Carol's Chickens

We have now had four months of continual rain. I have never known rain like this in my lifetime and they are saying in the newspapers that the south of England is having the wettest year since records began. They are also forecasting more to come for weeks yet.

All the areas around are experiencing flooding and a lot of roads are closed. Other parts of the country have much worse floods with many homes flooded and I feel so sorry for them.

The woodland near us is under water and it is creeping over the road. I decided to take my camera with me today when we went out to do some chores and try to capture some of the scenes I drive past every day.

I was stood out in very heavy rain while I took these first photos.

Beyond the road

The woodland in Wooburn Green

The woods

Woodland and flooded road

Driving to Slough (I was the passenger of course)

All the surrounding roads are like this and many are closed

A cul-de-sac in Bourne End

There were ducks swimming in the cul-de-sac but my camera ran out battery before I captured them

The river levels are going up and down but the woodland areas are remaining under water because the ground is so saturated that the water has no where to go. It will be a long time before everything gets back to normal. We are lucky compared to other parts of the country and my heart goes out to those flooded out of their homes.

It seems there is always something going on with the girls. This morning when I went in to clean the coop there was a broken soft shelled banty egg in the doorway and Bluebell was pecking at it.

I moved Bluebell away and removed the egg to the bin. I assumed it was Amber’s as she laid soft shelled eggs when she first started laying, Honey’s first egg after her moult, a few days ago was fine.

This turned out to be the case as Honey laid an egg in the nest box later this morning and Bluebell also laid her egg in the little coop.

A bit of history, Amber has always struggled with her eggs and I was hoping that when she resumed laying after her moult she may have grown out of this.

Her first two eggs in June were wind eggs. They were tiny, the size of marbles, and had no yolk. Her third and fourth egg were soft shelled but her fifth egg was normal. Her sixth egg was soft shelled just at one end and her seventh egg was her second normal egg.

After this she always seemed to look unwell when she was about to lay but her eggs were normal from then on. At the time I mixed limestone flour with their mash to help make stronger egg shells. I did the same thing today and will continue to do so untill her eggs are normal. Amber doesn’t seem to go to the grit like the other girls do so I wonder if this is part of her problem.

After Honey laid her egg she returned to sit in the nest box. At first I thought perhaps she hadn’t realised that she had laid her egg already as this has happened with both the little girls in the past. But this time she stayed in the nest box all afternoon.

This is a dangerous behaviour because Bluebell doesn’t like the little girls being in the nest box and she went in and pecked Honey’s comb a couple of times and made it bleed. I find this so frustrating.

An hour before bedtime when I give the girls some corn, Honey was still in the nest box. I lifted her out and set her down then sprinkled some corn in front of her and threw some out in the garden area as usual for the other girls. Bluebell came and gave her comb another peck much to my annoyance.

Honey ate her corn, went into the garden to poop then returned to the nest box. Oh dear, does this mean she is broody! Being broody can be difficult enough but when it’s one of the bantys they risk the extra disadvantage of being pecked by Bluebell.

I suppose I will have to wait to see what tomorrow brings to be able to tell if she really is broody but I really hope not.

Every morning when I clean up the coop the little girls come into the coop and watch me. They spend the whole of my clean up time in the coop inspecting my work and chatting away to me. Sometimes I have to gently move their feet with my hand to complete my task.

When Bluebell misses laying an egg for a day she always goes into the nest box to lay her egg first thing in the morning. The little girls desire to be in the coop with me is so strong that on these mornings they risk the wrath of Bluebell. The ensuing commotion always brings Pepper in to check out what is going on. The little girls get swift pecks from Bluebell and Pepper but it doesn’t stop them hopping straight back into the coop.

I decided to take my camera with me this morning and see if I could capture the drama.

I pick up the poop using a plastic disposable glove and collect it in a plastic grape container. Being in catering we have a constant supply of these two items and I can just throw them away afterwards. I only mention this because my gloved hand appears in the photo when I am blocking Pepper from pecking Amber.

