Carol's Chickens

During the winter when Butterscotch went broody I just closed all the nest boxes and after a few days she came out of it and continued spending her days with the rest of the flock as usual.

Now though I have four other girls laying so closing the nest boxes is not an option. I therefore have a different routine. I get Butterscotch out of the nest box for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more mid afternoon and again for the bedtime corn. At this point I close the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed which I feel is better for her than disturbing her again by moving her from the nest box to the chicken shed myself.

I know they are supposed to have the sense to come out of the nest box a few times a day to eat, drink, poop and scratch or dust bath but I have never seen Butterscotch do this without my intervention.

Maybe if I left her she would do this but I prefer to take her out so that I know she has had some breaks and she seems to respond well to this intervention. By that I mean that she doesn’t turn straight back to the nest box but accepts my helping her to take a break and as quickly as she can she goes for a scratch, sometimes almost a dust bath, a quick preen, then food and water, a large broody poop somewhere along the way and then back to the nest box.

At least this way I can actually see her have some food and water and a little exercise. I decided to record her day with photographs.

Butterscotch is in the nest box

I lift Butterscotch out of the nest box

I close the nest box

A quick cuddle, I usually put her straight down but made an exception today

I put her down and touch her tail to move her off the spot

She has a furious peck

And scratch

She almost has a dust bath as Barley watches

She has a quick preen

She eats some pellets from the floor, no time to take them from the dish

She has some water

Some more pellets

Some more water

Then she heads back

To the nest box

In she goes

And fluffs herself up again

At the end of the day I lift her out again and she joins in with the bedtime corn

She tries to find her way back into the nest box which I have now closed.

She tries from the other side

It must be here somewhere

Maybe up here

Maybe down here

She gives up and goes to bed

A little later all the girls are in and Butterscotch is in her usual position in the middle

And so Butterscotch ends her day ready to do it all over again tomorrow. The other girls are managing to get their eggs laid and Butterscotch goes through this routine each day  and repeats the very same actions even down to standing on the nest box at the end of each day while searching for the way in.

I am satisfied that she is eating and drinking, scratching and pooping and we will continue in this way until she comes out of her broody spell once more. I guess we will be doing this at regular intervals all summer. At least she is a docile girl and no trouble to pick up and she lays very well in between her broody spells.

Butterscotch is broody and spending most of her day in the nest box and the other girls are queuing up to get in to lay their eggs. Up until now they seemed unwilling to share a nest box but when I checked in on them today this was what I found.

Honey and Butterscotch sharing a nest box

Butterscotch is fluffed up in broody mode and Honey has the tell tale shavings on her back and her egg beneath her. She must have just laid. It’s her distinct tiny egg.

So it seems that they can share after all. How cute is that!

Yesterday Emerald went into the nest box for the first time this year. Her tiny comb and her face are now quite pink. In winter her face is white.

Emerald in the nest box

Emerald started laying half way through March last year so she could be getting ready to lay soon.

Broody Butterscotch

Butterscotch is properly broody. Because I can’t close up the nest boxes I am going to have to let her stay broody. I am getting her out of the nest box three times a day to have a quick feed, drink, poop and scratch.

After the bedtime corn I am closing the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed instead of sitting in the nest box. This is working quite well, she just goes to bed earlier than usual. She is now first in instead of last in but it means I don’t have to move her from the nest box.

Once Butterscotch is settled for the night I reopen the nest boxes ready for the morning. It will be interesting to see how long she stays broody with the nest boxes open. Luckily I now have four other girls laying eggs and maybe more will start soon.

Speckles loves to jump on me when I go through the gate.

Speckles jumps on me as usual

She is so relaxed that she is preening while on my back

I lower her down

And gently tip her off while being watched by Peaches

I pick her up for a quick cuddle

Unfortunately she blends into my dress and I am pulling a terrible face as I think I was talking but the fact that I can pick her up shows what a long way she has come. I never dreamed when we first had her that she would become this friendly with me.

This morning Butterscotch laid her egg first thing as she always does after she has missed a day. A bit later Peaches was in the nest box. When I next checked Barley was also missing and it turned out that she was stood in front of the nest box watching Peaches. They do like to stick together.

Once I had opened the nest box to take a photo the usual girls came over for a look too.

Peaches is trying to lay her egg while Barley watches over her

Emerald and Honey get in on the act

Barley now watches from above as Honey has taken her place

Speckles jumps to the nest box lid at eye level with me once again

She takes a look at the girls below

It is always this same set of girls that have to watch a girl in the nest box as soon as I take a look. Butterscotch, Toffee and Topaz don’t join in with this although you can see that they are milling about nearby on the patio area.

A little later Peaches got her egg laid and soon after that Barley laid her egg. They are even in sync with their egg laying at the moment. One difference between them though is their egg size. These two are a very similar size with Peaches being just a little wider across the beam but you can only see this when they are side by side. Their eggs however are quite different in size.

Barley’s egg is on the left and Peaches egg is on the right

By late afternoon when I checked in again Butterscotch was back in the nest box despite laying her egg first thing this morning. It is day twenty two since she started laying again, so as usual like clockwork, it looks like she is going broody once more.

Speckles again jumped to the child gate when I went in the run later in the day. I stroked her and felt that I could easily have picked her up. If my husband is nearby with the camera I may try this next time.

