Carol's Chickens

This has been another really difficult decision to make. I had a long chat with our friend Moira at the farm. She had taken twenty eight rescue chickens (she offered to take thirty but got the last twenty eight) a few days earlier and they are restricted to the barn and courtyard while settling in and learning where home is.

She said to bring Peaches and Barley to her at the end of the day and they could go in the barn at bedtime and they will be able to mix in along with the rest of the new girls.

I feel heart sick to be doing this again but I really hope this will be the last time. I know that the flock will be happier without them. The little girls will have a better life and Speckles will be able to regrow her feathers and will also have a happier life. Peaches and Barley will have a free range life with as much grass as they could ever want.

They have had three years with me and now will have the chance to live free range and will never be bored. I will miss their little fluffy bottoms in my flock though and also having them jump on my back as I clean the run. I have a lump in my throat at the thought of not having them around any more but I will be able to visit them.

I took some photos of their last night with us. The girls all know their place at bedtime.

Freckles and Rusty sleep on the left hand perch

The bigger girls sleep at the back

The three amigos sleep on the right hand perch

I gave Peaches and Barley some melon in the afternoon as a last treat with us.

Peaches and Barley have some melon

I prepared the dog crate and added a dish of mash and an apple. I managed to catch Peaches and Barley and we took them late in the afternoon to Moira.

Moira and her girls

The brown girls are the ones she has rescued from being slaughtered. They are being confined to the barn and courtyard until they know where to go at bedtime.

Beyond the courtyard is the meadow where the girls free range once they are used to their new home.

She is going to add straw and water to the dog crate and keep Peaches and Barley in there for their first night. They can then get used to the sounds of the other girls around them and it means when she opens up in the morning they won’t be able to escape the barn.

She will leave a few friends and Peaches and Barley in the barn. They will stay in the barn for the first few days so that they know that is where to go at bedtime. They will then go to the courtyard and eventually to the orchard. This has always worked for Moira and is how she has added our girls to her flock in the past.

She says, as always, that she will look after them as best she can and that it isn’t goodbye as we can visit soon.

The flock seemed very quiet on our return home but Cinnamon was happily scratching near the patio where she would have been chased from before. I know that however difficult this has been it was the right thing to do. I really feel that the flock will be a happier flock now.

I am pleased with the chicken shelter as both the little girls and the bigger girls seem to like it. I have at different times seen every girl go in to it.

Apricot in the shelter

Freckles perches in the shelter

Yesterday when I was in the run there was a heavy shower which was very loud on the roof. The bigger girls and Rusty ran straight to the shelter. By the time I had got my camera Rusty had left. It makes me laugh how even though the run is roofed and dry they still run to the shelter when it rains.

The bigger girls in the shelter

This gives me hope that during bad weather, cold or windy, they may actually perch in the shelter. It will also double as shade during hot days.

I went back a bit later when it was raining again. Apricot seems to prefer the shelf at the back.

Apricot and Dandelion are in the shelter

Speckles is in the other shelter

Peaches and Barley were also in here but left when I went in.

Rusty joins Apricot and Dandelion in the shelter

Freckles joins them

They turn to face the front

Only Cinnamon is missing from the little girls but I think she wanted to lay her egg. She was near the patio.

They dust bath under it, perch at the front or sit on the flat wooden bit and stand or sit on top of it, so it has lots of uses. Also having two shelters means that there is room for all the girls. They do seem to like to be in there when it rains even though the run is mostly dry.

Things have not got any better with Speckles and in fact it has got  much worse. I am giving serious thought to re-homing Peaches and Barley with Moira but we have been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet.

Every time Speckles gets some pins through on her head and her bottom they are pulled out again and recently her head and her bottom have both looked red and sore. She is also getting a bare neck and has feathers going from her back too.

Poor Speckles head

Speckles neck

It actually looks worse than the photos because they don’t show how red her skin looks and because of her black and white feathers its difficult to show in a photo how bad she is looking.

She spends time trying to keep away from the other girls and while having a dust bath at the furthest part of the run she didn’t even come to the patio for the lunch time apple. Also her and Emerald perched out in the run one evening at bedtime which they haven’t done since we have had the chicken shed. I had to pick them up and put them in.

It’s not just Speckles that is victim to Peaches and Barley either. They chase the three amigos, Cinnamon in particular, mercilessly. They have taken to pinning Cinnamon to the ground which is awful to see. They also grab her by the feathers on her back and she is looking a bit tatty now. They keep her away from the food and water and they keep her out of the nest boxes.

To cap it all a few days ago Cinnamon was drinking water from the bottle at the top of the ladder and Barley ran up the ladder and chased her down. I have been giving it a lot of thought and I really think the flock would be happier without these two.

Last year they were plucking Butterscotch and because I really didn’t want to part with them I took Butterscotch to Moira thinking that she would have a happier life there and that the problem would end there.

With hind sight that was probably a mistake on my part but I couldn’t bear to think of letting Peaches and Barley go. Now it’s becoming unbearable and is spoiling the harmony of the flock and spoiling my enjoyment of the flock.

