Carol's Chickens

We have now seen the biggest and the smallest slow worm in our garden this summer. They definitely appear to be breeding in our garden which is nice to know.

We saw this baby slow worm on our patio and I put a pound coin next to it to give some idea of it’s size.

Baby slow worm next to a pound coin

Tiny slow worm on our patio

We put it in the undergrowth for safety but a little later it was on the brick wall by the patio.

A little bit later it shows up again

I am sure it was the same one as it was a bit further up the same patio. I wonder why they come out into the open where they will be vulnerable. We are being very careful about checking where we step as we don’t want to step on one.

You can see the other extreme in size on this post “A slow worm path on our “.

It is good see the slow worms, big and small, in our garden.

The new girls have really found their way around now and are getting more adventurous every day.

Yesterday Freckles found her way up to the wooden table by using the little corner perch as a step up.

Yesterday Freckles found that she could get up on to the wooden table

Today all three little girls have been spending time on the wooden table

It is probably a good place to escape the bigger girls.

One by one they flew back down

Rusty and Freckles have also found their way up to the highest perch

Rusty and Freckles on the high perch

Later in the day all three little girls were perched together on the small perch by the metal table. The three girls seem to be hanging out together a bit more now.

I think that now the little girls are getting used to perching I should try them on the perches at bedtime. I think if I could get all three together on the bedtime perch that would help them to bond a bit more.

I have been waiting for the new little girls to discover that they can perch. Yesterday my husband said that he had seen Rusty on one of the newer little perches.

Later in the day I saw Freckles on the bottom rung of the ladder. Today Rusty perched on the little perch by the metal table next to me while I poop and feather picked.

A little later Rusty was perched on the little perch at the end of the run and was joined by Freckles on the bottom rung of the ladder.

I grabbed my camera and managed to get some perching photos.

Rusty finds a perch

Freckles finds the ladder

Freckles tries to work out how to join Rusty on the perch

Rusty seems quite settled

Freckles joins Rusty

Freckles has the perch to herself

Freckles realised that she couldn’t get to the perch from the bottom rung of the ladder. She jumped down and approached the perch from the other side. She managed to jump up but soon caused Rusty to jump down from her momentum. Freckles soon followed Rusty back down.

This is really good news because it gives them somewhere else to escape to when the bigger girls chase them and it means that I can now begin to teach them to perch at night.

I know this would be really easy to do if Speckles would leave them alone. It may take a while though as they will need to feel safe from Speckles attention. I am hoping that she will get bored with them soon.

Tonight I will try putting them on the perch with Pebbles once the other girls have all settled for the night. It would be really good if I could get the three little girls perching together at night.

I am going to do my end of year egg tally a bit earlier this year as Peaches was the last girl laying and finished at the end of the September.

Rusty and Freckles are four months old so there is a possibility that they may start to lay by the end of the year but if that is the case I will carry their number over into next year. I have found before that girls hatched late in the year start laying when older than six months so it is also possible that they won’t start to lay until next year.

Pebbles is a year old and has yet to lay but I am not really expecting eggs from her until spring.

Once again it is a bit tricky because there have been girls come and girls gone. I will start with girls gone.

Topaz didn’t lay at all this year and left us in April. She had only laid 8 eggs the year before and had never laid more than a few eggs.

Honey laid 14 eggs in February and March and left us in April. She is happy at Whitehouse Farm.

Butterscotch laid 87 eggs from January to July and left us in August, she had laid 77 the year before but we had only had her from July. She too is happy at Whitehouse Farm.

I will continue with current girls.

Toffee laid 26 eggs in March and April, 13 less than last year.

Emerald laid 39 eggs in March, April and May, 3 more than last year.

The game girls have such a short season and lay well while they are laying but only for a few months. If you want chickens for eggs you wouldn’t have game girls but I just love them so I forgive them that. They make up for it with their beauty and lovely nature.

Speckles laid 49 eggs from February until July. I had expected more than that from her breed. I have no comparison to last year as she was already moulting when I got her at the end of July and she started her moult this year half way through July.

Barley laid 66 eggs from February until the beginning of September. This compares with 75 the year before, being her first year.

