Carol's Chickens

Dotty and Pepper both like to jump on my back or shoulder but Pepper does this occasionally whereas Dotty does it all the time. She will sit on my shoulder and sing in my ear with her happy sing song voice and I can feel her breath on my ear.

During the recent heat wave, I would wear my hair in a high pony tail to keep it off of my neck. Dotty would sit on my shoulder and gently tweak my pony tail, she seemed fascinated by the difference in my hair.

I have also mentioned before how gentle she is when I have been wearing a sun top and have a bare back. She seems to sense that she needs to be careful on my bare skin and goes down on her haunches keeping her claws flattened. She has never scratched my back.

Every morning when I go in to the girls first thing, Dotty jumps on to my shoulder as soon as I get through the gate. It seems to be her way of saying “hello” to me. This is very endearing and heart warming.

I have a chicken cardigan which I wear to go in to the girls to keep my cloths from getting muddy from their feet. My husbands warns me not to forget I am wearing it and go out in it. This is why.

My chicken cardigan

This is chicken art! Evidence of Dotty jumping on my back.

Dotty on my shoulder

This is me in my chicken cardigan with Dotty on my shoulder. This was taken in November 2012 when Dotty was just six months old. This was when she first started to do this. She used to follow me and jump on my back if I was bending over, then started jumping on me from the coop roof. Then she progressed to jumping from the ground to my shoulder when I came through the gate, as she does now. I was pretty impressed when she did this the first time.

I didn’t know back then that it was to become a daily habit. I am so pleased it is though as I love this interaction with her. I think it’s her way of showing me affection and I love that it is entirely her choice to do this and not treat related either. Dotty is a sweetheart.

Yesterday Bluebell laid her egg in the little coop at nine o’clock in the morning. Mid morning Honey settled in the nest box to lay her egg, but once Bluebell realised she was in there, she kept going in and chasing her out. I tried to distract Bluebell with some greens.

I then had to go out and on my return went in to check on the girls. There was no egg in the nest box and when I looked down there was evidence of a splat on the patio again but no remains of an egg. I then checked the run and found the top of Honeys egg shell which I removed.

This means Bluebell must have chased Honey out again and Honey goes to the coop roof to get out of her way. She must have laid her egg once again to roll down the coop roof and smash on the patio.

This is becoming a real problem because I can’t be there all the time to watch over them. I think Amber is feisty enough to hold her place in the nest box but Honey is more timid.

The girls had eaten all of the egg and most of the shell. They have never shown any interest in the eggs laid in the coop and nest box so I hope it’s just their instinct to eat the smashed egg and they don’t associate it with their eggs in the nest box.

It’s such a shame though and I don’t really know what I can do about this as I can’t always tell when Honey is going to lay and can’t stand guard over her. I really need her to toughen up and not let Bluebell chase her out of the nest box.

Last night after I had done my evening clean up chores, I decided to dig the run over for the girls. They love following me with the fork as I turn up some worms for them. After we have finished they love to scratch and peck away at the freshly turned soil. They look completely absorbed in their search and I wonder what they find. Do they find tiny bugs or is it just bits of grit. They do appear to carefully select just the right bits of grit.

Digging and pecking

I love chickens comedy feet. Look at Dotty’s feet on the right of the photo, they make me smile.

The girls scratch and peck

Dotty has comedy feet again!

Look at Dotty in the middle with her pigeon toes.

Amber studies the ground

Look at the concentration on Ambers face as she studies the ground. The girls continued to do this until in unison they come up to the patio for a top up of food and lots of water drinking.

Then they all take their places to roost before I come and put them in the coop. Bluebell was first to go and sit on my little chair which hangs under the roof. I am sure this is just so that the bantys can’t get there as it was their favoured spot. Pepper and Dotty are next to settle on the big perch. Finally the little girls go up on to the storage cabinet.

