Carol's Chickens

The days are getting noticeably shorter. Last week the automatic door was closing at quarter past four and opening at quarter past seven. Last night the door closed at four o’clock and this morning it didn’t open until quarter to eight. It was very overcast which probably made it a bit later.

I decided to go and fetch my camera and have another go at trying to catch the girls tumbling out. Again I was frustrated that my camera won’t click fast enough to keep up with the girls and I have included every shot that I got which missed half the girls exiting.

I could hear them bumping about impatiently behind the door. It seems that they pretty much come out in their pecking order with top girl Topaz being first and bottom girl Speckles being last.

Topaz is eager to make her exit

Topaz flattens herself under the door

I love the way she has to hold her wings out to make herself flatter. She can’t wait one more second until it is more comfortable.

Barley, Butterscotch and Peaches are next, followed by Honey

That’s Barleys tail in the foreground and Honey is just visible under the door.

Next out is Toffee followed by Emerald

Speckles is last

Speckles is out

This whole process only took a couple of minutes and the last girl was out just as the door was raised a third of the way up. I love this demonstration on how impatient they are to get out. I can’t blame them though as they now spend twice as long in the coop as they do out of it.

I look forward to the days getting longer again and I am sure the girls will be glad to spend less time in the coop too.

A few days ago my husband called me out to the garden to show me two Red kites in the top of the tree behind our garden. We see them overhead every day but have never seen them perched in any of the trees surrounding our garden before.

I went back inside to grab my camera but when I returned one of them had flown already. My camera isn’t very sophisticated and even with the zoom the photos are still very distant but I did think it gives a bit of an idea of their size. Any other bird as high up in this tree wouldn’t show up at all in a photo from my camera.

Red kite in the tree top

And again

I walked further up the garden for the second shot to try to get a bit closer. We watched it for a few minutes before it lazily soared away. They are such magnificent birds.

After four months in our flock Speckles has at last got used to me. She is still the most nervous girl around her flock mates but she now runs to me with the rest of the flock. She now takes no notice of me when I am cleaning in the run and will allow me to take close up photos of her.

She also likes to come and check out what I am doing each morning when I poop pick the chicken shed. She will hover right next to me whereas at one time she wouldn’t come any where near me.

When I used to try to take photos of her I could never get close ups because she would always move away from me. Now she is no longer bothered by the camera. I feel we have come a long way. She will probably always be the most shy but she is no longer nervous around me and that gives me such a good feeling.

This was Speckles in a dust bath last month. I have already used this photo but thought I would show it again as it demonstrates how she is no longer bothered by me being close to her. She always used to leave her dust bath if I attempted to get close.

Speckles enjoying a dust bath

Yesterday these three girls were on the table. Speckles is now looking at me with interest rather than turning from me as she used to do.

Three girls on the wooden table

When I got closer Toffee and Topaz jumped down but Speckles stayed on the table. Before she would always have jumped down as soon as I got close to her.

Speckles on the table

This morning I was going to try to take a photo of her while she hovered by me when I was cleaning but it was too tricky with gloves and cleaning at the same time. Instead I decided to try to get a close up once I had finished. I was really pleased with this photo. Speckles would never have stood still for me to take this shot a few months ago.

A close up of Speckles

This is a very different girl to the one who first came to us. I had thought at one point that she would never get used to me. At one time she would choose to run past her flock mates who would peck at her as she passed rather than run past me. Now I think she would more happily get close to me than some of the girls.

As I have found in the past it takes time and patience to get the very shy girls used to me but we get there in the end. It is very pleasing to be able to get so close to Speckles now. She is never going to want me to pick her up, of that I am sure, but she is happy to be close to me and that will do for me.

I have been digging up just enough potatoes and leeks all summer as we need them but decided it was time to dig the rest up before winter. There were a couple of potato plants still to dig and  half a row of leeks of very differing sizes.

I was quite pleased with how many potatoes there were (more than I expected) and we have had some huge leeks but with tiny ones in between which is odd as they were all in the same ground.

The last harvest of the year

The veg plot is now empty

Its been a mixed year with the worst year ever for beans but the best year ever for leeks. The tomatoes didn’t get blight for the first time and yet the yield was small. The courgettes kept rotting before they got big enough to eat until late summer when I was picking them small and cooking them whole right up until last weekend.

Most weekends we have had something from the garden though, which is very satisfying. We will have a rethink next year and see if we can do better.

I decided to cook all the leeks.

The leeks are ready for cooking

Then I made them into portions (enough for the two of us) topped with cheese sauce.

