Carol's Chickens

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.

Speckles laid her second egg today only two days after the first and if anything it’s even bigger. Freckles and Cinnamon are laying almost every other day too. I am so impressed with this because looking back on my egg chart, Speckles laid her first two eggs of the year, a week apart last year.

Maybe it’s because everything has started a little later this year. Maybe it’s because we are finally experiencing spring like weather.

Speckles second egg on the left

Freckles, Cinnamon’s and Speckles eggs

It is so good to be getting regular eggs again. Hopefully I won’t need to buy any more eggs for a while.

Today is the first day that it has really felt spring like in the garden. The frost and snow finally left us to be replaced with grey skies and rain. This afternoon the sun was shining. It felt like a surprise and suddenly felt like spring is in the air.

Snowdrops

Although these snowdrops are past their best it’s the first time they have really opened as they finally have some sun on them.

Pink hellebore

This pink hellebore is stunning in the sunshine.

White hellebore

Eggs and spring sunshine, hurrah!

Yesterday Speckles laid her first egg of the year and today both Freckles and Cinnamon laid an egg. I couldn’t resist another photo.

Eggs

Freckles and Cinnamon’s eggs on the left, Speckles next and a shop bought, medium sized, egg on the right for comparison. Oh how lovely it is to have eggs again.

Once again Speckles went straight to the grit this morning. I really felt that today she was going to get her first egg of the year laid and I was right. I checked the nest box mid morning and there was a long, pointed, white, egg. I think the shape shows that this egg has taken a couple of days to be laid.

I wanted to be able to do a comparison in size of the little girls’ eggs and Speckles first egg when I thought that she was going to lay yesterday morning. As she didn’t get the job done yesterday and we wanted to eat the little girls’ eggs for Sunday breakfast I came up with a plan for a comparison. I took a photo of the five little girls’ eggs in small round dish and decided to photograph Speckles egg in the same dish once she finally got it laid.

Five little girls’ eggs in a tapas dish on Sunday

Speckles egg in the tapas dish on Monday

Speckles egg next to a medium shop bought egg

Speckles egg and the medium shop bought egg in the egg stand

For a bantam Speckles lays a huge egg. I bet she was glad to get that laid.

Egg laying brings a rush of hormones to the girls and sometimes changes their behaviour. I have seen firm friends suddenly have little spats once one or both start laying. Honey and Amber, my  bantam vorwerks, were inseparable little friends until the egg laying started and then suddenly they raised their ruffs to each other and had a few little spats.

When Freckles started laying last year she suddenly started plucking at Rusty’s head feathers. She effectively gave Rusty a haircut as she snipped her head feathers rather than pulling them out. Thankfully this didn’t last long.

The day Freckles laid her first egg this year she started to do the same thing to Apricot. She has given her the same haircut. I hate to see this and am really hoping that like with Rusty this will soon pass.

Apricot has a hair cut

The dark head feathers, which in silky feathered girls, are more like hairs have been snipped. This was exactly how Rusty looked but it didn’t get any worse so I am really hoping that the same will be the case this time.

I have said in the past that I wondered if once Speckles started laying again the mother hen relationship with the little girls may finally change. I was right. Last week we remarked how unusually unselfish Speckles was still being with her little girls. She even dropped bits of chopped grape in front of them which is unknown for most hens.

Yesterday for the first time she went for Apricot and even pulled a few feathers from her back. Today she briefly pinned Cinnamon down. Later when I hand fed the girls some spinach she was taking it aggressively and pecked Freckles on the head when she got in her way. Cinnamon came to take some and she glared at her causing Cinnamon to run away.

This afternoon when I gave out the bedtime corn it was the first time that Speckles didn’t call the little girls over and drop corn in front of them. Speckles just got stuck into the corn along with the other girls.

I think her mother hen position has come to an abrupt end. She has been in this role since Peaches and Barley, the other two bigger girls, left the flock last May. She has played at being a mum to the little girls for ten months which is much longer than any real mother hen would do. It’s quite sad to see this change but it is natural. I think there may be a little less harmony from now on but I guess she couldn’t be mum forever.