Carol's Chickens

A few days ago we were shopping in town when I came across a florist with some chicken buckets filled with pink hyacinths. They were marked down to half price because the florist said they had been around a while and were getting a bit battered. I couldn’t resist buying two of them, one for Jackie and one for myself.

The buckets don’t have drainage holes so I am going to keep mine on the patio until they have flowered then I will plant the hyacinths in the garden and re-purpose the bucket.

A bucket of hyacinths

Jackie was thrilled with her bucket and in exchange gave me a bag of dandelions from the allotment for the girl’s dandelion patch that I am starting and a bag of seed potatoes. One of her friends also gave me a bunch of daffodils from the allotment.

The biggest clump of dandelion had quite a bit of grass with it so I gave that the to the girls yesterday afternoon and the rest I planted in their patch.

The girl’s dandelion patch

You can see how interested the girls are in their patch. They go crazy when I pull leaves off and put them through the wire for them.

Else where in the garden are plenty of signs of spring.

Miniature daffodils

Primula

Pulmonaria

The clocks go forward an hour tonight so the evenings will be lighter and it will feel even more like spring. The chickens are laying and the garden is blooming and spring feels like it really is on it’s way.

Egg laying has really got going this month and the girls are so funny about it. Firstly they all pile into the coop when I poop pick in the mornings and it can be quite a task trying to clear up with all my helpers ducking under my arms, standing on my hands and generally really trying to “help”me.

Next thing is one of the girls wants to lay and the others are so nosey that they insist on trying to watch. I can tell when a girl is in one of the little coups by the fact that another girl will be watching intently.

This morning Emerald was in the left little coop and at first Peaches was stood on the coop looking in. I have also seen Emerald in this position when either Peaches or Barley are in the coop and it looks so comical.

Peaches checks on Emerald

Emerald flicks pine shavings on to her back

In the wild chickens would find a spot under a bush to lay their eggs and being vulnerable sitting on the ground, they would toss leaves or grass on to their back to help camouflage themselves. This instinct causes them to toss pine shavings over their back. It doesn’t really work when they have me lifting the lid to check on them and Peaches just being nosey.

Peaches has to take a closer look

I retreated to give Emerald some peace and next time I checked on her she was just leaving the nest box with her warm egg inside it. Emerald’s eggs are bigger than the other girls and are similar in size to medium shop bought eggs.

For the first time this year Toffee investigated all three nest boxes so I am sure she is getting ready to lay soon.

For the first time this year Toffee goes into the coop

After this Toffee checked out both of the little coops

Topaz did the same thing she does most days. She settles in the right coop and eventually comes out shouting but when I check there is no egg. She has laid eight eggs this year then stopped three weeks ago but continues to sit in the nest box most days. I find this a complete mystery.

Peaches and Barley laid well in November and December but slowed right down in January and February. I think they were experiencing a mini moult but while not laying they didn’t bother going in the nest boxes which makes perfect sense. They then resumed laying in March nearly every day.

Topaz on the other hand continues to sit in the nest box even when she doesn’t lay. She did this all last summer and this year she was laying in January and February but has stopped in March while continuing to go in the nest box most days. It’s as if she thinks she is laying. She looks in prime condition with the most red comb of all the girls. It seems that she just has this quirk where egg laying is concerned.

Topaz does this every day but hasn’t laid for three weeks

Peaches and Barley laid their white eggs in the left coop soon after I took this photo. Late afternoon Honey settled in the left coop which suddenly seems to have become more popular. Not long after she laid her smaller, cream coloured, egg. It had a perfect shell so I am pleased to say that she seems to have passed through her little blip and is back to normal.

That concludes, our second four egg, day this year. I am sure Toffee is going to lay soon and it will be interesting to see what our highest total in one day will be. I have to say that the girls behaviour around their egg laying is quite entertaining.

As I have no photographs to go with today’s post I thought I would include some of the girls having some probiotic, live, yogurt this morning. I like to give them this occasionally as it’s good for them and they love it.