Peaches laid 104 eggs from February until the end of September. This compares with 78 the year before so she has done really well and actually laid more rather than less in her second year. Both leghorns stopped laying in August last year so I am putting their good year down to a good warm summer and a longer laying season for them.

We have had a total of 387 eggs for the year. This compares with 428 the year before. The drop is due to a change in girls.

Sadly Caramel was only with us for three weeks and Pebbles, Rusty and Freckles have yet to start laying which will be interesting as I have no idea what to expect from them.

I count any eggs as a welcome bonus as I just love having the girls happy and healthy. I am hoping that the flock will remain as it for a long while as all is settled for the moment. I just never know what these girls are going to throw at me next.

Peaches only stopped laying at the end of September so she has just started moulting whereas Barley stopped laying a couple of weeks earlier and her moult is more advanced. She is looking rather tatty and has only one tail feather left. These two started their moult last and it seems much quicker with loads of feathers around the run.

Toffee seems to have moulted in two halves. She moulted earlier in the year along with Emerald but seems to be having a second moult and losing her longer feathers from her wings and her tail.

Speckles seems to be through her moult which was really slow and she was still dropping feathers until a few days ago.

Pebbles has been moulting since we have had her and has lost long wing and tail feathers but is still a ball of fluff.

Freckles is losing some of her chick feathers as she gets her grown up feathers in and Rusty still looks very chick like. These two twitter away all day with their baby chick sounds where as Pebbles is very quiet apart from getting hiccups when ever she eats, which she has done in all the time that she has been with us.

First thing this morning when I went out to them I poop picked the shed with Freckles and Rusty for company as usual and then I swept the patio area as I like to spend a bit of time with them in the morning. I swept the shavings from the patio out into the run and the little girls immediately set about pecking at them.

The little girls first thing this morning

Rusty and Freckles

Pebbles

Although very fluffy Pebbles has lost the long slim tail feathers, which were more like hairs than feathers.

Speckles is looking good

Toffee is missing some tail feathers

Emerald is looking good

Barley has only one tail feather remaining

Peaches moult isn’t as advanced as Barley’s

Peaches looks as if she is inspecting Barley’s tatty breast feathers.

And finally, the bedtime routine. We are definitely getting there and it is only Speckles that is holding up the routine.

Last night when I went in after the bigger girls had gone into the shed, the little girls were on the patio area rather than looking for somewhere else to go. I could tell that they wanted to go in but every time they tried Speckles chased them out. I picked them up and put them in the cat box and draped a tea towel over the front. They were immediately calm.

Pebbles was on the perch outside the shed because she is also being intimidated by Speckles. I put her on her little perch in the shed and she stayed there. A few minutes later I removed the tea towel and the new girls stayed in the cat box.

Tonight I again went in after the bigger girls had gone in. This time Pebbles was on her little perch inside the shed. The other two little girls were on the patio and ran to me when I went through the gate. I could tell they wanted to go in but had been intimidated. I simply opened the door a little and they ran into the cat box. I didn’t think I would need the tea towel but as soon as they were in Speckles jumped down from her place on the perch.

I draped the tea towel over the cat box, this time not to keep the little girls in, but to protect them from Speckles. I swept up the feeding area while I waited for Speckles to take her place on the perch again then I removed the tea towel.

I returned a few minutes later to check on them and all was calm.

The little girls settled in the cat box

All the girls settled for the night

Speckles isn’t in this photo because she is on the right hand side of the back perch and I couldn’t get her in.

I hope that Speckles will soon tire of this behaviour because I know the little girls would go to bed with no problems if they weren’t being intimidated. Until she does I will just keep up with this routine which is working okay. At least the little girls are now receptive to my help at bedtime rather than trying to get away so I feel that we can continue with this routine until Speckles gets used to it.

The good thing is that the little girls are now totally focused on my hands for help. They run to my hands at all times, to guide them to food, water, treats, or to protect them from Speckles, or to help them to bed. I now only have to offer my hands to them and they run to them. This is so lovely and quite different from any of my experience with chickens so far.

I am totally won over by having young seramas. They are the friendliest chicks I have ever come across and I recommend the experience. I would always add more of them to the flock in future. I am really happy with the way things are progressing.

This afternoon we needed disposables for our business and instead of having them delivered we decided to go and collect them so that we could check in on our re homed girls.

