Carol's Chickens

Over the last week spring has arrived at last after a long cold winter and the garden has suddenly filled with spring colour.

Spring colour

Best of all though is the effect it has had on the chickens. The feather pulling stopped as suddenly as it started. I had read that when the feathers are plucked out they don’t regrow until the next molt which would be autumn but over the last week I was sure that I was seeing the beginning of pin feathers on Pepper’s bottom and Dotty’s neck. Then I started to notice downy feathers appearing on Dotty’s head. Today I realised that she no longer has a bare head, hurrah!

Dotty’s bare head just over a week ago

Dotty’s head is no longer bare

Pepper is still a bit scruffy but her fluffy bottom is slowly coming back

Bluebell still has a bare patch on her neck but it’s not so obvious

I think because the dominiques have very downy feathers they lose and replace some of them all the time so have more of a chance of their feathers regrowing. I am so pleased to see Dotty’s head feathered again.

Dotty’s now fluffy head

Dotty has also now joined Pepper with a dirty comb but they have been doing so much dust bathing over the last few days that I suppose it is inevitable. How lovely it is to see her getting fluffy again, although she still has a bare neck which she is hiding here.

I have also noticed Bluebell has started wagging her tail from side to side and wonder if this some sort of spring ritual to attract a mate. Spring has made both the girls and me feel happier.

Today I got the girls some maggots. I raked a heap of wood chip and leaves then buried the maggots in it to give the girls something to scratch for.

Looking for the maggots

Scratching for maggots

They spent a very happy time scratching for the maggots and I am sure none of them managed to escape. The girls continued to scratch long after the maggots had been eaten, just in case.

This seem to tire them out and they all went for a short snooze followed by an extended dust bathing session in the sun. They were all three writhing in their dust bath and showering dirt over themselves. Bluebell was actually purring with delight and we could tell they were enjoying the sun and had a lovely afternoon. It was difficult to tear ourselves away from such fun and go and get on with our work!

Dotty missed laying an egg yesterday after the soft shelled egg the day before but laid a normal egg this morning. Dotty was the only one to lay today but both Pepper and Bluebell had a record egg laying run so deserved a day off. Bluebell had laid twenty two days in a row! All the eggs have been normal since the day of the two soft shells so it seems it was just a glitch.

I have recently tried the girls with cherry tomatoes and they love them. They have to work a bit harder to get into them than either normal sized tomatoes or similar sized grapes.

The girls check out the cherry tomatoes

Lets both go for the same one

Because they are a bit harder to get into, Dotty who will always take the easiest route, will try to take one from Pepper rather than break into her own. Pepper tolerates so much from Dotty where as she wouldn’t allow Bluebell to take something from her. These two are really close!

Pepper laid an egg this morning and it was back to normal so hopefully yesterday was just a glitch. This is her sixth egg in a row which is the most in a row she has laid so far. Bluebell also laid this morning and her egg was normal as usual and at twenty two eggs in a row she has just beaten her previous record. Dotty didn’t lay today but she had laid thirteen in a row which was also her record too. I think the longer days are causing the girls to lay more frequently.

I put the new plants in the thyme lawn today and gave the dead plants I took out to the girls along with a few dandelions.

Dead plants and dandelions

All heads down

They had great fun scratching and pecking at anything I took out of the garden. It took me a while to get the job done because as I dug up worms, I took them in to girls. The girls love watching me doing some gardening because they know they will get the worms.

The lawn with the new plants in

The plants look a bit lost in the lawn at the moment but this is a work in progress. I decided that rather than dig out all the thyme I would just dig out a bit to put each plant in. This way it will keep the weeds down and give the remaining thyme a chance to possibly recover as there are a few bits of green coming back.

I will buy something in flower each month and keep adding to it so it fills up with year round colour. It will no longer be a lawn but there  is no point struggling to keep the thyme lawn if it’s not going to work. It’s a shame as I have enjoyed having a thyme lawn before but this one was just not working! beyond the veg plot is the chicken run.

When I went back in to girls they were enjoying a dust bath.