I took the photos with my left hand while blocking both Bluebell and Pepper from pecking the little girls with my right gloved hand so it’s surprising how well the photos came out.

An angry Bluebell chases Amber out of the coop

Amber dares to go into the nest box

My gloved hand is stopping Pepper from pecking Amber

Bluebell wants to lay her egg and Honey stands in the foreground

Amber is in the foreground

The little girls know that when Bluebell or Pepper are blocking the door they are safe to run out past me through the open side. They get chased out and simply hop right back in. Dotty came over and jumped onto the coop roof. She was craning her neck down to watch as if wondering what on earth we are all doing.

On the days that Bluebell doesn’t need to lay her early egg the little girls are free to stay in the coop and chat to me. Sometimes Bluebell or Pepper will look in to see what they are doing but this mornings drama only happens on the early egg days. It does nothing to put the little girls off though. These little girls are so full of character and attitude. They are so entertaining and so much fun to be around.

I have contemplated adding sand to the run because it’s so wet after so much continued rain. The amount we would need to make a difference would be an awful lot of sand and impossible to carry up to the run so I rejected the idea. Besides it has to stop raining eventually doesn’t it!

The middle strip of the run is the only part that stays dry enough for the girls to dust bath in, but even though I dig it over all the time the soil has diminished to a couple of inches of loose soil there. Usually I would top up with soil from other parts of the run or the garden but there is nothing dry to add. I decided to compromise by buying the smallest bag of sand I could (which was only £1.80) and add that to the dust bath area. Even the smallest bag was pretty heavy!

I cleaned the run, dug it over and added the sand to the dry middle area. I sprinkled a few sunflower hearts in to the mix to get the girls scratching.

I have added sand to top up the girls dust bathing area

The girls inspect the sand

Honey is missing from these pictures because she has gone into the nest box.

Honey in the nest box

Honey stayed in there for half the afternoon. Later in the afternoon there was honey’s first egg since her moult after a four month break. Well done Honey.

Bluebell’s egg is on the left, Pepper’s egg is in the middle and Honey’s egg is on the right

The egg famine is over. Dotty has stopped laying at the moment, Bluebell never stopped, Pepper and Honey have started again and I am sure Amber will start too. The photo isn’t very good because the light indoors takes out all the colour, Bluebell’s egg is really blue. Usually I take my egg photos outside on the patio table as daylight is much better but it didn’t stop raining for one moment today so I wasn’t able to do that.

The girls had taken a dust bath this morning so I will need to wait until tomorrow to see if they like their topped up dust bathing area. I am sure they will appreciate it.

Last night we sprayed the bare skin on Bluebell’s neck with the blue spray to cover the redness. She wasn’t very happy about it and I felt bad.

However this morning she was her normal self and laid her blue egg first thing. At bed time she was as eager as usual for me to pick her up and put her in the coop. I love the way chickens don’t bare a grudge. It seems that I am forgiven or it’s been forgotten.

Blue Bluebell

Whether it does any good or not remains to be seen but it can’t do any harm and at least I feel we have done something. I think Blue suits Bluebell.

I don’t know why the girls are so fascinated with my feet and my boots but they do tend to follow them, stick close to them and peck at them, why, I have no idea! Sometimes I wonder why they see no danger. I could step on them and have to be very careful not to do so.

The little girls have a fascination with my boots

Because the little girls were paying such attention, Pepper had to come and see what the fuss was about.

The little girls like to peck at my boots

The little girls do this every day, they follow my feet and they peck at my boots. Why do they do this! I like to think they just enjoy being close to me. It is just one of the many things they do that brings them close to me.

