Carol's Chickens

Yesterday afternoon the little girls were really going for it in a dust bath. I think perhaps it was too hot for the big girls. Once again I have good and bad news on the feather pulling. The bad news is that whilst I thought Honey had been untouched, I could see when she was writhing in the dust bath and throwing her head back, that she too has a bare patch on the front of her neck.

Dust bathing bantys

Honey is on the left and is showing a bare patch on her neck.

Writhing around in the dust bath

The good news is that since the start of the hot weather a week ago, I have found no feathers in the run and not caught any of the girls feather pulling. Yesterday afternoon when they usually all sit in a huddle and pull feathers, they were all sat in a group, but spaced out at about two feet apart. I think it’s too hot to sit close together and while spaced out, they can’t reach to pull feathers. It may be a faint hope, but I am hoping that the hot spell may last long enough to break them from the habit. That would be a real bonus because I know they don’t actually like the hot weather.

Since the start of the hot weather Bluebell has switched from laying in the little coop back to laying every day in the main nest box. I think this is because the little coop gets hotter. They are both under the roofed area which is shaded by large trees at the back of the garden but mid morning a shaft of sunlight gets through to the little coop. Pepper who is a very stubborn girl, still lays in the little coop. The other effect of the hot weather is that the bantys have stopped laying altogether. They had been laying every other day and now haven’t laid for six and seven days. They seem happy in every other way so I am not worried.

At bedtime when I lift the girls down to put them in the coop the little girls now don’t mind at all. They only perched on the big perch with the big girls one evening then reverted back to sitting on my little chair that hangs under the roof. I think the big perch is too fat for their little feet. What is sweet is that as I lift them down they now curl their little toes round my fingers. It’s an incredibly sweet feeling.

The other sweet thing is that Pepper and Dotty always jump on my back whenever they can. Since the hot weather, I have been wearing sun tops with my back and shoulders bare so have been trying not to face my back to them because I was worried they would scratch me. A few times they have been too quick for me and have jumped on my bare back but it’s as if they sense that they need to be careful. They very gently and slowly drop down my back and jump off and have never left a mark or a scratch on me. It amazes me how gentle they are with me.

Finally, I been trying not to keep deviating from chickens to the garden but couldn’t resist including the delphiniums.

Delphiniums

The dark blue ones are so tall they reach up into the rambling rose next to the garden bird feeders, but the pale blue ones in the foreground are my favourite.  They are such a delicate colour.

It’s summer in the chicken run and the hypericum is in full flower. It fills the corner of the run and is so tall that it now reaches the top of the run. I have had to prune it back a bit so that I can walk past it when cleaning up. The apple tree has also re-grown to reach through the top of the run so I will be trimming it back again soon as I prefer to keep it below the top of the run.

The hypericum fills this corner and has a splash of yellow flowers

The apple tree and hypericum

In front of the hypericum is the dogwood shrub, but the girls have been jumping up and stripping the leaves as far as they can reach so it doesn’t look too great!

I also dug over the whole run yesterday. I dig over half of it every few days for the girls to scratch and dust bath. The rest I leave to compact as it’s easier for me to walk on but every now and then I dig over the whole run. Parts of it were like concrete!

The run after I had dug it over

Looking in to the run through through the veg plot shows the yellow splash of the hypericum filling the left hand corner of the run.

Looking at the run through the veg plot

The potatoes in the middle are now in flower as are the runner beans on the left. The tumble of pale pink on the left of the veg plot is the rambling rose that borders our garden with next doors.

We are now harvesting the peas and broad beans and sharing the chard between ourselves and the chooks and they love it. Soon there will be pak choi and spinach for them too. Later in the summer with any luck there will be corn cobs for the girls too. There wasn’t enough sun for them to ripen last year but this year I am hopeful. I think they appreciate the veg plot as much as we do.

The girls also appreciate the hypericum in their run which they have also stripped of any leaves within jumping distance. It provides their favourite place to sit in shade and to scratch around in the evenings.

Hot summer weather has arrived at last. Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far (high seventies) and after a washed out summer last year it was the hottest day that the chickens have yet experienced. They didn’t like it! It was the noisiest the girls have been, complaining all day.

I have been giving them fresh cold water at midday and wetting the patio area and a corner of the garden area to help keep it cool. They don’t drink the fresh cold water I give them, they drink from the muddy puddles that form. They have shade under the bush which is where they like to spend most of their time.

I give them melon, cucumber and grapes to give moisture. Sunday was so hot that they did no scratching or dust bathing. Bluebell and Dotty laid their eggs in the morning but Pepper went in at midday day when it was hottest and she always takes the longest.