I think they may actually be better off in a larger, free range, space. They have had three years with me and now perhaps it is time for them to be in an environment that may suit them better.

I think with just Speckles and Emerald and the little girls the flock would be happily balanced again. The smaller number may work better and the balance of little girls would make their life so much better. I feel sorry for Speckles but I feel equally sorry for poor little Cinnamon.

I have been struggling with this decision but as I watch what is happening with the flock it is becoming more obvious that something needs to be done. I will have a chat to Moira soon.

Our peony is one of the shrubs that was already here when we moved in ten years ago. I have never photographed it though as it takes ages for the flower buds to open and then just as they reach their peak it goes over. It’s a shame that the flowers, although lovely, are so short lived.

This year I thought that I would try to catch it.

The peony is in bud

It’s about to burst open

The peony is fully open

It will be like this for a few days and then the flowers will drop. It’s lovely while it lasts though.

We have talked a lot lately in the comments about trying to get some greenery in a chicken run. I have tried lots of things but everything gets stripped by the girls to the level they can reach which is why I give them greens every day.

However I thought I would just show what greenery they do have in their run. The huge hypericum was in this spot already when we built the run but had greenery down to the ground. It was lovely for the girls to hide and scratch underneath. Gradually they stripped it to the height they could reach.

We then added the metal table which the girls love to sit on and more recently the wooden shelter. They have now used these to stand on and further strip the greenery until it’s become a standard hypericum.

Hypericum

It looks a bit sad now but I am trying to hang on to anything green in the run and they still like to sit underneath it and continue to peck at any growth they can reach.

Pink rose

This rose was on the outside of the run before we extended it so had already grown tall. The girls love the petals when they drop from the flowers.

The pink rose from the other side of the gate

Large shrub with white flowers

The girls have stripped this shrub to a standard shape too.

Large shrub with mauve flowers

This shrub has grown so much that it’s bursting through the weld mesh. The girls have been able to strip it  from this corner perch so again there is no greenery lower down.

It’s proved impossible to have any greenery at a lower level but I still think it’s good to have some plants in the run to provide interest and shade and the extra leaf that can be reached from time to time.

The outside of the run

The shrub with the mauve flowers is bursting through the weld mesh blending the run into the garden.

The girl’s dandelion and mint garden

The mint has rather taken over the dandelions. I have picked the dandelion leaves for the girls and now need to leave them to regrow. I read that chickens will eat mint but now find that my girls don’t like the mint which has meant that the dandelion leaves have been harvested and the mint has been left to take over.

At the moment I am giving a mix of spinach and spring greens because the girls love the spinach but it goes so quickly then they move on to the greens which last most of the day.

This is really the best that I can achieve by way of keeping some green in their run but they never go without greens. I do my best to keep them as happy as possible.

Yesterday Dandelion laid her sixth egg. I spotted it out in the furthest part of the run when I went in to the chickens first thing in the morning. She has yet to lay one in a nest box.

She just doesn’t seem to know that she has laid because shortly after this she went into the chicken shed. She stood there shouting.

Dandelion shouting in the chicken shed

Dandelion has a really loud, high pitched, shout. I could hear her while she was inside the shed and I was indoors. I don’t know why she was shouting and not going in the cat box. I had changed the pine shavings in the cat box that morning and wondered if the fresh shavings were putting her off.

Eventually she did settle in the cat box and all was quiet.

Dandelion settles in the cat box

But not for long. Emerald decided she was ready to lay her egg and chased Dandelion out of the cat box.

Emerald settles in the cat box

Since I have put the cat box in here both Emerald and Speckles have laid every egg here. Dandelion started shouting again and even giving her some corn to distract her only stopped her shouting while she ate the corn. If only I could explain to her that she had already laid her egg and there was no need for any of this.

Then it went quiet and I went to see what was going on.

Dandelion settles in the right hand nest box

Phew, Dandelion had decided to settle in the nest box instead. This is actually good news because it means that when the cat box is occupied she will now perhaps settle for a nest box.

Next time I checked Emerald’s egg was in the cat box and Dandelion was back in the run and quiet again. She must have decided her job was done.

Cinnamon on the other hand prefers the nest boxes but Peaches and Barley do everything they can to keep her out of the nest boxes which is maddening. The day before they were chasing her from the nest boxes and we had to go out so had to leave her to it.

When we returned Cinnamon’s, longer shaped egg, was in the cat box. She must have given up on the nest boxes. This is also good news because it means that when she is being chased from the nest box she will probably go to the cat box.

Egg laying seems to cause such drama at the moment. We are eating lots of lovely eggs though.

We have now had the three amigos for three months. It took a month to get them integrated which is the longest integration yet. Now after two months of being fully integrated I decided that the last stage needed completing.

I decided it’s time to remove the extra feeding station from the run and just have the patio area as the feeding station, which is how it has always been, before the arrival of the three amigos.