I went back out to them at quarter to nine and the automatic coop door started to close at ten to nine. The nights are really drawing in now. I have just looked back at last years blog and the girls started going back in to the coop on their own in September so it seems it may be another month yet. Maybe it is the colder evenings as well as darker that effects them. I do hope they do start going in on their own like last year. I am sure they will but time will tell.

I find the girls egg laying patterns quite interesting. I have an egg chart and record all the eggs. I wondered before they started laying,  if I would be able to tell Pepper’s and Dotty’s eggs apart as they are the same breed. In fact it turns out that I have never had a problem.

Pepper’s eggs are a slightly paler cream colour and a traditional oval egg shape. Dotty’s are a shade darker and a less smooth shape, almost as if there is a band squeezing the middle slightly. Bluebell’s eggs are obvious because they are blue but they are also a much rounder shape. Honey’s eggs are slightly larger than Amber’s but that may change over time if Amber lays more frequently.

The big girls eggs

Dotty’s egg is on the left, darker in colour and less smooth in shape. Pepper’s egg in the middle is smooth and pale and Bluebell’s egg on the right is blue and round.

All five girls eggs

Dotty’s egg is on the left followed by Pepper’s, Bluebell’s is in the middle and Honey and Amber’s eggs are on the right.

Another pattern is where the girls lay their eggs. Since we put the little coop in as a second nest box, Pepper has only laid in the little coop and never returned to the original nest box. Dotty on the other hand has never shown any interest whatsoever in the little coop and has only ever laid in the original nest box. Bluebell and the little girls will randomly lay in either the little coop or the nest box.

The next pattern is how many eggs they each lay and I have found from my records that each girl is very consistent. If I take the last month a week at a time, followed by the months total, with the girls in their pecking order, starting with head hen, it looks like this:

Pepper – week A – 2, week B – 1, week C – 3, week D – 2    Months total – 8

Dotty – week A – 5, week B – 5, week C – 4, week D – 5    Months total – 19

Bluebell – week A – 6, week B – 7, week C – 6, week D – 7    Months total – 26

Amber – week A – 1, week B – 2, week C – 2, week D 3    Months total – 8

Honey – week A – 4, week B – 3, week C – 4, week D – 3    Months total – 14

The average eggs per week is:

Pepper – 2, Dotty – 4.75, Bluebell – 6.5, Amber – 2, Honey – 3.5

Bluebell lays the most eggs which is exactly as I would expect because she is a hybrid and they are bred to be good egg layers. The other four girls are pure breeds. What I find interesting is that Pepper and Dotty are the same breed and yet Dotty lays twice as many eggs as Pepper. Amber and Honey are also the same breed and yet Amber lays twice as many as Honey.

I am sure this is just pure coincidence but another little pattern is that Pepper is top hen and lays less than Dotty and Amber is top between her and Honey and lays less than Honey.

Another thing that I have noticed is that the girls that lay the least eggs struggle with their egg laying more. Bluebell breezes into the nest box lays her egg and is out again in about quarter of an hour. The other girls take about half an hour but Pepper takes by far the longest. She will sit for two and a half hours sometimes to lay her egg and sometimes after a couple of hours she comes out without laying an egg at all.

Amber always looks stressed before she lays. She always has her wings pointed  downwards before she goes on to lay.

Amber

This is how Amber looks before she lays her eggs. She stands with her wings pointing downwards.

This information doesn’t really have much relevance but I do find it interesting.

The girls love a dust bath in the afternoon or a snooze or a preening session. My girls are definitely two pairs and the odd one out, which is Bluebell. Perhaps this is why she is so hard on the little girls. I would continue to add any future chooks in twos as I feel they need that support of not being alone. But sometimes we will still be left with an odd one because Bluebell and Treacle joined the flock together and were part of their own twosome. Then unfortunately we lost Treacle and Bluebell got left as a bit of an odd one out.

The bantys came as a twosome and have stuck together and Pepper and Dotty have always remained a firm twosome. This afternoon Bluebell was a little apart from the group having a bit of a snooze while the other four were having a dust bath.

