Carol's Chickens

I had an awful shock yesterday morning to find that Apricot had died overnight. I went into the run first thing and straight away noticed that Apricot was missing. I assumed that she might be laying her first egg of the year.

I opened the chicken shed and found her laying in front of the perch she roosts on. There was no poop under her roost spot so it looks like she died soon after going in. When I checked the girls last night and got Emerald and Speckles to go in Apricot was perched next to Dandelion in her usual spot and looked perfectly normal.

This was how I found Apricot in the morning

There is one of her wing feathers directly under her roost spot and she is in front of the perch. I wonder if her feather came out as she fell. I picked her up and examined her and could find nothing that looked wrong. I checked her vent in case she had an egg stuck but it looked normal. She hasn’t been going in the nest box at all so I don’t think she was about to lay.

It’s such a mystery as she was absolutely fine the day before. She was running around and eating the mash and taking spinach from my fingers. Her face and comb were red and she was bright as a button. You can see the photos of her on the previous post.

I am so upset as she was our favourite. She was so sweet, so friendly and so pretty. After the disappointment of having to wait for new girls it’s a bitter blow to lose one of our existing girls and our only remaining silky girl at that.

It is so odd because Apricot and Cinnamon were the only two little girls not to seem effected by the mycoplasma. The day before my husband had remarked how Apricot cracks us up with her speedy run. She would run with her head down and wings out at full speed. I was only saying that day how sweet she was and how pretty too.

We had only had her a year and she was only just under a year and a half old. I cried when I first saw her and struggled to hold the tears back all day.

We buried her in the chicken’s strip next to Rusty and Amber. The exact same thing happened to Amber but at least she was four years old. Oddly enough that was at the same time of year three years ago.

I lifted the dandelions from the chicken’s strip. My husband dug a very deep hole and I wrapped Apricot in paper and put her in then replanted the dandelions over the top of her. My husband made a wooden cross to mark the spot. I am afraid we now have a chicken graveyard going on here.

Apricot is laid to rest next to her flock mates

Her spot is on the left with the newest cross. Freckles appears to be watching over her.

I wanted to do a tribute to her with photos from her too short time with us. She was such a special girl.

Apricot as a chick a year ago

The three amigos, they came in together

Apricot’s eggs were the size and shape of a strawberry

Apricot had a habit of having a dust bath before bedtime

Apricot was a fluff ball

Apricot was so pretty

Apricot a few days ago

Good bye my sweet little girl. You were such a cutie. I have such a lump in my throat at the moment.

Yesterday I gave the girls some mash as change for them and added some of the poultry zest.

Some mash for the girls

I wanted a group photo to go with my post about planning for new girls but Emerald moved out of shot just as I took this and the previous shot with her in was blurred.

Later in the afternoon the flock were perched together so I tried again.

The little girls perch on the ladder

While the bigger girls perch on the branch perch beside the ladder

I have held back from calling my breeder until the weather got warmer. The flock has long since stopped the occasional sneezing after the mycoplasma and they all look healthy with good, red, faces and combs.

I knew I couldn’t add new girls during such awful winter conditions and have waited for the warmer temperatures to arrive. At last I felt that the time was right.

I was hoping that my breeder would have some older girls that I could add to the flock straight away. I was disappointed. He only has breeding stock left and no girls for sale but the good news is that he is ready to start breeding again and has just set up his trios and his incubator.

He said to call him again in a months time and see how it is going. I am so disappointed because it means that I will have quite a wait but I can’t have girls if he hasn’t got any so I will just have to be patient.

It is probably going to be three months wait at best. It will take a week to gather a clutch of eggs and three weeks until they hatch. It will then be a couple of months more before they are old enough to sex and to let them move on.

It looks like it will probably be August at the earliest and that is if everything is successful. He has been breeding for many years though so he knows what he is doing. I will just have to be patient and wait. I have marked it in our diary to call him again in a months time. I can’t wait for new girls but of course I will have too!

Yesterday I called in to our local D.I.Y. shop to see is they had any more bargain bulbs. I am so glad I did as I bought two pots of tulips for three pounds. Another garden bargain.

Yellow tulips

These open wide during the day and close in the evening.