Yogurt for the girls

Even Toffee joins in

Last year at around the time of egg laying starting up again Honey had a few spats with Amber. The last one was severe enough to leave Amber with a peck on her face which swelled up and resulted in, Amber who had always been above Honey in the pecking order, slipping down to below Honey. It has stayed this way ever since with Honey giving Amber a peck every now and then to insure she stays below her and Amber has not contested it since then. I might just add that I think the peck to Amber’s face was probably accidental and they were most likely aiming to peck each other’s combs.

This year I was pleased that this didn’t happen between them again which I assume is because Amber now just accepts her place below Honey (or doesn’t want to get her face pecked again if she can remember that far back).

So I was totally surprised to see Honey and Barley having a spat a few days ago and then again this morning. Barley had her ruff raised and both Honey and Barley were going for each other and hanging on to each other by the back of the neck. On both occasions I tried to break it up which wasn’t easy.

I think this is happening again because they have all come back in to lay (apart from Toffee) and I think Honey wants to make sure she doesn’t slip down the pecking order. I think she is going for Barley because Barley’s comb is bigger than Peaches so she probably perceives Barley as the most likely to be a threat to her place in the pecking order.

I haven’t seen any change in their behaviour to each other outside the spats so I think the order has remained the same for now. I was surprised at how Barley held her ground though and didn’t run from Honey. I had wondered if the order may change once Peaches and Barley had matured.

Honey was at the bottom of the pecking order for a long time before Toffee, Emerald, Peaches and Barley joined the flock and I always thought she seemed happy to be bottom girl. I realise now that she probably just accepted it and once new girls came she made sure they stayed below her and then seemed to set about rising above Amber. Peaches and Barley seem fearless so I wonder if she sees them as a threat to her position.

Peaches and Barley used to have little spats with each other as chicks but it just involved ruff raising and running at each other and always seemed more like play fights rather than anything serious. Since they have matured I have never seen them peck at each other and I  think they are probably on an equal level. They are so close and so bonded to each other.

Honey and Barley were really grabbing each other by the back of the neck and holding on. It probably looked worse than it was as they didn’t peck each other’s combs and I would say they seemed to come out of it with no winning party.

Egg laying does seem to set the hormones racing and change their behaviour because this only seems to happen at this time of year. It also seems to be bottom chick syndrome with Honey determined not to slide downwards.

Topaz as head girl has no need to spat with any of the girls as she is so firmly in her top position. She will give a quick peck at any girl that gets too near her and all the girls know not to mess with her. She comes across as quite a little thug, always having a go for no reason, but often the pecks don’t actually connect and are just a warning.

I always find the pecking order so interesting and I think I have probably not seen the end of these spats yet. I will remain observant.

I have felt that Amber has been getting ready to lay for a while now. At lunch time today she was hunched with her wings down and not looking happy. When I checked back after lunch I found an empty, broken, thin egg shell in the run. There was a wet sticky patch near where Amber had been sitting and I was pretty sure this must be her egg. Amber also has a mucky bottom and I think the egg may have broken on it’s way out.

Amber has a mucky bottom

Sorry, Amber, for the undignified photo! I did actually try to tweak that loose looking feather but it wasn’t loose. Amber didn’t even flinch as the girls are used to doing this to each other when there are loose feathers or some debris stuck to their bottoms. My husband commented that she probably thought that I was a chicken. The lines do seem to get blurred sometimes.

Amber now looks fine though and if it was her egg then the good news is that she didn’t look as unwell as she used to look before laying and it was thin shelled rather than having just a membrane so this would be a bit of an improvement on last year.

Later in the afternoon Honey and Emerald were in the nest box in the main coop. I think Honey wanted to lay and Emerald was just being nosey.

Emerald is being nosey while Honey is in the nest box

I checked that were no eggs in the nest box at this point. Emerald soon left and Honey settled down.

Once Emerald left Honey settled down

I now started to wonder if it really was Amber’s egg or if it was Honey’s and she didn’t realise and had gone to sit in the nest box afterwards. I was keeping my fingers crossed for an egg from Honey to prove it was Amber’s egg laid earlier.