When she came out she was holding her wings up and out, away from her body. She must have got over heated in the nest box. I have never seen her do this before and it made her look huge. I lightly water sprayed them to cool them down but they ran off in disgust, because I use the spray when they peck or feather pull they see it as a punishment.

Luckily yesterday was cooler with some cloud and a breeze and they seemed back to normal and all had a dust bath in the afternoon.

They love pecking at cabbage when I hang it from a wire so I wondered if they would like their afternoon apple like that too, instead of on the ground. They soon lined up at the apples.

Apples on wire

Last night when I was doing my evening clean up there was suddenly a commotion on the patio. I looked up to see Pepper attacking Amber. She was on her back holding her down and pecking her. I dashed over and grabbed the water spray. I don’t know why she suddenly attacked her and they weren’t near the food.

Poor Amber was limping and sitting down a lot. She still went to the food and water as usual but it looked like she had hurt her leg or foot. She was trying to keep off the left leg. I picked her up and checked her leg and foot and couldn’t see anything so I think maybe she sprained it when she went down. I will be keeping a close eye on her. The bantys have such tiny legs and feet and when I pick them up they curl their toes round my fingers.

This morning Amber looks okay, just a very slight limp but I will be keeping a close eye on her. Just when I thought they were all getting along, I really don’t know why they suddenly do this and it is upsetting to see. This morning everything seems back to normal though.

Amber really hasn’t got the hang of egg laying yet. Today I had been in with the girls and left them for a very short while. When I returned Amber had again laid her egg in the run. It was still warm and the big girls were gathered round it, it must have caught her by surprise again.

Two days earlier she managed to lay her egg in the nest box but once again it was a bit smaller than usual.

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

Her eggs have hard shells now though and she doesn’t look unwell when about to lay, so I don’t mind what size they are. We are averaging four banty eggs a week (two from each of them) so not prolific layers but that’s okay as long as the girls are happy and healthy.

The veg plot has grown so much now that we can hardly see the chickens through it.

Through the veg plot you can just make out Bluebell looking out

The self seeded common spotted orchid is taking forever for the flower to open.

Common spotted orchid

I have been waiting two months since the bud appeared. Maybe it’s because we haven’t had much sun but that is forecast to change from tomorrow through to next week. Sun at last, hurrah!

It was a week ago that I noticed banty feathers in the run. At the time I couldn’t see where they were disappearing from. Over this past week I have noticed Ambers neck becoming bare but couldn’t catch the culprit in action.

Today I was in with the girls while they were having their afternoon sit together. I saw that it was Bluebell pecking at Amber’s neck and Pepper was pecking at Bluebell’s neck. Dotty would peck at Pepper’s bottom.

I told them off and sprayed them with water but Pepper looked puzzled as if she just couldn’t see what she was doing wrong. It always seems to happen most when they sit together. I had really hoped the bantys would move out of the way and couldn’t understand why Amber was being targeted when she is the most feisty of the two. Watching them today it seems that it’s because she wants to sit with them and be part of the group that she allows it.

I am finding this habit so frustrating because although it doesn’t effect the girls health or happiness, it does totally spoil their looks. I look at other peoples chooks with envy and I feel bad that I have brought the bantys into this flock only to see them spoiled too.

As they are all doing it separation isn’t an option. I only hope that when they have their first molt maybe that will stop it. If not it worries me that this may be a problem that I will always have. It also means that any future hens I add to the flock may get plucked too.

Bluebell and Dotty’s missing neck feathers

Dotty’s head and neck are bare

Dotty is missing some feathers under her wing exposing her downy under feathers.

Pepper’s neck is untouched

Pepper’s neck feathers are untouched but she is also missing some feathers under her wing.

Amber’s neck is becoming bare

Pepper’s bare bottom

Pepper’s bottom is the most bare. We have a theory that as she is top hen, they don’t peck her neck so instead peck her bottom where she can’t see them.

Bluebell and Dotty’s bottoms

Honey seems untouched at the moment

I wonder how long Honey will stay untouched. I feel so saddened that this behaviour is continuing and I can’t stop it. I should have a beautiful flock but instead they are tatty and scruffy looking!

Instead of spring greens, for the girls, I picked up sweetheart cabbage by mistake. The girls like the loose leaves of spring greens as when I throw them on the floor of the run they fling them about, pecking bits from them or stand on them to peck them.

They can’t seem to get into the tightly packed centre of the cabbage when its on the ground. I decided to hang the cabbage from a bit of wire making it easier for them to peck at it.

