Making plans

This morning I gave the girls some spinach. I like to give them some greens each morning.

Spinach

Spinach

They are all looking so beautiful and this is just an excuse to get a photo of the flock really.

We are planning some changes to the coop in the spring. As anyone who follows me regularly will know my girls like to perch high at night and don’t go into their coop. They roost on the high perches over their patio area and at dusk I lift them down and pop them in the coop. I leave a torch inside the pop hole until they settle then remove it and close the door.

I don’t mind putting them in each night but I know they are not best pleased with the arrangement and I often hear them bumping about in the coop before they settle which is probably not great for them. It also makes me reluctant to consider going away for a weekend.

Recently my husband came up with a plan to give them a high shed with high perches and try to encourage them to put themselves to bed at night. This has come about for several reasons. We are thinking towards semi retirement in the near future.

We have worked for seven days a week for many years (we are self employed caterers) and we don’t have holidays and rarely go out. We have been working our socks off to chip away at our mortgage and are now in a position where we should be able to pay it off by April. hurrah! There will be a celebration and we will go out.

We then intend to work less and have already given up doing hot food events and functions where we have to attend. We would like to cut out weekends and gradually slow down a bit. We would also like to make more of our hobbies to enrich our retirement (or semi retirement).

My husband has taken over our back bedroom for his model railway and he would like to make my chicken keeping work as best it possibly can.

The back boundary of the chicken’s run (their patio area) is a large shed that runs the width of our garden and houses our two business freezer’s and crockery and glassware that would cater for two hundred and fifty people plus all sorts of other catering equipment. In front of this shed is our small garden shed. The back of the large shed provides our boundary and is in poor shape. It is however standing on a concrete base.

We don’t need the crockery and equipment now that we are not doing hot food and large functions so the plan is to gradually get rid of it all, which isn’t going to be an easy task!

My husband’s plan is to have a really sturdy fence constructed as our boundary and to have it on a concrete base. We will then lay a path of flags or concrete inside the fence to allow us to be able to sweep up leaves.

We intend to buy a really good shed for the chickens of a similar width as their patio. It must be strong and tongue and groove so that it’s waterproof. We will have to give it some ventilation. It will have a full size door for me to enter from outside but we will make a pop hole through the side into the chickens patio area. We intend to make a sloped ladder of perches so that the chooks can easily get up and down to perch and won’t poop on the girls below. It will be on the concrete floor and will have a thick layer of pine shavings on the floor and I will poop pick each morning as I do now.

The important thing is that it is predator proof and rat proof as well as being water proof and having some ventilation. Having concrete and another fence behind will stop anything from being able to dig in.

I will entice the girls in with corn and get them used to the perches and once we have removed the perches from the patio area I hope they will then go in at bedtime. We can remove the coop from the patio area and intend to use the automatic door from the current coop on the new shed.

If the girls put themselves to bed at night I would feel happier about having weekends away sometimes during the summer months.

We will then have another bigger shed next to it for the freezers with a separate section for the garden tools. We can then get rid of the garden shed and create a seating area in it’s place. This would give us room for patio furniture and we would benefit from the lovely brick wall which is hidden behind the garden shed. We want to make everything look as attractive as possible.

This is going to be quite a project but we feel it will look better and be more practical. We intend to stay in this house so we want to get this right.

Meanwhile an update on the egg laying. Peaches and Barley laid a total of twenty five eggs in December compared to just eleven in January. I did wonder if it was due to low light levels but lately have been finding some fine, tiny, feathers from them. I think they may be having a mini moult. There are a few in the dust bath and the coop overnight and a few flutter from them when they are preening. This may be why their eggs have slowed down.

Topaz has so far laid three eggs and continues to practise most days.

I am looking forward to spring to getting the mortgage paid and starting our project and maybe even having my little flock put themselves to bed. I can but hope!

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Integrating Jackie’s girls

Today Jackie and I had arranged that we would spend the morning together while integrating her girls. Jackie had a bit of loss of confidence without Ian and I had an unusual free (no lunch orders) day so it seemed a good time.

