Carol's Chickens

The flock is really united at the moment. I have touched on this subject before but when Peaches and Barley were part of the flock, there were two groups, the bigger girls and the little girls. Since they left the flock the dynamic has totally changed.

Emerald and Speckles seem to have assumed a parental role watching over the little ones. Speckles is definitely in the mother hen role. She sits surrounded by the little girls while Emerald sits a short distance from them or if they are on the ladder Emerald perches above them.

Emerald is the first to call the alarm if there is a cat in the garden and some mornings I hear her strange, cockerel like, call, first thing.

Speckles calls the little girls to the treats and holds back herself while they have them. After dinner we always go up to the chickens before settling to watch some evening television. We offer some dandelion leaves through the mesh and Emerald will lightly peck at the little girls to get out of her way but Speckles will call them and hang back herself. Sometimes she will take a leaf and drop it front of them.

Emerald never pecks at Speckles. They have a lovely friendship and I have never seen them peck each other even around treats. They always roost side by side and are often at the food dish together.

Our united flock

You can just see Emerald’s feet in the top right hand corner of the photo. She is perched above them on her favourite perch. She always settles there before bedtime.

Speckles is surrounded by the little girls

Emerald watches over them from above

This is so typical. Speckles is always in the middle and it seems that the little girls go along with her playing at mother hen and happily gather around her.

We have been wondering what would happen if we added more little girls. Would Speckles take them into the fold too or would they remain outside of this group. It would certainly rock this happy little group, of that, I have no doubt.

I imagine that our sweet little Apricot, who is the friendliest girl and firmly bottom girl, would turn into a nightmare like Rusty before her. I think it would be an easier integration though, with just two bigger girls. The new girls would probably only have to run from the three amigos.

I would like to add some more girls in the spring. The last time we visited Dave and took the three amigos he told us he was having a break from breeding. I said that I would like a black serama and he said that he only kept the light colours as they are more popular.

With this in mind I rang Dave recently and asked him if he would be breeding again. He said that he hadn’t done so this year and the girls he has at the moment are the same ones that we picked the three amigos from. This means they have the same mix of colours that are in our current flock.

I asked if he would be breeding again and he said that he is now ready to breed again next spring. I asked if he would save me a black one if he hatched one and another of any different colour and ring me to let me know. He agreed to do this and we swapped e-mail addresses too so that we can stay in contact.

I hope to have seramas for a long time so it would be lovely to have different colours in the flock. This means I need to be patient and wait until spring. I imagine my flock will be happy with that as integration always rocks the boat. For now we will be content with our happy flock.

We have had days of rain. The bottom of the top part of the run always gets wet where it drips off of the roof. Cinnamon likes to dig in this spot. She had muddy toes all day because she had been digging there.

I managed to catch her digging in the mud. She moves so fast that a lot of the photos were blurred but I took plenty in the hope that some would be okay. I stopped when she flung a bit of mud at the camera.

Cinnamon finds some mud to dig in

Her toes disappear into the wet soil

She digs with fury

I was pleased with this action shot before she splattered me with mud. I have never known a chicken that likes to dig quite as much as Cinnamon does. She is such a funny little girl.

Everything in the garden has gone mad after having plenty of sun and now having plenty of rain.

Himalayan honeysuckle

I used to call this my “hoppy plant” until I found out that it’s real name is himalayan honeysuckle.  The flowers remind me of hops. Apparently the brown fruits are edible and taste a bit like chocolate. The blackbirds in our garden love them.

This plant was given to us by friends, as a seedling, many years ago. We moved it from our last garden to this garden and it does really well here. I love it.

I thought I would get my husband to take a photo of some of the little girls in my hands to show their size.

We went for Apricot first as she is the most friendly even though she is looking like she wants to escape!

Apricot in my hands

Cinnamon in my hands

Cinnamon was quite happy even though my husband says it looks like I am strangling her. It’s just because her ruff has settled over my thumbs.

No animals were hurt during the making of this post, honest! These little girls are a hands length in size. They are dear little girls.

Egg production has gone down a bit as first Rusty started moulting and now Cinnamon appears to be moulting. This has left Freckles, Apricot and Dandelion still laying at the moment. Here are the last four day’s eggs.

Recent eggs

From left to right we have Dandelion, Apricot, Dandelion, Apricot, Freckles, Apricot and Freckles.

Apricot and Freckles eggs

Apricot’s egg is on the left and Freckles egg is on the right. I love how different these little girls eggs are.

We used to call the bantam eggs big and the serama eggs small. We have now moved on to call Freckles eggs big and Apricot and Dandelion’s eggs small. With a smaller supply we now have two big (Freckles eggs) each or three small (Apricot and Dandelion’s eggs) each.

They are still the most lovely eggs though!

We planted three tomato plants in our veg plot. Two are types that we have tried before and one is a new one. We thought we would take a chance on this intriguing tomato plant. It’s called tomato gigantine and boasts the biggest tomatoes in the world, growing up to eight inches in width!

As we always struggle to get our tomatoes ripened before the days of sunlight get shorter or the dreaded tomato blight sets in, we knew this was a bit of a risk, but hoped that perhaps it would be fast growing.

Our tomato plants actually look healthier than they ever have before. But here’s the thing.

Sparta

Shirley

Tomato gigantine

The giant tomato is way behind the other two plants! The other two plants have clusters of good sized tomatoes that just need to ripen and even now could be ripened indoors if necessary. The giant one is still at the flowering stage and has yet to even form a tomato.

All three plants are a similar size and height but this one is developing so much slower than the other two. I don’t hold out much hope of getting any giant tomatoes.

The three tomato plants

The giant one is the one furthest away with the yellow flowers at the top.

