Carol's Chickens

This integration has been the most difficult one for a long time. One thing that has gone like clockwork though is the bedtime routine. I was dreading it and yet it went much easier than with the previous little girls.

This is because all the groups have their own perch. I knew that there would be no way that Rusty and Freckles would let the three amigos share their perch so we put up two new perches in the opposite corner to theirs.

It only took two nights of putting the three girls on their perch for them to get the hang of it. Now there is no fuss at bedtime. Watching them last night we could see the order that they go in.

Emerald is always in first after the bedtime corn. It is often up to an hour later before the rest of the girls go in. All the bigger girls go in and settle on the, higher perch, at the back of the shed. Rusty and Freckles go in next and settle on their perch on the left of the shed. The three amigos go in last and go straight to their perch in the right hand corner above the pop hole.

We have also just made two amendments to the perches. We have taken out the back rail on Freckles and Rusty’s perch as we put it in for passing room with more than two girls. With only two girls here it is no longer needed. A single rail is better as it further from the side wall giving the two girls more space.

Freckles and Rusty on their perch

Apricot, Cinnamon and Dandelion on their perch

We also took out the high, bigger perch, that was above these two smaller perches. Apricot had been going up to the higher one and I didn’t like her having such a big drop down in the morning. There is no need for a higher one as we put it in when we had more bigger girls than now. There is plenty of space on the back perch for the bigger girls.

This arrangement of perches keeps each set of girls well away from each other which means none of the head pecking that used to go on at bedtime. Bedtime is now the one time that the flock are in harmony. I am so happy with this part of their routine.

I have known for a while that Rusty was ready to start laying. She has been squatting when I hold my hand over her and has been more vocal.

Yesterday afternoon she was very vocal and then settled in the nest box.

Rusty in the nest box

She laid her first egg which is huge compared to Freckles eggs. No wonder it had a few streaks of blood on it. It is also much paler than Freckles eggs which are a beige colour.

Rusty’s egg is on the right of Freckles last two eggs

Rusty’s egg in the middle of Freckles eggs

Well done Rusty, what a clever girl!

Yesterday morning when I was in the run doing the morning chores I decided to separate the three amigos (after five weeks I can’t continue to call them new girls) to the patio area. I thought they could start their day with a top up of food and water, while I am busy, before they retreat to the ladders.

We seem to have reached a strange state of being integrated but yet not quite integrated. They sleep together with no problem, they share the run together with no problem and yet they are not brave enough to go to the patio for food and water.

I had just got the two groups in their separate parts of the run when something started kicking off. To my surprise Emerald and Peaches were fighting. They were really going at it with their ruffs raised and hanging on to each other. It was a real commotion and I tried spraying them with water but they wouldn’t stop. No photos as it was too stressful.

Eventually Peaches ended up standing over Emerald who was forced down in the submissive position. At this point Barley wandered over and stared at the pair of them as if wondering what on earth they were up to.

It seems that Peaches had won this round. I think that as Emerald is getting old and Peaches is second in the pecking order she is making a bid to move up into top position.

We have had Emerald for five years and she was an adult girl when we got her so she could be six to seven years old now. When we got Peaches and Barley they were only four months old so they naturally went in at the bottom. Emerald rose to the top through age and longevity but she has always been a gentle character.

We got Peaches and Barley two weeks after Emerald and Toffee. Emerald now goes to bed first which is probably a sign of her age. As soon as I have given out the bedtime corn she makes her way to the chicken shed, long before the other girls go in. It is natural as a top hen gets older that a younger one may try to move up the ladder. It is hard to see them scrapping though when they have lived side by side in harmony for so many years.

It will be interesting to see if this changes their relationship. Since their battle, yesterday morning, I haven’t seen any other interaction between them. The pecking order is very important matter among any flock.

Yesterday I separated the three girls before lunch. They went straight to the water and had a huge drinking session then went to the pellets. I worry about them not getting water so I decided to put water bottles above each of the ladders. At least this will mean they can get to water at any time and then to food when I supervise.

