Carol's Chickens

Honey has now lost her last tail feather.

Honey has now lost her tail

Honey’s head and neck are now feathered

Honey just has a few more pins to open on the back of her neck.

Amber had already lost her tail

Amber’s neck pins are a bit behind Honey’s

Emerald seems to be back to normal

Emerald is still gaping occasionally but it is getting less now. She seems back to normal in every other way and is eating pellets as usual now.

I don’t think it was gape worm as it is quite rare and I never saw any worms but I think that the antibiotic helped whatever was wrong with her throat. I guess I will never know for certain but I hope she is now recovered and that it won’t be a problem again.

About this time last year I saw a pretty jug with chickens on in our local garden centre. I really liked it and thought it would make a lovely vase but it was expensive (over priced we thought). I didn’t feel justified in buying it. I looked at it each time we visited the garden centre but still couldn’t bring myself to buy it.

Yesterday we went out to look around the shops as we had an unusually quiet afternoon. We saw the same chicken jug in a high street shop at half the price. We decided it was fate and I was meant to have it.

We stopped and bought some flowers on our way home.

My chicken vase

I am now feeling really pleased with my purchase. Some things are just meant to be!

Topaz seemed to have half a moult and then stop. I thought that that was it and maybe she was done for this year. I was wrong.

This morning, at first light, I opened up the nest box and this was what I found.

A pile of Topaz’s feathers in the nest box

I took the nest box off and this was what was in the coop underneath the nest box.

An explosion of Topaz’s feathers

I think this is the most feathers I have seen in one go. The strange thing is that Topaz doesn’t look any different this morning.

Topaz doesn’t look like she has just dropped that many feathers

It is odd how they all moult so differently. I think Topaz must have had her new feathers underneath because the coop looks like there has been an explosion in there and yet Topaz looks as good as ever.

Sparkle hasn’t laid an egg for five days now so I think she has now stopped laying. I am finding just a few feathers each day from her. If she is going to lose as many feathers as Topaz she has a long way still to go but they do all seem to moult in their own unique way.

Topaz and Toffee have finished their moult and look pristine again. Emerald looks like she has finished but I am still finding some of her feathers in the coop each morning and when I pick her at bedtime I can feel her pins.

Peaches and Barley have had their partial baby moult and have their adult feathers now.

Honey and Amber’s pins are opening up and Honey has one tail feather remaining while Amber has lost her tail.

Sparkle has pins opening on her bottom and I can feel her pin feathers when I pick her up at bedtime. She is still laying a few eggs a week though.

My husband put a little shelf up for my new boots under the shoe box so they don’t get pooped on.

A shelf for my boots

Of course nothing in this run is really just mine though.

Barley finds my boot shelf

Barley is my most interactive girl and if I point the camera she will always jump in front for a photo and if I stoop over at all she will always jump on my back.

Peaches with her floppier comb

Honey’s neck feathers are almost complete

Honey still has one last tail feather

Amber’s neck feathers are a bit behind Honey’s but she is getting there

Amber has lost all her tail feathers but the new ones were coming in underneath

Sparkle’s pins are coming on

Topaz looks good

Toffee looks good

Emerald’s feathers look good but her face is still very pale

Emerald is still gaping five weeks after she started but she is behaving normally in every other way and I think she is gaping less. I hope it will continue to get less often until it stops altogether.

Peaches and Barley share a dust bath

This is off topic but was just too cute to miss. They had a great time together and were practically on top of each other. They are such a tight pair.

I actually feel quite excited about the girls getting their feathers in after this moult because it will be the first time in nearly a year that Honey and Amber have had neck and head feathers and this time they will get to keep them.

I really hope never to have a feather pulling problem again and it will be just wonderful to have my whole flock looking beautiful again.

I have had my leather boots for years and they are definitely at the end of their life. They are worn away and letting in water. The quest began to find a new pair for this winter.

It’s a job I hate because I have wide feet and it’s always difficult to find something comfortable. After trying on loads of boots I finally found a pair that I think will be okay once I’ve worn them in a bit.

At this point we saw a pair of ankle wellington boots for ten pounds. Aha, we both thought, these would be good for the chicken run. I bought a pair in a size larger than usual so that they are really easy to slip on and off, with or without socks (I am still wearing flip flops at the moment).

My husband gets fed up of the mud I tread over the patio and path so I intend to keep my new boots clean and change into my chicken boots once through the run gate.

Chicken run boots

They are even a bit trendy with their gold bows. I am sure the girls will soon be pecking at the bows as they love anything shiny and I am also sure these boots will never be seen this shiny again.

Today I intend to dig the run over and give my new boots a test drive.

Sparkle is the last of the girls to moult and is only losing a few feathers at a time. She is also the only one still laying a few eggs a week. Finally she has a few pin feathers on her bare bottom.

