Carol's Chickens

It’s been a funny day for the egg laying. I went out to the girls soon after first light and was surprised to find Dotty’s egg on the coop floor under the nest box. She hadn’t laid yesterday so I assume she laid at first light and didn’t manage to get to the nest box in time.

Bluebell laid her egg a little later, in the little coop as usual. Next time I checked I spotted Honey’s egg on the coop floor, opposite the nest box, between the bottom perch and the outside wall of the coop. She had made a little nest there and I have no idea why she chose this spot but she has done this once before.

Pepper has only been laying one egg a week recently and never seems to know when this is going to be. Most days she will go and sit in the nest box for up to an hour then come out again without laying an egg. Today she was spending a lot of time sat under the bush. She seems to be molting and feeling a bit under the weather. Next time I checked on her there was her egg, next to her under the bush. Pepper has never laid an egg outside before. A little while later she went and sat in the little coop (where she normally lays her eggs) for about half an hour. I really don’t think she knew she had already laid her egg.

Pepper about to go and sit in the little coop

The eggs have been slowing down as we head towards winter which is what I expected. Pepper’s average has dropped from 5 per week to 2 per week then now to 1 per week. Dotty’s average has dropped from 6 per week to 5 per week and Bluebell’s average has dropped from 7 per week to 6 per week. Pepper has always laid less so I’m not surprised hers have dropped the most.

I also think that Pepper and Dotty are molting. It’s been more difficult for me to tell because they already had missing feathers from the feather pulling in the spring. Pepper has had a bare bottom all summer but now has feathers coming in on her bottom but has developed some bare patches under her wings. She also looks very tatty. Dotty has feathers coming in on her previously bare head and neck but also looks very tatty. I can’t see much change in Bluebell.

Pepper’s tatty look

Dotty’s tatty look

Pepper is even less feathered under the wing than Dotty but it can only be seen when they stand up straight like Dotty is in this photo. It amuses me to see her standing so proud yet so tattered. Her head feathers have come back in though which is a vast improvement to her looks. I can’t wait to see her with neck feathers again.

Bluebell doesn’t look bad

Bluebell’s tail is a bit ragged in places and she is still missing neck feathers but other than that she still looks pretty good at the moment. I will keep taking photos as the feathers come and go as it will be a good record. It will also be interesting to see if the eggs stop altogether over the winter months. At least we will have banty eggs this winter as they only started laying at the end of May.

We are having a welcome, late summer, warm and sunny spell. Amber has decided to stay out with the other girls after a few nights of going in the coop. I don’t worry as I know as soon as it gets cool again the girls will go in the coop. Last year they started going in themselves in September and continued to do so until the heat wave this summer.

As the nights are drawing in I have been getting them all in by half past eight when the automatic coop door shuts. As they are going in earlier and it will continue to get earlier and earlier, I am enjoying and making the most of, spending time with them before bedtime. I love this time when they mill around me, top up on food and water, have a last scratch in the garden area and finally jostle for the best positions to roost.

I decided to photograph their bedtime line up. I took lots of photos in quick succession and these pictures cover the fifteen minutes before they were settled.

Bluebell goes to the little chair first

It seems that Bluebell must go to the little chair first to stake it out as her favoured position. Here she is showing off her magnificent comb.

Bluebell and Pepper on the store cabinet

Pepper jumps from the coop roof to the store cabinet and Bluebell jumps to the cabinet to join her.

Pepper settles on the high perch which is her favoured position

I love this expression on Peppers face. I have seen it many times and find it benevolent and quizzical at the same time. She does a lot of neck twisting and looks quite comical.

Pepper leans out to Honey to show her she can’t join her on the perch

Honey jumps on to the store cabinet and Pepper makes it quite clear that she is not allowed to join her on the perch, the little girls must be shown their place.

Honey settles on the little chair

As Bluebell has returned to the patio, Honey takes the opportunity to take possession of the little chair.

The big girls return to the garden area for a last scratch around

They return to the coop roof ready to launch themselves into their bedtime positions

In the background Bluebell jumps to the little chair forcing Honey off

Pepper has returned to the high perch. I was taking Dotty’s photo just as Bluebell jumped across to the little chair, giving Honey no option but to jump off. I had wondered how Bluebell always ends up there despite Honey settling there before her. Dotty then jumped across to the high perch to join Pepper.

Bluebell is back in possession of the little chair.

Bluebell leans out to Amber to show her that she is not to try to get on the little chair.

They are all settled in their final positions

Close up of the two pairs in their final positions

Close up of Bluebell in her final position

The pecking order is very clear in their bedtime routine. Pepper is top hen followed closely by Dotty and they get the most prestigious position on the high perch. Bluebell is next with the next best spot on the little chair and Amber and Honey are at the bottom of the pecking order with their position on the store cabinet.

I put all the girls into the coop after dusk as the door is closing or just after it has closed. I prop it open while I put them in. I sometimes peek in through the nest box with a torch to see where they settle. The big girls have always favoured the bottom perch on the opposite side to the nest box and when I look in this is always where they are. The little girls are always on the top perch on the side with the nest box. It seems that inside the coop the little girls still have a separate place to the big girls. I find the bedtime routine quite fascinating.

As I seemed to have deviated from chickens a little, and on to the garden this summer, I thought I might carry on and add in the hibiscus. It’s a splash of late summer colour and has grown huge this year. It’s opposite the chicken enclosure so they look out at it, although I am not sure they appreciate it!