Leeks in cheese sauce

I have kept one for Sunday dinner and put the rest into the freezer. I find they freeze well like this and when needed just need to go into a hot oven for half an hour and they taste the same as if they have just been made from fresh.

Meanwhile the chicken’s strip still has dandelions and chard to supplement their daily greens.

The chicken’s plot

That’s Peaches waiting expectantly for me to pass some leaves through the wire. They love to take the greens from my fingers and rush over if I pause at this spot. This strip is just to provide a bit of fun for both the girls and me and I intend to keep something in this strip for them all year round.

Other than that we will just have to wait and see what next year brings to the veg plot. It’s always fun to anticipate the crops we will get.

Butterscotch is an amazing girl! She is so regular in her laying pattern. She lays for three weeks, goes broody and takes a break for two weeks, then starts laying again. I really wasn’t sure she would start again this time as there have been piles of feathers under her roost spot in the morning, piles of feathers in her dust baths and sometimes she would shake and a flurry of feathers would waft from her. Despite this she never looks any different and you wouldn’t know to look at her that she is moulting.

So it was quite a surprise when I opened the chicken shed door this morning and there was her egg just inside the door. She must have laid, as is usual for her, at first light and with no time to make it out to the little coop nest boxes. Today is day fourteen since she started her break so she is bang on time. What a star! It will be so good to have some eggs again.

I haven’t had much to post about recently as every thing is going along smoothly (no complaints about that) and all the girls are looking good after their moult. So I thought I would just put out a few photos of the girls having their morning spinach as I love to see them all together in a group.

Some spinach for the girls

Eight girls together

My flock is looking beautiful

Barley and Speckles are having a drink together in the background

The girls look so pretty with their new feathers, fluffy bottoms and Emerald’s shimmering glossy feathers.

While I am on the subject of lovely new feathers my husband went to the farm where we re-homed Pepper and Dotty (to collect some disposables) and saw them together as always. He said their feathers looked pristine and Dotty’s head and neck feathers were all perfect.

I am so pleased that they are still together and it’s good to know that they have all their feathers after their moult. It will be interesting to see if Dotty still has neck feathers next time we see her as she was missing them the last time we saw her. Either way, I know they are happy together and that is the most important thing. Like Peaches and Barley they were together from hatching and totally bonded so it was important to me that they stayed together and they still remain inseparable just like Peaches and Barley. It warms my heart to think of them together happily free ranging together on the farm.

As I said in my last post I find it difficult to understand why there is so much squabbling at bedtime between the girls when during the day they are such a tight group.

At lunch time I was doing a sweep up of the patio and all eight girls joined me on the patio but I didn’t have my camera with me.

Later in the afternoon they were all in a huddle by the favourite table. I’t been very cold and windy today and this is a favourite spot for the girls to gather. Speckles always takes up position behind the table. I think being bottom girl the table makes her feel safe.

Group hug

All the girls are fluffed up against the cold and look a bit dejected. They miss having some sun to sit in as do I. Roll on spring.

At bedtime there are always squabbles over which girl is tolerated next to which flock mate. At times it seems really harsh with Peaches and Barley pecking at poor Speckles and at other times Emerald pecking at Peaches and Barley. It is noticeably the bottom girls that take part in this behaviour with the top girls not taking much notice of the nightly goings on.

I can never understand why they must do this but have read on other blogs of the same behaviour so I know it is a natural thing. What I find most odd though is that during the day they choose to perch together quite happily. If they can do this during the day I wonder why they can’t do the same in the evening.

Very often most of the girls will be on the favourite table with the remaining few underneath it. Sometimes they will all be on the ladder and the perch above it and sometimes they will gather with half the girls on the perch outside the hatch and half on the perch inside the hatch. This is where they were perched today.

With the colder weather they seem to prefer to perch than to be on the cold ground. Although half are one side of the wire and half the other I think this still makes them feel that they are all together. It is very sweet to see.

From the foreground to the back, Emerald, Honey, Barley and Peaches

From left to right, Speckles,Topaz, Butterscotch and Toffee

You can see the other girls on the other side looking down on this foursome. The one thing you can always be sure of is that by day or by night Peaches and Barley will always be sat together if they can and in fact some of the bedtime squabbles are caused by them trying to get next to each other when another girl is in the way.

All the girls joined the flock two at a time but none of them actively seek out another flock member except for Peaches and Barley and they are absolutely inseparable. It comes from them being together right from when they were hatched and they have been with me from six weeks old. This has made them really bonded together. The other girls were together but in a mixed flock and came to me in twos but have never had the same bond.