Dust bath in the sun

Afternoon dust bath

Twist and turn

They were having a lovely time writhing about in the dust bath. They always look so funny and I think they enjoyed the days sun as much as I did.

Much to my surprise this morning when I went out to the girls just after first light, I found two soft shelled eggs on the floor of the coop. They were Dotty and Pepper’s eggs.

Soft shelled eggs

I would say that Pepper’s egg is on the right and Dotty’s egg on the left because Pepper’s eggs are always smaller than Dotty’s and because Dotty laid yesterday morning but Pepper didn’t lay until yesterday afternoon so I am really surprised that she has laid again so soon.

This is my first experience of soft shelled eggs and I really hope this is just a glitch and not another ongoing problem as we do seem to lurch from one problem to the next.

We have had three days now of no feather pulling and really feel we have passed through that now, so could do without going straight on to the next problem.

Bluebell laid her egg a few hours later in the nest box and it was perfectly normal. Bluebell (and Treacle before she died) have always laid very hard shelled eggs but Pepper and Dotty’s have never been so hard even though there is a hopper always filled with grit and oyster shell which they all help themselves to.

My theory is that because I had increased giving things to the girls to peck at, to distract them from the feather plucking, they have not been eating so many pellets and this may have upset the balance. I noticed yesterday for the first time that they hadn’t eaten many pellets. They also don’t seem to like the feeder raised up and flick much more of their food onto the floor, so today I have put the feeder back on the floor and already much more of the food has been eaten.

I had been giving them extra greens and also corn on the cob each day which they had never had before. I am going to return to their former routine of some spring greens mid morning and an apple mid afternoon and nothing else besides their pellets but some extra protein sometimes as a boost.

Dotty’s egg today was the thirteenth day in a row and Pepper’s was the fifth in a row. Bluebell’s was the twenty first day in a row, she is a really prolific layer. Dotty usually lays ten in a row then misses a day and Pepper usually lays three or four in a row then misses a day. Bluebell usually lays anywhere between fifteen and twenty one in a row then misses a day.

I really think this must be due to diet (not enough pellets) because it’s really strange that it’s happened to both Pepper and Dotty at exactly the same time. They are both the same breed (dominiques) but Pepper is a month older than Dotty and Dotty started laying two months later than Pepper, so she was a month older when she started laying.

I think that as they are laying so regularly at the moment it probably doesn’t take much to upset the balance.

I broke the eggs into a bowl and the soft shell was more like skin. Dotty’s egg was normal inside but Pepper’s egg had no white, this may be why it appeared so small and may be due to her laying less than twenty four hours apart.

I scrambled the eggs with a little olive oil and water to give back to the girls so as not to waste them and also return the goodness to them.

Scrambled egg

They really love this and it was gone in minutes. I will need to see if the next eggs return to normal or if it continues in which case I will start giving lime stone flour to improve the egg shells. I really hope they take a day off tomorrow then return to normal but we will have to wait and see.

The weather has warmed up and for the second day running I haven’t seen any feather pulling or found any feathers in the run hurrah! I can’t believe after all my stressing about this and trying everything I could think of, that with a change in the weather the girls have just stopped this behaviour in an instant. I really do hope this is it now and this awful stage is over.

With a change in the weather our thoughts also turn to the garden and our thyme lawn seems to have died. With the amount of fun the girls got from the dead shrub we gave them recently we have decided never to throw away dead plants again but to give them to the girls.

The dead thyme lawn

A very sad looking lawn

A green thyme lawn

The thyme lawn last summer

The lawn should be green then a lovely mass of purple when in flower. It’s been struggling a bit round the edges  for the last few years but I have never seen it look like this before. As thyme likes good drainage I dug in sand and gravel before planting it five years ago. I think what has happened is, that because we had such a wet summer followed by a wet start to winter, I just hadn’t noticed how dry it had become recently. I think the ground has dried out and most of the thyme has died.

We decided to buy some new plants to mix in with the thyme plus we will take some from our existing flower beds. We have an abundance of primroses that have self seeded everywhere so can be transplanted into the lawn.

