Carol's Chickens

This morning I went out at six o’clock to let the new girls out of their little coop. I undid the door and stood back and waited.

Six o’clock this morning

They were showing no sign of wanting to come out.

I lifted the lid to encourage them to come out

Still they showed no sign of wanting to come out. In the end I put my hand in and they jumped over the side of the coop to get away from me.

They stayed close to the big bush

They retreated to the bush until I had left their area then they both found the pellets and the water which was a good sign.

Suddenly Topaz and Speckles went at each other.

They tried to peck each other

Butterscotch is taking no notice at all and nor are the other girls.

Topaz had her wings held up and both girls had their ruffs raised

Luckily they couldn’t peck each other because there is a double layer of wire at the bottom of this section. I put it in after Topaz and Bluebell pecked each others comb on their first day of introductions.

Twice I picked Topaz up and removed her after they had gone the length of the enclosure. After this she gave me the angry eye and took herself away to sit in the little coop nest box for the morning.

At lunch time I got her out and the girls took no further notice of each other. I hoped that maybe they had got it sorted already.

Mid morning I gave the new girls their first spinach

They had a look and a peck but at lunch time it was still there. It will probably take a little while to cotton on to the treats.

This afternoon Topaz and Speckles did a bit more ruff raising but it wasn’t as intense as it was in the morning.

I gave all the girls some apple at lunch time but again the new girls ignored it. Before bedtime I gave them all some sunflower hearts and the new girls liked those.

At half past six the old flock were all in the new shed ready for bed but the new girls were still out. I wasn’t too worried as it was still light. I checked back a bit later and they were on top of the little coop. I decided to wait until dusk to check on them again. They were both on the little perch above the table which was the highest point in their area.

I was a bit worried how to get them in but in fact it was just like the old flock. I just picked them up from their perch and put them in the little coop. It was a relief that they allowed me to move them with no protest and was easier than past experiences.

Tomorrow I will give them the bigger area of half the run which this afternoon I have prepared ready for the morning. Then I think that by late afternoon I will open the gates and let them mix. Maybe the new girls will then follow the flock to bed in the new shed. I am thinking of moving it on quickly because I can see they won’t go to bed in their  little coop. I don’t want any more bad habits and think that the sooner they go in the new shed with the rest of the flock the better.

The pecking order will have to be sorted one way or another but I think a quick integration is going to be the best solution as bantams want to go to bed high and the new shed is the best place for them and the sooner they reach that conclusion the better.

So onwards and upwards and watch this space tomorrow!

At half past three this afternoon we arrived at the farm in Wendover to collect two new girls. Catrin the farmer had four girls in a rabbit crate for me to choose from.

There were two goldtops, an ancona and a vorwerk. I wanted two different girls so it was an easy choice, it had to be a goldtop and an ancona. One of the goldtops was lighter in colour and smaller in size than the other so that was the one I chose.

I wanted to stick with my theme of descriptive names and had been thinking about a name for the goldtop as I have used quite a few gold themed names already. I came up with Butterscotch. I didn’t know what other breed I would choose so couldn’t choose another name but as soon as I saw the ancona it had to be Speckles right there and then on the spot.

When we got back home I took a photo of them in the dog crate which we used to transport them.

Butterscotch and Speckles

I had already separated off part of the run for them and as it was only a couple of hours until bedtime I put the dog crate up against the little coop where they are to sleep tonight. I then put in some shavings and a dish of pellets and water.

The new girl’s home for this evening

I will shut them in the little coop later and hope this will help them to know that this is where they will sleep for now. I will let them out first thing in the morning and set up a feeding station for them.

I have a feeling that integration isn’t going to take long as none of the girls seemed at all bothered by each other.

I will give a little information about the breeds.

Gold tops are a cross between a gold silkie father and a white sussex mother and they are a sex linked breed. This means from the moment they hatch you can tell the sex as the hens are gold like their father and the cockerels are white like their mother.

They are a docile and friendly breed but tend to go broody and make excellent mothers. They lay cream coloured eggs. They have a small black comb and a bouffant crest and slightly feathered legs. They also have blue lobes.

Ancona originate from Italy. They are good layers of white eggs and rarely go broody. They are active and good foragers and are flighty. They have a single comb.

At half past six I went up to see how it was going. All the old flock were in on their top perch as usual. Speckles had gone in the little coop and Butterscotch was standing in the doorway. As I went through the gate she went in and I simply closed the coop door. I removed the dog crate and set up their feeding station for the morning.

I will let them out into their portion of the run tomorrow morning and see how things progress.

I am thrilled with my two new girls and can’t wait to get them integrated into the flock.

We looked everywhere for new patio furniture for the top patio and everything seemed too big or too small. Then we had a brainwave. We have moved the table and chairs from their position by our back door to the top patio and the two chairs actually match the two chairs we already had up there.