The three girls sprint to the water

All three have a good drink

Next the three girls head to the pellets

Apricot has a peck at the apple

I show Dandelion and Cinnamon one of the water bottles

I show Apricot the other water bottle

I tried to show them how to get the water but they didn’t get it.

Rusty shows them how it’s done

Rusty hadn’t forgotten the water bottle though.

After Rusty had shown them how it was done I put Apricot by the bottle and tapped the nozzle. Apricot had some water. She is always the first of the three to cotton on to anything new. I am sure the other two will soon get the hang of it. This is one problem solved for now.

Freckles usually lays two days out of three. A couple of days ago I noticed that she wasn’t herself. She didn’t run to the seeds in the morning and spent a lot of the day perched in the corner of the run. She hadn’t laid for a couple of days and I recognised this behaviour. I knew she was having an egg laying problem and possibly had a soft shelled egg coming. I managed to persuade her to eat a little mash.

Yesterday morning she went to the nest box and stayed in there most of the day.

Poor Freckles

She is trying so hard to get her egg laid

I was wishing that I could help her

I hated seeing her like this and felt so helpless. She was making little whimpering noises and it was obvious that she was really struggling to get her egg out. She was raising her tail with the effort. I felt so worried for her.

At half past three Freckles abandoned the nest box with no egg laid. She went to sit in the sun then had some food and water.

I know from past experience (Amber) that it sometimes takes two days to get a soft shelled egg laid.

While all this had been going on Rusty had been very vocal and had been going in and out of the nest box on and off all day but I didn’t manage to get a photo of her in there.

At half past seven we went out to check on the girls. They were all in the shed, on their perches, except Freckles. I had forgotten to close the nest boxes and Freckles was back in the nest box again. I lifted her out and under her was a tiny egg. It was so small that it almost fell through the hole of the egg stand when I took it indoors.

I put Freckles on her perch and twice she jumped down and went back in to the nest box. I then put her on her perch and closed the pop hole. When it was a bit darker I opened it again and Freckles was still on her perch.

Now we had a puzzle. Was this tiny egg Rusty’s first egg? It seemed odd that after struggling all day to lay that Freckles would then lay a hard shelled and tiny egg and still keep returning to the nest box. It is possible that Rusty went in and laid it while I was indoors but it is unusual for a first egg to be laid quickly. They usually take ages and lots of practice to get the first egg laid.

I went out first thing this morning and Freckles was already in the nest box with her tail raised again.

Freckles is back in the nest box with Rusty watching on

Peaches egg is on the left, Freckles previous egg in the middle and the mystery egg is on the right

By the time my husband got back at midday today Freckles was back out in the run and having a dust bath. She hasn’t returned to the nest box and looks back to normal, having another dust bath late in the afternoon. At five o’clock she is still out in the run so my conclusion is that she finally laid her egg last night but didn’t realise she had laid it. This often happens when they take a long time to lay.

I am just glad to have her back to normal again. There is never a dull moment with these girls.

Yesterday our next door neighbours had a gardener in. They have a lot of trees and large shrubs in their garden and once a year they have a gardener with a strimmer come in and cut everything back to a manageable size.

The girls didn’t like the noise of the strimmer at all.

The main flock are almost all in here

Except Peaches who is about to lay her egg

And these three are here

They obviously think of the chicken shed as a place of safety. As soon as the strimming was finished the whole flock returned to the run.

After lunch I decided to separate the three amigos to the patio area for a bit of respite time. I directed them towards the patio and they ate from the dish of mash as if they were starving. Then we had another break through moment. They finally found the big water dish and drank and drank as if they were really thirsty.

It does worry me that without a bit of time away from the rest of the flock they aren’t getting enough food and water. I wonder if they would eventually venture to the patio.