The three amigos have to cross the patio at bedtime and now have to come to the patio to get to the nest boxes, apart from Apricot, who isn’t laying yet. Sometimes when the bigger girls are out in the run they come to the patio for a peck at the afternoon apple.

It’s not ideal having a food station in the run. When it rains, it gets wet. Some food gets flicked into the dirt and I have to pick it up along with some of the soil. When I lifted the tiles that the dishes were on there was mould underneath which I removed.

It is time to get the three amigos used to coming to the patio for food and water. There are still the two water bottle above the ladders for back up water. There are two waters on the patio and two food dishes plus I added a dish of mash too.

I worry about whether the three amigos will get enough food but I have to move this on sometime. Surely they will come to the patio rather than go hungry. I will monitor the poop under their roost spots to check that they are eating enough as well as monitoring how often they come to the patio.

The patio is the feeding station

There is water and food on each side of the patio plus today a dish of mash in the middle as well one on one of the wooden blocks out in the run as a little back up for the first day of the new regime.

Proof that the three amigos do come to the patio

We have seen the three amigos on the patio when the other girls are out in the run so hopefully they will soon get used to having to come here for food.

This is the last step into being fully integrated and I am hopeful that the three amigos will soon get used to this.

I give the girls spinach every day but I am missing the big bags of greens I used to get from my friend Jackie’s allotment. Now that Jackie has moved away I don’t have access to the abundance of allotment greens any longer.

I decided to give the girls spring cabbage as well as spinach so that they have greens to peck at that last longer.

Spring greens for the girls

I heard the sound of a little girl’s, egg laying, shout so went to check.

Dandelion’s egg

There among the greens was Dandelion’s egg. This is Dandelion’s fifth egg and she has yet to get an egg in the nest box. Her eggs now have good, solid, shells and they are the smallest, palest shelled, eggs of the little girls.

She just doesn’t seem to be aware of when her egg is about to arrive. I imagine she was having some greens when out it dropped.

At least she isn’t having a problem with laying now that her eggs have good shells. I guess in time she will get used to the feeling of when an egg is coming. I am sure that one day she will actually lay one in a nest box.

Yesterday Freckles was ready to lay her egg and had decided that she too liked the idea of the cat box. Speckles and Peaches followed her into the chicken shed.

Peaches tries out the cat box but she is just being nosy

Freckles goes into the cat box

Freckles came back out and Speckles went straight in and sat down.

Speckles settles into the cat box

Freckles stands outside the cat box and shouts

Freckles behaved the same as Dandelion a few days earlier. She stood outside the cat box shouting. I had to go out on my deliveries so decided that she would have to sort it out. She could either wait for Speckles to come out or she could go in with her. Rusty and Freckles don’t seem to mind sharing a nest box with the bigger girls.

I knew that Cinnamon wanted to lay too as she was coming up to the patio and she has settled into laying every other day so was due to lay.

On my return I went to check on the girls. To my surprise Speckles was still in the cat box and Freckles was out in the run. Speckles then came out of the cat box and there was Freckles egg. It seemed that Speckles didn’t want to lay after all (she had laid the day before) and Freckles must have shared the cat box to lay her egg.

I checked the right hand nest box and there was Cinnamon’s egg, longer and slimmer in shape than Freckles and Rusty’s. Later in the day Rusty also laid her egg in the right hand nest box. This was the first day of getting three, little girl’s, eggs.

So far the cat box has been used by Speckles, Emerald, Dandelion and Freckles. That’s half of the girls that are laying. It seems a popular nest box. I wonder if the novelty will wear off or if it will remain popular. It is darker and more private, being in the shed.

I think using the cat box as an extra nest box has proved to be a success.

A couple of evenings ago there were a couple of runny, very black, splats on the patio. I wasn’t sure who they were coming from.

There have been black slpats in the chicken shed overnight and in the run over the last few days.

Yesterday I saw that Barley had a very mucky bottom. She was the obviously the culprit. Her feathers were streaked in black poop and she was constantly pecking at it. It was obviously really annoying her.

Barley has a mucky bottom

It is really annoying her

In the past Peaches has had a mucky bottom and I managed to pick her up and clean her. I decided to do the same with Barley but she cottoned on that I was trying to pick her up and she wasn’t having any of that.

Peaches and Barley are the most speedy and the most difficult to pick up of all my girls.

I decided to leave it until bedtime. Once she was on the perch she was easy to pick up. Once I had picked her up she was as good as gold and didn’t move at all while I dealt with the problem. I sponged her with warm water with a little washing up liquid added. Once I had all the poop out I dried her feathers with a soft cloth. I dried her as thoroughly as I could and popped her back on her perch.

This is how she looked in the morning.

Barley has a fluffy bottom once more

That has got to feel better.

I googled black, sloppy, chicken poop and the results said that if the hen looks fine and well and is eating then it’s nothing to worry about and could  be due to something she has eaten. I had given melon as the lunch time treat for a few days so have decided to lay off of the melon for a while.

It is good to see her with a fluffy bottom once more. If only all problems were so easy to resolve.