Carol's Chickens

We are still struggling with bedtime. The problem lays with the bigger girls not the little girls. The little girls know where they are supposed to go at bedtime and they want to go in the shed and get onto their little perch.

The problem is that the big girls do so much jumping up and down from the perches that they intimidate the little girls. When the bigger girls finally seem to be settled, the little girls attempt to go in, but once they are in the shed Speckles jumps down again and scares them back out.

I have watched them night after night and it’s clear that Speckles is still bottom of the bigger girls and although they all perch happily together during the day at bedtime the pecking order is firmly invoked. None of the bigger girls will tolerate Speckles next to them. Most of the time she ends up on the corner perch by herself.

During the day I have often observed what I call “paying it down”. If Toffee has a go at Emerald she will turn round and have a go at Peaches or Barley. They will then have a go at Speckles. Speckles in turn will have a go at the little girls.

This seems to be happening at bedtime with all the girls pecking Speckles away from them, it can appear quite brutal. She then, in turn, jumps back down from the perch and chases the little girls out when they try to get to their perch.

I end up watching over them until they can go in safely and sometimes I help things along by moving Speckles back to the perch or even by placing the little girls on their perch. It’s not a problem when I am around to do this but I need this to progress for the times when I am not here.

Today for example we have an afternoon tea to cater for and it’s an hours drive from us. This is outside our usual delivery area but being a Saturday we don’t have corporate lunches to deliver so we have agreed that they will contribute towards the cost of the diesel and we will deliver it and set it up for three o’clock and return to clear by six o’clock. This means that it will be about seven o’clock before we get back and the girls are in bed by between half past five and quarter to six at the moment.

This will be the night that we see what happens when I am not here. I am going to prop the pop hole door open so that the little girls can’t get shut out. I have no idea if they will be able to make it to their perch before it gets too dark, without my help. If not I hope that they will at least go in and settle on the floor of the shed.

If they are on the shed floor I will lift them to the perch when we get back and if they are outside the shed I will put them in. I really hope they don’t end up outside the shed. I don’t like not being here but it can’t be helped and maybe it will move things on. At least I will be back to put them in about an hour after their usual bedtime.

Below are some photos of last night’s bedtime line up which is typical and is the order they have ended up in for the last few nights.

The little girls on their perch, goodness knows what Pebbles is looking at!

Speckles on the corner perch on her own

Peaches and Barley together

Toffee and Emerald keeping their distance

This is really typical. Peaches and Barley, and, Rusty and Freckles, are the only girls that actively want to be together. They are the only bonded duos that really want to be together and are distressed if they can’t be together.

Pebbles tolerates Rusty and Freckles but will peck them if they get too close when they first perch up. As it gets a bit darker she accepts them.

Peaches and Barley have always wanted to perch together but the other three don’t want to be close to each other or to Peaches and Barley. I think perhaps if you have a flock all at the same time this may not happen but if you add girls as time goes on the divisions seem to be set. Having said that Emerald and Toffee joined the flock together and they don’t choose to sit close to each other either.

It may not be the same in all flocks but in our flocks this is how it is and the bigger girls go through this every night but end up all settled in plenty of time before the door closes. The question is ….. will the little girls be able to settle without my help. Tonight we will see but that will be tomorrow’s post.

My husband thought it would be fun if I took a photo of Rusty with my rusty chicken. My rusty chicken is on the banner at the top of my blog and is the same size as Rusty. In the photo on my banner it is also the same colour. It would have been amusing to see two such similar rusty chickens together.

But over the years my rusty chicken has turned green. They are not now the same colour but are the same size. My rusty chicken was my first chicken and I never thought back then that I would have real chickens of that size. Take a spin up to the banner above to compare with the photo below.

Two rusty chickens

Not as good a photo as it would have been if my rusty chicken was still it’s original colour but I thought it would still be fun to include it.

Yesterday I bought some pellets and filled up the bucket that I keep them in. One large sack of layers pellets fills three buckets but at the moment I am buying smaller bags of growers pellets which fill one bucket. This will be my last bag of these as by the time they run out Rusty and Freckles will be old enough to go onto layers pellets.