The girls will get all the dead thyme that we take out, but this is a project for this weekend.

Some new plants

I have dotted out some new plants to try out but they do look rather lost at the moment. This may be an ongoing project for a while.

I am so relieved that the feather plucking appears to have stopped and really hope this has passed now. It’s just such a shame that Dotty has a bare neck and head but hopefully she will be back to normal eventually.

After a long really cold spell, at last the weather has changed and today was warm and sunny. It was also the first day in ages that I haven’t seen any feather pulling and haven’t picked up any feathers from the run.

My friend and fellow chicken keeper, Jackie came to visit the girls. She came bearing a gift for them, a sack of dried leaves.

We discussed the fact that a few weeks ago we had a sunny weekend and the feather plucking ceased, causing me to think we had turned the corner with this problem. The cold weather returned and so did the feather pulling. We now believe that the stress of losing Treacle triggered this habit and the unusual late cold weather helped to cause it to continue.

I have heard that rabbits and chickens know when it should be spring and that a late spring can effect their behaviour. The girls were so much better when we had a sunny weekend and the only difference for them today is again a change in the weather.

The forecast is showing an end to the prolonged cold spell (the coldest March in fifty years) and warmer spring like weather on it’s way. I am really hopeful now that if it stays more spring like perhaps this behaviour will be at an end.

I was on the verge of thinking we would have to separate Pepper but was dreading it as the girls are so close and I am uplifted to think we probably won’t have to do this. The girls have been dust bathing today without pulling any feathers and have been sitting on the big perch for the first time in ages. They have also been perching on the ladder, as well as using it to peck at the cabbage.

We emptied the leaves into the run for the girls.

As usual Bluebell is the first to check it out

Getting closer to the leaves

Starting to scratch

The leaves are soon scattered

Completely scattered

The girls had great fun with the leaves, thank you Jackie. Jackie thinks that the girls don’t look too bad apart from Dotty’s neck and agreed with what others have said that they look happy and healthy. We are hopeful once again that another corner has been turned and maybe we are coming to the end of this problem. I really do hope so.

I am doing all I can to keep the girls busy but they are still feather pulling. It seems to happen most in the dust bath. As soon as Dotty or Bluebell settle into a dust bath, Pepper will sit beside them and pluck them. It is heartbreaking going into their run and picking up feathers. I am keeping the water spray handy but I see them plucking from a distance and they scatter when I go in.

The remains of the mint

The mint I put in yesterday has been reduced to this, but they say that the more you pick mint the more it grows so I am hoping that it will be tough enough to recover and eventually to spread.

My trays of grass don’t seem to be coming back and I am going to start afresh soon so decided to put the trays in for the girls to peck at and scratch through.

What was once a tray of grass

There are only a few blades of grass to be pecked but they can scratch through the soil underneath.

Grass tray emptied out

I put a couple of the grass trays in and once pecked, I emptied one out so that the girls can scratch through the shingle and soil.

I bought the girls a peck block a while ago but it is so hard that they can’t get into it and I have chipped bits off for them with a hammer. I thought I would try soaking it in water to soften it and it worked.

The peck block

They are now getting the corn off but I will keep an eye on it and if they get too much too quickly, I will take it away and give it to them for short spells only.

I have recently raised the feeder as I was advised it should be shoulder height to the girls. When it was on the patio floor the girls flicked the pellets out and ate them from the floor but the pellets remained on the square that the feeder was on.

Since I have raised it they flick them out far and wide and now the pellets are everywhere.

The pellets now get flung all over the floor

I am tempted to go back to having the feeder directly on the floor as it was easier to clean up but I will persevere for a while.

I also pruned the top of the large shrub in their run for two reasons. I hope it will encourage it to put out new growth and I have left the pruned leaves in the run for the girls to peck at.

I am continuing to do all I can but am becoming more desperate about this. I read an article today (a friend who is trying to help and support forwarded it to me, thank you Jackie), that said stress can bring on this behaviour (possibly Treacle departing) and that it is one of the hardest habits to break but ultimately this behaviour is bad for them and could result in new feathers being unable to come through.

