Carol's Chickens

For the last few days Peaches has been jumping on my back whenever I stoop down. Today Barley joined in as well. Every time I went in to poop pick they followed me around and kept jumping on my back. They especially seem to like it when I am near the ladder as they jump from the ladder to my back and back to the ladder repeatedly.

I decided to see if my husband could capture this on camera.

Barley on my back

Barley is interested in my hair

They both like to gently tweak my hair. Maybe they are intrigued that I have hair instead of feathers.

Because I wasn’t quite in the same position as when poop picking Peaches tried to jump on too but slid off (I wasn’t bent over enough to give her more of my back). You can see her in the background at the water.

When I was bent fully over by the ladder they both jumped on me at the same time so we may try to get a photo of that another day.

I wonder what makes them want to do this. I love it though as I enjoy them interacting with me.

The funny thing is my big girls used to do this. But when they were chicks I would sit on my little chair on their patio area and they started by jumping on my lap then my arms, shoulder and back and sometimes even my head (not ideal).

The little girls never did this though so although I spend as much time with them as I can I never bothered sitting on the little chair. I instinctively knew they wouldn’t sit on my lap. This makes me wonder why these two are the only ones of the little girls to do this. I wonder if it because I got them younger (only six weeks old) or if it is just their nature.

Whatever it is it makes me smile. As I have said before it is all on their own terms. They run to me, they follow me, they like to get on eye level with me and now they like to jump on me and peck at my cloths or tweak my hair but they do not want me to touch them. If I were to reach out to them they would be off.

It’s fine by me though. The fact that they don’t want to be touched makes it all the more special that they want to touch me.

Barley’s comb is flopping further over now and is definitely to the right whereas Peaches flops to the left. I am actually really pleased with this unexpected development as it now means I can tell them apart instantly and when they are not together. It’s also quite nice just having one of each.

Peaches left flopping comb

Barley’s right flopping comb

Right and left flopping combs together

So we can easily tell that Peaches is on the left of the photo and Barley on the right standing on the block with Toffee getting in on the act in the background.

Peaches is the more bold of the two and has just found a new game of jumping on my back when I am crouched down.

A few days ago she was on the storage cabinet and I was stooped cleaning a splat from the patio when she jumped from the cabinet to my back. I thought that she was probably just using me as stepping stone down from the cabinet.

But today when I was bent over poop picking the run she jumped on my back three times. When I returned later to take the photos of their combs I crouched down to get on their level and she jumped on my back again.

She has also taken to pecking at my dress or skirt especially if it has a bright pattern. I love this interaction with her as I know that none of my girls like to be picked up or stroked (it’s okay to touch them if they are “helping me” clean up and I have to move them out of my way) but I like that they come to me on their own terms.

Other news today is that after five weeks of not laying Amber laid a soft shelled egg again today. I only know this because she had been more vocal for the last few days which she always does when an egg is due and she had sat in the nest box for a while but didn’t lay.

Then at lunch time when I returned from my deliveries I found wet patches on the patio that turned out to be egg yolk and egg white when I wiped them up and I found the remnants of a thin shell in the run. The good news though is that Amber no longer looks unwell when about to lay so I am thankful that she looks so good at the moment.

With eggs so thin on the ground at the moment it’s a shame that we never get Amber’s egg but I am sure the girl’s enjoyed it. I think she probably laid it from the coop roof and it fell to the patio and smashed. This isn’t the first time this has happened.

Luckily they have never attempted to eat a properly shelled egg but a broken one is of course just too tempting. I don’t think Amber will ever lay properly but after two years of this I am just thankful that she is still with us and she seems happy and is no longer looking unwell before laying so I am content with that.

For the last few days Topaz has been going into the nest box as if practising egg laying again. This is exactly the same procedure she went through weeks before laying the few eggs that she did.

Given that she has just come out of being broody and is now half way through moulting it seems very unlikely that she will start laying eggs just yet. Has anyone told her that though!

Topaz in the nest box

Topaz is looking scruffy

She has lost the feathers around her face

Does my tattered Topaz really think she is ready to lay eggs! It seems that while being so far, next to useless at egg laying, my princess still thinks she could lay an egg. I wonder if this girl is a bit deluded!

I feel like I am becoming obsessed with Peaches and Barley’s combs at the moment but a comb is such a good way of recognizing a chicken. In fact it is thought chickens of the same breed will recognise each other by their combs.

Honey and Amber used to look as similar to each other as Peaches and Barley do now but today a glance at their combs would set them apart even if nothing else did.

Peaches comb flops to the left

Barley’s comb looks as if it may flop to the right

It may be too early to tell yet but Barley’s comb does have a very slight curve to the right at the moment.

I would love it if their combs flopped opposite ways as I would easily be able to identify them.

I wonder if there is a common way for their combs to flop. I wonder if it’s like being right handed and is more likely one way than the other but not impossible to flop either way or is it fifty fifty. It’s something I haven’t thought about before but will do some research.

My Bluebell (adopted by Jackie and now re-named Blossom) is a chalk hill blue and her comb flops to the right.

This seems to suggest it is possible that Barley’s may also flop to the right. I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts on this.

As far as Barley is concerned only time will tell. Watch this space.

