Carol's Chickens

It’s the third day with the umbrella in the chickens garden. When I did my morning clean up the girls hadn’t been out long and were still staying close to the patio area. After lunch I decided to try to improve the ground for them as it has been very wet and the ground has got quite compacted. First I did a poop pick to give it a clean start. From this I could see that the chickens had ventured further out. Instead of all the poop being at the patio area, it was beyond the umbrella, round the edges and in the corner of the garden area, but none actually underneath the umbrella. They are getting more adventuress and will sometimes cross under it but are obviously not spending any time under it.

I started by digging over the ground with a fork. This was quite a work out for me although the ground was still quite wet, so not as hard as it would have been if dry.

Half the run is dug over

The digging over is completed

I then spread a bag of wood chip over the run. It’s been four months since I last did this and the wood chip looks so clean and pale, but it will soon change to a muddy dark colour. I finished off by sprinkling some D.E. over the whole area.

The wood chip is spread over

The chickens had stayed out of the way while I did this. I did wonder if I was making too many changes at once but decided it would be better to get it all over with as quickly as possible, because the whole idea of doing this is to give them a better outside space during wet weather. I decided to sprinkle some dried meal worms into the wood chip to entice them on to it.

A sprinkling of dried meal worms tempts the chickens to go and have a look

They enjoy a good scratch around

I needn’t have worried as soon it was clear that they were enjoying having something to scratch in. This hasn’t effected them in the same way as the umbrella. It soon started to rain again and they returned to the patio area. I think it will take a while for them to really get used to the umbrella and I don’t know if they will ever work out that it stays dry underneath it, but at some stage they may realise that while the rest of the garden is wet there is a dry area under the umbrella to scratch in. I can only hope!

I have a postscript to add here. I was just about to put this out but needed to read it through first to check for mistakes. I decided before doing this that I would just go up and have a last check in with the chooks before their bedtime. It was raining and much to my amazement they were all stood underneath the umbrella having a scratch about! Has the rain given them a light bulb moment? Hurrah!

I left them as they were all heading in to the coop for bed. I can’t believe I just saw that! Maybe we have cracked it after all. Once used to the umbrella, it will make wet days better for them. It will be interesting to see how they get on tomorrow. They never cease to surprise me.

Yesterday we put an umbrella in the chickens garden area, to give them a bit of dry scratch space. They didn’t like it and refused to go under it.

This morning when I did my cleaning jobs I could tell they still hadn’t ventured under it as all the poop was on or next to the patio area.

At lunch time we decided to bribe them with their favourite treat of yogurt. I showed them the two little white bowls (I split it into two to make easier for them all to get at it) and placed them under the umbrella. The yogurt proved irresistible and first Dotty and Pepper went to the bowls, soon followed by Bluebell the lastly Treacle.

Dotty and Pepper were bravest and went to the yogurt under the umbrella first

I know the two little bowls look rather like eggs in this photo but it’s just the sunlight on them.

They all venture under the umbrella for the yogurt

Once the yogurt was finished and I had removed the bowls, the chickens retreated back to the patio area and continued to avoid the umbrella. I had hoped that once they had been under it they would accept it, but it seems this is going to take longer then I thought it would.

I decided to try sprinkling dried meal worms under the umbrella and rattled the container to get their attention. They came to the meal worms and Dotty and Pepper were even scratching at the earth for a few minutes.

Meal worms under the umbrella

Once again though, when the meal worms had all gone the chickens returned to the patio area. I had no idea it was going to be this difficult to get them used to something new. I just hope over the next few days they get used to it.

It’s been really wet recently and I have started to worry about the chickens not having any dry garden area. The patio area is dry but I worry that they miss scratching in the dirt and dust bathing, I have provided a dry dust bath for them which is a tray with a mixture of sand, ash and D.E. but they have never used it for anything other than to stand in.