What makes me laugh is seeing Emerald come running to the bucket as if these pellets are much more special than the ones in their food dish.

Emerald in the pellet bucket

Standing on tip toes, I love how this shows off her shape

She is joined by Peaches

The pellets are better out of the bucket

When you have chickens, you just have to laugh!

Peaches has had the quickest moult ever this year due to laying eggs for a month longer than usual. She dropped her feathers really quickly and had long pins underneath which have quickly started to open. She is now at a weird in between stage where her new feathers are partially opened but not quite enough to cover her downy under feathers.

Peaches has a sort of two toned feather arrangement going on

Her new feathers don’t quite cover her underneath feathers

She does look a bit odd at the moment

I have never seen her sporting this odd look before but I am sure she will be looking beautiful again very soon.

After our pathetic potato crop our tomato crop is even more laughable, if that is possible! We grew one beef tomato plant and three cherry tomato plants. The beef tomato plant produced just five tomatoes and they were smaller than standard ones. The cherry tomato plants produced tomatoes that were smaller than cherry tomatoes usually are.

At this time of year it is usually best to pick any remaining tomatoes and ripen them indoors in a dark place. I picked the remaining crop from the three plants and this is it.

Our pathetic tomato crop

I have just put them in a curry that I made from the left over roast lamb from the weekend. They are too small to do anything else with. We won’t be winning any prizes for our veg this year!

We have tried to grow cyclamen in our garden but they never last beyond the first year as the squirrels dig up the corms. This year I decided to get round this by putting some in our chimney pot on the patio.

Cyclamen

They make a lovely splash of colour. I needed to show something pretty after our ridiculous vegetables. Here’s hoping for better luck next year.

There was no blogging at the weekend because we had visitors. We had my eldest son for his thirty first birthday along with his lovely, expectant, wife. Their first baby is due in April and we are very excited.

We had a really lovely weekend together with a big roast dinner and lots of catching up. It was so good to spend time together.

We had to deliver some food on Friday evening and had our family staying over on Saturday so I helped the little girls along with getting to their bedtime perches to speed them up a bit.

Last night I tried to let them take their time and do it themselves but I know that they are now in the habit of waiting for me to watch over them. I know that the only way to move this on is to go up to them later and see if they go in without my presence but it is hard to make myself leave them to it.

I went up at half past five and the bigger girls had already gone in. The three little girls ran to me and hung around the patio area. I try to direct them towards the pop hole.

Rusty is first to go in

Pebbles follows

Freckles is thinking about it

Pebbles follows Rusty

Freckles follows them in

They need a last look at me before going any further

They a spend a while deciding if they should go in or come back out again. I gently move them further in and hold my hand over the pop hole. They eventually manage to jump up to their perch but I wonder what they would do if I wasn’t there. I suppose there is only one way to find but I may leave it a few more nights yet.

Today I decided to try Freckles and Rusty with some mash as a treat. We have had them a month now and when I tried them with mash when we first had them they didn’t know what to do with it. They are very willing to try every new treat now.

I put one dish on the patio area for the bigger girls and one dish on the wooden block for the little girls. I stood guard so that they could have the mash without being chased away.

Freckles and Rusty try mash for the first time

They definitely like the mash

A little later Rusty was having a lovely dust bath. I have never yet seen Freckles having a dust bath.

Rusty is having a dust bath

Freckles is watching but not attempting to join in

It’s almost as if Pebbles and Freckles are standing guard over her

I am surprised that Pebbles and Freckles didn’t join in.

At bedtime the three little girls went into the shed and jumped to their perch but the next stage is to get them to do it without my presence. They wait for me to go out to them each evening and run down to the bottom of the run towards me. They then follow me up to the patio area. While I watch over them they make their way in after all the bigger girls are already in.

I think they wait for me because they know that I can protect them from the bigger girls who do a lot of jumping up and down from the perches and intimidate the little girls. I know that the next stage is for me to withdraw and leave them to do it on their own and then check on them later.

It is very hard not to watch over them though. I know that I will have to move on to the next stage but I don’t want to rush it.

