Carol's Chickens

Apricot has always been a bit of a loner. Part of that may be because she is so firmly at the bottom of the pecking order and we previously had an odd number of seramas. Since losing Rusty the flock dynamics have subtly changed.

Freckles has taken to perching next to Apricot. Only during the day though. At bedtime Freckles remains on the perch that was her’s and Rusty’s.

Freckles and Apricot perch together

It has made me decide that in future I will add even numbers. I was thinking of adding two more seramas in spring if my breeder has more. I am now thinking that I may add four.

Now that we only have two bigger girls our run has plenty of space for a larger number of seramas. I also think adding four new girls to an existing four may make integration easier as they will be more balanced. Of course I could be wrong and it also all depends on whether Dave has more girls in spring.

I would also like more silky feathered girls as sadly I have now lost three silky feathered girls altogether and now only have Apricot left.

I really hope my breeder has more in spring because the flock feels small without Rusty. She has left a big gap for such a little girl!

I don’t really do much in the way of baking. I like cooking savoury meals and I can produce a three course meal for a dinner party but I always go for an easy dessert. I am not really a baker even though I love watching “The Great British Bake Off” but I have recently bought Jamie Oliver’s latest book “5 Ingredients”.

I love the idea of recipes that don’t need an, arm’s length, list of ingredients. I got my copy half price with my sainburys points and told my husband I would try to cook one recipe from it each week to make it good value for money.

I started with the salmon fish cakes which were good and looked pretty much like the photo. I then decided to try the apple crumble cookies. Mine were a bit more rustic than Jamie’s because he used a food processor, which I refuse to posses in my kitchen, so my dried apples were hand chopped.

Apple crumble cookies

Cookies compared to the photo

They did actually really taste like apple crumble. Next time I would make sure there were no apple pieces on top as they burnt a bit. Over all though I was pretty pleased with them. I love the simplicity of this book and will continue to try to make one recipe a week.

Dandelion has had a problem with her eggs right from the start of laying six months ago. She has always been clueless about when she is about to lay and many of her eggs have been laid in the run.

She would sit in a nest box then later lay an egg in the run or lay an egg in the run and then sit in a nest box. All the eggs that she has laid in the run have been broken. Many of her eggs have been laid first thing in the morning in the chicken shed and most of them have been broken too.

Her egg shells are really thin. I tried giving her crushed egg shells in some mash and she laid one egg, unbroken, with a good shell then the next egg was broken again. Luckily her eggs are small, only Apricot lays smaller eggs, and she always manages to get them laid and doesn’t seem to suffer any ill effects.

However recently she has started laying more frequently. She was only laying about two eggs a week but for the last two weeks she has laid every other day so I decided to try again with the crushed egg shell in mash. As luck would have it Dandelion seems to really like this and kept returning to the mash. I used four little egg shells from the weekend breakfast and have been doing this each weekend.

At last it seems to be working and for the last two weeks her eggs have been unbroken and she has laid them in the nest box or in the chicken shed first thing in the morning. I now wonder if she has not been going to the grit and now I think about it I realise that I have never seen her go to the grit like the other girls do.

Dandelion’s eggs either side of Freckle’s egg

Maybe she likes the eggshell mash so much because she senses that she needs it. I am amazed and so pleased that this seems to be working. I was sceptical because Amber, my bantam vorwerk, had an egg laying problem right from the start of laying. Her eggs shells were really soft though. Luckily she didn’t lay more than a couple of times a week. I tried crushed egg shell with her and also limestone flour and cod liver oil to help with the absorbing of calcium but it never, ever, made a difference.

After having her for two years I found her dead in the pop hole entrance one morning. It was a shock as she had been fine at bedtime the evening before. She is buried in the chicken strip with Rusty next to her. They are the only two of my girls to have passed away at home.

I always felt that it was something to do with Amber’s egg laying problem that had caused her death. I felt that there must have been something internal that wasn’t quite right that was causing her problem.

Dandelion hasn’t been as bad as Amber was but I still worried about an egg breaking inside her as I used to worry with Amber. I will be thrilled if this has cured her problem and would be happy to do this on a weekly basis if it continues to help her.

Mash with ground egg shells added

Emerald tucks in

The little girls tuck in

As you can see Dandelion is having a good go at the mash. It is great for us to be able to eat her eggs at last.

The first night after we lost Rusty I thought I would try to train Freckles to sleep with Dandelion and Apricot. She was having none of it!

The left side of the chicken shed with Freckles now on her own

The right side of the chicken shed

I moved Freckles to the perch with Dandelion and Apricot. She looked across at them as if wondering what on earth she was doing next to this pair.

I moved Freckles who was clearly not pleased by this

I checked back ten minutes later and she was back on her own perch. I moved her again and she looked at me as if most displeased.

I moved her a second time before giving up

By now it was quite dark  and I opened the door a crack and me and my husband peered in. We saw her turn herself around, jump down and make her way back to her own perch.