I am beginning to think separation is the only solution to breaking the habit. This will be very difficult to do in my set up and will be stressful to me and the girls but I think I am going to have to work out a way of doing this.

Recently both my boys and their girlfriends paid us and the chooks a visit. They know the problem I have with the girls plucking each other but all agreed that the girls look happy and healthy albeit scruffy and bare and suggested that I should stop worrying about it. They pointed out that although it’s bothering me it’s not bothering the girls.

There is no drawing of blood and they are gentle about plucking the feathers. I see them dust bathing together while plucking each other. They don’t understand why this is undesirable.

My eldest said that the girls run is amazing and looks like a children’s play area and that there really is nothing else I can do to stop this apart from moving in with the girls full time! He also said that they will have to stop when they have no feathers left at all, very reassuring!

All our visitors have said they can see how attached to me the girls are as they follow me around and jump on me whenever they can and all our visitors are impressed with our set up.

So can I just accept this and stop worrying about it? I keep saying that there is nothing else I can do so I will just let them get on with it and try to accept that they are healthy and happy as they are. But then I go back in to them and see them even more bare and more feathers in the run and I can’t help feeling distressed about this. I am trying to accept it but it’s so frustrating.

I am continuing to do all I can to keep them occupied and I will use the water spray whenever I catch them but they do tend to stop when I go in.

I bought a pack of frozen corn on the cob today and am going to hang one at the top of the ladder each morning to give them something to peck at as well as the cabbage.

I also bought a mint plant today for the run, as it was only a pound, so cheap enough if it doesn’t survive.  I have always kept mint in a pot and never in the garden because it so invasive but that would make it perfect for the girls run (it can spread as much as it likes in there if it gets a chance!).

The very small mint plant

I surrounded it with cobbles to protect the roots then put more soil and wood chip over the cobbles.

Taking a look at the mint

The girls soon came to investigate. I decided to leave them with it for a while then go back and see if it had all gone yet.

Dotty’s poor bare neck and head

When I went back Dotty was pecking at a slice of melon so I took this to show how bad her neck is looking. I find it so upsetting to see her looking like this.

Bluebell jumps from the log to the block of wood

Bluebell often stands on the log but I haven’t managed to get a photo of her. Just as I took this she jumped across but I quite liked the action shot.

All three check out the mint

They suddenly remembered the mint and went back for a closer look. They are all three so together!

Pecking at the mint

They all had a peck of the mint and I am sure it won’t last long but I am hoping that the root will survive and it will keep coming back. Anyone who has ever tried to get rid of mint will know how hardy it is so hopefully it will survive.

So do I accept the plucking? I don’t have much choice but it is driving me to distraction!! I also think in future when I stop constantly going on about this, anyone new to read this will see photos of my girls and think they look very uncared for when actually they are very spoiled girls. It doesn’t really matter though what anyone else thinks it’s only me that is going crazy with this. I wish I could stop them but I am all out of ideas!

As a final little foot note to this post I have just noticed that this is my two hundredth post in my ten months of chicken keeping. I hope I haven’t been too negative lately because I can’t stress enough how much I love these girls.

Yesterday I cleaned out the chicken coop and decided to give the girls the pine shavings to scratch in, they have been thoroughly poop picked every day. Firstly I emptied the nest box in a heap.

A heap of pine shavings

The girls start scratching

They are getting them spread around

Then I emptied the shavings from the coop into a cardboard box.

This is as near as Bluebell got to the box

I moved the box across to the other side of the run.

Bluebell is the first to take a look

This is as close as we are going to get

Bluebell plucks up the courage to look inside

Dotty joins in

All three investigate

I am giving them as many things as possible to keep them occupied but it’s not helping with the feather plucking. It was a lovely sunny day and when I went in later Dotty was either sat in the sun or in a dust bath and Pepper was settled down beside her gently plucking feathers from her neck. I told her off and she looks at me as if to ask what my problem is. I reached for the water spray but it was too late.

I picked up about six feathers from the run, one was Bluebells and the rest were Dotty’s. I really am at my wits end with this.