It was a really bright and sunny afternoon and I couldn’t see the screen on my camera so the photos aren’t great as it was a case of, point and guess, while clicking away. It gives the gist of the afternoon though.

I took a little pot of sunflower hearts to get the girls in to the open so that I could take photos.

I was thrilled to bits to see that Butterscotch had all her head feathers back in. She was back to her former glory with her bouffant hair style back in place.

Butterscotch, Dotty and Honey

Butterscotch is on the left of the group, Dotty is in the middle and Honey is on the right in the foreground. She is moulting and has lost her tail. This sight is so familiar to me.

Butterscotch is on the right

Butterscotch on the right of the photo has a full head of crest feathers. The geese are in the background and they all get along together.

Butterscotch with Claude the cockerel

Butterscotch in the middle of the photo

Butterscotch with Dotty and Honey forming a little triangle

I love the way that amongst Moira’s larger flock, she has about twenty girls, “my” girls are so together.

Dotty is at the back in the  centre with Butterscotch on the right and Honey has her head down

Honey has lost her tail

Honey still gets really close to me

One of Moira’s pekin bantams

Claude the cockerel

Just as I finished taking photos Moira spotted me and came over for a chat. I told her how pleased I was that Butterscotch was looking so good. Moira said that she felt that Butterscotch was enjoying the freedom of free ranging on the farm and that she was a very independent girl.

Butterscotch always was like that with us. She always did her own thing and wasn’t dependent on the rest of the flock.

This afternoon made me so happy. It proved to me that I had made the right decision. Butterscotch can now go broody in peace, enjoy free ranging and keep her head feathers as they should be. She is having a good life and looking beautiful again.

I am so glad that we paid the girls a visit today and I am glad that we waited long enough to see Butterscotch back to her former glory.

I am really pleased with how quickly the new girls have settled into the flock. It’s only been a week today since they arrived and they are now completely integrated. The only blip is getting them to bed at night.

Pebbles was fine with going to bed until after we lost caramel. Now she doesn’t want to go in at night, as well as the new girls. I realised last night that it is the bigger girls intimidating the little girls that is causing the problem. It’s a little bit of Peaches and Barley but mostly it’s Speckles who is chasing them out.

Having put the cat box in the shed last night I have come up with a plan for tonight. I am going to put the new girls in the cat box at bedtime but with the door on it and close them in. This will stop them coming out and will keep them safe from the attentions of the other girls. Once they are all settled I will remove the door.

I hope that if they sleep in the cat box and come out by themselves in the morning they may return there the next night. Once I have this routine established I will teach them to perch up at bedtime at a later date but for now they will have somewhere they feel happy and safe to sleep.

It may work or it may not but we have nothing have to lose.

One of the things I am loving about the new girls is that having them from so young means they are really easy to handle. They have already got used to the idea that I protect them and I feed them and they run to me when ever I go in the run. They are really comfortable around my hands and feet and they will allow me to touch them and stroke them.

I am determined to keep handling the three little girls so that they remain used to being handled. They are ridiculously cute!

There is another difference between seramas that I wasn’t aware of until I had my girls. They have different coloured faces. Pebbles and Caramel, below, both have/had red faces.

Caramel and Pebbles

Where as Rusty and Freckles, below, both have white faces.

Rusty and Freckles

This was Rusty and Freckles on arrival day, last Sunday.

Freckles and Rusty

This was Rusty and Freckles a few days ago. Already Rusty’s head feathers are growing. She is such a little ball of fluff.

When I got Emerald the farmer had birds of her colour with both black faces and white faces. I chose Emerald with her white face. It remains white in winter put goes pink in summer and red when she is laying. It seems that are many different varieties of serama. I have very quickly grown to love these little birds.

Tonight at bedtime I put the new girls in the cat box. I felt quite cruel because they twittered and were up against the bars, wanting to get out, where as in the little coop because it is dark they settle down straight away. I decided to cover the cat box with a tea towel so that it was dark and they settled down.

It is Speckles that is causing the problem at the moment. She had been all around the cat box and had jumped on to Pebbles little perch forcing her off. The bigger girls had taken no notice of the little perch to start with but now Speckles is determined to disrupt it’s use. I waited until the bigger girls were settled and then returned Pebbles to her perch.

