Carol's Chickens

There have been some subtle changes taking place with the girl’s. Since Treacle has matured she has easily taken the place as top hen and often shows Pepper that she no longer has the position. Pepper has given in easily and just runs away when Treacle gives a light peck or a hard stare.

This change in the pecking order has had a good effect on the other two girls. Dotty has completely stopped being a bully and with that Bluebell has grown in confidence. Bluebell is not nervous at all now and has become much more vocal. Bluebell is the smartest and the nosiest and wants to be a part of anything going on. They all know the treats are in the store cabinet and whenever I open the door even if it’s just to get my gloves they are all at my feet, but lately Bluebell pushes her way into the cabinet and pecks at the plastic container that holds the corn. If she could get the lid off, I know she would.

Pepper’s comb and wattles have finally started to mature and today whenever I went to stroke her she squatted. I felt quite surprised because I wasn’t expecting her to start laying until spring but now think that she may start laying soon. In contrast Dotty still has no comb and no adult voice. I wonder if perhaps she won’t develop an adult voice. Dotty loves to fly up to my shoulder and yet is still the only one of the girls that won’t allow me to stroke her. Pepper is the only one that doesn’t jump up on me yet she likes to be close to me and does allow me to stroke her. They are all so different.

Pepper’s comb and wattles

Because Pepper has a pea comb, it is difficult to see it in a photograph but the backward spike is developing now and her comb and wattles have become much more red in colour.

Dotty still has no comb

This picture shows the contrast between Pepper and Dotty, who has no comb yet and a much paler face. Dotty is only one month younger than Pepper yet doesn’t seem to be growing up. I often think she is stuck in a time warp destined to stay a baby (or teenager)!

Close up of Pepper

I thought this angle might show her comb a bit better.

Bluebell has a floppy comb

As Bluebell’s comb has matured it has become more floppy, like a leghorn it flops to one side.

Treacle’s comb and wattles

Treacle has an upright comb and long wattles. It is interesting watching these changes taking place.

We tasted both Treacle’s and Bluebell’s egg this morning and thought the woody taste was less strong than before. The jasmine has only been removed from them for three days so we are hopeful that a few more days should see an improvement.

This morning I tasted Treacle’s egg from yesterday and I thought it was less strong. Although the jasmine has only been unavailable to the chooks for two whole days, I think they would have been getting less in the days leading up to this, as they had stripped all the leaves they could reach. Bluebell laid an egg this morning which I will taste tomorrow morning but for the first time in ages I am feeling really positive about this.

This afternoon after all my weekly chook cleaning chores, I dug the jasmine out. It was planted in a small, half tile hole, so it was quite hard to get out. I had to cut some of the root as it went under the patio so I don’t know if it will survive. I have planted it in the garden anyway as it has two chances and there is nothing to lose by giving it a try.

The jasmine is no more!

Synchronized drinking from my two egg laying girls

I can’t wait for the day when we can start eating the eggs and start giving them away. I promised my neighbours some eggs when the chickens started laying but of course can’t give any away until this is resolved. Hopefully not too much longer.

We have been struggling to find out what has been making our eggs taste unpleasant. I have had lots of helpful ideas and support from the “Down the Lane” forum and also discovered fellow chicken keeper, Jackie, who lives very near me.

Yesterday we met up for a coffee, lots of chicken chat and to swap eggs. I gave her one each of Treacle’s and Bluebell’s to try and she gave me one of her lovely, huge, eggs and kindly some of her pellets to try.

I then bought her over to visit my chooks and take a look at my set up. While we were chatting with the chooks my husband joined us and suddenly had a light bulb moment. He took a jasmine leaf to wash and taste and said it tasted quite bitter. I then did the same and found it quite pungent. We are now convinced this is what the problem is. Originally I dismissed the jasmine as I thought the chooks couldn’t reach it to eat enough of it, but recently Treacle and Bluebell have learned that they can get up onto the storage cabinet and reach much more. They have stripped a good portion of it and yesterday morning when I was cleaning the coop, Bluebell stepped across from the cabinet and into the jasmine itself to reach even more.