We then bought a new similar small table and chairs for the position by the back door. It makes sense to have the old ones at the top where only we sit and the new ones by the back door where they are always in sight.

The old furniture is now on the top patio

You may recognise this table as I always photograph the girls eggs on it as it was by the back door.

This area gets the morning sun and is secluded so it’s where we have the occasional B.B.Q. It is also a good spot for chicken watching.

The furniture is also small enough not to block the path to the shed door

I have also planted the plant holders on the wall behind the furniture.

The plant holders now have plants

We have new furniture by the back door

Looking at it from the other direction

This set cost fifty pounds so it wasn’t too expensive compared to a lot of the sets we looked at. We are really pleased with our new furniture and now have three areas in the garden where we can sit.

I was going to wait until next year to get some more chickens but the girls have settled into the new shed so well that I am thinking, why wait!

I started researching as I know there are not many bantam breeders in our area and I would really like to add some different breeds to my flock. All the breeders I found locally either didn’t have bantams or had sold out.

I decided to call the lady where I got the vorwerks and leghorns from because I remembered her having other breeds. She has a bantam silkie and light sussex cross often called goldtops. I looked them up and they are very pretty. They lay cream eggs and are docile and friendly and make ideal pets.

I called her back and asked her to save her goldtop for me. We have visitors for the weekend so I said it may have to be next Friday afternoon before we can go and see her. We would see what else she has and pick another bantam to accompany the goldtop.

I am feeling really excited and if we have a quiet afternoon we will go sooner. The farmer said to just call her when we are ready. I can’t wait.

It seems crazy but the new sheds have made such a difference to our life in many ways. Obviously the chicken shed has made a massive difference because the girls now go to bed on their own and we are not so tied but the other shed has made a major difference too.

It’s not only opened up a lovely area where we will be able to sit but it has now got much of the stuff from our work cabin/kitchen, that we only use occasionally, stored in it. This in turn has created more storage space in our cabin so we have now moved our collection of vintage crockery into this space.

Before we had no where to store it so it was in boxes under the spare beds which was far from ideal! It meant lugging it up and down the stairs when ever we used it.

We now have a wedding, afternoon tea, for one hundred and fifty people booked in December with our vintage crockery and the couple are visiting us next weekend to view it. It would hardly have looked professional to tell them it was stored under our spare beds.

Now we can take them out to our cabin and show them plus we can wash it up and store it without transporting it. This feels like a new beginning for us.

We have finished with our standard, heavy, crockery which has gone and now only have lovely, pretty, light, vintage crockery.

We had enough for one hundred and thirty people but since the wedding booking we have been out at weekends buying more and have now topped it up to enough for one hundred and fifty people which should be the largest number we will ever need.

Our vintage crockery is now stored in these cupboards

I have taken some lids off to show the crockery

Close up of crockery in boxes

The shed has now been reorganised

The patio area has been jet washed and we have put up the plant pot holders that used to be in the chicken run

The plants in the chicken run were tricky to keep watered and were collecting dust so we took them out. Now we can reuse them in this space and without the old garden shed we have this lovely brick wall as a backdrop which was hidden before.

This afternoon we are going out to look for some garden furniture for this space. The sheds have indeed made a huge difference to us.

Last night was the fifth night in the new chicken shed. I won’t continue to record every night but at the moment I am so elated by how well the girls have taken to this that I just can’t resist one more night.

They seem to be going in a bit earlier each night. Last night I was surprised to find that at quarter to seven five girls were already in and only Peaches was still wandering around the run.

Quarter to seven and five girls are in

Before I could capture a photo of Peaches alone in the run she had sprinted through the pop hole and by the time I had opened the shed door she was already up on the shelf.

Peaches goes in and straight up to the shelf

I left them to settle

Ten minutes later I checked again and Peaches was back out in the run having a last top up of pellets and water. She then casually made her way back through the pop hole and when I looked in she had taken her place next to Barley and Toffee had moved to the top rung of the ladder.

Peaches takes her place next to Barley

I checked again after dinner and they were all still in the same positions. I locked the run gate for the night, confident, that no one was going to be moving now.

I am feeling so happy at how quickly this has all worked out. I now realise that they had got the hang of it by night three, because although Peaches was also last in that night, she will always make her way in when she is ready. She always was the last to go up on to the outside bedtime perches and I am confident that she wouldn’t stay out alone, she just likes to take a bit more time with her bedtime routine.

They are all in long before the automatic door closes so I am not worried that she will get shut out. I think we can safely say the girls like their new home and I am thrilled to bits with the new set up.

I am feeling elated. Four nights and we have totally cracked it. We went up to the girls before our evening meal at seven o’clock and were surprised to find no girls in the run.

