Carol's Chickens

I wanted to wait for a few days after I’d finished giving the flubenvet to do an update on Sparkle as I felt she had more chance of being back to normal without any medications in her system.

Sparkle is much better than she was but I would say she isn’t quite back to normal. I’m not sure if full recovery will just take time or if this is just as good as she will be.

While on the flubenvet she seemed only to eat the treats and I didn’t see her eating pellets but for the last few days I have seen her start to eat pellets again. She is still not dust bathing as much as usual and is still slow, although she has always been the slowest girl. But when I throw out bits of chopped grapes she isn’t quick enough to get them even though I drop some right under her beak. She is not willing to compete with the other girls. She also spends her afternoons perched in her favourite spots.

On the positive side, her comb is a lovely red colour and when I lift her from the perch at bedtime she feels robust and a good weight. I think she will be okay and it’s just going to take time. I will know she is back to normal if she starts laying again but I am not sure that she will lay again this season. Only time will tell.

The table is one of Sparkle’s favourite spots

This is another of Sparkle’s favourite spots

I love the way the three of them turn to look at me but Barley’s ridiculously large comb blots out her face.

Emerald, Sparkle and Barley

Barley overcomes this by turning her face the other way. Sparkle has a red comb and the fluffiest bottom of all the girls. I am not worried about her now as she seems okay and is eating better. I think these things always take time.

For the past four days I have been finding Emeralds feathers in the coop in the morning when I poop pick and in the run during the day. When she perches up at bedtime feathers flutter down from her and when she makes any quick movement in the run they flutter from her.

It seems very early in the year to be moulting. I looked back at last year and both Toffee and Emerald started to moult half way through July. The rest of the flock started to moult in August, September and October.

I wonder if the game girls moult earlier than the other girls. I also wonder if it may be that last year Emerald may have been broody at the farm where I got her from so she had had a break from egg laying, then while with me she laid only one egg, then started her moult. This year she hasn’t gone broody and has been a really good egg layer. She started laying in March and has consistently laid six days out of seven and her eggs are also the biggest of the flock.

Emerald laid an egg four days ago but before that hadn’t laid for seven days and before that was laying almost every day. I wonder if she just needs a break. Her comb and face are red and she seems in really good health.

The other thing about Emerald moulting is that she never seems to look any different. I find lots of feathers but she never has any bare patches. She is still looking almost as good as ever.

Emerald is moulting

Emerald’s tiny comb and face are still a good red colour

Her feathers are beautiful

I pick up at least this many feathers every time I go in the run. Her feathers have such a lovely sheen. Emerald is the picture of health so I am not going to worry about her moulting early.

Toffee started laying in April which was a month behind Emerald. She lays five days out of seven and her eggs are smaller. I think this may mean that she will start to moult later.

This is the earliest moult one of my girls has had yet. As long as she looks happy and healthy with a good appetite I am not worried, they are all quite different.

I tried to hand pollinate the apple tree, in the chicken run, by using a paint brush but this experiment has failed. I had nothing to lose by giving it a try but I now know that it is a waste of time so won’t need to do this again.

The pear tree in the garden has lots of tiny pears

The apple tree in the chicken run has no apples

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Slight change of subject but I couldn’t resist this new plant for the garden.

New primula

Tying in with this post it is called Japanese primula – apple blossom. I liked it’s unusual height.

The hyacinths in my chicken bucket had gone over so I planted them in the garden. My husband drilled some drainage holes in the bottom of the chicken bucket and I re-planted it. It now has a new lease of life.

Chicken bucket

It can brighten up the patio once more.

It’s only the second day of flubenvet but Sparkle is already looking so much better. I just went up to check on them and for the first time in two weeks Sparkle is having a dust bath.

Sparkle is in a dust bath

A happy Sparkle

This made my heart soar. Sparkle was twisting and turning, flicking and flapping and having such a lovely time in her dust bath. A happy Sparkle means a happy me. This is such a joy to see and  now I know she really is feeling better.

I love this time of year when everything in the garden is really lush. The veg plot is really getting going now.

The veg plot is coming on

The potatoes on the left of the plot are growing really fast.

geraniums

The geraniums are just starting to go over but I love to see them in the sun.

Forget me not

This is a perennial with forget me not like flowers and foliage rather like a hosta. The flowers have started to go over but I also love the way this looks in the sun. Once it has flowered the leaves continue grow and come into their own.

Every part of the garden is full to bursting

Cornflowers

I love the unusual colours of these pretty cornflowers.

London pride

London pride are another of my favourites.

Flox

I love the way the flox drifts through the succulents.

Hosta

The hosta pots look amazing.

Amazing contrast

I don’t remember what this shrub is called but I love the strong contrast of it’s foliage compared to the plants around it.

Even the chicken run is starting to flower.

The rose in the chicken run is in bud

This is just getting ready to flower and I will photograph it again when the buds open.

This shrub in the chicken run is in flower

I don’t remember what this shrub is called either but I chose it for it’s umbrella like shape keeping it above the height that the girls can destroy.

I wonder if the girls appreciate the garden’s beauty too.