When I sweep up in the evening the little girls jump on the nest box part of the coop while I sweep that corner. I look up and am eye to eye with them. I carry on sweeping and one of the little girls  will reach out and tweak a strand of my hair. It is so funny that these little girls don’t want to be touched yet really like to touch me. They like to get close on their own terms and have no fear that I might tread on them, yet I know they don’t want me to stroke them. They love to get close and will walk over my hands and feet and will peck my cloths and my hair but they don’t want me to touch them.

They are getting bolder all the time with their interactions with me and stick close to me whenever I am in the run. They get on eye level when ever they can and they watch me from inside the coop when I clean up in the mornings. Yet I know they don’t want me to stroke them or attempt to pick them up. It is funny how they have developed so much close contact but it is completely on their comfort level.

When we first bought them home they used to move away from me when I cleaned up the run but now they move towards me and more than that they get as close to me as they  possibly can.

I just feel honoured that such skittish creatures allow me so much close contact. I love to see them peck my shoes, my fleece, my hair and occasionally my fingers. I am fine with close contact on their terms.

Pepper has finally finished her moult. I looked back at my egg records and both Dotty and Pepper stopped laying for two months while moulting. The bantys haven’t laid for four months now and Bluebell continued laying but is just laying less than during the summer.

I knew Pepper was getting ready to lay again as she was going to the grit and would squat down every time I got close to her.

Yesterday morning when I cleaned the coop Pepper came into the coop and sat in the nest box and was gently clucking. I felt certain she was going to lay. As the day went on she would shout for a while, go and sit in the nest box for a while, then come out again. Pepper has always taken ages to lay her eggs and during the heat of summer I used to worry about the length of time she spent in the nest box.

By the end of the day Pepper finally got her egg laid! Hurrah! We have two girls laying again. Dotty laid for a month after her moult then stopped again and hasn’t laid again for two weeks. She looks happy and healthy so I’m not worried.  This is the first big moult the girls have had so it’s all new to us.

I had wondered if hormones on the approach of egg laying again was effecting the girls and could be behind Amber and Honey scrapping. I think there may be something to this because with the approach of and the laying of Pepper’s first egg after her moult she has been more aggressive to the little girls. She is giving them a peck whenever they are near her whereas she is usually tolerant with them.

I have also found some feathers in the run which I think have been plucked. They are dominique feathers, Bluebell’s feathers and banty feathers so all of them have succumbed. I then noticed that Bluebell’s neck, which has been gradually getting more plucked, had some blood spot’s on the feathers.

Bluebell in turn has taken her aggression out on the little girls. When giving the bedtime corn I saw Bluebell grab Honey’s comb and hang on to her. Afterwards I noticed that Honey’s comb was bleeding. In my last post I said as long as there is no harm done I will try not to worry.

I decided that we should spray Bluebell’s neck with the blue spray at bedtime. This is antiseptic and covers any red so that it’s not a target for pecking.

Pepper is through her moult and is all feathered again.

Pepper looks back to her usual fat self. She felt lighter during the moult but is now back to normal and looks fatter than Dotty again. Her wattles are more red than they were but her face and comb are always paler than Dottys.

Dotty has a red comb and wattles but has stopped laying at the moment

Bluebell is looking quite tatty

Whereas the other girls dropped loads of feathers then grew them back, Bluebell has just lost a few at a time and is looking rather tatty.

Honey’s comb has blood on it after Bluebell pecked her

Bluebell’s neck has been plucked a bit more

At bedtime we let the little girls go in to the coop and the big girls line up on the coop roof. I put Pepper and Dotty in then held Bluebell while my husband sprayed her neck with the blue spray. I felt so sorry for her because she was so eager for me to pick her up then didn’t like the spray at all. I wondered if perhaps it stings but my husband said maybe it’s cold. I put her in the coop and felt horrible for doing this to her. If only we could tell them we do these things for their own good.

Hopefully by the morning she will have forgotten about it. Maybe I will take a photo of her blue neck. I only hope it helps her and reduces the pecking a bit.

I think my girls have shown some bad behaviour today but that’s just my opinion. As far as they are concerned their behaviour is perfectly fine.