Once they had had their fill Cinnamon starting digging a dust bath hole. She dug and dug and dug! The other two girls joined her and started to dust bath near her hole but she continued to dig and dig.

The black strip around Cinnamon’s beak is due to her long session at the water followed by straight to digging in the dust.

Got to make a deep hole

It’s getting deeper

It’s not quite ready yet

Going down

Got to get it a bit deeper

It’s not quite deep enough yet

It’s just right now

Three happy dust bathing girls

Without a bit of separation time these three wouldn’t be able to have this lovely dust bath session especially as Cinnamon needs a lot of digging time. She was first to start digging and then Apricot wandered over and started dust bathing. Then Dandelion joined them and started dust bathing. Cinnamon still had more digging to do. It was quite a while before she settled to dust bathing.

I have never seen such a tiny girl do so much digging. It’s a good job our run is really secure because with her tiny size and her digging ability she would be out otherwise. I waited until the dust bathing session was finished before mixing the girls once more.

I will continue to give these three a bit of separation time each day until their confidence grows.

We went out to check on them after dinner, at half past seven, and all the girls were in. This time Apricot was on the highest perch and Dandelion and Cinnamon were together on the middle perch.

Bedtime

What clever girls

We have definitely got the bedtime routine sorted. I am chuffed with this.

It is now five weeks since we got the new girls and I should probably stop calling them the new girls.

I have decided to leave them mixed all the time now and just wait for them to get brave enough to spend time away from the top of the ladders.

Yesterday afternoon I spent time with them with the hatch and temporary gate closed once more and while confined to this end of the run they scratch and dig and eat some mash from the patio and mix with the rest of the flock without much hassle. As soon as I open up  the run they go back to the ladder.

I am going to leave them together but continue to confine them to the patio part of the run if I think they need respite from the ladder. I am hoping that over time they will start to spend more time away from the ladders.

I took the chance to get some close up shots of them.

I use the temporary gate to keep them from the ladder

Cinnamon close up

Dandelion close up

Apricot close up

These two are a tight pair of girls

They stick together at all times. Dandelion’s head feathers have taken forever to open but are finally nearly there. You can see from this photo how tiny Cinnamon is but despite this she is the best digger of the three. She loves to dig and digs the deepest holes of all.

I felt confident enough once more to leave the girls in this part of the run for a while. I pottered in the garden near by.

Clematis

This is the clematis on the fence which we look out of the kitchen window on to. It is better this year than it has ever been.

The blossom on this shrub is lovely at the moment

We put this in for some height but I can’t now remember what it is.

A little later I opened up the run again and inevitably the three girls went back to the ladder. I just don’t get this obsession with the ladders. I knew they would be back down for the bedtime corn though so I decided that it was time to leave them to it.

When I went out to give them the bedtime corn they weren’t on the ladder but were sat together on the log with the rest of the flock around them. This is progress. I really think we are finally about there with this.

After dinner we checked on the girls and once again Apricot had gone in and found her perch. She is such a clever girl.

Apricot puts herself to bed on her perch

Dandelion was by the pop hole and Cinnamon was by the closed little coop next boxes. I retreated to see if they could work it out for themselves.

I went back at quarter to eight and there were no girls outside. I looked in the shed and was amazed to find that they had put themselves on the perches. We had put another perch in a few days ago, above the first one, because we know that once the girls get confidant with perching they prefer to go a bit higher.

Cinnamon was perched next to Apricot

And Dandelion was on the higher perch

What clever girls! I am so thrilled. This was easier than Freckles and Rusty at bedtime. I am so proud of them and I think I can safely say, that whatever else needs improvement, we have cracked bedtime. Well done little girls!

Yesterday was a good day. I had read on the “Down The Lane” forum of someone having a really hard time integrating new girls, phew, not just me then! It was suggested that one of things that could help was to put the mildest mannered, old girl, in with the new girls.

I decided to try putting Emerald in with them at lunch time until I was ready to supervise mixing them again.