Bluebell sits a little bit apart from the other four girls

Bluebell dozes

The bantys hover around the big girls in their dust bath

The four girls settle to dust bath together

A heap of four girls

Sometimes I feel cross with Bluebell for bullying the little girls but sometimes I feel sorry for her for being a bit out on her own. The girls do most things in unison but during the bedtime routine while four of them do their topping up at the food and water, Bluebell is usually out in the garden area digging. She loves to dig and although they are a close little flock, Bluebell is a little more independent from the other four.

Tonight I decided to stay out with the girls until bedtime to see how their routine was progressing and to see what time the automatic coop door shut. The summer is coming to an end and the evenings are drawing in and are getting cooler.

I always spend an hour after dinner with the girls doing my end of day clean up, sweep up chores and sitting with them while they chill down towards bedtime. Tonight my husband was away with family so I decided to stay with the girls until bedtime.

They always quieten down and top up with food and water. They always have a last scratch around and then come in to take up their bedtime positions. Amber found a worm which caused a flurry of activity as they all chased her for it. This went on for about five minutes before she managed to keep her worm and devour it herself.

Pepper as top girl was first to take up her position on the high perch. She has the best (highest position). Bluebell was next to take possession of my little chair which hangs under the roof and is almost level with the high perch. Dotty was next to join Pepper (her partner in crime). Honey went up to the storage cabinet and Pepper leaned out to her to show her she wasn’t welcome on the high perch as she is of a lower status. Honey looked towards the little chair which used to be the bantys favoured position but Bluebell leaned out to her to show her this wasn’t an option either. She had no choice but to settle on the storage cabinet which although it’s fairly high up is not as high as the prestigious spots already taken by the big girls.

Amber was still roaming the garden area. I’m not sure if it was the victory of gaining the worm but she was still walking the boundary area quite a few minutes after every one else was settled in place. She then nonchalantly made her way over to the other girls and soon sussed out that her place was next to Honey on the top of the storage cabinet.

Pepper and Dotty did a bit preening of each other, Honey and Amber did a bit of preening themselves. Bluebell looked like she was nodding off to sleep followed by Pepper and Dotty, looking like they were nodding off too.

The current bedtime positions

Bluebell is on the little chair, Amber is in the foreground and Honey behind her on the storage cabinet and Pepper is in the background, Dotty in the foreground on the high perch.

At this moment the automatic door started to shut at five minutes past nine. This made me realise that everyone was in their bedtime position in time before the door closed but just not inside the coop. I usually come out between half past nine and ten o’clock and lift the girls down to bed. I decided that tonight I would put them in immediately after the door shut in the hope that it would get them ready to start going in at dusk before winter arrives.

I will start putting them in earlier each night now that the evenings are cooler, to try to change their habit. It would be good for them to start putting themselves to bed at dusk. I will have to wait and see how long this change in their routine will take at this summers end.

This morning the girls all seemed to want to lay at once and were doing a lot of shouting about it. Dotty went into the nest box and was joined by Honey but Bluebell kept going in and trying to get Honey out. Pepper would go in the little coop and Bluebell would go and watch her too and generally everyone was making an awful fuss.

At this point we had to go out as we had food to deliver to a party and I decided the girls would just have to get on with it and sort it out.

We returned a short time later and I went up to check on them. There were four eggs. Pepper and Bluebell had laid in the little coop and Dotty and Honey had laid in the nest box. All was peaceful and I was pleased that they had sorted it out without any further egg disasters. A good result, I thought.

A little later when I went in to them, I automatically checked the nest box again and to my surprise there was Amber’s egg. This is only our second ever five egg day.

Our second five egg day

I know I had already taken a photo of our first five egg day but I couldn’t resist a photo of our second five egg day too. We have Dotty’s slightly darker egg on the left, followed by Pepper’s egg, then Bluebell’s then Honey’s and Amber’s on the right.

Well done girls, what a great egg laying day!

