Carol's Chickens

I sometimes scramble some of the girls eggs in a little olive oil and water and give this to them, to give back some of their own goodness and a little protein boost. They love scrambled egg and like the tuna, they fall on it as if they haven’t eaten for days and it’s gone in about a minute.

When they have finished Pepper and Dotty gently peck any specks of egg from each others beaks. They look so sweet, they used to this when they were babies.

Scrambled egg

Cleaning each others beaks and combs

Pepper is on the right, Dotty on the left.

Beak to beak

I always think this looks like a chicken kiss. That’s Pepper on the right and Dotty on the left again.

Just when everything settles down nicely, a new problem arises. A few days ago I noticed that when Bluebell stretched her neck she had a bare batch on her neck. I then noticed that when Dotty stretched her neck she too had a bare patch. Pepper was as fluffy as ever.

My husband then said he had seen Pepper pulling neck feathers from Bluebell and Dotty while they sat in front of her just letting her do it. Their bare patches were getting bigger and I then saw Pepper plucking feathers from them but only from the window and couldn’t catch her in the act which makes it difficult to do anything about it.

This morning however when doing my early morning clean up I saw the three of them sitting together under the bush and Pepper was plucking their necks. They just sat passively and let her do it. I told her off and pushed her away. This is so frustrating because they were all looking pristine and healthy and now Bluebell and Dotty are looking scruffy and bare in parts. Pepper has never ever pecked at Dotty (they were babies together and have always been tight) but this isn’t a bullying thing it’s more of a habit. They sit together as if Pepper is preening them. It’s difficult to stop her doing this because we can only stop her when we are with them.

I thought of using the blue spray on their necks but think it probably won’t make any difference as it’s not the bareness that’s attracting her but the feathers themselves. I know it’s not lack of protein (they can eat feathers for protein) because I give them plenty. As well as daily greens and some fruit I alternate between giving them scrambled egg, tuna, dried meal worms, sunflower hearts and digging them worms from the veg plot.

I have heard of this happening to others but I don’t know how to stop it. You can fit a chicken saddle or apron to protect a chicken if pecked on their backs but there isn’t anything to protect their necks. I can hardly give them a scarf or neckerchief. We have freezing temperatures at the moment too which isn’t a good time to be bare.

I have also read that when the feathers molt, new one grow back in but when feathers are plucked they don’t regrow until the next molt. They won’t molt until next autumn so that’s a long time to be bare.

Dotty’s bare neck

Bluebell’s missing neck feathers

Dotty’s bare neck close up

Bluebell’s bare neck close up

I took these yesterday with difficulty because it’s hard to catch then stretching their necks. Every time me or my husband have been out to them this morning Pepper has been plucking them. I wonder how bare they will get before she stops. This is really upsetting. It has started since we lost Treacle and I don’t know if that has triggered it. Treacle was a more aggressive top hen than Pepper when it came to pecking the girl’s and showing who was boss but she never plucked feathers. I am finding this really sad to see.

Pepper is not the easiest girl to get a photo of but this morning I managed to get a few snaps of her face and her comb looks much better. It’s not quite perfect but I am pleased that it is much cleaner and that it proved to be just dirt.

Pepper yesterday before I washed her comb

Pepper today after I washed her comb

Pepper Today

Pepper’s comb looks much better

I am really pleased with the result and can now add washing a chicken’s comb to my list of new experiences with my girls.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a dark smudge on Pepper’s comb and thought it was the spiky feathers she has at the edge of her comb. I then noticed that it was a bigger splodge and thought, that with all the digging and scratching she has been doing since the ground has dried out, it was probably dirt.

A black mark on Pepper’s comb, a couple of weeks ago

Today Pepper looks like she has a dirty comb

Here is Dotty’s comb for comparison

I know from reading about chickens that they can get frost bite on the tips of their combs which can turn the tips black. It hasn’t been so cold though in recent weeks plus the dominiques are very cold hardy and have pea combs which because they are small are far less vulnerable and Bluebell who has a large floppy comb (more vulnerable to cold conditions) has no black on her comb.

I could only conclude that it must be dirt and that as the run is now covered for the winter months, they are not exposed to rain, so there is nothing to wash it off. I couldn’t help but worry though, I don’t want to miss something that could be a potential problem.

Pepper is happy, active, eating well and laying an egg most days, so I know it’s not bothering her. I decided that the only way to find out if it was dirt was to try to wash it off.