Emerald takes no notice of the new girls

Emerald is top girl and a gentle top girl at that. She took no notice of the new girls at all.

Once we had finished work I closed off the bottom of the run where the ladders are and mixed the girls. I stood by with the water spray. I only had to point it at Rusty a couple of times and she stopped in her tracks. Soon the old girls were taking no notice of the new girls.

These three girls are after leaves

Freckles was in the nest box and Speckles, Peaches and Barley were really intent on getting leaves from the bush.

Rusty isn’t bothering the new girls

I actually felt confident enough at this point to go indoors and answer a few work e-mails. When I returned some of the girls had managed to escape the temporary gate and the new girls were back at the top of the ladder.

I decided that as they had had a good feed of mash while I had been watching over them, I would just leave them to it. I felt it was time to let them venture down from the ladder when they were ready.

I had jobs to do indoors and decided to leave the run open and go out later in the evening when it was getting darker to see if the new girls would go into the chicken shed by themselves.

I gave them the bedtime corn while they were all together and that went well with all the girls getting a share. I also cleaned out their little coop ready to be used on the patio as a second nest box once more. This also gives a bit more space in the new girls section of the run.

We went to check on them after dinner at about half past seven. To my amazement Apricot was not only in the chicken shed but was on her perch. I felt so proud of her, what a clever girl. Dandelion was on the patio looking a bit confused and there was no sign of Cinnamon.

I checked the nest box on the patio and there she was. Okay, not where I wanted her to go, but it was clever of her to recognise that this was just like her own little coop. I put Dandelion and Cinnamon on the perch and made a mental note to close the nest boxes tonight.

I am blown away by this progress and I think with the nest boxes closed the girls will find their way in to the chicken shed. I think by the weekend we will have them together full time at last, after five weeks. I am feeling very pleased with this progress.

Over the last couple of days I have been picking up fluffy grey feathers, some with a white spot on the tip. I knew they were Speckles feathers. I then noticed that she has a bare bottom which has become worse over the last couple of days.

Speckles has a bare bottom

I am feeling pretty miserable about this. I can’t bear feather plucking but I suppose at least it is her bottom rather than her head which is much worse. We don’t know who the culprit is as we haven’t managed to spot it happening. It has to be Peaches, Barley or Emerald.

I wonder if this integration process is proving stressful all round. While the girls are separated for half the day the original six girls only have half the run, so less space than they are used to.

I feel the need to move this integration process on but I am struggling with the new girls being averse to the patio area and unable to get to food or water.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to take some drastic action. I mixed the girls at lunch time and the new girls went straight to the top of the ladder as usual. When I was watching them a bit later I could see that this had become a kind of game for Rusty. The new girls would leave the ladder and edge up the run until Rusty would spot them and would chase them straight back up again. They were being held prisoner on the ladders.

I decided that I needed to force them to be together. I closed the hatch and the temporary gate so that there was no access to the bottom part of the run and the ladders. Emerald and Barley were out of the equation for now as they were in the nest box. I armed myself with the water spray and let the action begin.

Rusty in particular went for the new girls and managed to get a beak full of feathers from Apricot’s back. I sprayed Rusty. Freckles went for them and I sprayed her. Speckles went for them and I sprayed her too. Rusty kept on trying and I sprayed her and after a while only had to point the spray at her and tell her “no”, for her to back off.

It was horrible at first and I felt bad throwing the new girls into this but soon I was able to keep the other girls from going for them. The new girls stayed close to my feet at first. They then started to venture out.

Dandelion and Apricot discover a new perch

Rusty retreated to the bush in a bit of a sulk.

Rusty also finds somewhere new to perch

The new girls finally went to the patio and ate some mash as if they were starving.

They find the food dish on the patio

They take a liking to the shelter

They kept returning to the shelter and obviously felt safe in there which was a bit of a worry because they could get trapped in there. At this point Apricot was dozing and I thought the new girls had probably had enough and needed a bit of respite.

