls tend to stick to the dry dust bathing area.

Once again as soon as I went in with my camera Peaches and Barley ran to me but I was just in time to catch Speckles in the shelter.

Speckles in the shelter

Speckles about to leave the shelter

Speckles seems to have more sense than the other two and was perched on the branch inside the shelter where it’s dry. Peaches and Barley tend to perch on the outside which means their head or tail is still exposed to the drips.

The girls are amusing with their ever changing little habits.

Lately Peaches and Barley have commandeered the shelter. They seem to like to perch in there just before bedtime. Yesterday it rained heavily all day, non stop and most of the perches were wet.

Peaches, Barley and Speckles were spending quite a bit of time perched in the shelter. Every time I tried to get a photo they came running to me but before bedtime while I was sweeping their patio area Peaches and Barley settled in there again.

Peaches and Barley in the shelter just before bedtime

Peaches and Barley

The idea of the shelter was to give the little girls somewhere to go in bad weather but the novelty seems to have worn off for the little girls and for now Peaches and Barley have taken it over.

Oh well, you can never tell these girls what they should be doing, I guess they will just do what they want to do!

Time often seems to pass at different speeds. We all know how it slows down when we are clock watching, waiting for a certain time to come round and how it speeds up when we have a limited timescale to get a job completed.

The years seem to fly by when you look back. A few days ago my husband commented that it didn’t seem like a year ago, already, that David Bowie passed away. I have been waiting to pass the four to six weeks contagion time for mycoplasma. Of all the research that I have done, six weeks is the longest time given before being safe from it, so I am counting on the longest time span to be on the safe side.

It is five weeks today that Pebbles went so there is just another week to go and this six weeks seems to have taken the longest time to pass. It seems a lot longer than five weeks ago that Pebbles went.

I think the flock is safe now but I just want to pass the magic six weeks to feel complete peace of mind.

I would really love to add two more seramas but will not do so until this six week period has passed. I feel that if anything happened to one of the little girls the other would be left on her own and in the same way that chicken keepers like three or more in case of this, I would like more seramas so that one will never be left on her own. I also feel that four little girls and four bigger girls will be a really nice balance for the flock.

Although the flock mix happily together they are definitely two groups. Although they sometimes all perch up together, the two little girls are always at one end of the group. I have never seen them sitting in a mixed up order. Very often they are perched separately like in these photos taken yesterday.

Freckles and Rusty perch in a shaft of sunlight

The four bigger girls perch on the other side of the run

Freckles and Rusty beak to beak

I think it would really be good for the flock to have some more of these little girls and I can’t wait to get more, but wait I must, so the next week will probably pass very slowly.

Rusty and Freckles always stay close to my hands and feet in the mornings when I poop pick the chicken shed. I have to be be very careful at all times where I put my feet.

Rusty and Freckles stay close to my feet

Rusty and Freckles stay close to my hands

They scratch and peck

They play follow the leader

They speed me on with my job of poop picking because I have to race to pick up before they scratch shavings over it. They stay close to me especially when Speckles joins them, she is looking in on the second photo. When Speckles wants to join in the little girls keep even closer to me as they know that I will protect them from being chased by her.

I love having my little helpers with me every morning. When my job is done they leave the shed and go about their business. It means the morning job is never dull. They make it fun for me. I never tire of the cuteness of these little girls.

The weather has been awful for weeks now. We seem to alternate between cold, frosty days and dull, wet days. It’s frustrating because the run remains damp as on frosty days the roof drips as it warms up and on wet days the rain either blows in or drips in but luckily there is one circular patch of soil that always remains dry.

This has become the dust bathing area. It is so good to see the girls enjoying a lovely dust bath on an otherwise miserable day.

Peaches, Barley and Speckles

Having a lovely dust bath

This is so good

Meanwhile Rusty and Freckles tuck into the food dish

Emerald

Emerald was just wandering around doing her own thing. I took this one of Emerald as otherwise it looked like she was missing. She was just pecking at the shavings and keeping herself to herself.

The girls seem to alternate the days that they dust bath. It is always cheering to see them enjoying dust bathing together.

On frosty mornings the girls are quick to find a shaft of sunlight to perch in, preferably on the high perches away from the frosty ground.

The whole flock perch together in a shaft of sunlight

Perching together on a frosty day

I love seeing the whole flock perching together like this.

The little girls just love me to hand feed them some spinach leaves. Rusty especially likes this and if I hold out my hand she will come running. Usually once she starts on the spinach Freckles will run to join her.

Rusty loves to be hand fed some spinach leaves

Rusty pecks the spinach from my fingers

Rusty eats the spinach down to the stalk

Freckles joins Rusty

Freckles gets her share of a spinach leaf

Once again we are down to the stalk

I had to hold the spinach leaf with my left hand and click away with the camera in my right hand. Considering this I thought the photos weren’t bad.