By this time it was getting dark so I got some wire and tied it back out of reach. Today I chopped it down to a few feet in height with no green left on it and tomorrow I will dig it out altogether. Bluebell was very cross about it and was at my feet or on the coop roof going “bock bock” very loudly.

I had Jackies egg for breakfast this morning and it was lovely. It was so nice to have a “normal” tasting egg. Before poaching it I took a photo of her egg with my girl’s for comparison.

Jackie’s two year old chook’s egg in the middle and Treacle’s on the right, Bluebell’s on the left

Jackie reported back yesterday that she had tried Bluebell’s egg and found it musty with a back taste that lasted. It is good to have someone else’s opinion.

This afternoon I tasted Treacle’s egg from yesterday (she laid another today which I will try tomorrow) and Bluebell’s egg from this morning. Treacle’s tasted the same but I thought Bluebell’s was a little less strong. This makes me feel quite positive that this may be the cause, hurrah! I really hope so because this has been a long and trying process and it would be so good to be able to eat their eggs at last. I could also give them some of their treats back but won’t change the regime until we are sure. I am feeling quite excited that we may have sorted this at last, but know that only time will tell.

Yesterday Bluebell laid her first egg and mid morning today I found Bluebell’s second egg in the nest box. It was slightly bigger and more blue than her first, truly beautiful! I felt very proud of her.

Bluebell’s second egg

Bluebell’s egg is on the right and Treacle’s egg is on the left

They look so wonderful and I feel I could cry because we haven’t been able to eat any of the eggs due to the mouldy taste. I am at my wit’s end with this as I have been reading chicken blogs for the last two years or more and have only done things and given treats that I have read everyone else does and no one else has this problem. I just cannot understand why this is happening and the longer it goes on the worse I feel because I just don’t know what else I can do.

I am waiting until morning to taste Bluebells egg before I put out this post.

This morning we poached Bluebell’s egg and both tasted it. It was just the same, a strong mouldy, woody, unpleasant taste. I am beyond disappointed. We have now had twelve eggs from Treacle (there was one in the nest box this morning at first light) and two from Bluebell. I had never expected to finally get eggs and not be able to eat them, it’s heartbreaking.

I have e-mailed the farm that I got the chickens from, asking them if they have any ideas or advice. I just don’t know what else to do.

I felt for the last few days that Bluebell was getting ready to lay an egg. This morning I went into the chickens just before the coop door opened. It opened soon after half past seven and I proceeded to clean out the coop. I glanced up at the nest box and a pale egg stood out. Bluebell must have laid her egg early because it was already cold to the touch. I took a photo but retreated quickly with it as she was very interested in it, I wonder if she laid it in the dark and wanted a proper look at it.

Bluebell’s first egg in the nest box

It was small but perfect and I felt so proud of Bluebell but it’s also tinged with sadness as I dread tasting it after our recent problems with Treacle’s eggs.

Bluebell’s first egg

I poached it and tasted it on it’s own and it had the same mouldy, woody, taste that Treacle’s eggs have. It also had the same hard shell and lovely bright yolk. A perfect egg in all but taste. At least this means it must be something they are eating and not something wrong with Treacle. They are now on a regime of pellets with only corn before bedtime and greens for treats but have only been on this since the weekend so maybe it needs more time.

I do feel really down about it though as more feedback from “Down the Lane” says other people have given daily meal worms and the same treats as me with no problem. Other people say stop all treats but the chickens wait with such excitement that it makes me feel mean not to treat. “Down the Lane” has been really supportive though and they are encouraging me to hang in there and that it will be worth it when it’s resolved.

I will keep tasting daily and hope for an improvement. I love these girls so much and feel proud of them because they are doing what they should be doing which makes it seem all the more unfair that we can’t eat their eggs.