I hope that soon Speckles will get bored with this and things will go back to normal. It has obviously changed the status quo having the new girls in the shed.

I went back a little later and removed the tea towel and five minutes later removed the door to the cat box. I checked again as the automatic door was closing and all was settled.

The new girls are settled in the cat box

The new sleeping arrangements

Pebbles still looks as if she is wondering what they are doing down there. Time will tell whether this idea works out but for now I know that all the girls are safely in a good sleeping place.

I went out this morning just as the automatic door opened. All the girls came out apart from the two new girls who stayed in the shed while I poop picked. They seem to like to be with me while I do this because once I had finished and left the shed they also left the shed.

I lingered long enough to check that they went to the food and water. I love to see them with their heads together in the food dish.

Two little heads in the food dish

Later in the morning Pebbles had a dust bath.

Pebbles in a dust bath

Pebbles is quite camouflaged and gets so deep in her dust holes that she is quite flat against the soil level.

The new girls were quite interested in her activity but I have yet to see them take a dust bath.

Rusty and Freckles are interested

We had an afternoon tea, wedding, to do today and I was anxious to get back at bedtime to make sure the new girls were okay. When we got back some of the girls were in but the three little ones were still outside along with Peaches and Barley.

Peaches and Barley soon went in but the three little girls were reluctant to go in. I put Pebbles on her little perch and tried to get the new girls to go in. I realised that it was Speckles chasing them out that was causing the reluctance to go in.

I returned Pebbles to her little perch and put the new girls in one of the little coops to let the bigger girls settle.

My husband suggested putting one of the little coops in the shed for the new girls but I realised that it would be too big to fit comfortably. I then thought that instead I could put the cat box in the shed. It would fit easily, be easy to clean if pooped on and give the new girls warmth and safety within the shed.

I put pine shavings in the cat box and put it in the shed beneath Pebbles on her perch. I then lifted the new girls from the little coop and put them in the cat box. They were not amused and popped right back out. I put them in again and again they popped right back out and settled in the corner.

Okay, that’s fine, they can sleep there tonight. I think it’s because they are not familiar with the cat box. Maybe over the next few days, if I get them familiar with it, they might like to sleep in it. On the other hand they might not. Maybe it’s a daft idea altogether. I think I will trial it over the next few nights and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t matter.

My new idea

The new girls settle in the corner

It could be that this is a stupid idea but I felt there was no harm in trying it. We will see how the next few nights go.

On the way back indoors  a movement caught my eye. It was our frog on the edge of the path. It’s the first time we have seen the frog this year and the rain today has obviously bought it out again.

Our frog returns

It is good to know the frog is still about.

We are glad the wedding is done as it is always a good feeling when we have successfully got through an important function and I am pleased overall with the way the flock are settling together. It is good to see the frog still in our garden, plus yesterday my husband saw a baby slow worm too so they must be breeding in our garden.

The final bit of fine tuning is getting bedtime sorted for the little girls but I am sure that we can work on that over the next few days and find a way of getting them to settle happily in the chicken shed one way or another. A work in progress but one that I am sure will settle down soon.

I went out this morning before the automatic door opened, which is at seven o’clock at the moment, to make sure the new girls came out safely.

I propped the door open with the chicken door stop as I was too impatient to wait for it to open.

The new girls come out of the pop hole

While I was doing the morning clean up the new girls came back in and stayed with me until I had finished.

The new girls kept me company while I poop picked the chicken shed

Freckles finds the water

Rusty finds the water

Pebbles finds the water bottle too

Pebbles goes to the food dish

Freckles and Rusty go to the food dish

The three little girls at the food dishes together

The other girls are next to or on the table and preening

The little girls together

I stayed with them for half an hour until I was satisfied that they had found the water and the food and there was no aggravation.

When I returned everything was calm and I felt confident enough to leave them together. Rusty even tried a bit of fish and a bit of spinach. She is growing in confidence.

It was the final day of worming the girls, hence the fish. I decided not to worry about worming the new girls on this occasion as I was struggling to get them to eat anything at the beginning of the week, plus they had never been outdoors before now. I will worm again in March and will include the new girls then.