Jackie has changed April’s name to Chelsea in memory of Ian as Chelsea was the team he followed and he watched every match. Ian had actually named Ruby for their ruby wedding anniversary in March and it was the first time Ian had named any of their chickens so it is a bit special.

It was an awful morning, raining and very windy. We were going to let the old girls free range and open up the walk in run for the new girls to explore but soon the rain dictated that this wasn’t going to work. It may well have been a blessing because it moved things on more quickly.

We decided to get all six girls in the run which is under cover (persuaded with a handful of corn) and let them get on with on it. It was much easier than we expected and there wasn’t much fuss at all.

The thing that really surprised us was that head girl, Clover, seemed to be looking after the new girls. Clover stayed close by the new girls pecking at the ground but whenever Bluebell got close, Clover pecked her away, whereas she doesn’t usually take any notice of Bluebell. It was as if she was protecting the new girls.

As expected Blossom had a little peck at them every now and again but nothing too bad. They soon mingled without taking too much notice and as we spent a couple of hours together chatting and observing the girls we felt really pleased that it was going so well.

We chatted about Ian as we kept an eye on the girls and I think it was a good thing, we felt comforted by doing this together and by including him in every thing we talked about.

Chelsea is in the foreground and Ruby is behind her with Bonnie on the right and Clover on the left

Chelsea is in the foreground and Ruby is behind her with Bonnie on the right, Blossom in the middle and Clover on the left

Clover is just leaving the scene

Clover is just leaving the scene

Chelsea photobombs

Chelsea photo bombs, Bluebell is on the left

Looking for corn together

Looking for corn together

One flock together

One flock together

Jackie took away the little temporary coop that the new girls had been using overnight so that the flock would sleep together that night for the first time.

It was rather like two gangs with the old four together and the new two together but we were pleased by the lack of fuss and sure they would all be mixing as one flock very soon.

Jackie called me later to say that at bedtime there was a little bit of fuss but once the old girls went in she then put the new girls in with them and it was “job done”. We both feel pleased at how well it has gone. As Jackie says “tomorrow is another day”. She will keep me posted.

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Creatures of habit

Mid morning when I paid the girls a visit they were in almost exactly the same positions as yesterday. Once again Topaz was the only one busy scratching.

Topaz was scratching and pecking

Topaz was busy scratching and pecking

Emerald and Amber were together on their favourite little perch but the other way round from yesterday.

Emerald and Amber together as usual

Emerald and Amber together as usual

The rest of the girls were on the other favourite perch in exactly the same order as yesterday but when I went to take a photograph Toffee jumped down.

The line up was the same as yesterday

The line up was the same as yesterday

You can see the space where Toffee had been and once again Emerald and Amber are in the background.

Toffee moved on to the table

Toffee moved on to the table

I took the girls a dish of warm mash as it was a frosty day but when I returned later Emerald and Amber were back together on their little perch. They do seem to be good friends and they are all definitely creatures of habit.

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Friendships

This post is dedicated to Ian, Jackie’s dear beloved husband, of forty years who sadly died suddenly yesterday. This has been a huge shock and our thoughts are with Jackie and her family at this sad and difficult time.

Ian loved their chickens and Clover their oldest hen and top girl was his favourite. He also shared my husband’s interest in model railways. He visited our flock and took a look at my husband’s set up before Christmas.

Ian and Jackie had a lovely Christmas holiday together in Spain and Jackie I know will take some comfort from that and the fact that as it was so sudden Ian didn’t suffer.

Since I met Jackie through our shared love of chickens, we have become really good friends and I love her dearly. I have found that we have a lot in common and often have the same opinions on many subjects. We like reading the same books and of course we chat about chickens just a little!

I have been quite intrigued by the friendships in my flock too. Topaz is top girl and the only one in the flock with a grumpy nature. When she went broody last summer she was an angry broody, shouting and pecking at anyone who came near her, be that me or the rest of the flock.

