Carol's Chickens

Dotty’s latest thing is jumping on to my shoulder. Tonight when I was in with the girls before bedtime I could tell Dotty was going to jump from the ground to my shoulder again. She circles me while looking up and twisting her head and neck. It’s as if she is working out the best angle to jump from. At that moment my husband came up and saw what she was doing so went back indoors for the camera. By the time he returned she had jumped to my shoulder.

Dotty on my shoulder

Dotty is about to jump down

My husband just managed to catch her on my shoulder. She seems pretty pleased with her new trick.

I decided we needed a bigger dry dust bath as Treacle looked so cramped in the old one and sends most of the dust out. I bought a washing up bowl, it’s bigger, deeper and being round, a more suitable shape. I filled it and took my camera to see what the girls would make of it.

New bigger dust bath

As usual Bluebell was the first to go and look at it as she is the most inquisitive. I went back later and there were foot prints in it so they have stood in it but not dust bathed yet. Oh well, these things always take time. I am sure they will use it more quickly this time. I will photograph them when they perform for me.

Lately I have noticed Treacle rising to top hen and there is now no doubt that she has taken over the position from Pepper. I noticed that Treacle would peck Dotty (up to now the bully) and I would hear a yelp but Dotty didn’t seem too bothered. When I watched them more closely, I realized that the short yelp sound was Treacle not Dotty, Treacle would make the sound as a warning accompanied by a quick peck. Dotty started to behave herself and as a side effect seems to have stopped bullying Bluebell so much.

Treacle pecks Pepper to show her she is now top hen and sometimes chases her away. Sometimes Treacle gives Dotty and Pepper a quick peck and they both lower their head in the submissive pose. I have not seen Treacle peck Bluebell at all and assume that as Bluebell is bottom hen, she has no need to.

I think over all Treacle will be a good top hen but I do feel a bit sorry for Pepper having been usurped. When Dotty pecks Bluebell away from their evening scratch treat or Treacle pecks Dotty away, they both quickly return to the treat. I think this is because Bluebell is used to being pecked away and Dotty is fearless but when Treacle pecks Pepper away she runs off and stands at a distance looking forlorn. I am willing her to just get back in there and carry on but she hasn’t been used to being chased away before and seems a bit perplexed about this sudden change in status.

All this seems to be mellowing Dotty a bit. Lately when she sees Treacle on my shoulder, She wants to come up too. She has jumped on my head a couple of times recently because Treacle has been on my shoulder and she can’t seem to manage to get on the other shoulder, so she gets on to my head instead. Not ideal but for a while I thought Dotty didn’t like me as she didn’t interact at all with me, so this behaviour has surprised me.

The other day when I went in at bedtime I could see that Dotty wanted to jump up on to me but it had been very wet and their feet were very muddy. Dotty jumped on to the coop roof to get nearer so I moved away and stood by the gate. Much to my surprise Dotty jumped from the ground to my shoulder. I have to say I was pretty impressed! I crouched down so that she wouldn’t have such a long way to jump down but she was in no hurry to leave. The other thing that strikes me is how light she is compared to Treacle. Treacle is a big and heavy hen but the dominiques are both so light in comparison.

Dotty is still the only one of them that won’t let me stroke her but perhaps now that I don’t have to tell her off all the time for bullying, we are making some progress. I would like to get a photo of Dotty on my shoulder but it may take time as they never perform to order!

Last night we had torrential rain and when I went out to the chickens this morning there was a pool of water that had collected at the edge of the plastic covering, we recently put over part of the chicken enclosure. It was stretching the plastic and the chicken net inwards. I got my broom and pushed underneath it to release the water.

I thought about how to combat this and decided to puncture some drainage holes along this edge. It’s the edge between the umbrella and the bush, so if water drips through here it won’t matter. The opposite corner should still provide a dry area.

While I was doing this there was another heavy shower which allowed me to see where the water was pooling and I continued to make holes while I could see how effective they were at letting the water drain out.

I will need to wait for the next rainfall to see if this works well enough. I only hope it will still drain through this same place and not pool somewhere else. Meanwhile the chicken net has sprung back to it’s usual shape.