I will report back at the end of the season but I am not holding my breath!

Emerald and Speckles have been moulting for a couple of months and are now looking almost back to normal.

Seramas are supposed to moult a few feathers at a time all year round but Rusty is now moulting more heavily. I am finding lots of fluffy little feathers under her roost spot and around the run. She is looking a little shabby but not too noticeable.

Egg production is also down. Rusty hasn’t laid for two weeks now, since her three day broody spell. She would usually start laying again after two weeks but I think as she is moulting more than usual she probably won’t lay until it slows again.

Freckles is laying the best as she is still laying every other day, with Cinnamon, Dandelion and Apricot laying only two or three eggs a week. We are still getting enough eggs for our weekend breakfasts though so I am happy not to need to buy any eggs.

Speckles has her fluffy bottom back

Emerald is still showing white feathers under her wing when in a certain position

Emerald is looking good when she stands tall

Emerald has developed slightly grey tips to her feathers.

Rusty is moulting

Rusty has some bare quills on her wings but no bare patches, she also has some loose fluff on her bottom.

Dandelion is looking good

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is also losing some fluffy feathers and leaves them behind in the nest box when she lays her egg but she has a lovely red comb.

Apricot is looking good

Freckles is in her evening dust bath

Since the hot weather Freckles has taken to having a dust bath at about half past six every evening. She is the only one of the girls to do this at this time of day.

All in all I think the girls are looking pretty good. It is lovely to see them getting fully feathered again.

We had a huge storm last night. Thunder and lightening and torrential rain. I tried to take some photos but they didn’t come out. We lost all signal on the television. It raged on into the night keeping us awake.

On the positive side the garden has had a good watering. Some of the plants have taken a battering though.

The hibiscus, by the chicken run, is one the few plants that was already here when we moved in eleven years ago. It has probably doubled in size since then. We had intended to let it flower, then prune it back.

We knew the impending storm would drag it down so my husband wedged a broom between the plant and the top of the chicken run, as a temporary measure to hold it back, so that I wouldn’t have to crawl under it in the morning.

Hibiscus flower close up

 Hibiscus beside the chicken run

It’s held back with a broom

It’s almost down to the ground

It’s a shame as it is just reaching it’s peak. We will manage with it for a few days before pruning it, perhaps a bit now and a harder prune later. The flowers are quite beautiful.

Since Emerald and Speckles have become the only, bigger girls, amongst five little girls, Speckles has taken on the role of mother hen. She is often sat in the run surrounded by all the little girls with Emerald sat a little in front of them.

It’s very difficult to get a photo of this because as soon as I open the gate to the run the little girls run to me. I am an even bigger mother hen and there is always the possibility that I may be bearing treats!

I decided to take a shot through the wire and even then Freckles and Emerald immediately stood up.

Speckles the mother hen surrounded by her little girls

Most of the little girls run to me

As  expected, once I was through the gate, the little girls ran to me. Apricot and Freckles first followed by Rusty.

The other bit of mother hen behaviour is that Speckles calls the little girls to the treats or any titbits. At the end of the day if there is some cabbage left, as it’s too tough for the girls, I will break off little bits and drop them on to the patio.

Speckles will make the sound to tell them there is a treat and then will pick up the bits of cabbage and drop them in front of the little girls. She doesn’t eat them herself but will repeatedly pick up the bits and drop them in front of the little girls.

My husband says that he thinks the white pins on her head have entered her brain. It will be interesting to see if this behaviour is permanent or if it just because she is moulting which does seem to effect their behaviour.

Emerald is also continuing to make a sound like a cockerel crowing in the mornings when the automatic door opens. With our bedroom window open I hear her some mornings at about quarter past five.

It seems that these two bigger girls are still acting like parent birds to the five little girls as they have done since they have became the last two. It will be interesting to see if this continues. I wonder if it will change next spring when they start laying again or if it would change if we added new girls to the flock.

For now though it is pretty cute to see, Speckles the mother hen, surrounded by her little girls and Emerald near by on guard.

I wanted to get Freckles and Cinnamon in the same shot to show how different in size they are. They are the least of friends among the flock though, so I decided a couple of dishes of mash would help get them together.

Some mash for the girls

Freckles is on the left of the dish of mash and Cinnamon is in front of Speckles.

A size comparison between Cinnamon and Freckles

This about as close as Cinnamon gets to Freckles

I would say that Cinnamon is about half the size of Freckles and she is smaller than the other seramas too.

It’s the pecking order that stops Cinnamon and Freckles being friends. Rusty is top serama (or top banana as I like to think of her) and because of this she was a nightmare when we first introduced the three amigos. She was really aggressive towards them until she had proved beyond doubt that she was top little girl. Once she had done that she was fine with them and will happily share the treats, share a dust bath and will perch with them. She knows that they are no threat to her position as top little girl.

Freckles however was Rusty’s number two. She wasn’t nearly as aggressive with the three amigos but because she hasn’t proved her supremacy she now chases Cinnamon, won’t allow her near the treats with her and doesn’t dust bath or perch with her. Cinnamon is middle girl of the three amigos with Dandelion as top of this trio and sweet little Apricot firmly at the bottom.

Cinnamon is the least tolerated by Freckles but she has a big personality and doesn’t let it bother her. All the other girls are fine with her. I guess like us there will always be some characters that just don’t get on well together.

In the same way there are odd friendships. Speckles and Emerald are firm friends but out of the little girls Speckles will perch with or sits on the ground with Freckles the most. They often hang out together. It is funny how relationships within the flock pan out.

As long as there is no bullying I am happy with the way the flock interact together. It is interesting to watch the little friendships taking place.