We tried Treacle’s egg number nine this morning and it still had the same mouldy taste (although I thought it was not quite so strong) and I had some more feedback from the “Down the Lane” forum. Someone said that dried meal worms can effect the taste of eggs and that they should only be given twice a week. I have them mixed in my scratch treat which I was giving in the morning and evening. The meal worms are the only treat that have a smell (sort of malty) so that would make sense. I decided no more meal worms at all until this is resolved and have now made their scratch treat just a mix of corn and sunflower hearts.

Other than the new reduced scratch I am only going to give them greens for now. Today mid morning they had a pot of salad leaves and mid afternoon a few cooked peas.

A pot of leaves soon got their attention

This was ten minutes later, I think they liked those!

I think that Bluebell is about to start laying, hurrah! This morning she was strutting around shouting “boc boc” and then went and sat in the nest box for the first time. Later in the day she went in again and she readily squats now. This is how Treacle behaved the day before she laid so Bluebell may possibly lay tomorrow or fairly soon. It would be good to have Bluebells egg as a comparison.

Yesterday morning was the first really hard frost and the first time that the chickens water was frozen. I go out to them just before the coop door opens so I defrosted it under the hot kitchen tap. I always rinse out the drinker and refill it with fresh water every morning. I decided rather than take the whole thing inside that I would empty and rinse it in the evening, then simply refill it the morning. Another lesson learned, I need to separate the two halves of the drinker. This morning the empty drinker was frozen so that I couldn’t separate it to refill and still had to defrost it under the kitchen tap. Tonight I have separated the two halves. There is always another little tip to learn.

The other bit of disappointing but not unexpected news is that when we went up to take the food away at dusk tonight, we once more saw a rat in there. It disappeared so quickly in the poor light that we couldn’t tell how it got out. We will inspect in the morning but my husband thinks it probably squeezed through the chicken net where we haven’t yet put chicken wire underneath. This means we will have to do the whole run. We thought this probably would be the case but have been putting it off as we seem to spend every weekend working on the chicken run. It’s a never ending project. I am sure we will resolve all the hiccups eventually.

I had a few things that I felt needed an update so this is a mixed post.

Firstly the latest efforts to keep the rats out are working for now. We haven’t seen any more rats or any droppings or any evidence of them trying to find another way in at the moment!

The polythene cover we put over part of the uncovered run is a success, it has withstood all the wind and rain we have had recently. I have been in the run during heavy rain and it drains through the holes I made and doesn’t create any pools, so I am pleased with that. Because we have had so much rain with never more than an odd dry day, the ground has never dried out properly, but the chickens can still go out into the garden area while it’s raining and it keeps the big perch dry for them. I have to add that although we have had a lot of rain in the south of England we are lucky that we haven’t had the floods that the west of England has had and my run slopes down so at least the water drains away.

The other really simple success is moving the water off the patio area, it’s so nice not to have the constant wet patch on the patio and makes it much easier to keep clean.

Other news, I think Bluebell may start to lay soon as she has started to squat when I hold my hand over her back and she does go and have a look in the coop in the morning when I am cleaning up.

Treacle has taken to getting on top of the storage cabinet to peck at the jasmine leaves. The cabinet has a perspex top which is not meant to take the weight of a big girl like Treacle so the next job to do is to fit a bit of wood across the top of the cabinet. There is always something else that needs improving.

Finally back to Treacle’s mouldy tasting but lovely looking eggs. I have researched on the “Down The Lane” forum and on the internet to try to work out what is happening here. I concluded that the layers pellets that I had bought in bulk had gone out of date so replaced them with fresh ones a week ago. We have been tasting each egg, poached on a plate by itself with both me and my husband tasting it and there is no improvement yet.

Further input from “Down The Lane” suggested the corn that I give as a treat also has a shelf life and could be part of the problem. I had bought a bag of corn when I first had the chooks and as it’s only given in a small amount as a treat, I have had it for a long time. I have now thrown that away and replaced with fresh corn.

I have learned a lesson here that although I thought I was being sensible buying large amounts that was a mistake and from now on I will buy smaller amounts to keep everything fresh.