I will be keeping a close eye on this when it rains so that I can tweak it as needed.

The right hand edge between the umbrella and the bush is where I have punctured some drainage holes

A quick update on the rat situation: since I have been taking the food out at night, there have been no more rat droppings at all. After finding one single dropping the first morning there have been none at all for several days now. I am amazed at how quickly they realized there was no food here any more.

As it’s so wet I decided to put in a peck block that I had bought for this sort of wet weather to occupy the girl’s. As always with something new they viewed it with suspicion at first. Bluebell and Treacle were first to have a peck. Dotty was next and finally Pepper. I think it will last quite well as they have to peck quite hard at it to get anything off. It’s made up of corn, oats and seeds.

What is this?

Shall we try pecking at it?

Let me try

Bluebell has a go

The final rain related subject is the dry dust bath. This is a tray with a mixture of sand, ash and a sprinkle of D.E. It has always been under the dry patio area but the chickens had never used it as a dust bath. They stand in it and they peck at it. I had just been wondering if the problem is that it’s not big enough and intend to buy a bigger tray.

Maybe it’s because of all the rain we have just had but when we went up to the chickens this afternoon, much to our amazement, Bluebell and Treacle in turn were dust bathing in it. Hurrah! It’s only taken them four and a half months to find it’s purpose!

Treacle in the dust bath

Bluebell stepping out of the dust bath

I wasn’t quick enough to catch Bluebell dust bathing. It is quite cramped for Treacle so I will still look for something bigger. I am so pleased they have found it’s use at long last though.

We have had continued torrential rain for a while now and the chicken enclosure is turning into a quagmire. The umbrella was fine for light rain but with heavy downpours the water soon gets underneath it. The chickens have their dry, roofed, patio area but I was worried that they didn’t have enough dry garden area to scratch and dust bath in and have constantly got muddy feet.

Today we had the first bit of sun in ages and my husband suggested we put the umbrella down so the chickens could enjoy some sun and the mud might start to dry out. But no, it was not to be. The chickens didn’t like this change in the shape of the umbrella and spent the day on the patio. They wouldn’t go near the folded umbrella and missed out on what little sun there was. In despair at their chicken refusal of going near anything different, I put the umbrella back up and normality returned.

We went off to the D.I.Y. store to see what we could come up with as a partial cover to keep some of the garden area dry. We found some clear, waterproof, plastic sheeting for £8.00 which seemed quite reasonable. We thought we would put it over the corner part of the enclosure. My husband said we could take off the wooden batons covering the chicken net, drape the plastic over and nail the batons back in place to secure it. He then came up with the idea of using our bamboo canes for the inside edge, to hold it in place. We threaded the bamboo canes through the weld mesh, then through the plastic sheet and weaved them through the chicken net. I then used garden wire to secure the canes to the plastic by threading it through the plastic and round the poles at intervals all the way across. We tried to secure it as best we could so that the wind wouldn’t whip it off. We are not sure how well this will stand up to the elements but feel that at a fairly small cost it is worth a try.

This is a bit temporary and not very robust but I just want to try to get some dry earth back instead of mud. Only time will tell how well this will work.

A bit of waterproof covering

Plastic sheet over the chicken net

It remains to be seen how well this will work. Here’s hoping for a bit more dry area

After several days with no rat droppings we thought we had the problem beat but we were wrong! Gradually the droppings started to reappear. This time there was no sign of where they are getting in and no more evidence of digging.

When I asked the “Down The Lane” forum if a mouse could get through weld mesh one person said that they had even seen a rat squeeze through weld mesh. I thought that perhaps the rat was a baby but now I wonder if the rats are getting through the weld mesh as there are no gaps bigger than this.

I finally admit defeat and will be removing the food at night. In the summer the chickens come out at five in the morning and I go out at seven, but there was no evidence of rats in the summer. The chickens now come out at around seven, the same time as I go out to them so I will take the food out once the chickens are in the coop and put it back when I go in to them in the mornings. In summer I will revert back to leaving the food out.

Most of the droppings were next to the storage cabinet so once again we emptied it and pulled it out. Once more there were chicken pellets behind the cabinet, the rats are storing them there. We cleaned them all away so that there would be no food for the rats at night. I had a good clean and sweep up as the chickens were going to bed so that I would be able to spot any evidence in the morning.