I thought of all sorts of things we could do. I suggested to my husband either a bus shelter type thing or more simply a table that they could perch on and shelter under ( the draw back being keeping it clean), or fixing some struts that we could put a tarpaulin over or even a gazebo.

Later that day my husband said he had had a brain wave. We could use our patio umbrella/parasol, to keep the area beneath it dry. It’s old and tatty and needs replacing plus we have a spare base from a previous one that’s been thrown away. He said he could shorten it and it has the advantage of being flexible. We could have it up during wet weather but close it in windy or dry weather and remove it altogether if we needed too. It means the only cost is a new one for our patio which we needed anyway and minimal work involved, also being green it would blend in quite well. Brilliant idea!

We took it in after lunch and it proved very traumatic for the girls. First the scary umbrella came in, then the fork and spade to level the ground and make sure it was stable. Making it shorter insured it fitted under the net but also helped to make it more stable. The girls hid behind the coop while this was going on, they really are so easily scared by anything new.

The umbrella from outside the run

The umbrella from inside the run

The umbrella from the side

I gave the girls a treat of some sunflower hearts after their ordeal and waited to see what they made of the new addition to their run. What I hadn’t anticipated is that they were so scared of it. They would not venture near it. I tried rolling some grapes under it to encourage them but they were having none of it. By the end of the day I had to pick up the grapes as they still would not go under it. They go under the bush and under the roof over the patio area, I hadn’t thought they would be so nervous of an umbrella. They skirted round it but wouldn’t even come to the corner as usual when I approached. This may take a bit more time than I thought it would. You can’t tell them you have done this for their own good.

The down side of this is that they have now confined themselves to the patio area and the patio that had minimum poop before this, now has all the poop which is not so easy to clean as the outside area. They have now gone to bed. Oh well, I can only hope tomorrow they will start to accept it.

I may resort to another bribe. Their favourite thing of all is yogurt. Maybe a pot of yogurt under the umbrella will entice them under it. They recognise the white pot I put it in and if we take out a cup of tea in a white cup they get excited as they think it may be yogurt. The white pot has proved irresistible so far. Will this work? Tomorrow will tell.

I have a theory about my dominiques parentage. I have just taken some up to date portraits of the four chickens, which is never easy as they are never still.

Treacle

Bluebell

Pepper

Dotty

Dotty is a month younger than the other girls. I started out with three dominiques but Poppy turned out to be a roo. I was worried at the time that Dotty may be a roo too. This was because she looked much more like Poppy than like Pepper, who I knew was a hen as she was had developed her grown up voice of “boc boc”.

At the farm where I got the dominiques, they had two dominique breeding pens with one cockerel and one hen in each. My theory is that Poppy and Dotty had the same parents, while Pepper had the other parents. It’s only a theory which can’t be proved but I see such a similarity between Dotty and Poppy despite being different sexes and Pepper has a quite different look. Dotty and Poppy both have that prehistoric look that chickens sometimes have while Pepper has a much softer look. Poppy and Dotty have the same shaped beak and same eyes, where as Pepper again has a slightly different look.

I am going to include some older photos to try to show this.

Poppy at about two months old

Poppy on the left and Dotty on the right, when Poppy was two months old and Dotty was one month old

Pepper at two months old

It will be interesting to see as Dotty grows up if they still look different, I think they probably will. I think like people they take different characteristics from their parents even though they are from the same breed. I will review this when Dotty is fully grown.

Most people in the chicken keeping world will know about Diatomaceous Earth, usually referred to as D.E. For those that haven’t heard of it, it is an invaluable natural product. It  is a fossilised grey powder that although very fine is too sharp for insects (such as mites) to be able to withstand. It causes such insects to be punctured and dry out. It is no problem to the chickens and can be used externally and internally to keep them free of parasites. I puff it inside the coop (wear a mask for this as you shouldn’t breath it in) and sprinkle it in their dust baths and around the run.

