Carol's Chickens

Yesterday I mixed the girls for the whole afternoon. I had been to the woods and collected some branches to make some extra, lower, perches for the little girls. I had picked branches that were a smaller, broom handle width, to suit them. I put them in the run in a pile to decide where they should go and opened up the run.

The little girls checked out the heap of branches. The other girls were near by but there was no chasing.

The girls are mixing with no hassle

Speckles is close by but is not chasing the little girls

Despite Speckles being near the little girls she didn’t chase them away. I think she is beginning to see that they get that they are below her in the pecking order and maybe she is getting bored with constantly chasing them.

A little later they were all on the other side of the wire, near each other, without any chasing. Things are definitely improving.

The girls are together without any problems

We put up four lower, branch perches, in the different parts of the run.

Just a reminder of how cute these little girls are

Barley tests one of the new perches

Barley was first to test out one of the new perches. Peaches and Barley found all the new perches first. The little girls did find a couple of the new perches but had jumped down before I could get a photo. Those photos will have to wait until another day.

At the end of the day I separated the girls again but this was the first day that I had left them together all afternoon and had left them at times without watching them. I have grown more confidant that they can be left together without me watching over them.

I think we are ready for the next stage now. I want to try roosting them together at night. I plan to put them together in the afternoon and see if the little girls will follow the rest of the girls into the chicken shed at bedtime. I will close the little coops and the gates to the other side of the run.

If I can get them all in together at bedtime I will unhook the automatic door opener so that I can go out first thing in the morning and let them all out together. This way I can check that they all come out in the morning without any problems and can then decide if they are okay together or if I should separate them for a bit longer.

I am quite hopeful that they will mix together this weekend while I am around to watch them. It will be really good to have one united flock once more.

For the last three days I have been letting the girls mix together each afternoon for an hour or two when I am able to watch them.

Speckles has been the only one to have a go at the little girls which is typical behaviour for the bottom girl. The good news is that none of the other girls have bothered with the little girls so at least they have only one girl to run from. Speckles mostly goes after Caramel, the smallest of the two little girls.

The little girls have taken to using the ladder to perch on.

Caramel and Pebbles perching on the ladder this morning

Caramel and Pebbles perching on the ladder this afternoon

In the afternoon I opened both gates and lifted the wire at both ends of the run and all the girls piled into the smallest section of the run. Yesterday I put the original flock on this side for the morning so that the little girls could have more time to get used to the other side of the run and the original girls wanted to get back to the other side. Today they were on the other side and yet when I opened it up they all piled into this bit. As they say – the grass is always greener on the other side.

With the entire run opened up all the girls piled into the smallest part of the run with the little girls

Time for a snooze

The little girls stay on the little coop roof while Peaches inspects their feeding station

When I open up the original girls always eat food from the little girl’s dish and go and take a look in the little coop. It’s as if they think the little girls may have something better than they do when in fact, of course, it’s exactly the same. They remind me of children at times.

All seven girls stayed in the smallest part of the run

All the original girls piled in to the table corner

The little girls stayed on the little coop roof out of the way of the other girls until Speckles jumped on to the little coop roof and chased them off. They ran out in to the other part of the run and up the ladder onto the high branch perch.

The little girls escaped to the high branch perch

It is good that they are learning all the escape routes and where all the perches are but I worry about them getting stuck too high up.

I decided that this was enough for today and closed the gates and the wire and got the original girls back on their side once more. I then decided to lift the little girls down. My husband said that they would be able to fly down but I worry about them getting down safely.

While watching them I am able to assess anything that needs tweaking. I think I will get some more branch perches and put them in lower down so that there are more places for the little girls to perch.

I also noticed that Caramel could get cornered and trapped in the corner at the back of the gate when it’s open. I have decided to lift the wire by this corner so that she can pop through to the other side. As these girls are so little I think it’s best to have as many escape holes as possible.

I think it is going really well but I just don’t want to risk any harm coming to the little girls. I will start mixing them for longer Friday afternoon and at the weekend when I don’t need to go out and I can keep a close watch on them.

It would be good if I could get them together over the weekend but I will play it by ear as I would rather take longer than take any risks. If these girls were not so tiny I would probably go for it at the weekend but I am being more cautious because of their small size.

Overall I am really pleased with the progress and I am sure they will all be together soon.

Saturday just before bedtime both Pebbles and Caramel were on their little coop roof. I could tell that they wanted somewhere to roost.

Pebbles and Caramel on the little coop roof

Good as gold they went into the little coop a few minutes later but I started thinking about getting the right perch for them in the chicken shed. I had read that they need a perch the size of a broom handle so decided that we should buy a broom handle for them.