This morning was the first morning that I went in after the food was taken out and there was only one mouse dropping and one rat dropping. They obviously didn’t hang around once there was no food and I hope eventually they will stop going in when there continues to be no food. I will continue to keep a close eye on it but am hopeful that will be the end of the problem.

One of the great things about chickens is that they have such individual personalities. My four girls are all quite different.

Treacle

Treacle is the biggest of my girls and very placid. She is the least bothered about treats and seems to need the most sleep. She will often be dozing on the big perch and not be bothered to come for treats when the others all come running (except for the scratch mix of corn, meal worms and sunflower hearts which is too irresistible) but if it’s just greens or grapes she won’t come if she is happily perching or dust bathing. She purrs while dust bathing.

She is the one that most likes to sit on me and if I bend down or crouch down for any reason at all she is up on my shoulder in an instant. If I am standing she stretches and turns her neck, looking for a way up.

Treacle seems to be taking the place of top hen from Pepper as she is maturing. She will peck lightly at Pepper to show her, her place and she pecks at Dotty when she is in her way at the treats feeder but doesn’t peck at Bluebell who is bottom hen and never troubles any of them.

Treacle is also the quietest, she only goes “boc boc” if cross or alarmed. She purrs when happy and sometimes make a “quack” sound like a duck.

Bluebell

Bluebell is bottom hen and has been bullied by Dotty but Bluebell has never pecked any of them which is probably why she is bottom hen. Bluebell is the smartest though and will discover anything new first out of all them. She is also the nosiest and has to investigate anything we are doing in the chicken enclosure. She is probably the most mature as her comb and wattles are more mature than the other three.

Because of her being pecked away from the treats by Dotty she has attached herself to me the most, as she sees me as her protector. She will follow me around and runs to the furthest corner when I leave as if to beg me not to go. She is always the first to come to me and follows me around pecking at my clothes. When Treacle jumps on my shoulder, Bluebell circles me while mournfully going “boc boc” as she wants to get up too. Bluebell likes to chat and goes “boc boc” a lot of the time. If she is upset (when Dotty chases her from the treats) she makes it quite clear with a melancholy “boc boc”.

Pepper

Pepper is a very sweet hen. She was the most skittish to begin with so it means all the more to me that she now likes to peck at my clothes and allows me to stroke her. She looks up at me when Treacle is on my shoulder and looks like she wants to come up too.

Pepper is the most vocal of all the girls. She goes “boc boc” all the time and she doesn’t like strangers in their enclosure. If we have visitors she very loudly goes “boc boc” and makes it known that she is not happy.

Unlike the others Pepper is very dainty when she eats. Where as the other three will swallow small grapes whole, Pepper takes her time picking small bits off. Sometimes she will run off with her grape to eat it in peace while the others are wolfing them down.

She was top hen until recently but doesn’t seem to be upset at Treacle taking her place. I have only ever seen Pepper peck at Bluebell occasionally when she is in her way at the treats.

Pepper and Dotty were together from less than a month old and Pepper is patient with Dotty and has never pecked her even when she is in her way at the treats.

Dotty

Dotty is a month younger than the other three girls and is a bully. She was pecking Bluebell away from the treats all the time until recently when Treacle started to put her in her place and she seems to be a bit better, I could put six half apples down and Dotty would keep moving Bluebell away from each one. Dotty only ever pecks Bluebell as she knows that Treacle would peck her back and her and Pepper are too close to peck each other.

I have used a bottle of water spray on Dotty when she is pecking Bluebell, to try to deter her. Dotty is the only one of the four that has no interaction with me and I am not sure if it is because I would tell her off and spray her or if it’s just her nature. She has no interaction with anyone and will not allow me to stroke her. She smartly side steps out of the way if I go to touch her.

Dotty is the greediest and is always first to the treats, she is also the only one that will jump up at me when I go to the storage cabinet where the treats are kept.