There are times when I swear I can read what my girls are saying or thinking. I know they don’t think it in the words that we do and that I must not humanise what they are thinking but even so there are some times when I feel that I can read them like a book.

Today was such a day with both Rusty and Speckles.

Speckles used to jump on my back for the morning seeds and late afternoon corn. Since the onset of winter and the shorter days she has changed this habit. She no longer does this at those times but has taken to waiting on the wooden table when I do the midday poop pick. As soon as I am stooped near the wooden table she steps on to my back and rides with me to whichever  perch I next stoop near and then she steps on to that perch.

I am just setting up some background to her behaviour to explain what seemed to happen today.

Rusty and Freckles always like to perch together but Freckles with her straight feather type is a much better flyer than Rusty. On the ground Rusty is  faster at running than Freckles. Rusty makes us laugh when she puts her head down and holds her wings out to help her run at super speed. My husband says she reminds him of a kid in the playground pretending to be an aeroplane.

This difference between the little girls abilities means that there is one perch that Freckles can get to which Rusty can’t. I watched today as Freckles flew up to the high branch perch outside the hatch. This has no ladder beneath it and Rusty can’t get up to this perch.

I could read the dismay in Rusty’s manner. She was anxious that she couldn’t get up to be with Freckles. She would jump to the perch by the metal table and look at the perch where Freckles was but they were divided by the mesh. She would run through the hatch and look at up at Freckles. I could read just how much she wanted to join Freckles but she just couldn’t work out any way to get up.

Meanwhile Peaches and Barley were at the other end of the perch and Emerald was in the middle. Speckles was also getting anxious because she wanted to join the bigger girls on the perch too but there wasn’t a gap for her on the lower part and Freckles was on the higher, more difficult part to reach.

This has never happened before but after pacing and looking up at the perch Speckles came and stood by me looking up at me. She continued looking up at me as if beseeching me to help her get to the perch. She then walked past me and jumped on to the wooden table and looked back at me. I went and stooped by the table and she stepped on to my back. I walked with her on my back to the perch and stood next it. She stepped from me to the perch and settled with the rest of the bigger girls.

Meanwhile Freckles flew down and joined Rusty. They then made their way to the other perch with the ladder and settled together on that high perch.

I could read Rusty’s anxiety at not being able to get to Freckles, which would be quite easy for anyone to read but I swear it seemed like Speckles was asking for my help to get her to the perch. I didn’t simply pick her up because I know she doesn’t like being picked up but I am sure she felt she could entice me to help her from the table.

I had my camera with me so I took photos as we went. I tried to take a blindly aimed photo of Speckles on my back but missed her completely.

Freckles is on the high branch perch outside the hatch

Rusty is patrolling underneath and Speckles is on her way through the hatch to the perch. The girls have to jump up at the end where the three bigger girls are as it gets too high at the top end. Only Freckles is able to fly up to the higher part.

Speckles goes to the wooden table looking at me the whole time

Speckles steps from my back to the higher part of the perch

Speckles moves to the highest part of the perch and Freckles flies down

Once Freckles was down the little girls were together again

The four bigger girls settled together

The little girls made their way to the other high perch

Rusty does her standing on one leg trick

The little girls are happy perching together as usual

It really did feel like Speckles was communicating to me today. These girls really are amusing with their funny little ways.

I am experiencing a bit of a lull with my blog at the moment so I thought I would share my new Christmas mug.

Christmas mug

It’s not only pretty but it’s, fine bone china, so lovely to drink from too.

The girls are all fine but I just haven’t managed to get any good photos. The mornings have been frosty again and I have had to defrost the waters but the girls don’t seem to be bothered by the cold.

Rusty checked out the grit container this morning and I felt a moment of excitement (eggs soon?) but I think it was probably just curiosity.

It will be a month Friday that we lost Pebbles and I keep anxiously checking the girls but they all seem in good health so I am becoming more positive that the flock is going to be okay.

I would like to add a couple more seramas to the flock at the end of January when the six weeks contagion period has passed and hopefully the weather has improved. I can’t wait to add new girls but I know that I must be patient.

I am looking forward to having a flock of eight girls once more and I think four bigger girls and four little girls will be a nice balance. I am also looking forward to the day when we have eggs once more.

The weather is supposed to warm up later this week so that will be good too. The days are also getting slightly longer so we are going in the right direction. I am looking forward to better times with our flock this year.

I gave the girls some fish for their New Year’s Day treat.

Fish for New Year’s day

The girls have some fish together

Enjoying their fish

The girls enjoyed their fish treat. Happy New Year to all my readers and families and pets. I hope 2017 is a good one for one and all.