Cabbage hearts

Bluebell and Pepper pecking at the cabbage

The girls soon had the cabbage stripped to a stalk. The big girls have had cabbage like this before but it was new to the little girls. They didn’t take long to catch on though.

Two weeks ago Honey wanted to lay her egg at the same time as Pepper and Pepper pecked her comb until it bled. From that moment I installed the little coop as a second nest box to try to avoid this happening again.

When Bluebell laid her next egg, it was in the little coop and she has laid her eggs there ever since. I think being our biggest girl the little coop is probably more spacious for her.

A week ago Amber and Pepper had a stand off when they both wanted to lay at the same time. Amber was in the nest box and wouldn’t budge and Pepper was extremely cross, shouting and strutting and getting very red in the face. Eventually she went into the little coop. The two girls were so stressed by it all that neither of them laid an egg that day. We thought Amber had scored a point that day though.

The next day Pepper laid her egg in the little coop and has laid there ever since. We think she didn’t want to own up to losing the point so convinced herself that the little coop was the more prestigious and therefore she was simply keeping her status by using only the best nest box now. I am not saying that they think it out in this manner as we would but simply that the pecking order status is of utmost importance and must be maintained.

The following day we had our first (and only so far) five egg day. Bluebell, Pepper, Honey and Amber had all laid in the little coop with only Dotty laying in the original nest box.

Dotty has shown no interest in the little coop at all and continues to lay in the nest box. The little girls will lay in either, they don’t seem to have a preference but Bluebell and Pepper have laid in the little coop every time since their first time.

Honey and Amber have also got the hang of egg laying now. They no longer look unwell before laying and their eggs have normal shells. Honey is laying every other day most of the time and Amber every three or four days.

The little coop has been a great success as a second nest box as there is less arguing over having to share and most important there has been no bloodshed since we installed it. The pecking order is so complex and so utterly important to these funny girls!

Today I did a bit of gardening and gave the girls some weeds and the dead heads from the roses. They love the rose petals and soon hoover them up.

The girls enjoy the weeds and rose petals

I love how they flock together around this simple treat

It was the first sunny day for a long time so we went for a walk and I found another feather to identify.

I picked this up from a local field that we walked through

I think it is a buzzard feather

We have lots of red kites and a few buzzards here all the time, but I think because of how broad the feather is, that it is most likely from a buzzard. The feather is five inches long and two inches wide. I wasn’t intending to continue with identifying feathers but just couldn’t resist picking this one up as I haven’t found one of these before.

I collected my chickens on the last weekend in June (on a Friday) a year ago today. This has been quite a journey!

I started out with three dominiques, Poppy, Pepper and Dotty. Within the first month Pepper developed a pendulous crop and Poppy turned out to be a cockerel. We took them back to the farm in Dorset where we had got them from and the farmer tipped Pepper and emptied her crop. It has never been a problem since.

Poppy on the left and Dotty on the right

We love peas, Poppy on the left, Pepper in the middle and Dotty on the right

Pepper on the left with her pendulous crop, Poppy on the right

Poppy has long legs and the upright stance of a roo (cockerel)

He took Poppy back to breed from and suggested that I take two more hens of a similar size and age. I came home with Treacle a long town brown and Bluebell a chalkhill blue.

We like to sit close together, Pepper on the left, then Bluebell, Dotty and Treacle on the right

Pepper had been top hen up until now and for a while Dotty bullied Bluebell. As Treacle matured she took over the role of top hen and from then on Dotty stopped bullying Bluebell. Treacle was the largest of the girls and the first to start laying in November, her eggs were dark brown. Bluebell was next to start laying in December and her eggs were blue.

We like to perch together, Treacle on the left, then Dotty, then Bluebell and Pepper on the right

Treacle likes to get on to my shoulder

After the excitement of getting our first eggs we were disappointed to find that the eggs had a strong mouldy taste and we couldn’t eat them. We changed the girls food, then corn, then the dried meal worms and the sunflower hearts. We changed their bedding, we researched the internet and chicken keeping forums and all the time were throwing out the eggs. It was so incredibly frustrating! Then one day my husband tasted the leaves of the jasmine growing in their run and found them to be really bitter. The girls had been stripping the jasmine leaves. We dug the jasmine out and gradually over the next two weeks the taste of the eggs faded away. After two weeks we had normal tasting eggs at last, just in time for Christmas.

Towards the end of December Pepper started laying, her eggs were a pale cream colour.  Dotty is a month younger than the other girls and still wasn’t laying at this stage.