Dotty doesn’t have her grown up voice properly yet. She occasionally made a “boc” sound and we thought she was getting her grown up voice but it has never got any further than that. She still twitters with a baby sound. This is quite strange because we had both Pepper and Dotty about four and a half months ago and knew at the time that Dotty was a month younger. Pepper got her grown up voice within a few weeks but after all this time Dotty hasn’t. It is as if she is staying a baby. Pepper is so vocal and yet Dotty never goes “boc boc” just twitters, yet she is much older than Pepper was when she found her voice.

It is amazing how different they all are. Pepper and Dotty are the same breed and are really close but are still so different. They do seem to pair up a lot of the time with Pepper and Dotty together and Treacle and Bluebell together. When I have looked through the coop door at bedtime Pepper and Dotty are always on the top perch and Treacle and Bluebell on the bottom perch, which makes sense as the two smaller girls are on top and the bigger ones at the bottom where there is more space. They all perch on the same side though. They also all sit together on the big outside perch and all dust bath together so most of the time despite any differences they all hang out together. It is amusing seeing their different personalities develop and they are always entertaining.

After a few days of no rat droppings we thought we had cracked the problem but we were wrong! The droppings started to appear again and our hearts sank. I started looking again for any vulnerable parts and wondered if although the big shed is on concrete, maybe there was enough gap underneath it for them to squeeze through.

We emptied and moved out the storage cabinet again. To my horror there was a huge pile of pellets stored behind it and it was only a few days since we had pulled it out and cleaned behind it. My husband said he didn’t think this was where they were getting in but just where they were storing the food. Even so just to be on the safe side we put a baton of wood in front of the shed.

My husband then realised that we had the same gaps up against the louvred boards of the shed as the gaps we had filled with foam on our side. This time my husband cut blocks of wood to nail in front of each gap.

Each gap covered by a block of wood

This was a bit time consuming but I think it will be worth it. In the corner my broom hangs and in front of that my little chair.

The next space I thought was a week point was where the patio joins next doors fence, there is a strip of earth which we had covered with bricks which were left in our garden when we moved in (again my husband saves everything for future use).

We pulled the coop out and my husband lifted the bricks, then cut some strips of weld mesh. He pushed the weld mesh under the fence and put the bricks back on top. I hammered stones into any gaps between the uneven shaped bricks. We hoped these measures would do the trick but were beginning to lose confidence by now.

The following morning I went out to inspect and sure enough there were mouse and rat droppings once again, but as we are making it harder for the rats, they in turn are making it easier for us to see where they are getting in and out.

We moved out the coop and could see that they had pushed the weld mesh up to squeeze underneath. The stones that I had hammered in had been pushed out (how strong are they!).

We also saw that there were two holes dug under the tiles we had put inside the fence. My husband thinks they were digging their way back out again. With a lot of complaining we set to work again.

We removed the bricks and this time my husband nailed the weld mesh to our side of the fence, then over the gap, overlapping the patio and replaced the bricks back on top.

The bricks on top of the weld mesh which has been nailed to the fence

We then took out the tiles from in front of the fence and my husband dug a trench. He then replaced the vertical tile, then laid a horizontal tile in front of it before filling in the trench. This will make it much more difficult for anything to dig under. We are determined that after putting in so much work on this, we will not be beaten by them.

Next morning was the moment of truth and there were only a few mouse droppings, no rat droppings and no more signs of digging. The following morning I only found one single mouse dropping. We have seen no sign of rats for a few days now so are hopeful that we really have stopped them getting in. We are hoping that now they can’t get in they have moved on. I will be keeping a very close check on it each day.

Treacle loves to get on my shoulder at every chance she can. I’m not quite sure why she likes it so much, but any time I crouch down she is straight up there.

I have been trying to get some close up shots of the girls because I want to do a post about their very different personalities, but every time I crouch down Treacle jumps on to my shoulder. Yesterday Bluebell also jumped on my arm so I was stuck with my camera in my hand and Bluebell on that same arm and Treacle on my shoulder. How am I meant to take photos like that? Then for the first time Treacle pooped down the back of what I call my “chicken cardigan” (old and scruffy and doesn’t matter if it gets messy). I put the slightly smelly cardigan in the wash and put on my fairly new and smarter one. I went back to try again to get the shots I wanted, but tried not to crouch down as I didn’t want to mess up this cardigan.