The hibiscus next to the chicken enclosure

In front of the hibiscus is a laurel which has become integrated with it, just in case anyone wonders why my hibiscus has exotic leaves.

Hibiscus close up

The chickens view of the hibiscus

I can’t say I have seen the girls admiring the view. If it’s not something for them to eat, it holds little interest to them. On the other hand if I am on the veg plot they are all crammed against the weld mesh, just in case I throw them a worm or some greens. The veg plot is much more interesting to the chooks than the hibiscus.

Summers end is here and the days are getting shorter. The good news for me will be the girls putting themselves to bed instead of me putting them to bed. The automatic coop door is closing earlier each day. As well as getting darker earlier, it’s much cooler in the evenings now. This seems to be the trigger for the girls.

For the last few evenings Amber has been going in the coop to settle. The first evening this happened, I went up at dusk and Amber was already in the coop. Bluebell was on my little chair, Honey on the store cabinet and Pepper and Dotty on the high perch.

I put Honey in the coop then lifted down Pepper and Dotty and put them in the coop. By this time Bluebell had jumped down from the little chair to the coop roof. This made it easy to put her in the coop. Things are changing!

Last night I was still out with them before dusk. Pepper, Dotty and Bluebell went to the high perch and Honey to the store cabinet. Amber was still out in the garden area wandering around. She then came up to the patio area and had a last top up at the food dish. She then nonchalantly wandered over to the coop and went in.

I put the other girls in just as the door was closing and they were all in by quarter to nine.

After the feather pulling problem, months ago, the girls are finally getting feathers back in. I know they may molt soon but am not sure if the new feathers would fall out or if they would keep them. It would be so nice to see the girls with a complete set of feathers again. Pepper has had a bare bottom all summer but at last her feathers are coming back.

Pepper has new feathers on her bottom

Dotty’s head feathers are coming in but her neck is still bare, although there is an odd feather coming.

Dotty has new feathers on her head

Bluebell is still missing neck feathers and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of them coming in yet. Her missing feathers are less noticeable though.

Bluebell by the water

Bluebell takes a drink

Amber is missing the most feathers out of the two little girls. The little girls were only hatched late last summer so I doubt they would molt this year. They only started laying eggs at the end of May. This may mean that Amber will look like this for a long time which is a shame. Amber is also missing the top round part of her comb from when she was pecked.

Amber’s missing feathers at the side of her head

Honey is missing a few feathers but not as many as Amber.

Honey

Honey

Honey has a complete comb and is only missing a few feathers around her face. Amber, behind Honey, is missing some feathers from her neck.

I am not looking forward to the first molt but I am so looking forward to having my girls fully feathered again.

The last few days the girls have been using the big perch more frequently. They like to use it to snooze on in the afternoon. They also like to use it as a lookout post. If I am in the garden they will stand on it to see me over the veg plot which makes me smile.

What is Pepper looking at?

Yesterday when I went in to them in the afternoon Dotty and Pepper were on the perch.

I can tell Amber want’s to jump up

I could see that Amber wanted to jump up and join Dotty and Pepper.

Amber joins them

Amber soon jumped up and joined Dotty and Pepper.

Dotty, Pepper and Amber

I love the way Dotty looks at Pepper as she snoozes.

Pepper and Amber

Dotty jumped down to join Bluebell digging in the garden and Pepper and Amber settled to snooze side by side. It was so sweet to see a big girl and a little girl chilling out together.

Today Honey managed to lay her egg safely in the nest box, hurrah!

Yesterday for the very first time Dotty went into the little coop and laid her egg there. I wasn’t sure if this was a one off as she has never even looked in the little coop before, but today she went in the little coop again and laid her egg. How odd that she has suddenly switched.

Pepper has only laid one egg a week for the last three weeks. I am wondering if she is slowing down for the winter. She looks healthy and happy and her comb is red. She often goes into the little coop as if to lay but then gives up. Her feathers on her bottom are regrowing at long last so that may account for the slow down.

Dotty’s head feathers are also regrowing. I am wondering if the girls are finally going to get their feathers back just in time for the molt! That would be such a shame if they lost them just as they had got them back or maybe as they have just come in they won’t drop out. This winter will be the first time I will have experienced the molt so I have no idea what to expect.

I went back in to the girls at four o’clock this afternoon and four of them were on the big perch.

Honey on the left, then Dotty, Pepper and Bluebell on the right

I could hear Amber in the nest box making a racket. I thought I had better check that she was okay. Usually I lift the lid to check on the girls and they take no notice of me but instead Amber ran out and stood on the wooden block in the garden area.

I could see that she was about to lay her egg as I have seen her lay an egg in the run once before. I felt guilty that I had disturbed her but knew that if I tied to pick her up and return her to the nest box it would spook her. As it was too late to do anything about it and I still had my camera in my hand I decided to try to capture the moment.

Amber is about to lay her egg

Getting ready

Almost there

You can see the four girls in the background still on the perch in each of these photos.

There’s her egg

You can see that as soon as her egg was laid the girls came running over to look and I decided to pick it up straight away.

Amber happily wandered off to the food dish and got stuck into the pellets. I have noticed that all the girls go straight to the food dish when they have just laid an egg. It must be hungry work.

I wasn’t expecting to photograph this today. Their egg laying is full of surprises.

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.