The girls had all gone in on their own

Peaches and Barley were together on the top rung of the ladder and the rest of the girls were on the high shelf

When I checked back after dinner at half past seven they were all on the high shelf

Later again, eight o’clock, they were still on the high shelf but some of the girls were now standing up and the order had changed

I really don’t care what order, where they choose to sit or if they sit or stand, the thing is they are all in. I am so absolutely pleased, no blown away, that they are going in on their own so soon. Evening four and they are going in on their own, it’s better than I had imagined. I call this a success and all now worthwhile. I am just so elated that I have no further words.

At last, all is good in the chicken coop and long may it be so!

We went up to the girls after our evening meal as usual, which was about half past seven. We were surprised to see that only Peaches was out in the run.

Five out of six girls went in to the shed on their own and all chose the new higher perch

We checked a little later and they had repositioned

Peaches was wandering around the run completely oblivious to the fact that all the other girls had gone in. She went to the food then went to the water then wandered off again. We decided that it was probably time to direct her towards the shed.

Peaches looked so confused, you could almost read her mind saying, where is every body!

I decided to direct her to the pop hole.

Peaches takes her place next to Barley

I am actually really thrilled that by day three we have progressed so much. I think if I had left it until a little later Peaches would probably have made her own way in. I also think that now the girls have seen the higher perch they will be even happier to go in tomorrow on their own.

I was worried that training them to go in on their own may take a very long time and yet in three days we seem to be there already. I am feeling very positive and really feel that we have finally achieved what we wanted.

We now have a lovely area at the top of our garden and have the perfect chicken shed that the girls are actually happy to go in on their own. We are feeling really happy tonight.

We thought another high perch in the chicken shed would ease the battle to get to the top rung and make the girls more likely to want to go in at night. We now feel the chicken shed is finished.

There is now a new perching shelf across the back of the chicken shed

My husband has added a strut to hold the ladder perches up when I am cleaning the shed

The door now has a hook to hold it open instead of propping it open with a broom

My husband used a ring for the hook which he already had then decided as a bit of fun he would add a door knocker which must have come from a past door and was in his box of things that may come in useful one day.

How posh is our girl’s door!

Our next door neighbour is having our old shed and came round today to take it apart

The roof is off

We pass the parts of the shed over the wall

It’s almost gone

The old garden shed is gone

The patio area is cleaned up

This will now be a lovely area to sit on and we will eventually get some patio furniture for this area

The store cabinet is now full of kindling from the old coop

We have pretty much recycled everything. The new top of the storage cabinet is made from the floor of the coop then topped with the felt left over from the new shed roofs. All left over wood has been made into kindling which will see us through the winter.

We have spent three days “shedding” as my husband calls it and we think we are pretty much done now. It’s been exhausting but gives us a real sense of achievement.

It just remains to be seen now if the girls go in tonight. I am quite hopeful.

Having emptied the chicken patio we decided to make some changes. I have had the wooden storage cabinet for three years and it doesn’t owe me anything. My husband thought I would be better off with a plastic storage cabinet that would be easy to keep to clean.

He decided that my wooden cabinet would make a good log and kindling store and could be kept behind the chicken shed with my chicken bin and the compost bin.

He had seen a storage cabinet that he thought would be good for me so we went to look at it yesterday. It was perfect as it also had the advantage of being so tall that the girls wouldn’t be able to perch on top of it. It came flat packed.

My new storage cabinet

My husband assembles the cabinet

My new storage cabinet is in position

My storage cabinet is filled

I love how nosey Peaches and Barley are. They also look so small against the height of my new cabinet. I have decided to keep the little coop nest boxes on the patio for now as there is plenty of room for them, they are to the right of the cabinet and Peaches, Barley and Honey are still laying their eggs in them.

Everything is now back in the big shed

The chest freezer is on the left, the hot boxes on the right and my husband has shortened the shelves from the old shed and put them in on the right hand side.

The shelves are recycled and filled

There will probably be lots of fine tuning but everything is in for now.

Behind the chicken shed

Behind the chicken shed there is space to store some things out of sight. There is my old storage cabinet, now a log store, the dog/chicken crate is hanging above it then there is the compost and chicken bin.

At bedtime the girls were beginning to get the hang of where to go.

As dusk approached Toffee and Emerald started looking in the new shed

Toffee tries out the ladder while Emerald watches

Emerald bags the top perch

We have four girls in

Toffee is on the move

They are in position

We were actually really pleased with how last night went. We didn’t use any seeds and they started thinking about going in by themselves. I think because the door was open, after some of the girls went in, others would have a change mind and pop out again. In the end we herded them in again and shut the door.

Tonight we will keep the door shut and even if we have to herd them still, they will learn to go through the pop hole. I think once they do this they will start to go in on their own and stay in.

We also thought we would put another perch or a shelf up that is higher than the top rung as they all want to be on the top rung. Once again it is Toffee and Honey that can’t keep a position at the top.

This morning when they came out all was normal and the shavings hadn’t been scratched out. I think the novelty has worn off which is good because it is much tidier. Overall I am really pleased with the progress and feel that it won’t be long before they are going in on their own.