I then did further research on the internet and found other people with the same problem, one lady said it started when she fed corn, another said one of her hens is laying mouldy tasting eggs but not the rest and she has not changed anything. This is really strange! I could do with Bluebell starting to lay to give us a benchmark as to whether it is something they are eating.

I then researched “does what they eat effect the eggs?” rather than “mouldy tasting eggs” and got back that melon can effect the taste (no more melon) and that it’s best not to give too much fruit but stick to veg and salad items. They said in winter when there isn’t grass and plant life available that you can give unlimited greens and this improves the eggs.

I had already stopped melon and now will stop all fruit except an occasional apple. I will increase the greens and have a pot of living leaves for them for tomorrow.

I feel a bit more positive that we will get this sorted but it may just take a bit of time. Treacle’s eggs are perfect, dark brown with very hard shells, bright orange yolk and firm whites. They look amazing and it is so frustrating that we can’t eat them.

I do feel better that other people have also experienced this but no one seems to have a conclusion as to why. We will keep trying each egg and I will report the results. I am sure it is just a matter of time until this improves.

Meanwhile, I have to say, I just love these girls!

Yesterday evening when the coop door had shut and I went to take out the food, I heard a bumping on the roof. I shone my torch up and a rat ran across between the corrugated plastic of the roof and the chicken net below it. It ran from our side and out again on my neighbours side. I went in and told my husband and he returned with me to take a look. As we were both in there the same thing happened again with the rat running under the plastic roof and out. We felt encouraged that it was on the outside this time rather than inside. We thought that now we had blocked it’s latest entry hole that it was looking for another way in.

This morning we inspected where we had seen the rat the evening before and found a hole chewed through the nylon chicken net in the corner under the roof. We realized that it was our torch causing the rat to run out the other side. We felt really disappointed because if it can chew through the nylon chicken net it can get in anywhere overhead.

A hole chewed through the chicken net in the corner

I patched it up with bits of spare chicken net. It was a messy and temporary job but I needed to go out on my deliveries and just wanted to keep the rat out while I was away.

A messy patch up

While doing this I stupidly put all my tools on top of the storage cabinet, including the pot of coloured drawing pins. Bluebell who is always really nosey flew up on to the cabinet and knocked the pins over the floor. I told her off and pushed her away while I quickly gathered them up as I was afraid she might swallow one. In turn she showed her displeasure by strutting around shouting “boc boc” as loudly as she could. She really wanted to get to those pins and the whole job took me twice as long, as it always does when a chicken tries to help.

I continued, with the pins inside the cabinet, taking one out at a time as needed. It struck me afterwards how funny the two way conversation was between me and Bluebell. I told Bluebell off and she loudly told me she was not happy about it either!

When I came back at lunch time my husband had been in to inspect my patch up and told me I had wasted my time as he had just seen a rat squeeze through the patched net. We think because the net is flexible they can stretch the holes to get through. We needed another plan.

Off to the D.I.Y. store we went again! We bought a roll of chicken wire with much finer holes and a staple gun to fix it. My husband fixed the wire underneath the net. We only bought one roll to start with and thought we would go as far as we could (which was most of the roofed area), for now. We will wait to see what happens next and if they chew further along (which they probably will) we will continue to do the whole of the run. It doesn’t look great but if it works we will try to do a better job in the summer. We used the net in the first place because we can pull it tight for a neater look and because we were advised not to use anything too heavy such as weld mesh because if it gets heavy with snow in winter it would bend inwards.

Chicken wire underneath the chicken net

Close up of the chicken wire

When I went up to take out the food this evening there was no sign of a rat this time. Once again we may just slow them down. The problem is if they come in during the day then just removing the food isn’t enough and we feel we need to keep up the battle to keep them out.

I know our problem is small compared to some peoples. I looked on the “Down The Lane” forum and some people are having a really bad problem with rats. One person said they had seen about forty rats in the run during the day. Some people said they were laying concrete to keep them out and one person said the rats were eating the chickens eggs.

Compared to that our problem is small but we are as determined as the rats to win the battle.