I decided to leave her be. She was obviously determined that this was her perch and just because Rusty was no longer beside her she wasn’t going to change her habit and perch with that pair of girls.

I realised that I couldn’t change her habit and it wasn’t fair on her to try. I could move her after dark but that seemed pointless and would mean me always having to do that. I have decided that if we have really cold nights in winter I may perch the girls together after dark but other than that I will leave them to do as they please.

I had hoped that if Freckles would perch with Dandelion and Apricot then if we got new girls in the spring I could train them to use her perch. I am now thinking that if we get new girls in the spring they will have to choose who they perch next to and we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I feel sad to see Freckles perching on her own but I don’t want to stress her by moving her from what she knows as her perch. She has shown us that she doesn’t want to move so that is that for now.

There are now a few signs of autumn in the garden.

The tall grass has lovely seed plumes

The ornamental cherry tree has orange leaves

There are clusters of red berries

There are interesting blue berries

This variegated creeper has the most pretty, tiny, blue and purple berries. I love the autumn colours in the garden.

Sadly we have only had Rusty for a year. She certainly left her mark though. She was the funniest, feistiest, of characters. She was top serama or top banana as we called her and was always at the front of the flock. She was the first out of the chicken shed in the mornings and the first to the treats.

If we offered dandelion leaves through the weld mesh, from the dandelion strip, Rusty would push the others out of the way and if I held them out to Apricot who would always go to the ladder rungs Rusty would jump into the air to get them.

I have put together some photos as a tribute to her. Looking through the photos also made me realise what a close pair Rusty and Freckles were. They came into the flock together at the beginning of October last year and I am sure that Freckles will miss her little flock mate.

Rusty and Freckles

Beaks together

Rusty and Freckles with chests together

Rusty stretches her neck towards the scary peas

Rusty puffed up with broodiness

Rusty having a dust bath

Rusty and Freckles march together with Rusty looking like a little toy duckling

Rusty looking up at me

Rusty always had this way of looking up at me. Sometimes she would twist her head and her eyes would lock on to me. She did this more than any of the other girls. She always liked to make eye contact. I will miss that intense look on her face.

Rusty will be very much missed, she enriched our flock and often made us laugh.  She was such a little bundle of fun.

I have been writing this post as I go along so the title has now sadly changed from “Rusty prolapsed again” to it’s current title.

The afternoon before yesterday Rusty was in the nest box for a long time. I was worried about her prolapsing again but I knew that she had to get her egg laid. I felt helpless because I couldn’t help her lay her egg or stop her laying her egg.

Not long before bedtime she was out of the nest box. She had laid her egg and sure enough she had prolapsed again. She has been laying for two weeks now and this was her fifth egg. It was normal in size.

Rusty has a mucky bottom and a prolapse

Rusty looking unworried by her prolapse

I picked her up and gently wiped the poop from her bottom. I decided as it was almost bedtime that the best thing to do was to let her rest overnight which I hoped would mean she wouldn’t be pushing at it and bath her in the morning.

I hoped that I could soak her, clean her and push it back in with honey like last time.

Rusty giving me the evil eye as I bath her

I managed to get her clean and I tried to gently push the prolapse back in but very quickly realised this wasn’t going to work. The prolapse was beginning to swell and I decided that I needed to get Rusty to the vet.

I got her clean but the prolapse looked worse

My local vet had no appointments but once again their sister vet, twenty minutes from me, could see her. This time I was prepared for her to have to spend the day there and I took a water dish and a dish with sunflower hearts and a little chopped melon. I had read that light food is better than pellets as it discourages laying. I also took the honey with me.

The vet was really lovely. He said that he would give her an anti inflammatory injection to reduce the swelling. He would soak her and after a couple of hours when the swelling had reduced he would push the prolapse back in.  He said he agreed with the good properties of honey and to leave it with him. He said he would call me later.

The vet called later and said that the prolapse was back in but he wanted to keep her to make sure that it stayed in and that I should call back at four o’clock to see how she was doing.

When I called back another vet said that the first vet had pushed the prolapse in twice and she, herself, had pushed it in a third time but now Rusty had pushed it out yet again. She said that she thought Rusty needed a stitch to help keep it in place. This would mean an anesthetic so that it wasn’t painful for her. She said she thought it was worth a try if I wanted them them to go ahead. I agreed for them to go ahead.

She said that they were open until seven o’clock and they would call me later. I knew I had to start preparing myself for there not being a happy outcome for Rusty but I wasn’t prepared to give up without trying.

The vet that morning had said it was worth trying to put it back again but if it kept on happening I may have to consider having her put to sleep. There may be something internal that isn’t quite right about her egg laying and she may now have a weakness there. I said that I had already realised that was a possibility but wanted to give her another chance. We agreed between the vet, myself and my husband that if she prolapsed a third time we would have to have her put to sleep.