On the day after the first day of worming I found one poop with worms in but nothing at all after that. This is a good sign because it shows that the flubenvet is working, the worming process is necessary, but that there isn’t an overload of worms.

This afternoon I added three bags of soil to the run as the level keeps dropping with me constantly poop picking and I felt that it was a big drop from the patio area for the little girls.

The girls start spreading the soil in the run

Speckles is doing her best to spread the soil

The new girls check out the soil

Pebbles likes this perch to snooze on in the afternoons

At bedtime I had hoped I could direct the new girls into the chicken shed. It didn’t quite go according to plan. Once all the other girls were in I tried directing them towards the shed but they didn’t want to go. Several times I picked them up and put them in the shed. Each time they popped right back out again.

By now they were getting distressed, twittering away and Freckles was again looking as if she wanted to fly into the roof.

I decided to put them in the shed and close the pop hole door. This is going to take a little longer. I checked back a little later and they were settled in the corner near Pebbles.

They finally settle

It looks as if Pebbles is looking down at them and wondering what they are doing down there and Rusty also looks as if she is wondering how Pebbles got up there.

I am happy with this arrangement though. Last night I wasn’t so happy about them being by the pop hole as they were in the direct route of the other girls leaving the shed in the morning which was one of the reasons I wanted to be out there before they came out. They are in a much safer position here.

I hope they will soon get the hang of going in by themselves but until then I will just have to help them along.

This afternoon I finished work early and decided to mix the girls. I settled on the patio area in a garden chair with a book, camera and water spray, to keep an eye on proceedings.

As I had expected, Speckles was the one that chased the new girls around. I used the water spray a couple of times to deter her.

The other girls didn’t take much notice. The useful thing was, that as I was sitting on the patio, the new girls felt it was safe to explore this area.

The three little girls preen together on the edge of the patio

The rest of the flock group together

The new girls discover the other little coop/nest box

They explore the patio area

They do a lot of pecking

At this point I put the new girls in the chicken shed so that they could get familiar with it.

They explore the chicken shed

I then put Pebbles in with them and closed the door so that she could show them the way out. She popped straight out and they soon followed.

They find the pop hole

Rusty finds the water

The girls mix

Rusty finds the big food dish

I have put growers pellets in all the dishes now as Peaches laid her last egg a few days ago and they can all now stay on growers until the new girls start to lay.

They both find the small food dish

I felt quite pleased that the new girls now know where everything is and at last seem to have got the hang of eating from the dishes.

The next decision was what to do at bedtime. I would have liked to steer the new girls towards the chicken shed like I did with Caramel and Pebbles but these two are quite a different pair.

Rusty was oblivious to all the other girls going to bed and was happily pecking around her usual little coop. Freckles as always was getting anxious about where to go. Suddenly she flew right up into the roof and I had to catch her. Once again I decided the best course of action was to put them both in their little coop for safety.

I decided to try putting them in the chicken shed at dusk. I thought that if I did this tonight then perhaps once they had spent a night in there I could direct them towards the chicken shed tomorrow night.

I placed them on the perch next to Pebbles.

I put the new girls on the little perch next to Pebbles

Rusty was the first to jump down

First Rusty jumped down and was soon followed by Freckles. It was probably a bit too soon to perch them as they haven’t really discovered perching in the run yet, like Pebbles has. I gave them a few minutes then looked in on them again.

They had settled near the pop hole which is fine. My photo is a bit hit and miss as I took it in the dark so I was guessing where they were. I didn’t want to use any light and risk disturbing them.

They ended up by the pop hole

I will go out before the door opens in the morning and make sure they all come out safely. I will separate them again in the morning while I am out doing my deliveries but put them together again in the afternoon when I am at home to keep an eye on them.

I want to get them sleeping together as I worry about Freckles wanting to fly into the roof where she could possibly hurt herself. I think perching up may have to wait for a bit longer but that’s okay. I think the next stage is to try to get them to go in themselves where ever they end up sleeping. It doesn’t really matter where they sleep at the moment as it is more important that they learn how to go in.

I will continue tomorrow by trying to get them to go in the chicken shed themselves. It’s been a good day though with very little aggression so I am happy with the progress. We have got to this stage very quickly from a difficult first day and they have come on a long way in less than a week.

I am quite confident that they will be one flock very soon. I think it is going really well.