On Sunday my lovely husband fitted it in the chicken shed. He took out the existing perch that was across the angle as the main flock all use the perch at the back. This meant we could position it lower down and the new girls wouldn’t get pooped on.

New, smaller, lower perch

Sunday morning at first light I let the new girls out into the other side of the run. They found the food dish straight away.

Straight to the food dish

They look so tiny on the patio

They set off to explore the new space

They marched down to the end of the run

They found the log and said hello to Speckles on the other side of the wire

They found their way back to the patio area

And back to the food

I stroked Pebbles

They had pellets and water after their expedition

I showed them inside the chicken shed

I picked them up and put them in the shed so that they would know where to go in the future. I lifted Pebbles on to the perch in the hope that she may remember it later.

They found their own way back out of the shed.

They set off back across the patio

Heading back towards the run

I love the way they go everywhere together. Where one goes the other one follows and they are never far from each other.

Caramel spotted the other water

As Caramel passed the other water she stopped to investigate it. I imagine she may have recognised it from the farm. She couldn’t quite pluck up the courage to actually take a drink though and this was the closest she got to it before deciding to catch up with Pebbles.

The new girls sit near Peaches and Barley

The new girls have a dust bath

This was the first time we had seen the new girls having a dust bath.

When I went back after I had taken this photo, Peaches and Barley were also having a dust bath on the other side of the wire. We decided that as the new girls were sitting and dust bathing so close to the other girls, perhaps it was time to let them have some time together.

I opened both of the gates. As we had expected Speckles was the one that went for them. I used the water spray to deter Speckles. The new girls ran to the ladder.

The new girls find the ladder

Up the ladder they go

Right to the top

I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t be able to get back down. I needn’t have worried. Pebbles led the way. She walked down the straight bits at the side of the ladder getting a bit faster towards the ground. Caramel followed her lead and they both made the ground safely.

I opened up the corner of the wire under the ladder and showed them both how to go through the gap. I wanted them to know where all the escape routes are.

I decided after an hour that this was enough for the first day. I put the new girls back on their usual side and closed the gates and the wire in the corner.

We felt it had gone well for the first day. The new girls have learned where the chicken shed is, how to get up and down the ladder and where the escape routes are.

I am going to continue to give them some supervised time together each afternoon. I am not ready to leave them alone together yet as the new girls are so tiny that I don’t want to risk Speckles having a peck at them. Speckles is the only one that went for them though. All the other girls didn’t take any notice of them.

I know Speckles has to show them their place but I don’t want any pecking with such tiny girls so we will take our time and wait until the time is right to advance to the next stage.

What an adventure it has been for the little girls today. I am going to move on from calling them the new girls to calling them the little girls from now on.

A few days ago we saw another slow worm on the path. I think it was the biggest one I have ever seen.

The slow worm with my husband’s foot to show it’s length

I think this is the biggest one that I have ever seen

I placed a ruler next to it to try to show it’s length

It’s just over a foot long

They grow up to fifty centimetres (one foot eight inches) and this one was thirty seven centimetres (one foot three inches) so it wasn’t far off the longest.

They are actually legless lizards. They have closeable eyelids. They can drop their tails to escape predators and they eat slugs, worms, snails and the odd insect or spider.

They don’t bite and are harmless. They hibernate from October to March.

We feel lucky to have them breeding in our garden. We have seen babies, medium sized ones and now this large one. It was very accommodating to wait for me to get a ruler and take photos. We do like to see them in the garden.

Today I separated the bottom, newer, part of the run. I got the main flock on the patio/path side of the run and then opened the hatch on the new girls part. They now had half the run to explore.

I encouraged them through the hatch to get them started.

The new girls go through the hatch

I had already put one of the wooden blocks here as a step because the new girls are so tiny. I want them to be able to get back through the hatch easily.

They look so tiny out in the bigger part of the run

I will be updating my information on bantam breeds soon but I thought I would just mention that not only are seramas the smallest bantams but they are the smallest chickens in the world.

They stop for a peck along the way

They find the log at the bottom of the run

You can see in this photo that Caramel has pin feathers on her neck. I have just been further researching seramas for the information on my bantam breeds and have just found a fact I didn’t know already. They lay all year round and moult all year round a few feathers at a time. This means we may get eggs through the winter after all.

I had thought that Caramel had stopped laying and started her moult because I have been finding a few feathers from her but I today I also found a few feathers from Pebbles too.

We haven’t had any eggs yet but a change in their lives often causes a break in egg laying so I am not surprised.

And back to their usual end of the run

I was pleased that they were able to find their way back to their feeding station and little coop.

I checked on them throughout the afternoon and they would sometimes be at one end of the of the run and sometimes at the other.

