Carol's Chickens

On Monday I went with my friend Jackie to the allotments and we collected some greens for our girls. Every day this week they have been enjoying the lettuce that had gone to seed, chard and dandelion leaves. I have been saving the cabbage until last as I felt it would keep the longest.

This morning I gave the girls a couple of cabbages. I wasn’t sure if they would be too hard for the girls but they love them. I think because they are quite solid it makes it easier for them to keep pecking at them than loose leaves. The cabbage stays put while they peck at the outer leaves.

Peaches and Barley peck at the cabbage

These two girls are always together

Two little combs together

Later in the day the cabbage is disappearing

This has kept them entertained all day today and will continue to entertain them tomorrow too and I still have one large cabbage left. Nothing from the allotments gets wasted with our chickens to hoover up the greens.

For the last few evenings Peaches and Barley have jumped to my shoulder at bedtime. I think they have been doing this because they are not happy with the lower bedtime perches.

Jillian asked me in a comment how they came to do this and I replied that I think it comes from having them at only six weeks old and it’s always been something they have done.

I thought it would be fun to go back to some photos my husband took last September.

Barley on my back

We both turn to look at peaches

She turns back to the camera

Whenever I duck down for any reason (usually cleaning up), Peaches or Barley will jump on me and ride on my back until I reach one of the perches when they will just step off. Sometimes if I duck down near a perch they will use me as a stepping stone to the perch.

Steve (my eldest son) and I have pondered on why they do this and we think it must just be for fun. There is no reward for this so we think they just like it. If anyone has any ideas why they do this I would be interested to hear them. Either way I rather like it as it is a way of them interacting with me purely from their own choice.

Barley on my shoulder last night

Here is another shot of Barley on my shoulder. Unfortunately I have just cropped her comb but I am completely blind as to what will be in shot. The better ones came out blurred. It does show how she like to stand tall on my shoulder though.

It is quite an endearing habit. Let me know if your girls do this too.

The process of perfecting the perch changes in the chicken shed has taken longer than I anticipated. It seems that each change throws up another problem.

Last night we realised that we would need another perch. The bedtime routine took much longer than usual with lots of aggravation between the girls.

Peaches was first to jump to the perches

The girls spend some time scratching in the shavings

Emerald and Topaz are first up as usual

Half the girls are in

It was at about this point that the trouble began. Topaz would not have Toffee or Emerald next to her. Toffee and Emerald would not have Peaches and Barley next to them. Peaches and Barley would not have Speckles next to them. Give me strength!

Why is it that during the day the girls sit together, perch up together, congregate on the table together, take dust baths together and yet at bedtime they won’t tolerate having a lower ranking girl next to them.

Peaches and Barley ended up still out on the patio at near dark. While I was taking photos of the girls in the shed, Peaches jumped to my shoulder twice. I took a selfie with no idea what was going to end up in shot.

Peaches jumps to my shoulder

Butterscotch is in

There is a lot of unrest going on

You can see in the photo above that Topaz is about to force Emerald down and Toffee has already been forced down and is looking for a way back up.

The final line up

Finally just as the automatic door shut they had taken up their positions. I went out this morning to watch them jump down which is now a quick and easy process so that is one problem solved.

Getting ready to jump down, Peaches was last this time

It wasn’t Butterscotch who was last down for a change. This is so much better for them. We fitted another perch to give them more space and hopefully resolve the squabbling at bedtime.

Another new perch on the left of the photo

Peaches and Emerald check out the new perch

Peaches and Barley don’t like the perches being lower but I am hoping that they will get used to it. There was a little less aggravation at bedtime but Peaches and Barley were last to go in and again jumped to my shoulder. Barley was first this time and later on it was Peaches again. I think they are looking to me to give them somewhere higher to perch.

Barley on my shoulder

The final line up with Speckles on her own perch

Poor Speckles got moved on from where ever she tried to perch and ended up on her own on the new perch.

They were settled earlier tonight though so I think they will soon get used to it. I know they would prefer to perch higher but I need to know that they can get down easily in the mornings. I think after a few nights they will get used to the new set up and I am probably making things worse for them by opening the door and taking photos thus letting in light and sparking another bit of aggravation.

I will leave them to it for the next few nights and see how it works out. Who would have thought this would be so difficult! I want to end up with an easy bedtime and morning routine and I think that sometimes there just has to be a bit of trial and error. I hope this is  going to be the end of the tweaking for a while.

It’s taking a bit of fine tuning to get the chicken shed just right for the girls. Since we lowered the perches I have watched the girls come out a few times in the morning and I felt that it was still a bit of a struggle. It was still taking a while for them all to negotiate their way down and I felt that Butterscotch was still struggling with it.  She was always last and would take ages to take the plunge and jump down.

I decided to try the perches a bit lower until I could find the comfortable jump down height for Butterscotch.

The perches are lowered again

The perches started out at the top of the ladder’s uprights, then moved down to the top rung and now to the next rung down. This should be a really easy and safe height for Butterscotch to jump down.

