Carol's Chickens

Yesterday there were just two eggs in the nest box. They were Speckles and Apricot’s eggs, so the biggest and the smallest.

The big and the small

I wasn’t sure that Speckles was going to continue laying after her last whopper. That was just over a week ago. She is still continuing to grow her feathers so that is obviously having an effect on her egg laying.

The pins on Speckles neck are opening

Her head feathers have taken ages to come in properly and now her neck feathers are nearly completely open.

She usually only lays about three eggs a week, she isn’t a prolific layer, but she does lay the biggest eggs. I would say her eggs are larger than a standard girl’s egg.

Emerald hasn’t laid for just over a week so I think she is finished for this year. She lays five or six eggs a week so is a really good layer while she is laying. She has laid for longer than usual this year so I expected her to take a break.

Speckles usually stops laying at the end of next month so it will soon be up to the little girls to keep egg production going. As we need three little eggs to make up one standard egg we have been able to eat all our eggs ourselves rather than giving some away.

This does mean we can’t “gift” them but it is quite nice to be able to eat them all and really appreciate them. Thank you girls.

Rusty and Freckles seem to be taking turns at going broody. So far I have only had one broody at a time. Rusty has laid seven eggs in fourteen days and laid yesterday.

Today she kept going to the nest box and because she lays every other day I knew that she didn’t need to lay. I kept taking her out. Once I take her out she stays out for a few hours before returning again. She isn’t properly broody yet but she is on her way.

When I take Rusty out she puffs herself up and her tail is pointing straight up

Tail up in the nest box

Tail up out of the nest box

Now that I am more experienced with seramas I know that this tail up pose means they are are going broody. Luckily both Rusty and Freckles are completely docile broodies and they let me pick them up without any protest.

I have found that if I remove them from the nest box every time I go in they will come out of it in three days. It will then be about two weeks before they start laying again.

After a few moments Rusty is off and running and she will go into the run and scratch and dust bath.

Compared to past broodies I have had these girls are really easy to manage and I am now used to this little routine. Seramas are such easy girls to handle and I totally love this breed.

When I took some photos of my jellyfish for the novelty fruit and veg competition I thought it would be the ideal time to compare my new camera to my old one. I took a couple of photos with my new camera and then a couple of photos with my old camera.

I was amazed at how different they were. The new camera shows the detail a little better but more than it has a much brighter and truer colour. With the new camera the satsumas look  a bright orange whereas with the old camera they look dull and faded. See below.

Jellyfish taken with my new camera

Jellyfish taken with my old camera

While using my old camera I was reasonably happy with the quality, it was the speed that annoyed me. Now I can see how the quality has improved as well as the speed. I am really happy with my new camera.

One of the blogs I follow is called “Going Gently” written by John Gray. It is often amusing,  always interesting and gets many, many comments.

At the moment John is taking photos from his readers of novelty fruit and veg to enter a competition at his local flower show.

I sent a photo of my husband’s “apple bird” which I have shown on here before. That seemed a bit like cheating though so today I decided to make my own and send it in. Here are my “jellyfish”.

Jellyfish

It’s simple but I am actually feeling quite pleased with it. Now we need to eat the satsumas!

Since we moved here, just over ten years ago, the tree in our next door neighbour’s garden has doubled in size. It was already a large tree but it is now an enormous tree.

Our next door neighbour’s tree as seen from our bedroom window

It overhangs the gardens either side despite the fact that we had someone come and cut the overhang from our side a few years back. It is a towering height and I imagine the neighbours will soon have to crawl under it to go up their garden.

It blots out a lot of sun from our garden. It fills the view from our upstairs bathroom window and it dwarfs everything in our garden. The neighbours don’t use their garden so I can’t imagine them doing anything about this tree any time soon.

I think we are stuck with this ever growing, monster, tree for the foreseeable future.

It has been quite heart warming seeing the friendship blossom between Emerald and Speckles.

Emerald and Speckles perch together

They spend a lot of time perching side by side. Emerald has a tendency to stand rather than sit. This is also true of her position in the shed at bedtime until later in the evening.

However yesterday after Emerald had laid her egg she wanted to brood for the first time. In the four years that we have had her she has never showed any signs of going broody. She had always stopped laying half way through May.

This year she has laid for three weeks longer than she has ever laid before. I think maybe that is why she wants to go broody. I think yesterday’s egg was probably her last egg of the season and she has now decided that it is time to sit.

