Carol's Chickens

This is quite a difficult comparison between the girls because of the differing time that I have had them.

To start with an easy one, Topaz has laid 8 eggs in January and February with just one last one in March (2 months).

Sparkle had a short season because we lost her in June. She had laid well until she became ill and laid 37 from February to the first week in May (4 months).

Honey laid 54 from the end of March and one last one in September (6 months). Honey is three years old so I would expect her to lay less as time goes on.

Amber laid 1 egg on 21st March and sadly died on the 25th April.

Emerald laid 36 starting in March until the end of May (3 months).

Toffee laid 39 starting in April and finishing at the end of May (2 months).

Peaches laid 78 from January to August (8 months), but as it was her first year she also laid 16 in November and December 2014 so a total of 94 (10 months).

Barley laid 75 from January to August (8 months) but also laid 18 in November and December 2014 so a total of 93 (10 months).

Butterscotch has laid 77 from August to December as it is also her first year (5 months).

Speckles was moulting when she came to us in July so has yet to start laying but I have high hopes for her next year.

The interesting thing is how close the breeds are in their egg laying numbers (apart from Topaz who is a law unto herself).

Emerald and Toffee (game birds) both have a very short season but they lay well during those few months with 36 and 39.

Peaches and Barley (brown leghorns) had a long season as it was their first year and laid 94 and 93.

Butterscotch has also excelled with 77 in five months considering she has been broody four times now.

We have had a total of 428 eggs this year. Topaz, Amber, Sparkle and Speckles can’t really be counted so mostly these have been from four girls. Next year we may have seven out of eight girls laying regularly (assuming Topaz continues as she has in the past) and eight girls if Topaz changes! This should mean a good egg tally next year.

Thank you to all my girls for their efforts and a Happy New Year to all my readers and your girls.

All winter we have had only one girl laying and the process has been calm with Butterscotch choosing her spot in either of the little coop nest boxes.

In spring and summer we could have up to eight girls laying and at any time a possible two girls going broody. We will need more nest boxes. We had already made another two nest boxes and installed them inside the chicken shed but I think our girls are so used to having their nest boxes outside that I am not sure they would know to go and look in the chicken shed for them. They only go in the chicken shed to roost or to help me clean. It seems that once I open the big door and busy myself in there it suddenly becomes a desirable place to be.

I know that conventional chicken coops have their nest boxes inside but our girls have always been used to having their nest boxes outside and I think this is what they expect.

We decided to make some slight alterations. We decided that the nest boxes we had made would need a bit more cover over the top of the boxes (as they will be outside and will need to let in less light) and then we would put them on top of the outside nest boxes to give two storey nest boxes (a block of four).

The two little coop nest boxes on the chicken’s patio area

The ramps and openings face the back so that the boxes are dark enough to be attractive for egg laying.

The two home made nest boxes in the chicken shed

My husband removed them from the shed and when covering the last bit of the top of the boxes he also raised this part to make access for the girls easier.

Back view of the adapted nest boxes

Butterscotch is inspecting in the bottom right corner of the photo.

Front view of the nest boxes minus the pine shavings

They needed gluing and leaving overnight to dry properly so I put them in place for the photos but haven’t put shavings in yet as I then removed them to dry.

They look a bit crude but as long as they serve their purpose that doesn’t matter. They may need a bit of fine tuning. We may put another strip of wood along the top edge to make the box less open.

I will put them back in tomorrow and see if broody Butterscotch finds them. If she sits in them we will know they are okay as she is our biggest and least agile girl. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

I thought the girls deserved another treat. Of course it’s not really Christmas mash it’s just a big dish of mash but the girls don’t care. I always put the mash in one big dish rather than spreading it around the run because I know that once the first girls tire of it Speckles will move in and get her share.

A big dish of mash

A treat for the girls

Speckles is getting braver

I was quite surprised by how brave Speckles is getting. There was a time when she would never have got this close to the other girls.

On another note I think Butterscotch is going broody again and yet she is still laying at the moment. The day before yesterday she missed a day and yesterday morning she went straight into the little coop nest box after the morning sunflower hearts. An hour later she had laid her egg and was back out in the run but she was making the tell tale clucking sound.

By late afternoon she was back in the nest box. As she had already laid her egg I decided to lift her out and close the nest boxes. She walked around them looking for a way in.