It was now just a matter of seeing what the girls made of it. I hoped that moving the perches down gradually would get them used to the change.

They were not best pleased with this change and there was a lot of going in and back out again.

Emerald and Topaz were the first to check it out

Topaz and Emerald went back outside many times before they settled as did Toffee when she came in. Peaches and Barley were last to go in and seemed most dubious about the new perches. Butterscotch was the only one that went in, took up a position and stayed put.

Honey joins them

The ladder now has the most desired position

Emerald can’t find a position that she is happy with

They all now want to be on the ladder

The final position

I went out this morning as they were coming out and it was a much quicker process.

Butterscotch jumps down

As usual Butterscotch was the last to come down but she got her head right down, then dropped easily to the floor. I felt this was a lot better for her.

It now threw up yet another problem though. The girls that were on the top rung of the ladder jumped down from the top rung to land very tight up against the bottom of the ladder. I realised that it was now the ladder throwing up the problems and now that the perches are lower the ladder is actually no longer needed.

The girls can easily jump up on to the perches and the ladder is now just in the way. We decided to take the ladder out and put in another perch across the corner where the ladder had been.

The ladder has now gone and there is a new perch across the corner

I will see how it goes at bedtime tonight. I am hoping that now all the perches are exactly the same height it should be easier for the girls to settle in the evening and it will definitely be easier for them to jump down in the morning. Watch this space!

Butterscotch laid twenty eggs then went broody. She then started to moult but a little later starting laying again. The feathers stopped appearing in the run and she laid twenty one eggs then went broody once more.

This time none of the girls were laying so I shut the little coop nest boxes. It was quick and easy to break Butterscotch from being broody this time as there were no nest boxes open to her and the weather had turned cold. For the first two days she looked at the nest boxes and gently clucked to herself and then she seemed to accept it and continued to scratch and peck in the run with the rest of the flock.

A week later she started moulting again. I am finding a pile of her feathers under her night time roosting spot and picking up a trail of feathers from where ever she has been in the run during the day. Despite this she really doesn’t appear to look any different.

Butterscotch looks as good as ever

Meanwhile Honey is getting her tail back. The black tail feathers have returned.

Honey’s tail is growing

The flock are looking good again with the only real difference being Peaches and Barley’s pale and small combs. It will be good to see big, red combs once more in the spring.

The girls are looking good

As a foot note, usually when I get the whole flock in shot it’s because there are treats on the patio. Sometimes though, I just crouch down with my camera and they all come running to see if I have anything for them. This means they are all in shot with no treats on the patio.

Sorry girls, sometimes I just come in with only a camera in my hands but it is a good snap shot of a lovely looking flock.

I decided to harvest our corn on the cob as I think it’s too late in the year for them to fill out and I don’t want to lose them if we have a frost. I decided they would have to go to the chooks.

A pathetic harvest

Yesterday I put them on the chicken’s patio.

The girls were very wary

Emerald tries a different angle

Peaches has a look

Peaches has a peck

They decided these were not good and ignored them. I decided that they must need cooking as they were probably too hard for them. I gathered them up and cooked them then returned them to the chicken’s patio today. My girls are so spoilt! This got a totally different reaction.

This is more interesting

Topaz and Emerald like it

Butterscotch has no interest, she is on her way to the nest box

Toffee joins in

Toffee likes it

Even Speckles joins in

They had the corn stripped from the cobs in no time. I left them there for the rest of the day as they like to go back and peck them some more. At least they weren’t wasted.

Yesterday we had a visitor to our garden. He came in three times.

We have a pheasant in our garden

He is beautiful

On next door’s wall before he leaves

He was attracted by the sunflower seeds underneath the bird feeders. I couldn’t get close enough to him to get better photos than these but I think they show his beauty. We could hear him calling for some time after he had left. It’s not the first time we have had a pheasant visit the garden but it’s the first time I have managed to get some reasonable photos.

What a magnificent bird he is.

Yesterday morning I realised that Butterscotch had been in the nest box for about three hours. She is usually only in there for half an hour so I decided to lift her out. She had laid and had been sitting on her egg.

I wondered if this meant she was feeling broody again. I decided to shut the coops and she wasn’t too bothered but she was quietly clucking to herself which is a sign.

This morning Butterscotch went straight into the coop first thing. After she had again been in there for three hours I decided to lift her out. There was no egg.

Is she broody?

She stayed quite flat

I moved her off and shut the coops. I thought that as no one is laying it would be good if I could nip it in the bud.

Butterscotch

Butterscotch is looking good. She has grown back the feathers that Honey pulled from her back, during the integration period.

Butterscotch protested about being locked out and when some time later she was still clucking away I decided to let her back in. I didn’t want to stress her and thought perhaps she really did want to lay.

I checked on her another two hours later and found her sitting on an egg. This is egg number twenty one which beats her previous record of twenty. I am so glad that I had let her back in. I lifted her out once more and shut the coops again. I still feel she is wanting to go broody.