The three little girls at bedtime

Are you looking at me!

At least they wait for me and then go in, rather than trying to perch somewhere in the run, so I feel we are almost there. I can’t blame them for feeling intimidated by the bigger girls and my instinct is to be there to protect them but I know that at some time they will need to be able to do this by themselves in case we need to go out for an evening.

We don’t go out often but it would be good to not have to worry if we did want to go out. I think I will try to gradually progress this over the next week but I am not in a rush. I am pleased with how far they have progressed already and I am sure they will get there in the end.

Peaches feathers are opening up quite quickly now. She already looks a lot better than she did a few days ago.

Peaches feathers are opening

She is looking much better

Getting back to normal

The other thing that is getting better is the bedtime routine. The three little girls now know where they should go and are not relying on me to put them in the shed. They do the typical pecking around at shavings before going in.

Just before bedtime

For the last two nights they have managed to put themselves to bed so I am quite happy that at last they have got the hang of it. Hurrah!

The flock is made up of two groups at the moment but as long as there is harmony between them I don’t mind that.

Five girls chill together

Three little girls stick together

Three little girls make the most of the patio area while the bigger girls chill out together

Last night at bedtime I felt that the newer two girls had finally got the hang of it. At quarter to six Rusty was already in the shed and Freckles was inside the pop hole. Rusty jumped to the perch with ease. Freckles again only had to make one attempt but she jumped much to high and dropped back down landing on the outer perch. It was a bit of pot luck which perch she landed on but at least she is now managing to land on one or other of the perches. She just doesn’t seem able to judge the height which is very odd.

Rusty and Freckles jump to the bedtime perch

Pebbles who did used to go to bed without any problem now seems the most reluctant to go in. I put her through the pop hole and blocked it with my hand. She eventually settled next to the other two little girls.

All the girls are in their bedtime positions

I hope that now Rusty and Freckles have got the hang of the bedtime routine Pebbles will soon follow their lead. It’s ironic that she was fine at going to bed until these two needed to learn the routine, then she followed them in waiting for my help, instead of them following her in going to bed.

Whichever way round, I hope we now have this resolved at last and that tonight all three go in without any help.

The first few years we grew potatoes on our veg plot in this garden they were amazing. We got some huge potatoes and they were particularly good for roast potatoes and chips.

The next few years they were full of wire worms. It got a bit worse each year until by the time I had cut out all the wormy bits we were left with bits of potatoes the size of marbles.

This year as an experiment we decided to try growing them in potato bags in the hope that they wouldn’t get wire worms.

Potato bags in June

The growth looked really healthy. As the growth spilled out of the bags it hit the ground then turned to grow upwards again. There was plenty of growth on the potatoes throughout the summer.

As always we waited for the green to die away before harvesting the potatoes. I let our shop bought potatoes run out, ha ha, before harvesting the first bag.

Potato bags

We had three bags but I forgot to take the photo until we had emptied the first bag.

Well …. disappointed doesn’t really go far enough!

The entire crop from one bag

This was all of the potatoes in one bag in an old washing up bowl. The bigger potatoes had rotted and the smallest potatoes were from the size of a grape down to the size of a current.

When I pealed them I needed to take a thick layer off as they seemed to be rotting from the skin inwards. The biggest ones had rotted all the way through and the others had rotten patches on the skin but were okay inside. The smallest ones had to be thrown away as they too small to do anything with.

The entire crop of one bag once pealed

This is a pudding basin and these potatoes will just about do three meals for the two of us and we eat fairly small meals. On the positive side, they didn’t have wire worm! I think we can conclude that we won’t be bothering with this method again.

We put the compost in the run for the girls.

Compost emptied into the run

We went through it with our hands and then a fork as potatoes are poisonous to chickens, although they do usually avoid anything that is poisonous, but we don’t want to take any chances.

The girls scratch and spread the soil

The little girls have their turn

At least the compost will help to build up the soil level in the run. We won’t bother with growing potatoes in bags again and will probably just put them back in the ground next year. You have to try these things but I am going to call this experiment a failure.