I kept checking and Honey was in there for a very long time and I was holding my breath. Soon after I had seen her still in the nest box I returned and this time she was out. I lifted the lid with baited breath and there was her warm egg. Hurrah! This egg was laid in the nest box and had a perfect shell.

I was so pleased. Hopefully this means Honey is back to normal and over her spell of thin shells and Amber has laid without looking really unwell like last year and although the shell was thin it was better than last year when her eggs had only a paper like membrane.

Toffee is now the only girl yet to start laying. I was so pleased Amber and Honey’s eggs came on a Sunday when I was able to keep an eye on them or I wouldn’t have been so sure what was going on. I am so happy at this improvement and hopeful that things are getting better for Amber. She now has no stress in her life and will probably lay less often too so this may just be enough to improve her. I am really happy with how they both did today.

I did consider giving Amber a bath but her mucky bottom doesn’t seem to be bothering her and I think a bath would stress her as she doesn’t like being handled. Also it is so cold at the moment and on balance I decided it was best to just leave her be. As always I will be keeping a close eye on her but she seems perfectly happy at the moment so that’s good enough for me.

Emerald has been looking ready to start laying for a while now. She squats when I get near her and she investigates the nest box every morning when I clean the coop but until this morning I hadn’t seen her go in and sit.

This morning I felt this was the day as she kept looking in each of the little coops. She then went in the left coop and did a lot of scratching around. She came out for the morning greens then went back in and settled.

The next time I went to check on her she was just coming out of the left coop and when I checked there was a warm egg. It was bigger and rounder than the other girl’s eggs and the shell was a slightly darker colour like Sparkle’s eggs.

Peaches and Barley’s eggs are on the left, then Sparkle’s egg then Emerald’s egg on the right

It’s not so clear on a photo but Peaches and Barley’s eggs are an almost luminous white and are round. Sparkle’s always have a more oval shape and have a more creamy colour (sometimes they are a little darker than this one). Emerald’s is slightly bigger and is round and creamy in colour. I am so proud of her.

As she only laid one egg with me last summer she has matched that already and I am sure she will soon be laying many more.

We only have Amber and Toffee to start now. Amber is also looking like it is imminent but Toffee has shown no interest yet. Toffee always has to be different though so may just quietly get on it with it.

It never ceases to excite me as they all start laying again and we are enjoying eating more eggs.

Yesterday, late afternoon, Honey looked unwell again. She looked as if she was going to lay another soft shelled egg.

I had decided that at bedtime I would help her to the perch again and settle her in the nest box as I had done a few days ago. There was no need. Honey went into the nest box in the main coop and settled in there before any of the other girls came in to roost. Honey stayed there until I put the rest of the girls in. I have never known her to put herself to bed early like this before so she must have been feeling very poorly. At least she had the sense to go to the nest box.

Poor Honey goes to bed early

This morning she was back to her normal self again but I found no trace of an egg or shell, either in the coop or the run. This is a mystery. I wonder if it was laid outside and the girls demolished every trace of it. Usually I find some remnant so I can’t be sure what has happened here but I am just glad that Honey seems fine again now.

Yesterday I also found Sparkles egg with calcium deposits on the shell. I am going to stop giving the girls crushed egg shells for now as it doesn’t seem to make any difference to Honey and never made any difference to Amber in the past but the deposits show the extra calcium is too much for the rest of the girls. I took a couple of photos but with the egg being small (bantam sized) it doesn’t show up very well.

Calcium deposits

There are six calcium deposits on this egg

I put this egg down to Sparkle because it a slightly darker colour than the other eggs and some of the deposits are also a darker colour. They look just like little blobs of crushed egg shell.

Peaches and Barley’s eggs were normal this morning.

I hope this is just a blip with Honey and once she gets into the swing of egg laying she will return to normal. I have a little niggling worry that maybe she is going continue like Amber and I will have two girls struggling with egg laying but I am holding on to the thought that she laid three or four like this last summer then continued normally from then on.