An hour later I was pleased to see her in a dust bath.

Butterscotch leaving her dust bath

By the time I got my camera she had just stepped out of the dust bath.

Peaches and Speckles

I just had to include this photo because a short while ago Speckles would never have let me get this close to her. She is standing in Butterscotch’s dust hole.

I shall keep a close eye on Butterscotch as it would be good if I could stop her going broody again especially as she is the only girl laying any eggs. In the end though if she is determined it will just have to be.

Most of the girls are now through the moult. Honey and Topaz were the last two to moult and the only two not quite back to normal.

Honey’s neck feathers are back in.

Honey was the last to start her moult and she looked the worst. Her neck is almost back to normal and she just needs her tail to grow back.

Topaz is just about back to normal

Peaches

Barley

These two are almost back to normal. Usually I can tell Barley at a glance because her comb is bigger than Peaches but since the moult their combs have shrunk and they are much harder to tell apart. I now have to look at which way their combs flop with Peaches to the left and Barley to the right. Barley was the last of the two to lose her tail and it isn’t as full a fan yet as Peaches tail is.

Emerald

Emerald was the first to moult and has been back to normal for some time.

Toffee

Toffee was second to moult and is also looking great now.

Speckles

Speckles is looking good and has her tail back to it’s former glory. She has more white on her now but has still retained the little tuft on her head.

Butterscotch

I think Butterscotch only had a partial moult which may have been triggered by her broody spell. She has never really looked different and the feathers have stopped dropping except for the odd one or two. She has now laid twenty eggs since she resumed laying after her broody spell which equals the twenty she laid before going broody. I am waiting with baited breath to see if she continues to lay or goes broody again.

It is so nice to see the girls all fully feathered again apart from Honey’s tail which I am sure won’t take too much longer. It is also lovely to have Butterscotch’s eggs which are giving us our weekend breakfasts.

It seems crazy that I hadn’t checked on how the girls come out of the chicken shed before now but the fact is that I knew that they could use the ladder, I have seen them do so, it seems that they just prefer not to.

We have a similar ladder in the run leading up to a high, branch, perch. At certain times of the day it gets the sun and all the girls sit on the rungs of the ladder. I have seen them fly down from the top when the ladder is empty but I have seen them move up and down the ladder while changing positions.

When I poop pick the chicken shed in the mornings I am sometimes accompanied by a few of the girls and as I am in front of the perch they move up and down the ladder.

Last night while jostling for their bedtime position (Butterscotch wanted their space) I watched Peaches and Barley jump from the perch to a rung half way down the ladder and then work their way up to the top.

So I was aware that they could use the ladder and expected them to come down that way in the mornings. I think they just prefer the quicker and more direct route of jumping straight down and once one girl has done this the others all follow suit.

But I do feel happier now that the perch is lower. I also kept it at the same height as the top of the ladder in the hope that this would mean that they would be happy in either position as one is no higher than the other. This is also not the case though. The perch is still preferred to the top rung of the ladder. I can only think that it’s because they all want to be on the same perch and the ladder may be seen as being a bit apart from the perch. Who knows what goes on in those chicken brains!

The current bedtime line up

If you compare this photo to last nights photo you will see that the line up is identical. You would think that they all just take up their places and that this would be an easy routine. Not so! The line up changes during the course of the bedtime routine. Toffee, Emerald and Speckles get chased out a few times. Peaches and Barley take up the position where Butterscotch is in the photo above. Butterscotch always come in half an hour later and because she is bigger, when she takes her place on the perch, Peaches and Barley are forced off and end up on the top rung of the ladder.

My husband asks why, if they always end up in this order, don’t they just accept it and go to their final positions. It’s not that simple. They go where they choose first then get moved and end up where they are now. Peaches and Barley don’t want to end up on the ladder but they have no choice.

Peaches and Barley are above Butterscotch in the pecking order and out in the run they will chase her from a position they want. But at bedtime her bigger size just pushes them out of the way and they can’t hold on to their position so they move over to the ladder.

A close up has to miss Toffee as she is so far over to the left of the perch

Toffee gets pushed around and often forced back out into the run. She then ends up as far away from the rest of the girls as possible, making it difficult to keep her in shot. Speckles also gets forced out but eventually ends up next to Honey as Honey doesn’t see her as a threat to her position in the pecking order and therefore doesn’t bother her.

Peaches and Barley are always together where ever they end up. They are such a tight pair of girls.

I could take this photo night after night and it would look as if the routine is simple but I see all the jostling that goes on leading up to this. This was why we added some extra perches but then I realised that they brought their own problems so the bedtime routine is now back as it was before.

Sometimes we just have to accept that as much as we can do to try to ease things there are some things that we just can’t change. At the end of the day the girls will do what they do and I can’t tell them to use the ladder and I can’t tell them to settle at bedtime without any hassle. This is how they will do things and all I can do is make sure they are safe.