Carol's Chickens

Why is it that every time things seem lovely and settled in our flock something comes along and rocks our boat!

This morning Freckles seemed her usual self but by lunch time I noticed that she was sitting dozing and her head was bobbing up and down. Alarm bells starting ringing within me. I remembered Caramel dozing while her head bobbed up and down.

Freckles was dozing all afternoon

Speckles sat with her and kept her company

Every time I checked on Freckles she was still sitting, dozing. That is not a good sign. I offered her a dandelion leaf to see if she would stand. She did but her head wobbled and then she wobbled. As she walked she wobbled to one side. That is exactly how Caramel was from the first day we had her.

I didn’t know then what it meant but I recognise these symptoms now. Caramel and then Pebbles had mycoplasma. Pebbles slept on the same perch as Rusty and Freckles but this was seven months ago. I treated the whole flock with baytril in the water for five days which should have offered them protection.

I panicked and put Freckles in the cat box with food and water. My first instinct was to separate her from the flock.

Freckles in the cat box in our dining room

I am terrified of this passing through my flock. By now it was time for me to go to my dentist appointment, hygienist and check up, booked six months ago. I had to keep the appointment and thought about what to do next while I was there.

I still have a course of tylan powder (I only needed half of it last time) and  liquid antibiotic (again I only needed half of it last time). What I wasn’t sure about is whether it is still good after seven months. I looked on the internet but couldn’t find out how long these medicines are good for.

I rang the vet to ask but was told by the receptionist that she would ask the vet and call me back. By now it was near closing time and I didn’t hear back. I rang again and got the out of hours receptionist who said she also didn’t know and that I should ring again in the morning. I realised that I would have to make a decision myself for now.

I decided to put the tylan in the water which needs to be replaced daily for five days. It should protect the whole flock. I decided to give Freckles the antibiotic. This should be given once a day for seven days. I know someone else who has been in a similar situation and was told by her vet that it was fine to use both.

I felt that I needed to act fast, as if I could treat it early this time, there might be a chance of nipping this in the bud. I will call the vet in the morning but I felt it was best to act straight away. I returned Freckles to the flock as I felt that I couldn’t keep her in a cat box for a week.

I am totally acting on instinct here. I am terrified of this passing through the flock. I have done what I can for now and I will call the vet again tomorrow. I can only keep everything crossed and watch the flock anxiously.

The two bigger girls are getting to the end of their moult. I think Emerald is finished but I am still picking up loads of feathers from Speckles. They both look pretty good though.

The little girls look much the same as they always do but egg production has slowed so I think they do lose more feathers at this time of year.

This is the first year that speckles has an all white head after her moult and it has changed her appearance a bit. It is interesting to see how they change.

Speckles has an all white head this year

The white dips down lower on the left side at the back of her head

Her other side

Emerald is looking good

She has her tail back

I love the glossy sheen to Emerald’s feathers. I love seeing the slight changes that come about after each year’s moult. These girls are changing little by little just as we do.

I know that I am biased but I do think that we have a beautiful flock.

Since we have had the new fence it has left us with a gap at the edge of the concrete that edged the old fence. This means that as well as not looking very neat, grass and weeds come through from the other side.

We decided to plant it with things that grow easily in small spaces.

Garden path

These plants have only been in for a few months and are just getting established. We hope that by next year they will have spread to cover the concrete channel and spill over onto the path. We want the path to appear to be floating between the plants on either side.

It will look much nicer to have a strip of green rather than a strip of concrete. I intend to do a follow up post next summer showing the before and after photos. Like a lot of things in the garden it takes a bit of patience and is a work in progress.

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.