It still remains to be seen how Amber will be when she starts laying. Amber is still quite vocal in the mornings and has a quick sit down in the nest box but doesn’t stay long so she isn’t quite ready yet. I keep thinking how great it would be if she doesn’t have a problem this year but I am not holding my breath.

We have now had Honey and Amber for two years next month and we have thought that we were going to lose Amber on many occasions but we still have her so we intend to make the most of these two for as long as possible. My husband says you can never tell and maybe Amber will out live them all but we both feel that as long as we have her it is a bonus. At the moment she is looking really good and I am keeping every crossed it stays that way.

Edit

I have just been in to do my midday poop pick and found the remains of Honey’s shell. I missed it this morning as it had been in the dirt. It was paper thin, much thinner than her last one which explains why she didn’t look unwell last time but did this time. I really don’t know what is going on with her and can only hope with time she improves.

While my husband was doing a bit of tidying in the garden he decided to prune our rather large rosemary bush. He put some of the branches in the run for the girls. Being quite tough we think they will keep them occupied for days. They can’t instantly strip it like grass.

Some rosemary for the girls

Honey laid another egg today, this time with a thin shell, at least I am pretty certain it was hers. Honey was sitting in the nest box this morning and when we next went up to the girls Sparkle was running around the run with an empty egg shell in her beak and being chased by the rest of the girls. I caught up to her and took the shell from her. It was thin and was broken at one end and was empty except for a little bit of white. When the girls pecked at the ground I could see the sticky mess that was the remains of the egg. I removed it and turned the earth over where it had been.

I think it must have been Honey because this is the same pattern as last year. She first laid an egg, white first, then the rest with a paper like membrane the same has she did two days ago (I assume if there was a membrane the girls ate it). Then she laid one or two with thin shells then they were normal from then on. I assume the same thing is happening this time.

The good news is that she didn’t look at all unwell this time. Tomorrow morning the girls will be getting mash with ground up egg shells to help them along.

Other egg laying news is that Peaches and Barley are still in synch and laying together for two days then miss a day then two days. Sparkle is laying every other day and her eggs have remained a darker colour which is good as it’s easy to tell which are her eggs. Topaz is still a mystery, she has the reddest comb of all and looks in prime condition but is still erratic with her egg laying. She was laying once a week but now hasn’t laid for two weeks and yet still goes in the nest box for a while most days which is what she did last year.

Topaz only laid six eggs all summer last year and has laid eight eggs in two months this year so it is an improvement. I think unless it changes as summer comes, perhaps she is just a hen that doesn’t lay so much. Time will tell. Either way as long as she is healthy that is all that matters to me.

We have now had sixteen eggs in the last seven days and today was our first four egg day, with just the little girls, although of course we only had three in reality as Honey’s was gone. We now have five girls laying with just Amber, Emerald and Toffee to start. I expect Amber starting to lay again will provide more drama.

I recently noticed that another of the plants I put in the chicken run last year has died. I think with all my efforts to keep the run dry that maybe it didn’t get enough water. I decided to dig it up and give it to the girls. Even a dead plant can provide some entertainment.

Another dead plant to play with

As is often the case Toffee is the only girl not joining in

Toffee and Honey are more interested in where the plant came from

Toffee eventually joins the rest of the girls

Within half an hour the roots had been picked clean and the soil scratched and spread. The girls do enjoy anything put in the run to scratch and peck at.

They also enjoyed some dandelions from the garden. I am thinking of putting a little dandelion patch in the strip of garden next to their run just for them. You can see their strip of garden edged with bricks in this photo. Last year it had chard for them but I wonder if dandelions would be more productive (of course the trick is not to let them flower and seed). Oh how chickens change the way we garden!

I have been certain for a while now that Honey and Amber are getting ready to lay again. Yesterday afternoon Honey looked unwell. It was a very familiar sight to me because it was just the same look Amber always had when about to lay a soft shelled egg and also Honey looked like this last summer when she laid a couple of soft shelled eggs.