Some people like to mix it in their chickens food so they take it internally but I have discovered that I don’t need to do this. My chickens have a habit of flicking out some of the pine shavings from inside the coop door and pecking up the D.E. from the coop floor. This has especially become a bedtime habit and in the late afternoon they can be found pecking away at the D.E. inside the coop door. I don’t quite know how they know it’s good for them! They seem to like it though.

Pepper pecking at the D.E.

On a different subject, Pepper has been going through a partial molt and regrowing her winter feathers. The dominiques have a layer of down under their feathers and can withstand very cold temperatures. As her new feathers have come in, she has suddenly got some all black feathers which you can see in this photo. Some of her darker feathers now have a green sheen too, like starling feathers. That doesn’t show up in this photo but you can see the two black spots. I think she is growing more beautiful. I hadn’t realised that as chickens molt their new feathers change. Pepper used to have two white wing feathers but they have now disappeared.

Treacle pecking at the D.E.

I had just cleaned out the coop and swept the patio area, when they all went to investigate. As you can see they have already flicked out some of the clean shavings to get the D.E. It seems irresistible to them. Clever chooks!

The chickens spend a lot of time on the big perch, especially when the ground is wet. Pepper and Dotty are usually first to cosy up together. Treacle is usually next to join them and Bluebell last (perhaps because she is at the bottom of the pecking order).

Treacle, Pepper and Dotty

Bluebell decides to join them

They all snuggle up together

Eventually they all settle close together. Having said yesterday that Bluebell and Treacle had shown no interest in perching in the apple tree, I saw Pepper and Bluebell both in the tree together for the first time today. By the time I had grabbed my camera, they had jumped down. Better luck next time.

When I clean up in the morning, the girls follow me round. While I have the side of the coop off to clean, they watch through the door. When I duck under the perch they all sit on it and watch me with interest. Yesterday Pepper reached out and tweaked a strand of my hair with her beak. They gently peck at the hem of my clothes, my back when I am bent over and sometimes by knees. It’s as if they like to feel me and say hello. I will look up to find one of them stood right next to me. I wonder if they think my daily poop picking is foraging. It’s quite amusing being followed round by the girl’s, they are so inquisitive. I love spending time with them.

The chickens have taken all the leaves from the shrubs to the height that they can reach. They will often do a standing jump, straight up, to peck a bit more. The sage remained untouched for a long time as the leaves were too tough for them. As the chickens beaks have got stronger, we noticed the leaves were starting to get pecked. In a very short time the sage was completely stripped.

This once lush sage is completely bare

Hypericum

Hebe

The shrubs are pruned to chicken beak height

The parsley pot has made a comeback though, after being stipped twice by the chickens.

The parsley is recovering nicely, again.

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get some close ups of the girls, but the one shot I did manage was Pepper in the apple tree.

Pepper likes to sit in the apple tree

It’s only Pepper and Dotty that like to get into the tree. Treacle and Bluebell have never shown any interest in the it. I love the little whiskers each side of Peppers undeveloped comb. She is developing wattles too.

We are so busy at the moment that I am not getting much time to hang out with the chickens or to post about them. They have continued to get to bed before the automatic door shuts, so that is one problem that seems to have gone away for now. The pecking behaviour has been far less too which is pleasing.

I have continued to give them a tray of grass each morning although the grass is a bit more sparse than it was in the summer. It will soon stop growing for the winter but at the moment they still enjoy it each day.

The girls enjoy their daily tray of grass

I hope to have more time at the weekend, I am missing hanging out with the chooks.

Last night and tonight all four chickens had gone in to the coop before the door shut. Last night we opened the side panel to check that Treacle had enough space. As always Pepper and Dotty were on the top perch and Bluebell and Treacle on the bottom perch. Treacle was facing the side of the coop with her tail out in to the open centre space so I don’t think the problem is a lack of space. When I used to spend time with them at bedtime they did like to go up on the coop roof before going in. I wonder if Treacle sometimes goes up there and either nods off or can’t be bothered to come down again. Who knows what goes on in a chicken brain?