It started when we had to go out and I went up and locked the chicken’s gate ready to leave. Pepper and Dotty were having a lovely dust bath together when I saw Pepper start plucking at Dotty’s neck feathers. I shouted at her but as I was outside of the run she took no notice of me.

The next minute the little girls had started scrapping again. I ran back to the house for the padlock keys and let myself back into the run. By now Dotty was on the branch perch, Pepper was looking innocent and the banty’s skirmish was over (much shorter and less aggressive than a few days ago).

We had to leave and I consoled myself with the knowledge that they probably do all these things when I am not there and there is nothing I can do about it.

I have done some research into the fighting and haven’t come across anyone else with girls fighting after being happy together most of the time. I am wondering if it is hormones. The first time the little girls scrapped like this was just before they both started to lay eggs last summer.

They haven’t laid since they began their moult four months ago but Honey’s comb has recently got much redder and she has been going to the grit for the last few days. Amber started laying a few weeks later than Honey in the summer but had been showing all the signs that she was getting ready.

I wonder if the fact they are getting ready to lay again has caused a rush of hormones and they are testing the pecking order. I also think it must be part of their breed, they are very feisty and full of attitude. Amber is definitely the top girl of these two.

Honey has a lovely red comb again

This photo shows that Amber has a bit missing from the top of her comb

Amber was always the most feisty and during the integration period with the big girls she had the top part of her comb pecked off.

I can’t imagine the big girls scrapping like these little girls do but I think there are probably many reasons for this. Pepper and Dotty (and Poppy) had been together with us from two months old but even before that they were kept together at the farm while I waited for them to be old enough for us to collect and bring home. We brought Bluebell home a month later when we took Poppy back because Poppy turned out to be a cockerel. Pepper and Dotty have always been totally bonded and Bluebell has been a bit of a loner.

Honey and Amber had been together in a big mixed flock at the farm where we got them from. We collected them nine months ago at about six months old. What they had in common was being about the same age and size, the same breed and arriving together to join our flock. This means they stick together but are not bonded like Pepper and Dotty and right from the start Amber would peck at Honey to show her that Honey was below her in the pecking order.

At bedtime I went in to the girls and the little girls had settled together in the coop.

Dotty is always the first to settle on the coop roof

Pepper joins Dotty on the coop roof

Dotty will often flutter her head under Pepper and snuggles right up to her. This is why I know the plucking is not malicious and what I think of as bad behaviour they just do as part of their bonding.

Bluebell joins them but I don’t know what they are all looking at!

Finally maybe it’s a bad habit that they don’t go in the coop at night but wait for me to put them in. My eldest son says I have trained them to do this but I didn’t mean to it just seemed to happen. Somehow I have spoiled them!

If these things are bad behaviour, I will have to just accept it because it is just the way they are. As long as they are happy and healthy I will just have to try not to stress about these things. They will do what they want to do and they are so full of personality that I really can’t hold a bit of behaviour against them. They are our funny girls and I love them dearly.

This afternoon I was cleaning up the run when Amber and Honey suddenly started fighting. I have seen them do this a few times before but this was the worst yet. They had their ruffs raised right up and were really flying at each other. They would hold on to each other by the neck feathers and drag each other round.

I tried to part them with my arm but they barely seemed to notice me and Amber had Honey by the neck feathers and was pulling at her. I grabbed the water spray and sprayed them both but even this didn’t stop them.

The big girls watched with what looked like shear amazement. If one of the little girls came past one of the big girls the big girl would give her a swift peck.

Eventually they parted and Honey went and hid behind the bush but Amber was still stalking her. I felt sorry for Honey because Amber would chase her out from the bush and then Honey would get a swift peck from which ever big girl was near her.

The big girls seemed upset and were all shouting as was Amber. It seemed so vicious and reminded me of seeing cock fighting on television wildlife programs.