Poor Honey has a tail down stance

I could see her discomfort in her eyes

I kept a close eye on her and hoped she would get her egg out soon. She was still eating which was a good sign and I gave her some chopped grapes to help keep her strength up. I knew from past experience that there wasn’t anything more I could do for her and she would feel better once her egg had passed.

After their evening corn and as dusk approached Honey still hadn’t laid and was on top of the little coop looking up at the high perches. I didn’t want to see her struggle to get up to the perch so I lifted her up and placed her on a perch where she settled.

I came back to see how she was just before bedtime and saw some egg white pour out of her. I have seen this happen to her once before, last summer. The white came out first and a little while later the yolk came out.

I lift all the girls down as it gets dark and put them in the pop hole but before doing this last night I opened up the nest box. I lifted Honey down and put her in. She made no complaint and settled in the nest box. I closed the nest box and put the other girls in through the pop hole.

I hoped she would pass the rest of her egg during the night or at first light.

When I went out this morning Honey came running with the rest of the girls and was back to normal again. I opened up the coop and could see by the wet patch that Honey had passed the yolk at first light this morning just inside the pop hole. There was nothing left but a sticky wet patch and no shavings so it would seem the girls ate the yolk. There were a few smears on the patio just outside the pop hole. She had obviously passed it just as she was coming out of the coop. There was no sign of any shell.

I was relieved to see that she was back to her normal happy self again.

As I proceeded to poop pick the coop there was, as usual, a flurry of girls.

Honey is in the nest box and Peaches and Emerald are watching her

Barley is watching too

I think perhaps Honey was in the nest box as she was unsure if she had laid her egg and Emerald, Peaches and Barley were watching her intently.

I will continue to give the girls ground eggshells in their mash but I hope, that as with Sparkle, this is just because it is Honey’s first egg of the year and hopefully her next one will be back to normal.

I wonder what Amber’s first egg will be like as she always has problems with her egg laying. I am sure Emerald will lay soon too as she is more vocal than usual and today she went in all three nest boxes briefly as if she was checking out their suitability.

Peaches and Barley are still laying every other day together in the left coop and Sparkle is laying her slightly darker eggs every other day in the right coop. Topaz hasn’t laid for two weeks now but still goes in to practice most days, perhaps she will always be erratic with her egg laying.

We are enjoying having more eggs and will have eggs for dinner this evening.

After only getting an average of two eggs a week for the last month and saving them for the Sunday breakfast suddenly there has been an upswing. We now have four out of eight girls laying and the other four look ready to start any time now.

We have just had ten eggs in this last week, hurrah. I am seeing mid week omelets, scrambled eggs and boiled eggs instead of just poached eggs on Sunday.

More eggs

This is this weeks eggs minus the ones we had for Sunday breakfast. We had been managing on one egg each for Sunday breakfast but this week we had two eggs each which was a treat in itself.

I am so excited to have eggs again. Sparkle, Barley and Peaches are back to laying every other day and Topaz is laying an average of one egg a week.

Emerald is looking in the nest boxes each day and her comb is red at last (she always has the smallest and palest comb) and Honey and Amber have red combs and twirl round the nest box each morning with Amber sitting a while to try it out for size and Toffee has a red comb too but doesn’t show much interest but then she always has to be different.

Amber and Emerald are also more vocal. Amber is always vocal leading up to egg laying but Emerald is the quietest girl and hardly ever makes a sound at all so for her to be a bit vocal in the morning is quite a transformation in itself.

I just love seeing them all getting back into laying eggs. It’s not just the eggs its seeing them with lovely red combs and being more vocal and more purposeful as if this is really what they want to be doing. I have also noticed that the mid morning spinach is now being eaten much more quickly as if they know they need their greens to make those lovely orange yolks and the turfs from the allotment disappear in minutes.

I think the girls just seem happier and more animated now that they are coming back into lay. Like I said recently it seems like a touch of spring fever and it’s a lovely thing to see.