They make their way back down to the log again

On the log

I am pleased that they seem happy to wander the entire half of the run. Tomorrow I will put the rest of the flock on this side and the new girls on the other side so that they can get used to the whole layout of the run.

At times this afternoon the new girls were sat at the bottom of the run while the rest of the flock were also sitting at the bottom of the run on the other side of the wire. I think this is a good sign.

The new girls have settled in really well. Last night was a test and they passed. They put themselves to bed again. We went out and got back at eight o’clock. I checked the girls and the main flock were in their shed and the new girls were snuggled up in their little coop. I closed the ramp.

This morning when I opened the ramp to the little coop the new girls came out straight away and went straight to the food dish.

They have already got the hang of the treats. When I went in mid morning with the spinach the new girls looked interested. I gave them some spinach and they pecked at it straight away.

The new girls enjoy some spinach

They are so cute

This morning Speckles and Caramel raised their ruffs at each other through the wire. It’s always the bottom girls that do this. It was very short lived though. It seemed to be a half hearted show to each other and was over in moments. There was no pecking which is a good sign. There is a double layer of wire so they can’t peck each other but it’s good to see that they weren’t trying to.

This afternoon Caramel was perched on the top of the hatch that separates this part of the run. It was the first time I had seen either girl off the ground. By the time I grabbed my camera she had jumped down but then Pebbles flew up to the top of the little coop.

Pebbles on top of the little coop

We have now put a little perch by the hatch but lower down. We will also put in a lower perch in the main chicken shed as I think the existing perches will be too high for these little girls.

And not to forget the rest of the flock.

The original flock are chilling together before bedtime

This perch seems to be the latest preferred spot to sit together. My flock of five and flock of two all seem happy in their own areas. I wonder how soon I should dare to start mixing them!

The arrival of the new girls was a day earlier than planned. Kirsten called me yesterday to say that she had someone else wanting to buy seramas and she didn’t have many left. She only had two buff coloured ones and knew I wanted two different colours so she said she would save me a buff and a black speckled one.

She also said that she now had to work away from home from Thursday morning until Sunday evening so we said we would go right away yesterday. I didn’t want to wait until Sunday evening.

Kirsten had put our two girls in the shed so that her buyer wouldn’t see them and her  buyer had taken the rest of her stock by the time we arrived. Kirsten said she wasn’t going to be breeding seramas any more so we had her last two.

I asked her if she was sad to see her last ones go and she admitted that she was sad as she wasn’t expecting them to go so suddenly.

I felt we were really lucky to have her last two. If I hadn’t called her last week I would have missed my chance to have them.

Kirsten said they are a year old and still laying almost every other day which is better than I had expected. They are a variety with silky feathers and they are as soft as down. They are really docile and very quiet and they are just adorable.

I have named all my girls with descriptive names and had been throwing out some ideas on the way over to collect them. I liked Caramel for the buff one but when I saw her she was much lighter than I had imagined.

On the journey home again we thrashed out blond names and I toyed with Vanilla. In the end we settled back on the favourite of Caramel as she does have some caramel colour to her. My mother in law went back home today and her favourite dessert is creme caramel so it seemed appropriate.

I settled on Pebbles for the dark one. It started out as Pebble but when my husband called her Pebbles I decided that we would stick with that.

I am putting out loads of photos because these two have buckets full of cuteness. The photos cover their first twenty four hours with us.

I put the dog crate straight down on the girl’s patio because it had just started to rain when we arrived back home (the patio is under cover) and as we had set off on the spur of the moment I hadn’t had time to separate the run.

Caramel and Pebbles

Peaches, Barley and Toffee took a look at the new girls

Peaches and Barley seemed the most interested

I set them up in their space

As usual, on the first afternoon, I left the dog crate up against the little coop so that they would know where to go to bed.

They immediately got stuck into the pellets

It was good to see them eating already

What a pair of cuties

And back to the pellets

I was very pleased to see that just before bedtime they had already made their way up the ramp of the little coop.

Before bedtime

I went back a little later and was pleased to find that they had put themselves to bed. What clever girls!

Bedtime

I went out to them at quarter to seven this morning. I opened the ramp and for a few minutes they didn’t move.

This morning

A few minutes later they came down the ramp.

Out they came

They found the sprinkle of morning corn

They are really quite tame

They soon found the pellets

Speckles was first to take a look at the new girls

Peaches and Barley took a look too

I gave them some spinach mid morning which they pecked at.

I gave them some apple at lunchtime

They soon tucked into the apple

My hand to show their small size

These girls are about half the size of my smaller girls and about a third of the size of Toffee, my biggest girl.