Just before their bedtime me and my husband went in with a bowel of warm water and a new washing up sponge. I picked Pepper up and handed her to my husband to hold. I dipped the sponge and rubbed gently on her comb. She was very good, chickens don’t like their heads touched, but as I gently stroked her comb upwards she accepted it. A lot of dirt came off on to the sponge. I couldn’t get all the dirt out of the deepest crevice in her comb but didn’t want to risk her getting stressed.

My husband thinks that perhaps when she has had yogurt and it has splashed on her face and comb, the dirt form scratching and digging, has then stuck to it.

She looks a lot cleaner and at least I now know that it is just dirt. She is such a sweet girl and didn’t hold it against me. She was still happy to be close to me while she continued her bedtime routine and seemed none the worst for her experience.

I will try to get a comparison photo soon but Pepper is the most difficult of the girls to photograph.

I certainly didn’t realise before having chickens how intimate I would become to them. I never imagined washing a chickens comb or any of the up close and personal experiences I had with poor Treacle, but I didn’t know I would love them so much either! I watch them closely and find them so cute and funny. I love their funny ways and characters. I love that they perch on me at any given moment and follow me even when I am on the other side of the mesh. I also think they look so beautiful. These girls have worked their way firmly into my heart.

Dotty is our last girl to start laying eggs. She is a month younger than the other girls and they started laying at eight months while Dotty started laying at nine months. She has now laid thirteen eggs in the last seventeen days, including one with a double yolk. Pepper who is the same breed (dominique) has been laying for seventy three days but despite this Dotty’s eggs are already larger than Pepper’s.

Dotty’s larger egg on the right and Pepper’s on the left

These eggs were laid yesterday. Dotty has laid bigger eggs right from the start. Maybe her slower maturing has something to do with this or maybe it is just because she is different. I find this quite interesting. I thought when I first got these girls, that being the same breed I may not be able to tell them apart but in reality they are quite different and both me and my husband have no trouble telling them apart.

They look different, sound different and have different personalities. Pepper is top hen and is a gentle leader. She is lower to the ground, wider, has a paler face with smaller wattles and a gentle expression that matches her gentle personality. She likes to jump on my back or my lap and is a quiet girl.

Dotty is taller and more upright, she has a brighter red comb and wattles with longer wattles, her comb and wattles almost complete a circle shape around her face. She has a black mark on her beak and a naughty expression to match her cheeky personality. She likes to jump on to my shoulder and liked to steel my earrings until I was forced to remove them. She rarely goes “boc boc” like the other girls but has her own happy song which she sings in my ear from my shoulder or sings while eating treats. It’s difficult to describe but is something like a tuneful “dah dah dah-DAH”, with the last “DAH” being a higher tone and the phrase being repeated a couple of times.

At the moment I can even tell their eggs apart although that may change in time. Dotty’s are larger and more pointed.

Bluebell is a different breed (chalkhill blue) and lays blue eggs about the same size as Pepper’s and quite round in shape. Bluebell has been laying for seventy nine days and lays almost every day. She is the most nosey and the brightest but is bottom hen as she has never ever pecked at another hen. She prefers to perch on my arm or sometimes jump from my arm to my shoulder. Bluebell is the loudest girl and if she wants to get in the nest box when another girl is in there she shouts about it. She also shouts to let everyone know she is about to lay an egg She goes “boc boc BOC”, repeated several times with the last “BOC” louder and longer.

Yesterday my husband decided to dig over our vegetable plot and therefore needed to find a new home for the trays of grass that I was overwintering on the veg plot. He rummaged through the shed and found some planks of wood and some brackets (it comes in handy that he never throws anything away!). He fixed the shelves to the outside of the chicken enclosure, sloping them downwards slightly to allow for water to run off.

Shelves for the trays of grass

The grass trays on the shelves from another angle

They are just to the side of the gate so will be easy for me to take in to the chickens and my husband thinks they will get less waterlogged being up off of the ground, plus he likes everything to be tidy!

They don’t look all that healthy at the moment but if they don’t make a comeback by the beginning of summer, I will buy another turf and redo them. Even if I bought a new turf every year it would still be worth it as the price of one square of turf is not much and last summer it gave the girls some grass every day. I would give them one tray a day and by the time they had eaten the grass in the last tray, the first tray had regrown ready to go back in to the girls.