Pepper has become very vocal when we have visitors. Even if our visitor just stands in the gateway rather than inside the enclosure, she very loudly and crossly “boc bocs”. Pepper is the one to chatter and she doesn’t like to have unfamiliar people in her space. I have come to notice that Treacle our biggest girl is very quiet. Treacle rarely ever chats but she looks! She comes up to me and moves her head to one side and the other constantly, looking at me. Bluebell is vocal when she is upset, usually when Dotty is chasing her off the treats or when she wants to get on my lap but Treacle is taking up all the space. Dotty is only just getting her grown up voice so it will be interesting to see if she is as vocal as Pepper.

Pepper is also getting much more receptive to being stroked. She used to be really skittish but will now allow me to stroke her sides. Treacle also likes to be stroked and bluebell only occasionally. Dotty side steps and won’t allow any stroking at all. Again it will be interesting to see if this changes when she matures or if it is just her character.

The other thing I have noticed is that Treacle and Bluebell are much more interested in what I am doing. When I have the side of the coop off for cleaning they are looking through the door. If I am cleaning through the door they are looking in the side where as Pepper and Dotty take no notice. Treacle and Bluebell follow me round as I do my chores and when I duck under the big perch to clean up they jump on to it and watch me closely.

They never cease to entertain me and I love watching them develop their personalities. I also love it when they let me get so close to them and greet me so enthusiastically (even though half the time it’s see if I have brought them a treat). Chickens are just the best and that’s even before we have had any of the wonderful eggs!

We have a catering business and have suddenly got really busy (it’s often very up and down, all or nothing) and we also have a house guest for a couple of weeks. This has meant I haven’t had as much time to spend with the chickens or writing a post. The weather is also awful at the moment, cold and wet. This doesn’t make for taking any good photos, but I do want to give an update on both the roosting and pecking situation.

Three days ago, we found three of them roosting on the roof of the coop. We are checking them each night now and for the two following nights they had all gone in before the automatic door shut. I hoped once again that it had just been a blip. Yesterday we catered for a wedding and didn’t get back home until ten o’clock. It was very dark and very cold. We went up to check and there was Treacle on the roof of the coop. I lifted her down and put her in and she only gave a half hearted “boc” in protest. Treacle is the biggest of the four hens and I am now wondering if the perch isn’t far enough away from the side of the coop to give her room for her tail. They have all been going in to the coop to sleep with no problem until just recently and the only thing that has changed is that Treacle has grown. If This continues to happen we will have to try to modify the perches.

The pecking is still a problem when I give treats. Dotty will peck Bluebell away from the treats. If I give her a squirt from the water bottle she won’t peck again while I am there, but will intimidate her by walking right up to her and glaring at her, which scares Bluebell away. I sometimes only have to pick up the water bottle for Dotty to move away, so she knows what will happen. Treacle and Pepper often run away too as they hate the water bottle even though I don’t use it on them. Bluebell has no fear of it at all and will peck at it, she knows it is not meant for her and that it protects her. Bluebell is the only one of the four of them that has never pecked anyone and that’s obviously why she is at the bottom of the pecking order despite being the smartest.

Dotty only does this to Bluebell. Dotty and Pepper were together from a month old and have never pecked each other even when they both want the same treat. Dotty wouldn’t dare to peck Treacle as she is much bigger and would peck her back, so that leaves poor Bluebell. Pepper and Treacle are both quite docile and only peck Bluebell occasionally, if she is in their way but Dotty will chase her away from the treats. Even when I space out four halves of apple, Dotty will move Bluebell on from one piece to another. It’s as if she is determined not to let her have any and yet later they will all sit quite happily really close together. I am not sure if I will ever stop her doing this but for now will continue to use the spray.