Sparkle

Sparkle has some pin feathers on her bare bottom

Topaz has a lovely fluffy bottom

Topaz is looking pristine after her moult. On the right hand side of this photo you can see the one remaining, ragged tail feather on Honey. Honey and Amber will lose their tails any day now. I can’t wait to see all the girls fully feathered again.

A few times today we found Topaz in the hypericum bush. She would climb in from the table, head first, and try to reach the leaves higher up the bush. Peaches and Barley were either side of her waiting to see if any leaves fell.

Topaz has a new trick

Coming down

Who me!

I’m leaving the table

I don’t know how she knew I was there but as soon as I snapped the first photo she turned round and jumped out of the bush. She gave me her innocent look and casually left the table.

Emerald today

Emerald has now finished her second course of flubenvet. She is still gaping but she is eating, drinking, pooping, preening, scratching and dust bathing. She is eating pellets again which I think is a good sign.

I talked to the vet again yesterday. I showed him the photo of Emerald gaping and updated him. He is as mystified as I am. We both feel that if it was gape worm she would have responded to the worming treatment and he felt if it was a throat infection she would have responded to the antibiotic.

He said if it was an obstruction in her throat she would have difficulty swallowing and breathing and if it was a fungal infection in her throat she would also have difficulty breathing. He said the only thing he can suggest is to give it time and see what happens.

I know that if a chicken stops eating there is a serious problem but the encouraging thing is that she is eating. I just know that the gaping is not right and I still worry that we may lose her.

At the moment she is still happy and eating well so we can only wait and hope. It has been nearly a month now. I have grown so close to her as I have been hand feeding and medicating her. She stays close to me when I am cleaning the coop or go to the store cabinet in case I might slip her some extra corn or sunflower hearts. She has cottoned on to her special treatment. She was also waiting on the table this morning for me to give her the grape with flubenvet but was disappointed.

I am just willing her to get over this as she is beautiful and funny and endearing. I just can’t bare the thought of losing her. I can’t do any more than I have though. I will keep a close eye to make sure she continues to eat and will have just to give it time now.

Honey and Amber’s pin feathers are rapidly growing on their head and neck. I can’t wait to see them with their necks feathered at last.

Honey and Amber have lots of pin feathers on their head and neck

It looks like they will soon have feathered necks at last

On the photo above you can see where Honey, on the left, has had a peck to her comb and above her eye from Honey and Amber’s last spat. Honey has maintained her position above Amber though.

Close up of Amber’s neck

Close up of Honey’s neck

You can see one of Honey’s pins just starting to open into a little black feather. These girls will soon look beautiful again.

I wanted to show how Honey and Amber’s pin feathers are really coming along now but somehow when moulting the girls seem to have a loss of confidence and every time I got close to them they would turn away. I decided to take the photos when they are perched up tonight before bedtime and post about it tomorrow.

My resident poser however was only too pleased to have her photo taken. Not only had she photo bombed a few shots when I was trying to photograph Honey and Amber but she posed in the apple tree right in front of me and I just couldn’t resist.

Barley in the apple tree

I love how she has dirt on the end of her beak and her wattles from pecking around in the soil. She is a great poser but maybe not a show girl.

Peaches

You can’t really have one without the other.

Emerald

Emerald is a few days from completing the next seven days of flubenvet. She is still gaping but not so much. She is still not her usual self but she is dust bathing and preening. I am still hand feeding her as I have only seen her go to the pellets occasionally and very briefly. I think it is going to take time to get her back to normal. I still worry about her but am staying positive, as although very slowly, I think she is improving slightly. It’s been three weeks since she first started gaping.

Her face is very pale but it has always been very pale so it isn’t easy to judge her by that. She still feels strong when I pick her up at bedtime. I think it is going to be a waiting game and we have to just hang in there.

Last night when I went up to put the chickens to bed just after dusk I shone my torch on the path as I went so as not to stand on any slugs or snails. Lucky I did as there on the path in front of me was a toad struggling with a large worm.

It was so involved with it’s worm that it didn’t take any notice of me or my torch. I decided to head back inside and grab my camera.

I didn’t get close up as it was awkward shining the torch (it was now completely dark) and holding the camera and trying not to alarm it.

A toad with a worm under it’s right foreleg

It’s difficult to see but that is the worm under the right elbow. The toad is holding it down while the other end is in it’s mouth.

The toad struggles to get the worm down

It was contorting itself while trying get the worm down. Oddly enough this reminded me a bit of the chickens. Topaz sometimes pecks off a too big bit of grape and she holds her wings up to try to push it down. I do tell her not to swallow big bits but of course it falls on deaf ears.

The worm has almost gone

I moved round to the front of the toad

The worm has almost gone

The worm has gone

Once the worm had gone the toad ambled away. That was an unexpected interlude on my way up to the girls.