We then encountered our next problem. There were rats getting in to the run. Despite removing the food at night and blocking up all the gaps they kept coming in. We spent a couple of months rat proofing the run. We blocked up every gap we could see. We then found they were digging in from under next doors decking so we laid concrete at the end of the patio area and put a layer of vertical tiles inside the fence, down into the ground. We then discovered they could squeeze through the chicken net over the run so we redid the roof with a double layer of chicken wire. At last they could no longer get in and we eliminated this problem.

We battled with the rain and mud and had to extend the roof over the dry patio area. We then put a plastic sheet over the garden corner of the run to give some dry over the garden as well as the patio. Later we added some corrugated plastic panels that could be close during wet weather but opened when dry or sunny.

Then came the worst event of all, Treacle suddenly became ill. She stopped laying and appeared to be partially moulting. She wasn’t her usual active self and would spend time standing by the water or under the bush. I then realised that she wasn’t eating the pellets. By now I was really worried about her. I gave her a bath with some epsom salts and was hand feeding her anything she would take, fish, tomato, scrambled egg. I rang the vet and took her in.

The vet examined her and listened to her heart and lungs. There was nothing obviously wrong. He gave her a steroid injection to kick start her appetite and gave me a course of antibiotics for her. I also wormed all the girls to be on the safe side.

Treacle seemed back to normal for a day but then declined again. I took her back to the vet and this time he x- rayed her. He couldn’t see anything on the x- ray apart from a collection of grit in her crop. He gave her another injection and said to continue with her antibiotics.

The injection had no effect this time and she wouldn’t eat anything at all. We were having to syringe her medicine into her beak along with some sugared water. She then went and sat in the nest box which she had never done before. When the other girls wanted to lay their eggs I took Treacle in doors and sat with her on my lap. It was pitiful, she would sit on my lap and cry and kept gaping her beak open which I knew meant she was distressed.

I couldn’t bear to let her suffer any longer. I knew if she wouldn’t eat she had given up and she felt so thin. I knew that I had to have her put to sleep. I held her on my lap all the way to the vets and talked to her and cried buckets. I held her while she had her injection and quickly slipped away and I cried and cried. We will never really know what was wrong with her but it seems most likely that it was something internal.

Treacle was put to sleep on valentines day and the next morning Dotty laid her first egg. The circle of life goes on. I missed her so much and so did the girls. They all looked for her the first day, checking every corner of the run and the coop several times over. They had all been together since babies and she was their leader. Pepper resumed the roll of top hen and I am sure it was the stress of Treacle’s loss that led to our next problem.

The girls started pulling feathers from each other. Pepper pulled them from Dotty and Bluebell’s neck and Bluebell pulled them from Pepper and Dotty’s bottom. Before long Dotty’s neck and head was bare, Bluebell’s neck partially bare, Peppers bottom bare and Dotty’s bottom partially bare.

Dotty’s bare neck and head

They didn’t do it in a bullying way, more a friendly shared experience during dust bathing sessions and when sitting snoozing together. I tried everything to stop it, telling them off and spraying with water when I catch them at it, several anti peck sprays and coloured sprays, lots of boredom busters in the run, lots to peck at and play with, added protein (although they weren’t eating the feathers), nothing worked!

The girls seemed happy with the situation but were spoiling their looks. Dotty’s head feathers grew back in then were plucked out again. Every day I picked up feathers. I researched this too and found articles saying it is one of the most difficult habits to break.

After the loss of Treacle I had considered getting more chickens but thought it best to let my little flock settle without more changes. With the constant battle of trying to stop the feather pulling I wondered if adding to the flock might concentrate their minds elsewhere. I had always liked the idea of having some bantams and began researching breeds available in our area. I found a farm nearby that had two bantam vorwerks. We went to visit and I fell in love with them.

The last weekend in April we bought home our bantam vorwerks, Honey and Amber. I had researched integrating chickens and most people do it gradually but some said bantys are good at getting out of the way and as long as there are places for them to escape and hide they can be integrated  quite quickly. The lady at the farm said to put them in the coop at bedtime and they should be fine.

Honey in the back and Amber in the foreground

The next morning I went out at first light and soon realised it wasn’t going to be that simple! The big girls attacked them, grabbing them by their necks. I water sprayed the big girls and the little girls hid behind the bush. I soon realised they would have to be kept separated. We divided off a portion of the run for the little girls and I got a separate little coop for them. It was to be a further five weeks before we got them together full time.

Bluebell, our most docile girl, who had never pecked before turned into the most aggressive hen. She didn’t want to slide further down the pecking order and would grab the little girls by the neck, pull feathers from them or peck their comb and draw blood.