For about four days I was picking up loads of feathers from Topaz but it now seems to have slowed right down. It seems that maybe she is going to moult in waves whereas Emerald and Toffee lost feathers every day then suddenly seem to be fully feathered again.

Topaz lost so many that her neck became bare but a few days later I could see the pin feathers coming in.

Topaz has pin feathers coming through on her neck

Another view of Topaz’s pin feathers

It’s difficult to catch her with her head up to photograph her neck but the little white lines are the quills poking through (ouch!).

Emerald looks good after her moult

Emerald is looking sleek and her feathers have a lovely green sheen (hence her name).

Toffee is also looking good after her moult

Toffee from the front showing her lovely breast markings

I can’t wait to get them all through the moult and have them all looking beautiful again. Some eggs would also be an added bonus.

Today the chicks, I must stop calling them that as they are no longer chicks, were sparring again. They raise their ruffs, circle each other, then in turn aim mock pecks at each other. I grabbed my camera as I would love a shot of this. As usual it was impossible though because as soon as I walked through the gate they ran over to me, sparring all forgotten.

They came up close so I couldn’t resist a few more shots of their combs. They then ran to a bit of apple together and straight from that to the water together. It’s so funny to see them sparring one minute then so in unison the next minute doing something else.

I think they are such close pair and they love to do everything together but the pecking order still has to be sorted. They are well aware that the two of them are at the bottom and have no need to do anything other than be submissive or mostly just get out of the way of the other girls. But between themselves they need to sort out which one is actually at the bottom. It seemed pretty even today.

Look at my floppy comb

Look at my huge wattles

Look at my upright comb

We should have a quick peck at this bit of apple despite it being covered in dirt

We should just have a quick drink of water

At the moment it’s easy to tell them apart as Peaches comb has flopped and Barley’s hasn’t yet. It won’t be so easy for long I think.

Only a few days ago I was speculating whether Peaches and Barley would have floppy combs. In just a few days they have gone from upright to starting to flop.

Peaches comb is starting to flop

Barley has one prong leaning while the rest is still straight up

Peaches face and comb are starting to get the leghorn look

In fact her beak and proud chest all have that typical leghorn look now. My girls are maturing.

For the last few mornings I have been picking up Topaz’s feathers from the coop. After two weeks broody she has been back to normal for less than a week before going into the moult.

It seems like Topaz is determined not to lay eggs. She has laid a total of five eggs in five months. She laid three in June then took a month off then laid two before going broody and now straight into the moult.

In this same time span Sparkle has laid eighty eggs. I had both wyndottes at the same time (5th April) and they are about the same age.

I was talking to my next door neighbour about her yesterday and she said that Topaz was my princess and is so beautiful that she doesn’t need to lay eggs as well.

For the last few mornings I have been finding a handful of feathers in the coup but Topaz didn’t appear to look any different.

Topaz’s feathers in the coop

They are so beautiful. I found a handful under the perch and a few in the run. An hour later when I went back I saw feathers where she had had a dust bath.

Topaz’s dust bath

Topaz is now losing feathers quicker than the game birds were. She shook herself in front of me and another handful fluttered from her.

I collected the next wave of feathers from the run

This is just from this morning and Topaz is now beginning to show where her feathers are coming out.

Topaz is just beginning to show her missing feathers

Topaz is now looking slightly ruffled

I am surprised she doesn’t look worse than this considering how many feathers I have picked up today. It seems like topaz’s moult is going to be fast.

I wonder if when this is over she will get into her stride with some egg laying. I guess that remains to be seen.

We got Peaches and Barley at six weeks old and they are now fifteen weeks old. They have changed so much that I had to look back at them as chicks to remind myself how they looked then. I took the photo below when we had had them a week.

Peaches and Barley at seven weeks old

Peaches and Barley at fifteen weeks old

I always consider that they are truly fully grown up once they start to lay eggs but in appearance I think these two are pretty grown up now.

I was expecting their combs to flop over but I have been looking at photos of bantam brown leghorns and some have a floppy comb and some have an upright comb. I think we will just have to wait and see. I love their spiky combs and would be quite happy to see them stay upright. They will be beautiful either way.

This afternoon we heard all the chooks shouting. This often happens when their is a cat in the garden and we went up to see what was going on.

To my surprise Peaches was stood on the table shouting. Up until now the chicks have only made a squeaking sound but there she was stood up proudly and very loudly shouting “boc boc BOC – boc boc BOC”

A few seconds later Barley joined in. It was if she thought that anything Peaches could do she could do too. With that the whole flock joined in and there was an enormous din as all eight were shouting.

I decided to distract them with them some corn.

Once they had hoovered up the corn Peaches and Barley settled on a perch together.

Peaches and Barley perching together

They are so alike

Peaches is the furthest away in the photo. I only know that because when I stood behind them I could see that peaches is slightly bigger than Barley although Barley looks bigger in the photo because she is nearer.

I am hoping that as they mature their faces will be different. When Honey and Amber were this age I could only tell them apart because Honey was bigger than Amber but as they grew up they looked more and more different and now their faces are completely different. It’s hard to imagine that, with these two at the moment, but I am sure they will look less alike as they grow up.

I only hope they don’t turn out to be too noisy for the sake of the neighbours. They were certainly very loud today but I think they were just practising their new voices.