Topaz doesn’t tolerate any of the girls getting in her way and anyone to get too close to her will get a swift peck. None of the girls are bothered at all by this. They know she is top girl and they move aside for her but soon bounce back seemingly not offended by her behaviour.

Today I went out to take some photos to illustrate this and as usual Topaz was scratching about and doing her own thing.

Topaz is looking great

Topaz is looking great

Topaz has a lovely red comb and wattles and is the only one to start laying again since her moult.

The most interesting friendship to me is Amber and Emerald. Peaches and Barley are the closest of friends and are inseparable. This makes perfect sense to me though because they have been together since they hatched and together in my flock from six weeks old. They always perch together, dust bath together and perch next to each other at bedtime.

Amber and Emerald though have just become friends over time. They are often sat together during the day and nearly always perch together at bedtime. Often when they sit together they are a little apart from the rest of the flock and at bedtime they often choose the lowest right hand perch which has just enough space for the two of them.

Amber and Emerald always sit together

Amber and Emerald always sit together

This little perch also only has room for two and seems to be their favourite. Amber is number four in the pecking order and bottom of her pair (Honey and Amber) and Emerald is number six in the pecking order and also bottom of her pair (Toffee and Emerald). Honey and Amber are friendly but Amber does seem to seek out Emerald to sit with and Honey and Amber rarely perch together at bedtime.

Toffee and Emerald who joined the flock together have nothing at all to do with each other and Toffee will chase Emerald away. Toffee is a loner and doesn’t seek out anyone to sit with but will randomly perch where ever she can fit in.

This is the favourite daytime perch

This is the favourite daytime perch

This perch is the one most used and as usual Peaches and Barley are next to each other. Honey is on the left, then Peaches, then Barley, then Toffee and Sparkle on the right. You can see Amber and Emerald in the background on the other side of the weld mesh.

I love seeing these friendships in the flock and love that all the girls have such different characters. They are often grouped together and are very much a flock despite Topaz being rather grumpy and Toffee being a bit of a loner.

Ian also got to see Jackie’s new girls and I know Jackie’s flock will help her by giving her something to focus on and take some comfort from. This has been a difficult post to write but I wanted to honour Ian and his love of chickens too. My heart goes out to Jackie and she knows that I will be there for her if she needs me.

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Topaz has started laying again

Topaz was the first girl to start her moult after her broody spell. She is the first to get her red comb back and for the last few weeks she has been practising laying. She goes into a nest box, swirls around, sits for anything up to an hour then comes out shouting.

Every time I check there is no egg. Topaz has always done a lot of practise laying. Peaches and Barley both laid an egg six days ago and none since. They have slowed down from every other day to an egg each once a week.

On Sunday Topaz was in the right hand little coop but we didn’t hear her shouting as usual. When I checked the little coop there was an egg and it looked a little larger than Peaches or Barley’s egg but as we had eaten their eggs for breakfast that morning I didn’t have one to compare it with. I decided to wait until we got another egg before I jumped to conclusions.

Today Topaz was in the right hand little coop again and this time she did come out shouting. There was another egg in the right hand little coop the same size as the one on Sunday. Hurrah, Topaz is laying again.

A shop bought medium sized egg on the left and Topaz's two eggs on the right

A shop bought medium sized egg on the left and Topaz’s two eggs on the right

Maybe Topaz is going to lay properly this year. Well done Topaz!

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Jackie has new girls

Jackie has been trying to make up her mind for ages if the time is right for getting new girls. Finally she had made up her mind and we arranged to go and collect them this morning.

We set off on our adventure with my dog crate and our cameras to Willow Court Farm where Jackie got her new girls at this time last year. Jackie was thinking of getting a ginger and a bluebell but when we arrived the farmer said the only hybrids ready for sale at the moment were the ginger girls. They are warrens crossed with columbian blacktails.

As ginger girls have always been a favourite of Jackie’s she was happy to take two of them.

Ginger Chickens

Ginger Chickens

Jackie with the first ginger girl to be caught

Jackie with the first ginger girl to be caught

Two ginger girls ready for the journey home

Two ginger girls ready for the journey home

The farm has a variety of animals as well as poultry.