Yesterday Bluebell laid her egg first thing in the morning, in the little coop. I kept hearing a lot of shouting after Bluebell had laid and went up to find Honey on the coop roof shouting and Bluebell blocking the coop door. It seems that lately when Honey wants to get into the nest box, Bluebell stops her going in. This seems so mean and I don’t know why she does this especially as she has already laid her egg. It seems that Bluebell just doesn’t like Honey going in the nest box.

I shooed Bluebell away and hoped Honey would go in the nest box but at that point we had to go out. When we returned there was a lot of shouting and I rushed up to see what the matter was. Honey was on the coop roof, shouting as loudly as such a little girl can and looking down to the patio. Honey must have laid her egg again from the top of the coop roof and again it had rolled down to the patio and smashed. I wasn’t so quickly on the scene this time as I had been out, and all the other girls were gathered round Honeys broken egg, pecking away at it.

I shooed them away and quickly cleared up and washed away any trace of it. I felt sad for poor Honey not being able to get into the nest box and now think this is what probably happened last time. I also really hope this doesn’t lead to egg eating problems.

Later on Pepper laid her egg in the little coop and while the girls were distracted with frozen peas in a tray of water, Amber sneaked into the nest box and laid her egg.

It seems that there is always a new problem to deal with. With two separate nest boxes, both big enough to take several girls at once, it shouldn’t be a problem. But there seems to be a power struggle going on with Bluebell and the little girls. Bluebell has been roosting on the little chair before I put the girls to bed and this also seems to be just to stop them roosting there. It seems that Bluebell feels she must stop the little girls whenever she can. It’s a shame she can’t see that they accept their place at the bottom of the pecking order and are no threat to her position. I suppose a chicken has to do what a chicken has to do. She is not listening to me that’s for sure!

I have just noticed that this is post three hundred. I have had chickens now for one year and one month and can’t believe that I have written three hundred posts!

Yesterday it was really hot again. It reached ninety degrees once more but is forecast to be cooler over the next week. The girls were hot, shouting about their egg laying and coming out of the nest box with their wings held out. I decided they needed the tray of water with frozen peas to cool them them down.

Frozen peas to cool the girls

Honey is the only one brave enough to step into the water

Honey stepping out of the water

After the peas had gone I left the tray of water for the rest of the day. At one point when I checked on them the two little girls were beside the tray drinking from it.

Later my husband called me as Pepper was stood in the tray of water. By the time I got there she had stepped out so I missed seeing her in the water, but I could see by her muddy feet that she had been in it. It will be good if they realise that they can stand in it to cool off.

A little later when I checked on them again, Honey was in a dust bath,

Honey in a dust bath

I have mentioned before that Dotty likes to jump on my back whenever possible. In the morning and evening I wear my “chicken” cardigan which protects me and doesn’t matter if it gets muddy. Because it’s been so hot I wear sun tops during the day. They have shoestring straps and leave my back bare. Because of this I try not to turn my back to Dotty in case she scratches me but sometimes she is too quick for me. It has amazed me how gentle she is and she has never broken my skin. It is as if she senses bare skin and is extra careful.

Today when she did this my husband was with me to see her on my back. I remarked how gentle she felt and my husband said that she was down on her haunches instead of up on her claws. She gently allowed herself to drop to the ground. I was glad he had seen this so that he could see how different she behaves when I have a bare back. It is heart warming to see that she is so careful not to hurt me.

Dotty has such a lovely nature and it’s a shame she looks so odd with her bare neck, but hopefully after a molt her feathers will grow back in.  She has the most sing song voice of all the girls and makes such a happy sound. When I give treats even my husband comments on her happy song.

The other result of the hot weather is that we are having our best year for courgettes in many years. The last couple of summers have been cool and wet and most of our courgettes rotted or remained tiny. This morning I harvested these three.

Courgettes

A handful of courgettes

I know this is deviating from chickens again but I couldn’t resist!

I had a change of heart and decided the series of photos of Honey and Amber drinking together, were too cute not to show. So here is the whole series.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

These little girls are so cute! Honey is in the foreground and I love the way she looks across at me between each sip. I love their little red combs and there comical little feet.