It is lovely to see them all perched together and I am sure if the perches were long enough they may all be on the same perch. It’s just a shame they can’t behave like this at bedtime. Once the light fades though they all accept the position that they have taken up and become quiet until the next night when it all starts over again.

Yesterday Butterscotch laid her egg just before half past ten and just before we had to go out. I collected her egg and we left.

We returned shortly after half past eleven and I checked in on the girls. To my surprise Butterscotch was still in the nest box. Uh Oh! Does this mean she is going broody again! I lifted her out and closed the two little coop nest boxes as she is the only girl laying and had laid her egg already. Maybe she just didn’t realise that she had laid it.

This morning I went out to the girls at quarter past seven and gave them their morning treat of a few sunflower seeds. As soon as Butterscotch had had them she went straight into the little coop nest box.

As she had laid at half past ten yesterday I knew that if she was going to lay today it wouldn’t be until around half past eleven. Butterscotch is as regular as clock work. She lays about an hour later every day until she lays at the end of the day, then she misses a day, then lays at first light or just before the automatic door opens.

It was too early for her to lay but I was reluctant to shut her out as I would feel bad if she really did want to lay and laid it outside like she did once before.

At lunch time I lifted her out and there was still no egg. She went out without too much protest though and had a few spinach leaves, a few pellets, a quick drink of water and then went off for a dust bath. This was good to see. A little later she returned to the nest box.

Here we go again with a broody Butterscotch

At half past two I knew that she was definitely not going to lay today so I lifted her out again and closed the nest boxes.

A flat Butterscotch is a sure sign of broodiness

I ruffled her tail feathers and she went on her way. She isn’t protesting so I think as the other girls are not laying I am going to keep the nest boxes closed and try to nip it in the bud.

She has only laid fifteen eggs this time round whereas last time she laid twenty then twenty one. There is a pattern emerging though. She laid for three weeks then took two weeks off, laid for another three weeks, took two weeks off and has now laid for another three weeks. She has laid less eggs in the same time span probably due to the shorter days. She is a regular girl in all her egg laying patterns. It is looking like she is going to be a serial broody.

We had a cooked breakfast this morning with her last four eggs (two each, poached and on a slice of toast), with a sausage, two rashers of bacon and a few mushrooms. It was delicious and her eggs are really lovely. It is our Sunday treat and we thought we should make the most of her last four eggs as it looks like she will be taking a break again.

As our only winter egg layer we will miss her eggs and will have to resort to buying them until she starts again. Next year we don’t expect any winter eggs though so any we get this year from Butterscotch are a lovely bonus.

I have been out to the girls at quarter to seven some mornings just as the automatic door on the chicken shed is opening and other mornings it’s already open depending on whether it is a dull or bright morning. This morning it was very dull and overcast so I decided to take my camera with me and see if I could catch the girls coming out.

It all happens so fast that I missed some of the girls as my camera is really slow in poor light and by the time it clicked I had missed the shot. I am sure there may be a way round this but as I am not technical and also need glasses  (or contact lenses) for both short and long sight, it’s more than I can cope with and I take a “point and click” attitude to my photo taking. I usually manage to get some good photos by taking lots of them.

I am using all the photos that I took this morning in an attempt to show the speed that the girls tumble through the pop hole now that we have the perch height right for them. When the perch was too high for them to get down easily the pop hole would open and none of the girls would come out. They then managed their decent one by one leaving Butterscotch still on the perch trying to work out how to get down. Now Butterscotch is one of the first to emerge through the pop hole.

Topaz was the first to emerge and was already out by the time the camera had clicked the shot and Butterscotch was out before I managed to click again.

Topaz was the first out as soon as the door started to lift

Butterscotch is just inside the door ready to tumble out but she was out before the camera clicked again and I got Speckles ready to to come out instead.

Speckles is next

That is Butterscotch’s tail at the bottom of the photo.

Speckles is out

Peaches and Barley are out followed by Toffee who squeezes underneath the door

Emerald was next, also missed, followed by Honey.

Honey is out

Once again by the time the camera clicked Honey was already out.

All eight girls were out before the door was half way up.

This is proof that the girls can get down from the perches and out as quickly as they like. They are also settling in the evening easily now so all in all the chicken shed is working well and the perches are now at the perfect height.

On my Halloween post about the ghosts in our windows I said how comforting it was having an open fire.

We always try to resist putting the heating on until November and this year November has been unusually mild. We haven’t put the heating on yet but we have a small open fire each evening in our sitting room. This gives just enough heat for us and is so lovely to look at. Last night I just couldn’t resist taking a photograph.

Our open fire

This fire really cheers us each evening.