Closed tulips at the end of the day

Red tulips

These are yet to open but the buds are showing the promise of what is to come.

I am really enjoying adding spring colour to the garden and making the most of a few days without rain!

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day. After our evening meal I checked on the girls and the little girls were in the chicken shed but Emerald and Speckles were perched above the hatch as usual.

I decided that as it was still light and bright that maybe the little girls were going in a bit early. I decided to do an experiment. I decided to go back at dusk and see if the two bigger girls would put themselves to bed if I left them too it.

They didn’t. They were still perched above the hatch and the pop hole was closed!

Emerald and Speckles at eight o’clock

The pop hole is closed

I had to open the door and let them in. Now that I know that they definitely won’t go in without me telling them to I need to be a bit more brutal.

From tonight I am starting a new regime. Instead of telling them to go in I am going to silently pick them up and put them in. Maybe they will decide that they don’t like this and start going in before this happens.

I don’t know if it will work but I have to try to break this habit. In August we have a trip planned to a friend’s birthday get together. It involves an overnight stay. I would like to be able to depend on the girls going in. Even in August it could rain overnight and the girls would get wet if they perched over the hatch.

I don’t know if I can break this habit but I am going to try. Tonight we start with the new, tougher, regime!

We had a lovely day of sunshine today. It felt like spring after many days of rain. It’s apparently a small reprieve as the rain is due back again at the weekend.

We decided to visit a nursery near us. They only open at certain times of the year and they specialise in hanging baskets, both summer baskets at this time of year, and winter baskets in autumn.

I was amazed at what good value their baskets were. We bought two at seven pounds fifty each.

Hanging basket at the front of the house

Hanging basket at the back of the house

I put the one I liked the best at the back as that’s where we will see it the most. I liked the unusual combination of plants with the pom pom daisies and tulips including a snake’s head tulip.  The great thing about these baskets is that all the plants can go into the garden when the basket is finished.

It is cheering to see a splash colour and to feel the sun for a change.

I love the way my flock does everything together. I had no ideas or photos for a blog post so I went in with my camera and just bobbed down on the chicken’s patio area.

The girls all ran to me to see if I had anything for them. Emerald looked as if she wanted to peck the camera just in case I was tricking her into thinking that I had nothing for them.

They decided that I did indeed have nothing for them. Nothing for it but to go to the water and the food dish instead. Might as well as they were on the patio.

Four girls have a drink

Communal drinking

It switches to three girls at the food dish

Speckles joins them at the food dish

Speckles moves to the water

Three girls at the water

Apricot does her own thing

Chickens are so communal but as I have mentioned before Apricot is a bit of a loner. She also came to the patio area to see me but she doesn’t feel the need to join in with the girls every time. Apricot does things in her own time.

Despite this she is the friendliest of them all. She also briefly went in the nest box this morning. I think Apricot and Dandelion may start laying soon.

I love watching the flock doing everything together. They are such a close flock. I am thinking about adding new girls soon. That may just rock their world a little!

I have decided that the night time temperatures are now warm enough to let the girls sleep in what ever positions they choose at night once they are in the chicken shed. I won’t be lifting the little girls across to the back perch any more.

I went up to check on the girls after our evening meal last night. The little girls were in the chicken shed and the two bigger girls were perched over the hatch.

As soon as I walked through the gate Speckles jumped down from the perch and headed in to the chicken shed. I thought I would leave Emerald and see if she would go in by herself. Sure enough a few minutes later she jumped down and headed into the shed.

Emerald and Speckles

They are standing as they have just gone in but they will sit once they have settled down.

Cinnamon and Freckles

These two are on the left hand perch.

Apricot and Dandelion

These two are on the right hand perch. Look how red their faces are. I am surprised that they haven’t started laying yet.

I am pleased that Freckles no longer roosts on her own. It occurred to me that they perch by pecking order rather than friendship. The two bigger girls are the two top girls. Freckles and Cinnamon are the two top seramas and Dandelion and Apricot are the two bottom seramas.

I think that pecking order influences where they sit more than friendship as very often Freckles, Cinnamon and Dandelion sit together during the day but Apricot is more of a loner and is often doing her own thing. Freckles and Cinnamon have had little spats to test the pecking order yet at bedtime the line up is always in this order.

