Carol's Chickens

Yesterday it snowed on and off all day and the temperature barely got above freezing. The girls spent most of the day in the shelters. I left the chicken shed door open for most of the day but they weren’t interested preferring the shelters.

Speckles and the little girls spend time in the small shelter

Cinnamon can just be seen behind Speckles

Emerald is in the large shelter

I felt sorry for Emerald on her own in the large shelter. It’s a bit of a squeeze for the bigger girls in the small shelter and Emerald rarely ever uses it.

Speckles has left the small shelter to join Emerald

I was quite pleased to see Speckles join Emerald and keep her company in the large shelter.

Speckles has joined Emerald in the large shelter

Emerald was preening the tiny feathers on her legs and I had to wait for her to finish by which time Speckles had dozed off.

Speckles dozes next to Emerald

I am glad that this cold spell is only forecast to last for a couple of days because I think that the girls are as fed up of this weather as we are.

Freckles and Cinnamon are laying their eggs at virtually the same time at the moment. This causes the usual mayhem that comes from them both wanting to lay in the same spot.

The current favourite spot is the corner of the chicken shed. The shed is big enough that you would think that they could sit side by side in the same corner. But no! That is not acceptable. They both want the corner to themselves.

Yesterday Freckles settled in the corner first. Cinnamon did a lot of shouting and stood watching over Freckles.

Cinnamon wants Freckles spot

As Freckles is top girl I was surprised to see that Cinnamon managed to usurp Freckles from her spot much to Freckles annoyance.

I don’t know how she managed it but Cinnamon got Freckles spot

I lifted Cinnamon to see if she was sat on Freckles egg because I was so surprised that Freckles had given up her spot. There was no egg. Cinnamon is a very determined little girl.

Freckles was not happy about this

Freckles was shouting but I couldn’t capture it because every time I opened the shed door she stopped. She was however stretched to her full height.

One very cross girl

A very cross girl comes to the pop hole to see me. I was busy for a while but my husband went to check on them and there were Cinnamon’s and Freckles eggs side by side in the corner of the shed.

So much drama at egg laying time, with so much space to choose from, but such determined little girls. All was quiet once more and two more eggs added to the egg rollers. Sigh!

It is so nice not to need to buy eggs any more. The girls are now laying enough eggs for all our egg needs even when eating several at a time. We had our lovely eggs for breakfast last weekend and now have another eleven on the egg roller.

A week’s eggs

It is so lovely to have an abundance of eggs once more and our own eggs are so much nicer than shop bought eggs. Well done girls!

Spring is so late this year. The miniature daffodils are finally in full flower but the standard size daffs still have tight buds.

Miniature daffodils

After a much milder spell of weather it is forecast to be cold again for the weekend with a daytime temperature of one degree and some snow on Sunday. The forecast is just for the weekend (typical!) and then will rise again back to how it has been recently.

Spring has taken it’s time getting started this year!

We have woodland behind the top of our garden and always have loads of birds visiting the garden. We always have a resident pair of robins and dunnocks as well as a range of tit’s, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and long tailed tits. We have many other birds but we also have a lot of blackbirds.

Like robins, blackbirds, are territorial  and at the moment we appear to have a couple of males and four females which is rather a lot for one garden. For months now the females have been chasing each other around the garden. They chase each other over the cabin roof, the chicken run roof, the top of the fence and all around the garden.

We have seen them go into our bay tree with twigs and a nest has been built in there. After this I saw something that I hadn’t seen before. I think up until now the battle was to gain the territory but now the battle is probably to keep the territory now that a nest has been built. The level of aggression has been raised.

I was in the chicken run a few days ago when I heard a commotion. Two female blackbirds were on the patio area outside the chicken run and there was a brutal battle going on. It reminded me a bit of chicken behaviour. One female had another female pinned down beneath her and was pecking at the back of her head while the other flapped and struggled. Eventually the one being held down struggled free and flew off with the other in hot pursuit.

Yesterday the same thing happened again on the patio area outside our cabin. The battle looked brutal and was prolonged. I went indoors for my camera and took some photos. They were so engrossed that I was able to get close without them taking any notice of me. It looked brutal but I am guessing it probably looked worse than it was.