They have been feeding, had water, scratched, preened, pooped, explored their enclosure and dozed. They seem to have settled in happily. They do seem to have a bit of activity and then a short doze.

It has all gone very well for a first day. The rest of the girls have had a look at the new girls but there hasn’t been any aggression so far. I am feeling quite confident that it is going to go smoothly. We just have to wait and see if they put themselves to bed tonight but somehow I feel sure that they will.

What cute additions to our flock, we love them already.

Yesterday I saw Jackie to do a last few things together and say goodbye for now. We dropped some things in to the charity shop and went to collect her train ticket to the Isle of Wight.

This time it’s a one way ticket but she will be back in a couple of weeks to sign some papers and we will meet up again then. She will come and see my new girls and we hope to go and visit her girls at Debbie’s. Debbie has sent Jackie some photos of her girls and says that they have settled in really well.

Last week I took a few photos of Jackie’s garden. She had had the chicken run taken down and was filling her second skip.

Jackie’s patio was in chaos

The chicken run has been taken down

Yesterday I took a few last photos in Jackie’s garden.

The garden is now almost cleared

The chicken run area is bare

I had given Jackie a little chicken broach as a going away gift and Jackie gave me three plants in terracotta pots from her garden which are now on our patio.

I said I wouldn’t cry but when Jackie hugged me and thanked me for being a good friend I couldn’t speak for the lump in the my throat and I had tears streaming down my face on the drive home. I couldn’t say thank you to Jackie for being a good friend too, because I couldn’t speak, but I am saying it now.

We will always be good friends and we will stay in touch but I will miss Jackie so much. From the beginning of my chicken keeping Jackie has become my closest friend.

I wish her all the luck and happiness in the world for her new adventure and I know we will always be there for each other in any way that we can.

Both yesterday and today the girls were perching together in a line but on a different perch each day. They are such a together flock. In a few days time I might rock their world a little with the addition of new girls. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

All five girls in a row

A lot of preening going on

At last, all five heads

Those photos were yesterday just outside the hatch that joins the older part of the run with the newer part.

Below was this morning at the bottom end of the run.

Five girls in a row once more

Peaches stretches her wing

I love to see the girls together like this. They are a really tight little flock. I just hope the new girls fit in without too much trouble and that they remain a happy flock.

I am looking forward to having a few more characters.

This week has been a bit busy and I have slipped behind with blogging. Last Saturday my husband collected his mum from up north for a two week stay with us. It was her ninety sixth birthday.

We bought her some flowers and a Chinese takeaway and we organised all the family to come over for a huge Sunday roast the following day.

Birthday flowers

This weekend my mother in law went to stay with her niece for a couple of days while we had a couple of catering functions to do. We delivered a finger buffet Saturday morning and did an Indian style Barbecue on Saturday afternoon. We had done the same combination for these people twice the previous year and as with last year it all went really well.

This morning my husband is collecting his mum, from his cousin’s house, to bring her back to us and we will have Sunday roast together and then will host a family afternoon tea tomorrow for our grandson’s fifth birthday.

My mother in law is going back home on Thursday and my good friend Jackie is also moving to the Isle of Wight on Thursday. Phew! What a busy couple of weeks.

While all of this has been going on, life in the chicken run has been very quiet. My flock of five feels very small and I feel the time is right to add some new girls.

We visited a farm a year ago to see some bantams that we might like to add to our flock when the time is right. I now feel that time has come. I want to add a couple of seramas to our flock.

I knew this wouldn’t be possible until after my mother in law’s stay as I will need to separate the run, let them out early in the morning, keep an eye on them settling in, get them to bed in the evening and eventually start the integration process as well as take photos and blog about the whole experience.

I called the farm a few days ago to check that they have some seramas for sale and as Kirstin will be out all day Saturday and Sunday the following weekend we have arranged to go over on Thursday afternoon to collect a couple of seramas.

I am now getting really excited at the prospect of new girls. I know this could potentially rock a very calm boat but on the other hand it could boost Speckles as she may no longer be bottom girl.

Seramas are slightly smaller than my girls and docile by nature so I am hoping this means that I won’t be introducing any aggression from the new girls. I think Speckles and Barley will the ones to watch as bottom girls always want to move up the pecking order when new girls arrive and Barley has in the past had little spats with each member of the current flock to prove that she won’t be messed with.

Having said that, with Barley, it has been a one off and once she had proved her point she has never continued to throw her weight around and the flock are all getting along with no aggression at all at the moment. I am confident that two new little girls should fit into the flock quite well after initial integrations. Having done this many times before I know what to expect and feel ready for the challenge.

I just can’t wait to bring home some new girls. Watch this space!