When I went in to give them their bedtime corn Butterscotch was back out again. I think she knew it was corn time.

I went back at dusk and Butterscotch was in the nest box instead of the chicken shed so that means she is definitely broody once more. I lifted her out and placed her on the perch in the chicken shed.

And that’s another day with my funny little girls. They do make us smile.

There are plenty of places in the run to dust bath but Butterscotch has suddenly decided to squeeze between my boot scraper and the wooden block. This is the fourth time we have found her trying to dust bath here.

Apart from this being a very small space the ground is rock hard with only a thin layer of dust over it. There are plenty of deep dust filled holes in the run. Why on earth does she want to try to dust bath in this spot?

This is a crazy spot for a dust bath

I think Barley and Honey are wondering what on earth she is doing here.

Barley is very curious about this

What a squeeze

Butterscotch is looking a bit shabby

Butterscotch is moulting at the moment and this is the most shabby she has looked so far. She laid yesterday but not today and has been laying for three weeks now so I think she may be about to take her next break.

It would be good if she just took a break and let her feathers grow in but I expect instead she will go broody. This time I will just have to leave her to be broody as I can no longer close the nest boxes as four other girls are laying.

There is enough fuss over the nest boxes as it is without one of them being perpetually occupied so it will be interesting to see how this goes.

So far the large (little coop) nest boxes have been favourite and until today no one has gone in the little nest box, apart from Butterscotch once, when I had closed the rest off.

Today though we had three girls wanting to lay, Butterscotch, Honey and Speckles. Despite how roomy the large nest boxes are the girls will not share. Butterscotch and Honey bagged the large nest boxes so Speckles settled into the small one.

Butterscotch with some pine shavings on her head

Honey in the other large nest box

Speckles is in one of the small nest boxes

Speckles with her magnificent comb and wattles

I am really pleased to see this as it means when the large nest boxes are occupied the girls will make use of the smaller nest boxes. I had begun to wonder if they were ever going to be used so this is good news.

This afternoon the girls were enjoying a communal dust bath in the sun.

A heap of dust bathing girls

Communal dust bath

They are having a lovely time

Toffee takes her dust bath on her own

Toffee

Meanwhile Butterscotch is getting her egg laid

The girls have changed their position

I just love to see them having such a lovely time.

Speckles is now obsessed with her new trick of jumping on my back every time I go through the gate to the run.

This morning I closed the outer gate but the inner child gate was still open and in her eagerness to get to me she jumped on to the child gate. I thought that I would try stroking her and she allowed me to stroke both her sides with two hands. She wasn’t at all bothered by me touching her. She then jumped down from the gate and up onto my back.

A little later my husband followed with the camera to catch her in action.

Speckles on my back

I asked my husband what she was doing and he said she was looking up

She is such a funny girl

She is looking the other way

My husband says she looks like a parrot

She is happy to stay on me for ages. When I want to move her I duck down and gently tip her but sometimes she counter balances and manages to stay on.

In the morning she stays on me until I throw the morning handful of seeds out into the run then she flies over my head into the run and once used my head as a stepping stone. She does the same thing at bedtime when I give the girls a handful of corn.

Speckles has developed into such a lovely little character.

We now have five out of eight girls laying and the day before yesterday was our first “four egg day” with Speckles, Peaches, Barley and Butterscotch all laying and Honey laid the day before.

This is nearly a full house because the game girls, Emerald and Toffee, have a shorter laying season and start later. Last year Emerald started in March and Toffee in April and Topaz is a law unto herself and doesn’t seem to be bothering this year.

Now that we have more girls laying I am actually finding it easier to tell who’s egg it is. Honey laid her third egg today and they are small and pointy and the colour is a shade in between Butterscotch and Peaches, Barley and Speckles. These three lay pure white eggs and Peaches are bigger than Barley’s and Speckles are bigger than both girls. Butterscotch’s are a distinct pinkish shade, round and with a satin finish.

When Peaches or Barley are in the nest box Honey and either Barley or Peaches will stand outside shouting or go in and watch. If Honey is in the nest box then Peaches and Barley will stand outside shouting or go in and watch. This little trio seem obsessed with each others egg laying.

Speckles is now obsessed with me and jumps on my back almost every time I go into the run. She jumped on me while poop picking yesterday and rode on my back then stepped off at the table like Peaches and Barley do.

She follows me around and gets on eye level with me at every opportunity. She is such a changed girl. Sometimes Speckles jumps on me and then Peaches or Barley will join her as if they are not to be outdone and are showing that that is their trick.

Below is an example of the egg laying behaviour, this was today when Honey was laying her egg.

Honey is trying to lay her egg while Peaches watches

Barley joins the watch

Speckles gets on eye level with me

I am holding the nest box lid open while taking photos when Speckles jumps on to the lid at eye level with me. I can’t get over the change in speckles from being so nervous around me to being best friends with me. It is lovely.

Honey got her egg laid and it had a good shell so I am pleased that she is back to normal now. I did see her go to the grit at bedtime last night so she seems to have sorted herself out.

It is lovely having plenty of eggs once more but what a commotion it can be at egg laying time. So far none of the girls have laid in the small nest boxes. They obviously prefer the big ones.