I gave the girls their pre-bedtime corn and they started making their way into the coop, all except Butterscotch. It was almost dusk and I knew the coop door was about to close but she made no attempt to go in so I opened the nest box and let her go in. Once the pop hole had closed I lifted Butterscotch out of the nest box, opened the big door to the chicken shed and put her on the perch. She stayed put and I closed the door then closed the nest boxes to stop her going in one of them at first light this morning.

As she had laid her egg at half past nine yesterday I knew that if she was to lay another egg today it would be from half past ten onwards. I opened the nest boxes at half past ten and decided to leave her until lunch time. I didn’t want to shut her out if she was going to lay again as I did that once before and felt so bad when she laid her egg in the run.

At half past twelve I lifted Butterscotch and to my surprise she had laid another egg. I was so glad that I had left the nest boxes opened but now that she had laid I decided to close them again.

Butterscotch usually lays for three weeks before going broody but this is her record as she has now laid for thirty days. Previously she had laid twenty eggs then twenty one eggs then fifteen eggs. This time she has equalled her best of twenty one eggs. Well done Butterscotch.

It seems that she does want to go broody but she thinks she hasn’t finished her clutch yet and she just wants to sit on her eggs. I will just play it by ear and see how she goes.

As it was Christmas day I decided that instead of fish or yogurt for a treat, the girls should have both. I put the yogurt in four dishes and the fish in two dishes so that I could spread the dishes around the run to insure that Speckles got a share.

Christmas treats

Fish and yogurt

The dishes are spread all over the run

Even little Speckles gets her share

Spreading the dishes out works well and it’s good to see Speckles get her share. I think they all enjoyed their Christmas treats.

On Christmas Eve I  cleaned out the chicken shed, washed the food and water bowls, swept the chicken’s patio and dug over their run. I wanted everything lovely for them for Christmas day, you don’t need to tell me that they won’t know!

The girls were keen to help.

I start to remove the shavings from the shed

Speckles would like to join in but is always nervous and so just watches from her vantage point.

Peaches and Barley oversee my work

We all want to help

I have one last pile of shavings to take out which Topaz helpfully spreads again and looks very pleased with herself too

I hoover the shed while the girls form a queue in the run

They don’t like the hoover so they went back out into the run but it amused me how they seemed to line up in a queue.

The girls inspect the newly hoovered shed

Topaz is the first to scratch in the new shavings

We like the new shavings that Topaz has scratched out

We need to check out the new shavings

Speckles is in her usual vantage point once more.

We approve of the new shavings

We think a good job has been done in the shed

Once the door is closed the pop hole needs checking out

Once again Peaches and Barley are together with their inspection.

Christmas morning the girls have an extra treat of dishes of yogurt and dishes of fish.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Last year I did a post about a Christmas window. It had rained during the night and then there was a heavy frost and this left a pattern on the velux window in our bedroom which looked like snow flakes. I photographed it and put it in a pre Christmas post.

Today there was another weather related Christmas look to our bedroom windows, this time on the opposite side of our bedroom. It had been raining but suddenly the sun came out and lit the droplets on the windows making them look sparkly like Christmas fairy lights.

Sun on the windows

Christmas windows

Close up of the window

It was just luck that we saw this as I have never seen it before but we went up to clean sheet our bed ready for Christmas and I noticed the sparkly windows and went back down stairs to grab my camera. Just after I took the photos the sun went in and the effect was gone. The sun must have been in just the right position to light up the rain droplets.

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas and New Year and may all our chickens be happy and healthy and lay lots of lovely eggs in the spring.

Yesterday morning straight after the girls had had their morning sunflower hearts Topaz and Butterscotch took themselves off to the nest boxes.

Topaz is in the nest box again

Butterscotch is also in the nest box

Two girls in the nest boxes at the same time

Topaz was in the right hand nest box and Butterscotch in the left. About an hour later I checked on them again and they were both back out in the run. I checked the nest boxes and there was an egg in the left nest box. This egg had to be Butterscotch’s egg because she doesn’t go into a nest box and come back out again unless she has laid her egg. If she was broody she would stay in the nest box. It also had the satin sheen that her eggs have.