The pigs

The pigs

A young goat

A young goat

Some very friendly goats

Some very friendly goats

A Peacocks and hen just out of the photo

A Peacocks and hen just out of the photo

Holiday homes for chickens

Holiday homes for chickens

The farm also a offers a holiday service. They will look after your hens in these holiday homes while you are away and they worm them during their stay here.

The new girls in their new home

The new girls in their new home

The girls went into their new home happily and soon found the food bowl and the water. Jackie had already picked out names for them. She is calling one Ruby as it is her ruby wedding anniversary this year and the other April a it is her birthday in April. I thought these were pretty names. One of the girls is darker than the other so Jackie decided the darker one will be Ruby and the lighter one will be April.

Ruby and April

Ruby and April

I stayed a while and the other girls were chatting about the new girls but not shouting. It all seemed to go very well.

Jackie e-mailed me this evening and said that they were noisy for a while this afternoon but it calmed down again and once the old girls went to bed Jackie put the new girls in their temporary coop. As Jackie said tomorrow is another day and she will keep me posted.

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Today we changed the tarpaulin from blue to clear

Due to my total frustration with the extended part of the run being constantly wet we bought the only tarpaulin we could find locally which was blue and put it over the run extension.

That was eight days ago and until then Peaches and Barley had laid an egg every other day like clockwork. During the last eight days that the blue tarpaulin has been over the run laying had ceased with just one egg from Peaches half way through the eight day period.

I hated the lack of light in the run, the girls spent a lot less time in the newer part and egg laying had ceased. Time to go on line (Steve, I know what you are thinking!).

Yesterday the clear tarpaulin that I had ordered arrived and at lunch time today we changed the blue tarpaulin for the clear tarpaulin.

The run looks so much better with the clear tarpaulin over the top

The run looks so much better with the clear tarpaulin over the top

The view from the original part of the run

The view from the original part of the run

The view from the extended part of the run

The view from the extended part of the run

The run is a lot lighter and when I returned an hour later I found Barley missing on parade. I checked in the nest boxes just as she was standing over her warm egg.

Barley has just laid her egg

Barley has just laid her egg

The light level makes such a difference as this is Barley’s first egg in eight days. An hour later I checked the nest boxes again and there was an egg from Peaches.

I am amazed at how much difference the light makes and I am so much happier now that we have changed the tarpaulin. Lesson learned and I will never use anything but clear in future.

On another note Topaz, who moulted first after her broody spell, has a lovely red comb and wattles and has been having a practice at laying for the last week. She goes into the nest box, twirls around, sits a while, then comes out shouting but there is no egg. She always did like to practice a lot. I think she really might start laying soon!

Maybe with more light in the run now Topaz may finally get started with laying some eggs. Watch this space!

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Blossom looks beautiful

Today was a good day because I got an update on all three of my re-homed girls on the same day.

My husband went to the farm where Pepper and Dotty now live, to collect our disposables for our catering business, but also to look in on Pepper and Dotty.

Last time we saw them they were going through the moult but today they looked great. They had all their feathers back in including Dotty’s head feathers and Pepper’s fluffy bottom. My husband said Pepper was still looking fatter than Dotty, just like she always did, so she is obviously doing well.

He said next time he goes for disposables he will take our camera and get some photos of them but I am happy that he saw them looking good and looking happy.

Jackie and I also had our first catch up since the Christmas holiday and Blossom, formerly Bluebell, is looking beautiful with all her feathers back in and her little head crest returned to its former glory.

Blossom takes some corn from Jackie

Blossom takes some corn from Jackie

Blossom is looking good

Blossom is looking good

She has her full crest feathers

She has her full head crest

Blossom is looking fabulous

Blossom is looking fabulous

Four fluffy bottoms

Four fluffy bottoms

Four beautiful girls

Four beautiful girls

Jackie and I are so pleased with how beautiful our flocks are looking and we once again agreed that the moment when Jackie said she would adopt Bluebell, now Blossom, was a real turning point for my flocks development. I wondered what would have happened had I not met Jackie when I did and she very wisely said that we all have these cross roads in our lives that set us on a different path.