I stood near the coop and the next minute Treacle was on the coop roof stretching out towards me. She is a determined character but I was also determined to keep my cardigan clean and stepped away. Bluebell soon joined her as she doesn’t like to miss out on anything.

Treacle and Bluebell on the coop roof

Something overhead catches their attention

A bird flew overhead and they both stretched their necks upward. I love this photo as it reminds me of the characters in the animated film “chicken run”.

This evening when my “chicken cardigan” was washed and dried, I went back in with the girls taking my camera with me. Once again as I crouched down, Treacle jumped to my shoulder. At that moment my husband came in to see what we were doing. He took the camera from me and took a couple of photos of us.

Treacle loves to get on my shoulder

Bluebell circles me looking for a way up too

I feel mean when I try to stop her doing this but with all the recent rain their feet are so muddy and that’s without an occasional poop down the back. It is lovely though that she is determined to sit on me. Bluebell always circles me going “boc boc” as she really wants to get up too. It will be nice when it’s summer again and I can sit on my little chair and let them sit on my lap once more.

Hurrah! I think we may have cracked it. After blocking up all the holes and gaps we have stopped rats getting in. I pick up then sweep the patio each day just before the chickens go to bed, so that first thing in the morning I can check for droppings easily.

I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if mice could get through weld mesh. Lots of people said that they could. One person said that they had read that mice have movable plates in their sculls to allow them to pass through the smallest of gaps. If their scull will go through so will the rest of their body.

For days now I have found no droppings at all and this morning I found one single mouse dropping by the feeder. From this I am concluding that mice can get through the weld mesh. I am happy if rats can’t get in and I can pick up a few mouse droppings each morning if I see any. If they can get through weld mesh, we feel there is nothing further we can do about that. I am feeling much happier about the security of the enclosure now and will continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

There also seems to be a change happening within the flock. So far Pepper has been top hen but lately Treacle has started to challenge her. Treacle has lightly pecked at Pepper a few times but Pepper doesn’t seem to be overly worried about it. Pepper and Treacle have also done a lot of running at each other with hackles raised and chests out. They seem to both be trying to take top hen position.

Treacle has also pecked at Dotty when she gets in her way at the treats feeder. All of this seems to have had the side effect of calming Dotty down. Dotty has hardly pecked at Bluebell at all over the last few days. I don’t mind which girl out of Pepper and Treacle take the position of top hen as they are both placid. I wouldn’t want to see a bully like Dotty at the top. If Treacle was top she may keep Dotty down a bit. I realize it is ever changing at the moment but it would be nice if Dotty grew out of the habit of terrorising Bluebell. I can but hope.

I cant believe this is my 100th post. When I started this I wasn’t at all sure that I could do it. My son Steve insisted that I could and that he would help me. He set it up for me and showed me what to do. Steve is in I.T. which is very useful. He wrote me my own program which we call ” the blog resizer”. He knew that if it was too difficult for me to put photos on, I wouldn’t bother and he said that photos are such an important part of a blog. He showed me how to put my photos into the resizer and then onto my blog and they will always be the right size. At first I struggled and had all my instructions written down but soon got the hang of it and now no longer need them. Steve said I could call him when ever I needed his help as this was our project and helps keep us close. I did used to call him in the early days with problems but haven’t needed to for a long time now.

I got my chickens four months ago and really love having them. I wanted to record everything. I thought at first that I wouldn’t have much to say but soon found that there was always something new going on with my flock. I have totally surprised myself by how much I have written and can’t believe I have produced 100 posts in four months when I have never done anything like this before and am a complete technophobe. I have enjoyed it more and more along the way and it’s lovely to get comments sometimes too as I didn’t think anyone but my family would ever read it.

To celebrate this 100th post I thought I would put in some photos of the things my girls like doing best, apart from eating treats that is!

We love scratching together

We love dust baths together

We are ready for our close up

We love perching together

Although the second dust bath photo is a bit cropped, I loved the close up of their faces. And yes Steve, this is my best perching shot yet! I love the way that although Pepper is the only one facing me, as soon as I got close to them, they all turned to look at me. I do so love having my chickens and can’t imagine life without them now.