Since I have been removing the food at night, the rat problem seems to have gone away. I had seen no droppings and still sweep up each day as the chickens go to bed and inspect in the morning. Then a few nights ago when I went up as the coop door was closing to remove the food, I saw something run from under the coop to behind the storage cabinet. It was dusk and it ran so quickly that I couldn’t tell if it was a rat or a mouse. At the weekend we decided to empty and pull out the storage cabinet (again) to see if there was anything behind it. There was one single rat dropping a couple of mice droppings and a few pellets. This is very little compared to the past but still shows they can get in and must be taking pellets before dark as I remove them at dusk.

At two o’clock this afternoon my husband went up to the chickens and saw a rat run under the coop and behind the storage cabinet. He said it was too big to get through weld mesh and must have found another way in. We started looking again but could see no sign   of digging. Then as we were leaving we stooped down and saw this.

Rats have chewed a hole through the wooden steps

This means they have dug underneath next doors decking and having come up against the tiles we have lined our side with have instead chewed through the wooden step. This is a perfect hole like you see in cartoons where they have mice behind the skirting board. My husband says if they made a hole this size it means they couldn’t get through the weld mesh or they wouldn’t have bothered to do this.  They must have been so determined and when they found no food at night decided to try their luck during the day. At least now we can see where they are getting in and it must only have been recent due to the one single dropping. My husband squirted expanding foam in the hole then put a thick log in front. It may not stop them forever but it will sure slow them down a bit.

My husband said he felt quite pleased in a way because we felt mice may get through the weld mesh but didn’t really think a rat would be able to. He says if they went to this much trouble to chew through wood then he feels they can’t get through the weld mesh and even if they find another way in, we can keep spotting it like we did this time and keep blocking them.

After waiting so long for our first eggs we were disappointed to find they had a strange taste. The first two we had poached in a toasted granary bread sandwich for our breakfast. There was a musty, mouldy taste. I thought it must be the bread and threw the loaf away, even though I had only bought it the day before.

A few days later we had two poached again for breakfast but in a white toasted sandwich. There was the same musty, mouldy taste.

I started to research if anyone else had come across this or had any ideas what could be causing it.

I give the girls unlimited access to layers pellets and grit and water of course. I give them a small handful of scratch treat (a mix of sunflower hearts, corn and dried meal worms) between four of them,  first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon. Mid morning and mid afternoon I take a treat of a small amount of fruit or veg, alternating between apple, melon, grapes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, greens. I feel this makes up for them not getting the grass, herbs and nasturtiums that they get in the summer. They can scratch for worms and bugs but don’t at the moment as it’s too wet.

Before getting any ideas back it suddenly struck me that it could be their layers pellets. I had bought a big sack of them back when I thought I would be getting my chickens about March/April time. I wanted to be well prepared but because the cold weather delayed hatching, I didn’t end up getting them until June and also hadn’t realized how long they would be on growers pellets.

I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if the pellets had a use by date ( I had them stored in a plastic tub with a lid so none of the original information with them). The answers that came back were that they do have a use by date. I felt pretty stupid not to have realized that and threw them out straight away and bought fresh ones.

The old ones were crumbly and the girls didn’t want them the first day, but I reduced the treats to encourage them to eat them (bad chicken mum!).

The fresh ones are much firmer. I am now convinced this is what the problem is. It will probably take a few days to get the old pellets out of their system so only time will tell. We will taste each egg separately, rather than as part of a meal. I really hope this is what it is.

The feedback from “Down The Lane” was that no one had come across this before but that most people agreed with me that it was probably the pellets. One person said that they had bought some pellets that had a musty, mouldy smell to them like bread gets before it turns blue. This is exactly the taste we are getting. Some people said try reducing the treats and others said that they gave the same treats as me with no problem. One person said that if this is the problem at least it is easily solved.

I then looked it up on the internet and found other people had the same problem. Most said that they thought it could be the pellets. I felt better knowing that we are not the only ones to come across this.

Its a shame because Treacle is laying perfect eggs. The shells are really hard and the yolks a lovely bright colour. We will monitor the situation and hope the eggs soon improve.