I am pleased to see them paired up. It is nicer to see than Freckles sitting alone and it is warmer for them. For now this line up seems to be very firmly established.

Yesterday was the first dry day in ages. At bedtime when I checked on the girls this is what I found.

Speckles and Emerald at bedtime

I blocked this perch from the other side because they usually access it from the table. Instead they must have jumped straight up from the ground. This would have been a tricky manoeuvre and shows how determined they are.

I removed the blocker as I don’t want them risking themselves with a tricky manoeuvre. The forecast is back to rain again for the coming week so that will stop them for a while.

At the moment they are going in seven o’clock which is when we have our evening meal. As the days get longer they will go in later and it will be easier for me to keep going out and moving them from this spot.

This habit is going to be difficult to break!

I haven’t had any more to say about the bedtime routine because it has been so wet. This means that all the  perches are wet and the girls go in to the chicken shed as they should do.

It’s a bit depressing that this wet spell is forecast to last for two weeks but on the positive side it may be enough to break the habit of the bigger girls wanting to perch outside. Only time will tell.

Freckles and Cinnamon continue to lay every other day and Freckles has laid sixteen eggs this month and Cinnamon has laid fifteen.

Speckles went and sat in the nest box yesterday and put a little heap of pine shavings on her back. She later came out without laying. It’s been two and a half weeks since she stopped laying.

Speckles is still doing sloppy poops, although not quite as bad as they were. It seems that from eating snow and then drinking, snow melt water, she has become obsessed with drinking dripping water from the almost continual rain that we are having. I think this extra water is causing her sloppy poops and that in turn is probably stopping her laying eggs.

I have further researched hens stopping laying and doing sloppy poops (good old google) and it says that a hen may drink more because she is hot (clearly not the case here) and therefore will have sloppy poops and that slight change can stop egg laying. It says that provided everything else is normal it is nothing to worry about.

I know how easy it is for hens to take on a habit (such as the feather plucking of the past) and it looks like speckles now can’t resist drinking the drip water. If she was thirsty I feel sure that she would spend time at the water container but she doesn’t. She just seems obsessed with drinking dripping water and not even a dandelion leaf can distract her.

As it is forecast to rain for the next two weeks there is nothing that I can do to stop this so as she is looking good in every other way I think that we just have to wait for the weather to change and her habit to pass and hope that gets her back to normal.

Today Dandelion took a look in the nest box. I wonder if she is getting ready to lay again.

Dandelion takes a look in the nest box

Look how red her comb is

Dandelion has always laid soft shelled eggs but even if she laid some of those it would prove that she is back to full, good, health after the mycoplasma. Having had Amber in the past do the same I have come to realise that if they have a permanent egg laying problem there is little that can be done to change it.

I have tried limestone flour and cod liver oil and also crushed egg shells and none of these things have made a difference long term. Dandelion never looked poorly like Amber so she seemed to manage it okay. I am not expecting her eggs to be any different this year as I have been through this before and some of these girls do have problems with egg laying.

Apricot has suddenly got pin feathers on her head so it looks like she is going to get her fully feathered look back which is good news.

Apricot has pin feathers

Pins on her head

We have also seen Freckles and Cinnamon have a little spat. I think Cinnamon was trying to move up to top serama but Freckles won that round and remains in top serama position.

In other news the winning pair of blackbirds in the, territory turf war, have continued to take nest material into our bay tree. I thought that they might abandon the nest after the garden battles but I am pleased to see that they are still nest building.

And that is all the current bird news!

Last night when I checked the girls before bedtime they were settled on a different perch. They were on the perch the other side of the hatch.

As soon as I walked through the gate Speckles jumped down. I think that Speckles wouldn’t do this without Emerald. She just copies Emerald and likes to keep her company.

Emerald is on the perch on the other side of the hatch

Speckles headed towards the chicken shed but not Emerald. She was trying to make sense of the perch by the hatch being blocked.

Emerald trying to work out where the perch has gone

She is perplexed

I think if the perch wasn’t blocked she would have perched there even though it is wet which is not good. At this point I guided her down. I only have to put my hand behind her and she jumps down. She then went in the chicken shed.

This habit is going to be more difficult to break than I thought.