This afternoon the same thing happened again. Both Butterscotch and Topaz went into the nest boxes at the same time. This time Butterscotch was in the right hand box and Topaz in the left. A short while later I heard Butterscotch give her egg shout. I went and checked and sure enough her warm egg was in the right hand box and Topaz was still in the left box.

I thought to myself that if Topaz laid a bit later I could still presume the egg I thought was hers three days ago was actually hers. If she didn’t lay I may have to revise my thinking and conclude that it was Butterscotch’s egg after all.

I checked back fifteen minutes later and when I lifted the nest box lid Topaz stood up and came out shouting her head off (as before). There was no egg! I think I was mistaken about her laying an egg a few days ago. Topaz always has lots of false alarms. It’s seems as if she believes she has laid an egg.

This further confused me because I thought Butterscotch hadn’t laid for a few days and was about to go broody again. If the egg I thought Topaz had laid was Butterscotch’s after all then she only actually missed one day which is quite normal. What threw me was that she usually stops laying after three weeks and goes broody but she has now been laying for twenty three days which is a bit longer than usual for her.

I now think that Topaz isn’t laying but is just practising ready to start again soon. Her egg laying has always been somewhat confusing with lots of practice and false alarms. Topaz is such an unusual girl and therefore more difficult to read. She certainly keeps me on my toes.

I knew Topaz was ready to lay again after a few practice runs at it. Yesterday afternoon she was missing on parade and when I lifted the nest box she was standing in the “just laid an egg” position. I brushed her tail with my hand causing her to leave the nest box shouting. There in the shavings was her warm egg.

Topaz spotted the apple I had just bought in and immediately set about pecking vigorously at it. Her egg is a lighter colour than Butterscotch’s egg and doesn’t have the satin sheen. It is also slightly rounder and a bit larger.

I didn’t take a photo because I didn’t think the difference would show up in a photo.

This will change my end of year egg count. I had said that Topaz had laid six eggs last year and eight eggs this year but by starting back into lay a month early she has now added egg number nine and may yet add a few more. She hasn’t laid any for the nine months in between.

Research shows that the most prolific egg layers wear themselves out and it shortens the length of their life. With Topaz I would expect her to live a very long life. We will make the most of her eggs while she is laying and wait to see what the coming year brings for her. For now though, we will triumph in her early start back to egg laying.

I know that I have touched on this subject before but as time goes by I notice every day how together these two girls are. The rest of the flock don’t seek out any other flock mate and it is completely random which girl will spend some time with or near another girl. Peaches and Barley are totally different, they are always inseparable.

I had this same thing with Pepper and Dotty which is why it was ultra important that they were re-homed together and they are still happily together today.

Peaches and Barley were hatched together and kept with their mum until she tired of them at six weeks old. This was when I collected them and bought them to my run but kept them in a separate part of the run until they were mature enough for integrations.

It is being together from hatching that makes them so bonded. Other girls in my flock have been together in a big mixed flock with the breeder but it doesn’t have the same impact as being together from hatching.

My husband remarked recently that if we lost one of this pair it would be devastating for the one left. I can’t bare to think of that and hopefully they will be together for a long time.

I have been taking photos over the last two weeks to demonstrate this but when I looked back at older photos I realised that there were so many of the two of them together. I could actually compile hundreds of photos of them together but have limited myself to ten recent ones.

Peaches and Barley at the food dish

I love that they even mirror each other with one foot on the dish. They do the same at the water but I didn’t have my camera on me for that shot.

Peaches and Barley having a dust bath together

All the other girls switch around with who they dust bath with or sometimes dust bath alone but these two always dust bath together and preen each other.

Peaches and Barley on top of the little coop

Peaches and Barley share a cabbage stalk

Peaches and Barley are looking at something outside the run

They even yawn together

You just started me off

At dusk they stand together under the wooden table

Before bedtime they peck at the shavings in unison

At bedtime, if they can, they roost together

They really are an inseparable pair of girls and it is quite touching to see how together they are.

Topaz has been very vocal for days now and has been having a twirl around in the nest boxes. This morning I thought she was actually going to lay her egg. She sat in the nest box for nearly two hours.

Topaz sat in the nest box

She then came out shouting and with excitement I went in to look in the nest box. No egg! Oh well, she is just practising. Topaz always did need a lot of practice and has always had a lot of false alarms. I am sure she will lay an egg soon.