It took five weeks before we were able to put them all together and even then the little girls both had bleeding combs several times. Next came Ambers first eggs. Two tiny eggs followed by two soft shelled eggs which she struggled to lay. Honey was laying normal eggs every other day. I put the girls on limestone flour in their mash to improve their shells and dried and ground up their egg shells to feed back in their treats. Amber started to lay normal eggs but Honey started to lay less often and looked unwell each time she was about to lay an egg.

I didn’t know why Honey was struggling to lay her eggs and hoped with practice it would get easier. Then one day Honey wanted to lay in the nest box at the same time as Pepper and Pepper pecked her comb until it bled. I installed the spare little coop as a second nest box and a few days later Honey went on to lay an egg in it. She laid the egg in the little coop two days after her previous egg and without looking unwell.

A few days later Bluebell laid her egg in the little coop. The following day Bluebell, Pepper, Honey and Amber all laid their eggs in the little coop. It now seems to have become the preferred nest box with only Dotty showing no interest it. The little girls are now laying eggs with hard shells and without looking unwell so have finally got the hang of  egg laying.

That sums up the problems during our first year but there is of course also the other side. These little girls have worked their way into my heart. They run to greet me when I go up the path towards them, follow me round the run, they jump on my back and chatter in my ear. They are fascinating to watch while they scratch and peck, dig huge holes, dust bath and run around chasing each other for tasty morsels and generally get into mischief. They are so endearing and I sit and watch them every evening and chill with them whenever I can. They are constantly entertaining. They allow me to pick them up and get close to them and they mill around me, allowing me to be their flock leader. They are my little flock and despite all the tribulations, I can’t imagine life without them now. I love my little flock and know we will have many more adventures together!

My flock of five perching together

Yesterday I was in the garden when I heard one of the bantys making an agitated noise. I went to investigate and Amber walked out from under the bush into the open. At first I thought one of the big girls was having a go at her as they gathered around her.

Amber then held her wings down and stood like a penguin. I have heard of hens looking like this when they have an egg stuck and started to feel worried about her. Dotty peered at her bottom and I thought she was going to pull a feather from her so I waved Dotty away.

At that moment Amber stepped forward and there beneath her was a warm egg. I had just, for the first time, witnessed an egg being laid. Amber simply wandered off. She really doesn’t seem to know when her eggs are immanent and the other girls were clearly interested in what was going on. After a year with chickens, there are still moments like this, of experiencing something for the first time.

Last year I had the idea of cutting a turf into twelve squares and planting them in seed trays. I would put one tray in the chicken run each day for the girls to have daily grass and by the time they were on the twelfth tray the first one had recovered.

That was fine while the girls were little and just pecked at the grass. Now they are fully grown and they scratch the grass to bits. The grass can no longer recover and it’s time to give up on this idea and throw out my trays of grass.

The pathetic looking trays of grass

There are still a few sparse blades of grass but not enough to keep the girls happy for long. I now give them greens each day instead. Spring cabbage only costs a pound a bag and lasts the girls a week. I am also growing some things for them in our veg plot. I have chard, spinach, pak choi, corn on the cob and nasturtiums for them. Sometimes you just have to give up on what seemed like a good idea at the time!

The other thing to update on is the feather pulling. I had hoped that having the new girls to think about would distract the big girls from the bad habit of pulling feathers from each other.

No such luck, every day I pick up feathers from the run, mostly dominique feathers. Dotty’s neck is becoming more and more bare, giving her a very strange look!

Dotty’s bare neck

I then noticed on occasion that Pepper would go up to one of the bantys and try to pull a feather from her neck. I always tell her off and water spray her if I am quick enough. I had a dread of the bantys getting plucked but I really thought that they would get out of the way.

My worst fears were realised yesterday when I went in mid morning and found a little pile of six banty feathers by the bush. I wasn’t sure if one of the bantys had been attacked but there was sign of anything amiss and I couldn’t tell where the feathers had come from. I have noticed that the bantys neck feathers are thinning though.

In the evening while doing my clean up chores, I left the chicken run for five minutes to fill my watering can ready to give the girls their daily clean water. When I returned there were another six banty feathers in the middle of the run. I have yet to catch the culprit but it seems a lot of feathers to pull out in such a short time.

I feel so saddened that the bantys may end up plucked as well. I inspected the little girls and Amber is getting a bare neck at the front. It seems that by becoming part of the flock they are also becoming part of the feather pulling ritual. I have tried everything possible in the past to stop this and nothing works but I had really hoped that the bantys wouldn’t allow this to happen to them. It seems as if this is a part of making friends and being accepted by the big girls. I feel so disappointed by this development just when I have achieved one integrated flock.