When my girls fight I break them up but as blackbirds are wild birds I felt it best to leave them to sort it out and once again the one being attacked flew off unharmed with the attacker in pursuit.

Female blackbirds having a battle

Battling blackbirds

The photos are blurred due to vast amount of movement but you can get the gist. They moved all the way around the flower pot joined together.

Nest box in the bay tree

Nest in the bay tree

I think the wooden nest box may have been filled by the robins and the nest above was made by the blackbirds. I think there is a possibility that this nest may be abandoned because of all the aggression between the females. We will have to wait and see and I will report back at a later date. Spring hormones are definitely raging.

Today I found Emerald’s first egg of the year in the corner of the chicken shed next to Freckles egg.

Emerald’s first egg of the year on the left and Speckles egg on the right

Emerald’s egg is shorter and wider than Speckles and has a little more colour although that doesn’t show in the photograph. I knew she would lay soon after her practice.

Whereas Speckles has laid all her eggs in the nest box Emerald laid her egg in the corner of the chicken shed next to Freckles egg. This seems to be the trend at the moment. Well done Emerald!

I think that Emerald will start laying soon. Like Speckles she is practising. She was going from one nest box to the other whilst placing pine shavings on her back. At one point she was outside of the nest box reaching in and picking up shavings to place on her back.

Emerald with pine shavings on her back

She didn’t actually sit in the nest box but she is obviously getting ready to start laying again. I think she will start any day now.

My two lovely sons are not nearby this Mother’s Day. My youngest son and his fiancee are on holiday abroad and my eldest son, his wife and my lovely grandson live in Cambridge.

I am feeding the rabbits for my youngest son and this package was left on the dining table for me.

Mother’s Day gift number one

Yesterday this parcel was delivered, addressed to me and it had a label on top saying “Do not open until March 11th”.

Very intriguing Mother’s Day gift number two

Gift number one

Gift number two

Gift without it’s lid

What lovely thoughtful gifts. The daisy grow kit has instructions saying that the five strongest seedlings should be left in the pot and the rest can be transplanted into the garden so that will add a splash of colour to the garden too.

The chocolate gift box has a bottle of prosecco and lots of luxury chocolates which will be very much enjoyed.

What lovely gifts and what a lucky mum I am. I would like to wish all the mums everywhere a Happy Mother’s Day.

I had almost forgotten how different an egg laying flock is to a winter flock. Throughout winter the flock is quiet and harmonious. As soon as egg laying resumes the noise level goes up.

There is the shouting because two or more girls want to lay in the same spot, there is sometimes shouting from one girl letting everyone know another girl is laying but most of all there is shouting if one girl is in the egg laying spot coveted by another girl.

The first eggs this year were laid in the nest box nearest to the chicken shed. The girls didn’t need to lay at the same time so all was calm. Then there was a sudden switch to the favourite corner of the chicken shed for Freckles and Cinnamon. There are of course four corners in the chicken shed but only one corner ever gets used for egg laying. Why this corner is the favourite I have no idea!

This morning Freckles was shouting. I knew she was ready to lay as she had laid two days ago and she was very vocal first thing. I went up to see what the fuss was about. Oh dear! Cinnamon was in her favourite spot. Cinnamon had laid her egg there yesterday so I was surprised that she would be laying again although just occasionally she does lay two days running.

Cinnamon in the favourite corner of the chicken shed

Freckles also wants this corner

Freckles usurps Cinnamon and settles in herself

I lifted Cinnamon to see if there was an egg, just in case she was sitting on Freckles egg, but there wasn’t. Once Freckles was settled and Cinnamon was back out I lifted Freckles to see if Cinnamon had laid but there was no egg. Cinnamon must have had a false alarm.

A little later Freckles was back out in the run and when I checked there was Freckles, round shaped, egg in the corner. All was quiet once more until the next time!

Spring has come so late this year. Our miniature daffodils are only just starting to open and the regular size daffodils are still green. In past years we have had daffs in flower at the end of January and certainly in February.

Miniature daffs

Better late than never though! They are a very welcome sign of spring.