It’s now been two weeks since we first noticed that Sparkle wasn’t well. She finished her course of antibiotics four days ago. Since she was first unwell she hasn’t had a dust bath but spends a lot of time preening instead, she seems to eat just as much as she needs to survive and she expends as little energy as possible.

Sparkle goes to the morning corn and evening sunflower seeds, she pecks at grass, spinach and apple and sits in the sun or on a perch all afternoon. I don’t see her eat pellets but when I pick her up at bedtime she still feels a good weight and quite robust.

We thought that maybe it was just going to take some time for her to get back to normal. She isn’t normal but she isn’t worse and isn’t uninterested.

Then this morning when I poop picked the coop I got a shock. I found worms, prepare to be revolted!

Worms

At the same time as I felt horrified I also felt hopeful. Maybe this is what is wrong with Sparkle and if that is the case it is easily remedied.

We had only been saying yesterday that it was time to worm the girls but I said that I wanted to get Sparkle eating properly first. No time for that now. I had some flubenvet in stock and I had a tin of fish in the cupboard.

Back went Sparkle into the cat box with a little dish of fish laced with fubenvet. I put some fish and flubenvet in two dishes for the rest of the girls. I knew that the only way I could get Sparkle to take hers was to separate her as she wouldn’t be able to compete with the other girls.

Sparkle is back in the cat box

Flubenvet on fish for the rest of the girls

The fish and meds are gone in seconds

The girls will need seven days of flubenvet but if this is what is troubling Sparkle there should be an improvement in a couple of days. I will continue to put her in the cat box unless she returns to eating normally in which case she can join in with the other girls.

I am now feeling hopeful that sparkle should soon be back to normal.

Today I had arranged to see Jackie and she had told me that there were some turfs which had been dug out of the allotment and were going begging, so we went to collect them for our girls.

I filled her in with the latest details about Sparkle and said she could come and see her for herself. I gave Sparkle her final day of her medicine this morning on some fish in the cat box. Once she had her medicine I offered her some more fish and some mash but she wasn’t interested so I returned her to the run.

I said to Jackie that a stranger would think Sparkle looks okay. She has a red comb and she will join in with her favourite things, corn, sunflower hearts and spinach. But I know that she is far from right.

She is very slow and since I first noticed she wasn’t well ten days ago, she hasn’t had a dust bath and she hasn’t eaten any pellets or in fact much of anything during the day. She spends her days sitting in a patch of sun if there is some and if there isn’t she sits on a perch and often doses.

I showed Jackie that I could throw out chopped grapes and even though I throw bits directly under her beak she is too slow to pick them up. Everything she does looks half hearted and she soon loses interest.

We put some turfs in and once again she did join in but not with her usual enthusiasm and she soon lost interest and went to a perch.

Sparkle joins in with the turf

The girls love to have some grass

It’s good to see Sparkle joining in

Sparkle returns to a perch

It seems as if it quickly becomes too much effort and Sparkle perches up again. Most days she will stay like this all afternoon.

Jackie said that she could see exactly what I meant and that although Sparkle didn’t look too bad she was clearly not at all her usual self. I said that I felt it’s beginning to sound as if I am being negative but it’s just that after ten days of her medicine I had hoped for her to be getting back to normal.

She is certainly not as bad as she was but she is no where near normal either. I wonder if it’s just going to be a slow process for her to get back to normal. Now that she has finished her medicine I feel that there is nothing else I can do but wait and see how it goes. I can encourage her to eat but I can’t force her.

I feel as if she is just eating enough to survive and no more which is not good for a chicken who usually spends the best part of the day looking for food. I think that only time will tell.

I always think a weed is just a plant that is somewhere you don’t want it to be. I think of weeds as the invasive sort that are difficult to get rid of. Sometimes a weed can be pretty and if it’s not doing any harm then perhaps it should be allowed to stay. This is the sort of weed that has arrived, all by itself, on our front drive. It is delicate and pretty.

Is this really a weed!

It brightens up the gravel on the drive and as it’s against the wall it isn’t in the way. I think it’s rather sweet and it can stay.

Since Sparkle hasn’t been a hundred percent she hasn’t been joining in flock activities such as dust bathing. I think that when I see her dust bath again I will know she is really feeling better. At the moment she does follow the sun and will sit in a patch of sun while the other girls are dust bathing.

For the last two mornings I have put her in the cat box with her medicine on some fish and she has taken it like this which is much better than putting it her beak and there are only two more days of medicine to go, hurrah! It has become harder to pick her up which is sign of her returning to normal and I am looking forward to the end of her medicine so that I don’t have to annoy her by picking her up.

Today we had another near dead plant to remove from the garden. It was a hebe, which although usually hardy, had been completely knocked back by the winter frosts and as we had another plant that was being crowded we decided to take the hebe out and replace it with the other plant.

As usual the dead plant went into the run for the girls. Sparkle was straight to it and was soon on top of it pecking away at the soil. She also pecked away the lower ranking girls if they got in her way.

Sparkle went straight to the dead plant

All the girls join in

They all joined in except Toffee who was laying her egg. It was good to see Sparkle taking part and looking more like her usual self. I really do think she is almost back to normal. I am feeling much more positive about her now.