Yesterday and today, between me and my husband, we dug over the veg plot and dug in our chicken compost. As we dug up worms we tossed them into the chickens. The girls were lined up behind the weld mesh that separates them from the veg plot and were in a state of excitement waiting for the worms. They had quite a feast and got a bit of exercise running after worms and running after each trying to steal them. It was a fun afternoon for us and the girls.

That’s it! I am now giving up wearing earrings for the time being. I have two piercings on each ear and was wearing a small gold stud with a tiny diamond earring below it in each ear.

I switched the gold stud for a tiny ruby but last night Dotty jumped on my shoulder and took a peck at the ruby. I managed to save it and decided to take the top pair out as she hadn’t yet ever gone for the bottom pair.

Tonight she jumped to my shoulder and as fast as lightening took my diamond stud. Again, I briefly felt the tiny earring back but then it was lost. I searched with a torch but couldn’t find anything and think Dotty must have swallowed the diamond too. She has now swallowed two gold studs and a tiny diamond stud and I am left with one odd gold stud and one odd diamond stud.

I have now removed my earrings and decided to leave them out for a while. Only Dotty has done this and it’s been my right ear each time. That’s an expensive collection of grit she has in her crop! It’s a good job I love these girls.

Today I wanted to take some close ups of the girls and capture their faces. This is incredibly difficult as they always move just as I click and unlike other pets won’t look up when you call their name. Many of the best ones were blurred as they moved when I clicked, chickens are not still for more than seconds!

Bluebell is the easiest to photograph and Pepper is incredibly difficult, it’s almost as if she is camera shy. She won’t look to camera and always dips her head or turns away as I click. I did my best!

Bluebell

Bluebell

I managed to capture Bluebell from each side of her floppy comb.

Dotty

Dotty

This shows the black mark on Dotty’s beak, she also has longer wattles than Pepper.

Pepper

Pepper

It was such a shame that Bluebell turned her head away just as I clicked but I have included it because it is a rare one of Pepper’s face.

I think there is so much character in these faces.

A couple of weeks ago Dotty ate one of my earrings. It was a gold stud and when I looked in my jewellery box I found that I had a spare identical earring. I must have lost one many years ago and bought an identical pair which gave me the spare, so the simple thing seemed to put that one in my ear in place of the “lost” one.

Last night at bedtime I was having a bit of together time with the girls. I was sat with my arm resting on the coop handle and Bluebell jumped onto my arm, she prefers to have a perch. Dotty as usual jumped onto my shoulder and Pepper jumped onto my lap. I think this is the first time I have had all three girls sat on me at once.

Suddenly Dotty once again swiftly removed my earring from the same ear as before. It was a bit difficult for me to do much about it with three chickens sat on me. Again I reached up and found the earring missing but the back still there. With three chickens sat on me and the earring back being super tiny, I lost it. I thought I had managed to push it into my pocket but couldn’t find it later.

I couldn’t find the earring so can only think that once again Dotty has swallowed it. She now has a matching pair!

I have now replaced the gold studs with some tiny ruby studs. I hope these will be less shiny and therefore less attractive to Dotty. I don’t know what else to do as it would be difficult to keep taking them out every time I go into the girls as I am in and out all day. I feel like I need to wear ear defenders but that’s not practical either and as anyone who wears earrings will know, if you leave them out the pierced hole will close up.

I hope this pair will stop Dotty taking them. She is so quick and accurate that I feel nothing but a quick tug and can’t tell the earring has gone until I put my hand up to check. I am amazed that she pulls it from the back without making contact to my skin and therefore not hurting me.

I hope the earring don’t harm her, she doesn’t seem to be effected by it at all. I do hope this is the last earring she swallows!

I bought some tuna when Treacle was poorly to try to give her a boost. Over the past couple of weeks I have been gradually using it up by giving it to the girls as a treat, and it’s become their number one favourite.

On the day that I gave them the last of the tuna, I decided to photograph them. As soon as they see the white dish they get really excited and they mob me as soon as I go in through the gate. I can barely get the dish to the ground before they fall on it as if they haven’t eaten for days!

The tuna is gone in seconds, it’s a feeding frenzy! I snapped five photos in as many seconds and have included them all to show the speed that the tuna disappeared. There is tuna in the dish in the first photo and none left by the fifth.

Tuna

Going

Going

Going

Gone!

They clearly enjoyed that!

Dotty laid an enormous egg a few days ago. We saved it until today as on a Sunday we treat ourselves to a bacon and egg breakfast. I suspected it would have a double yolk so I broke it into a dish. Sure enough it did have a double yolk, our first from our girls.

Our first double yolk