I am just happy that everything has turned out so well and we both have a lovely flock and a lovely friendship too.

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Warm mash on a frosty morning

This morning was cold and frosty so I decided to give the girls a treat of a dish of warm mash. This is just their regular pellets made into a mush with warm water. It’s great because they are eating their normal food but it’s a treat to them as it has a different texture which they seem to love.

I used to use several small dishes to allow them all to get some but I now find that one large dish of mash works well. Toffee and Emerald are the most shy about pushing in to get some but as soon as the other girls have had some and move away from the dish Toffee and Emerald move in.

The girls keep coming back to the dish throughout the morning and by lunch time it’s all gone.

Warm mash on a frosty morning

Warm mash on a frosty morning

The girls love the mash

The girls love the mash

This is good

This is good

Yummy

Yummy

The reason Emerald isn’t in the last two photos is because I was standing next to the store cupboard to take the photos. Emerald was soon on top of the store cupboard just in case there were going to be other treats on offer.

They never miss a trick where the treats are concerned.

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A theory about Amber’s egg laying problem

Last year Honey and Amber started laying again in February. This has got me thinking about Amber’s egg lay problem.

This is pure theory but Amber has always been smaller and lighter than Honey and I often think of her in terms of being the runt of the litter. Amber has also always been a different shape to Honey. She has a little bump on her back which I wonder if this is a slight deformity of her spine. Don’t get me wrong, I have always thought her small size and different shape make her unique and makes her look cute. I have always thought she was prettier than Honey.

I wonder though if this has any bearing on her difficulty laying eggs. I did some research and when I found a diagram showing both the skeleton of a chicken and the internal organs of a chicken I found that directly below Amber’s little bump are her ovaries.

I wonder if this has some bearing on her difficulty with her eggs as she always begins to look unwell the day before she lays her egg and as an egg takes approximately twenty five hours from the start of it’s journey to being laid she may feel unwell at the start of the eggs journey. Maybe if the egg is slow getting started on it’s journey this may be why the shell is often not properly formed.

This is all speculation on my part and we will never know for sure but we have always thought that there is something not quite right with her egg laying machinery and I do wonder if the bump on her back is connected to this.

It’s difficult to show in a photograph but the photo below is the best I could get to try to show this. The bump is where her collection of speckles are on her back.

Amber's little bump

Amber’s little bump

Honey's smoother shape

Honey’s smoother shape

When I have looked at photos of vorwerks Honey is the recognised shape. None of this theorising changes anything for her but I do wonder if it could explain it.

Honey and Amber are looking so good with their new feathers and both have developed speckles on their breasts where before there were none.

Honey's speckled breast

Honey’s speckled breast

Amber's speckled breast

Amber’s speckled breast

I am hoping that Amber may struggle less this year because she has no stress now. She isn’t bullied and isn’t having her feathers pulled. She is also in the middle of the pecking order being number four of eight so is in a good place now. I hope this might help her.

Another interesting thing is looking back at the the egg records. In 2013 Honey and Amber started to lay in May. Honey laid 52 eggs and Amber laid 31.

In 2014 they started to lay in February. Honey laid 97 and Amber 35.

If you take into consideration the extra three months laying in their second year it means Honey has been pretty consistent over the two years whereas Amber’s egg laying is still very low.

Again don’t get me wrong I don’t want Amber laying more eggs. As far as I am concerned the less the better and I would be happy if she never laid eggs again but it interesting to look at all the facts.

Amber is so well over the winter, while not laying, that I dread her starting to lay again. We have thought we were going to lose Amber so many times right from when we first had her and she first started laying but she is feisty and keeps bouncing back.

I just hope she will continue to bounce back and maybe she will surprise us and live a long life. I know that I will be making the most of having her in the flock for as long as possible. Only time will tell but she is a sweet little girl with a big character.

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