The vet felt there was a good chance that this procedure could work and that is was worth a try. I called the vet at quarter past six as I hadn’t heard from them and she said that she had just finished as she had an emergency in between. She said Rusty was rallying well and I could come and get her.

The vet said to keep Rusty indoors for a couple of hours to keep an eye on her. She said to bring her back in on Monday for her to check her. Rusty looked like she was okay.

Rusty back from the vets

After a couple of hours I took her out to the chicken shed and placed her on the perch next to Freckles. I checked on her ten minutes later and she was still perched as she normally would so I felt it was okay to leave her. I felt it would be better to leave her perched than keeping her indoors so that she wouldn’t be sitting in poop.

I went out first thing this morning and felt my first twinge of alarm to find that Rusty wasn’t out in the run. I looked in the chicken shed and Rusty was sitting with her wings spread out. I knew this wasn’t a good sign at all.

This was how I found Rusty this morning

I tried to drip some sugar water into her beak from a syringe but she refused to open her beak. I put her in the cat box and bought her indoors. I was trying to decide if I should take her to the vet to be put to sleep or leave her to go at home. As the vet wasn’t yet open I left the cat box in the bathroom and stayed close to keep an eye on her.

Her eyes closed and although her breathing was shallow she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She looked comfortable so I just stayed beside her. I felt that she didn’t have long.

Rusty sleeping in the cat box

At half past nine I heard her flap and I instinctively knew that this was the end. I wanted to pick her up and hold her but it was so quick. She stretched out her wings then flopped on to her side. She was gone. I picked her up and cried over her.

At least it was quick and it was one last decision that I didn’t have to make.

I have been beating myself up ever since about whether I made the right decisions. What if I had just bought her home and tried to put her prolapse back myself like last time but I know that even if it had worked again it would most likely have happened again in the future. Should I have had her put to sleep instead of having anesthetic but the outcome would have been the same.

I said these things to the vet when I rang to let them know and to cancel Rusty’s appointment on Monday. The vet was lovely to me and said that she was so sorry and that I had done my best for Rusty and made the best decisions I could for her.

We wrapped Rusty in our tray paper and buried her in the chicken’s strip next to Amber. In six years of chicken keeping she is my second girl to die at home. I lifted the dandelions and my husband dug a very deep hole. We laid her to rest and I planted the dandelions over the top of her.

Rusty is buried next to Amber marked by the cross on the right

It felt as if Freckles was paying her respects to her best friend

I wonder how Freckles is going to be without her best friend. I don’t like to think of her sleeping alone on their perch so I will move her tonight to Dandelion and Apricot’s perch and see if I can get her used to sleeping on their perch.

We will miss Rusty so much. She was such a big character. My husband remarked that she always made us laugh. She was determined and feisty. I had never seen such a small girl show such anger in her eyes when things didn’t go her way. My husband affectionately called her the thug and we both called her top banana.

I will look out some photos and do a tribute post to her soon but for now I am going to leave this here because it has been so hard to write the second half of this post. I am trying to type with tears streaming and keep having to stop to blow my nose.

Goodbye little Rusty. We only had her a year but she filled that year with her character.

This is, without doubt, our best year ever for courgettes. Our two plants have produced a continued abundance of courgettes and the freezer is full of various courgette dishes while I am still devising ways of using fresh ones several times a week.

This is today’s harvest.

Today’s courgettes

The plants still have more courgettes coming.

The courgette plant is still producing

The other courgette plant

I would definitely go for the more compact plants again next year. As I suspected the self seeded courgette plant didn’t produce. There are plenty of flowers forming but the courgettes are very small, butternut squash shaped and rotting away while still tiny.

The self seeded plant with it’s tiny, rotting, courgettes

I think perhaps that because it has self seeded it has reverted back to an earlier type of plant. The plant is long and rambling and full of buds but I can tell that they won’t get beyond this stage.

It was an experiment to leave the plant in and see what it produced and as the veg plot is emptying it fills some space which helps to keep the cats off.

Once the two producing courgette plants are finished we will empty the plot, dig it over and then fill it with twigs for the winter to keep the cats off. For now the spent plants remain in place to keep it from being bare even though it is rather less than tidy.

It will be interesting to see how long the courgette plants keep producing. I will sort of miss them when they are over.

Yesterday I gave the girls the last two lettuces from the veg plot. The veg plot is finished now all except the two courgette plants which are still producing, albeit, smaller courgettes.

The last two lettuces from the veg plot

All the girls get stuck in except for Speckles

Speckles was too busy playing mother hen and making sure the little girls got their share first. She did join in later and by the end of the day there were just two stalks left. I think the girls have enjoyed our veg plot as much as we have.

The garden is beginning to look autumnal. The berries on the himalayan honeysuckle are lovely and shiny at this time of year.

Autumn colour in the garden

The sedums give a lovely splash of late colour.

Sedum close up

Splash of colour in the chicken’s strip

This aster gives the chicken’s strip a splash of colour. I love seeing the late colour in the garden.