I have never seen the big girls fight like this. They used do a bit of chest bumping as babies and the odd peck is given from time to time, but never this sort of fighting. I don’t know if this is usual for bantams or peculiar to these two girls or something to do with this breed. It was the whole of the black neck feathers that were raised up. I will do some research on this and report any findings.

I can’t imagine the other girls ever behaving like this. The bantys have been together in a big mixed group at the farm I got them from, since they were babies and together with our flock since they were six months old. Pepper and Dotty have been together since babies and with us from when Pepper was two and a half months old and Dotty was two months old. They are so bonded that in the two years we have had them, I have never ever seen them peck each other and during the bedtime routine when they go to the coop roof, Dotty still flutters her head underneath Pepper, like babies do, which reaffirms their bond. Bluebell has always been more of a loner but although Pepper and Dotty will peck her if she gets in their way, they still never fight.

Amber shouting and looking dishevelled

Honey looks okay but subdued

They both have little spots of blood on their combs

Amber walked into the photo just as I clicked and you can just about see a little spot of blood on the middle ridge of her comb. Honey has a tiny spot of blood on her comb just above her beak and another spot on her eye lid just above the pupil.

Amber looked worse with ruffled feathers but she is definitely the top one of these two and I assume that this is probably what this is about. It’s definitely worse than the usual pecking order stuff though and at one point it crossed my mind that I might need to separate Amber.

Yet once it was over they just carried on as normal and a little later you would never know it had happened. Ambers feathers returned to normal so I assume she preened them back into place and the little girls were together as usual.

Amber’s feathers have returned to normal

The two little girls are back to normal

The three big girls all take a drink together

The girls all settled to their usual routine at bedtime and I love the way once one goes to the water they all go to the water.  The little girls went into the coop together and the big girls went to the coop roof where I lifted them down and put them in.

Harmony seems to be restored once more. I did say to my husband that if I hadn’t been there to witness it I would never have known it had happened and he pointed out that any blood on the little girls combs would probably have been blamed on Bluebell.

I still can’t quite believe it all happened with so much ferocity and I wonder what starts them off. I am glad there doesn’t appear to be any lasting damage.

All the girls have been on a slow down with egg production due to their moult and shorter daylight hours.

I have also noticed an odd thing happening with the size of Bluebell’s eggs. She has been moulting one feather at a time and is the only one not to stop laying this winter but she has slowed down. Bluebell is now laying an average of four eggs a week. The odd thing is, that when she misses a day, she usually lays a large egg the next morning. She will then lay a smaller egg the following afternoon. Every time she lays two days in a row her eggs are smaller but when she misses a day they are larger.

This does seem to make sense to me but it is a new winter thing as in the summer most of the time the eggs are the same size with just an occasional larger or smaller one. I wonder if this is common or if it is peculiar to Bluebell.

Bluebell’s eggs

The egg on the left was laid after missing a day and the egg on the right was one from her laying two days in a row

I took several photos as it’s difficult to show the difference

This pattern has been repeating with a couple of smaller eggs then a missed day then a larger egg, time and time again. I find it quite fascinating.

After my disappointment at Dotty’s neck being plucked a few days ago the good news is that there has been no further plucking, much to my relief. I hope that it was just because it was such an awful wet day and not a return to a habit. I can cope with the occasional bit of bad behaviour but would find it really upsetting if it went back to how it was in the summer.

I have no doubt that it will happen again but as long as it’s not a continuing habit I will be happy. Not that the girls will take any notice of my feelings about the matter, of course, but it would make me happy if it doesn’t occur too often. I would rather see them with feathers than have eggs and that’s saying something because we are missing the abundance at the moment, but it does make every egg very precious.

I have to say our girl’s eggs are so lovely, they are a rich orange colour and are delicious. They are a real bonus added to the pleasure and entertainment value I get from my girls, whatever size the eggs are. I think we are all looking forward to spring and hopefully an end to the rain and longer, lighter days.