Emerald wants to stay in the cat box

Emerald and Speckles roost together

Speckles often used to roost at the far end of the perch, away from the rest of the bigger girls. Now Speckles and Emerald always roost together. I think Emerald’s flattened, sitting down, pose, is because of her broody feelings.

Yesterday she wanted to stay in the cat box. She has never done this before. I took her out several times and she returned to the cat box. I put the grill on the cat box to close it from her. I was surprised to find that she managed to open the grill and climb over it to settle in the cat box once more. She was determined to get in there. I closed it more securely.

This morning I left the cat box closed and Emerald stayed in the shed near the cat box. She didn’t even want to come out for some corn. I decided to remove the cat box. She still returned to the shed so I decided to close the pop hole.

I really don’t want Emerald to spend her day in the shed and the other girls can lay their eggs in the wooden nest boxes. Once I had closed the shed Emerald stayed out in the run.

I don’t think she will start laying again until next year as she has already laid for the longest stretch ever but I just don’t want her to spend time sitting in the shed when she could be out in the run with her flock mates doing chicken things.

I hope she will soon forget and get back to normal. This seemed like an appropriate time to remove the cat box as without Emerald laying it will no longer be needed. Only Freckles and Rusty lay their eggs in the cat box and with Rusty it’s only been her last two eggs. I am sure they will soon get used to the wooden nest boxes again.

Last year we had our garden path done which was the last big job we needed to do in the garden. It has now softened nicely with the planting spilling over the edges.

Our path is disappearing under the plants

The edges are being softened

After the rain the path through our veg plot had disappeared which was not so good

The potatoes are now tied back giving us our path back again

The path has made a huge difference to the garden and I now have my corner spot to sit in the sun at the end of the day which is an extra bonus. We are really pleased with how the path has turned out.

Today was windy with plenty of downpours of rain. I was pleased to see that some of the girls were using the shelters. Freckles and Speckles spent time in this shelter. Rusty joined them for a few minutes and then went on her way and Dandelion was in the other shelter and was joined briefly by Apricot.

Speckles and Freckles are in one of the shelters

Meanwhile Apricot has got wet

However it was too late for Apricot to go in the shelter as she was already wet. She was the only flock member to get wet. It seems to be because she likes digging in the wet soil and so stands under the drips. I don’t like to think of her getting wet but I can’t stop her from standing under the drips.

She did stay dry in the afternoon so perhaps she is getting the hang of it. She laid her second egg in the same nest box as before and it was the same shape and size as her first one, but with no blood streak, so that is good.

I have also discovered that Apricot does squat. I had wondered if it was because she is so comfortable with me stroking her that she doesn’t squat for me. Today my theory was proved right.

Freckles is going through her next broody spell at the moment and I took her out of the cat box for some respite. She is docile with me but takes out her anger on any passing girls. She saw Apricot pecking at some apple and pecked at her back in anger. Apricot dropped into a squat. I moved Freckles away from her and stroked Apricot’s back and she didn’t move a muscle. It is sweet that she feels so comfortable with me stroking her.

The other development today was that four little girls wanted nest boxes at the same time and we have only three. Freckles was back in the cat box and Apricot was in one nest box and Dandelion was in the other. Cinnamon wanted to lay her egg and didn’t know where to go as the two nest boxes she likes to lay her egg in were occupied.

I guided her in to the nest box Dandelion was in as they are such good little friends. Dandelion looked across at Cinnamon as if wondering what was she was doing in there with her.

Cinnamon and Dandelion share a nest box

Cinnamon laid her egg in there and Dandelion gave up. She still doesn’t always get the signals right about when it’s time to lay her egg. I am sure she will get the hang of it eventually.

I think these canterbury bells are such a lovely shade of blue.

Canterbury bells

I am being watched by Speckles and Emerald at the top of the ladder. This isn’t a very big clump of them but I just love the delicate, pale, blue. I think the clump will get bigger each year.

I took this photo a couple of days ago and the rain has now battered them down.

When I give the flock some mash, I now just put one dish on the patio. The flock are so united that she will share from one dish. It is lovely to see all the girls together.

A dish of mash

All the girls come to take a look

Bigger girls and little girls share the mash, Cinnamon being the tiniest girl of all

They come and go until they have all had a share. What is lovely to see is the different combinations eating from the dish together. Looking back a few months this would never have been possible. The flock have come such a long way.