I separated the areas again and put them back in their usual half. After the bedtime corn I opened up again. I thought it may give the new girls a chance to follow the main flock into the chicken shed at bedtime.

I checked on them once the main the flock were in the chicken shed. I had kept the new girl’s coop closed so that they may head towards the chicken shed which they did.

The three amigos head up the patio towards the chicken shed

This is brave, cinnamon is slightly less sure

From this moment I headed them in through the pop hole. They lingered behind the pop hole when Apricot suddenly jumped to my shoulder.

From here Apricot leaped to my shoulder

The camera got stuck and then the battery died

The camera hasn’t been opening properly without me helping it along by touching the shutter with a finger. I think years of taking chicken photos have caused dust to get in the mechanisms plus this camera doesn’t let me know when the battery is low but just suddenly dies. Frustrating! This was the only shot my husband was able to get before it died. I kept it in because although it’s rubbish it does show Apricot on my shoulder.

I was leaning towards the nest box to try to allow her to jump down with Cinnamon who was already on top of the nest box. Dandelion is in the pop hole door way. It took a few moments to get Apricot to dismount from my shoulder. It’s sweet that she sees me as a place of safety.

I directed them back through the pop hole and then popped them on the new perch. I closed the door to keep them there and then opened it again once they stayed on the perch.

I feel this is a huge step forward. They have gained in confidence and they know where to head at bedtime. I intend to keep this up and feel we are finally making a breakthrough with this. I will remove their coop to the patio area today as they no longer need it and I am feeling so much more positive now. I think we are finally ready to move on with this.

It’s becoming really difficult to move this integration forwards. Getting the new girls to sleep in the shed is an improvement and I intend to keep this up whether they go in on their own or I have to put them in.

The problem now is that they spend most of their time at the top of ladders. I removed the feeding station from the run yesterday because it served no purpose and seemed to make things worse. Every time the new girls went towards the food in the run they were chased to the top of the ladder again. They really need to learn that the patio area is the feeding area.

I separated them before going out to do my lunch deliveries and checked on them again before I left. The three new girls were having a lovely dust bath in a spot of sun. They wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t separate them. For now I will have to separate them at times for them to be able dust bath, scratch about and feed and drink.

In the afternoon we finished early so I put the main flock on the other side and closed the temporary gate to try to get the new girls used to this area near the patio and the patio itself.

Apricot finds the perch in the shelter

I herded them to the patio where there were pellets, mash, water, spinach, apple and sunflower seeds to tempt them. What more could they want! They still only stayed on the patio while I physically blocked them from leaving (they managed to eat the sunflower seeds first though). As soon as I moved they left.

This is such a different problem to any we have encountered before. We have never had girls so averse to the patio and I just don’t understand why. I left them in this part of the run for most of the afternoon but they didn’t return to the patio and in fact kept as far from it as possible.

While watching them we did a few garden jobs. We used to have a wooden beam outside the new part of the run to deter anything digging in. By last summer it had started to rot and I chiselled out the rotten half (closest to the weld mesh ) and replaced it with a row of bricks. This year the other part had rotted so I removed it and we bought some more bricks and I replaced it with a second row of bricks.

My husband then had the idea that if he lifted the bricks and alternated the pattern it would look like a path, much better than two straight rows. He also alternated the new and old bricks as the new ones are a different colour.

Improving the outside of the run

On the other side I had already put a row of bricks and have the girl’s dandelion strip. All the rest of the run has concrete outside so these two strips are the only parts that needed to be made “dig” proof.

The other side of the run

An hour before bedtime I separated the girls to their usual sides to give the new girls some respite and a chance to feed before bedtime.

Once the main flock were in bed I herded the new girls towards the chicken shed. I “helped” them over the threshold. Once again they headed for a corner under the bigger girls. I put them on the new perch and once again they stayed put. As they have such an aversion to the patio I may have to continue like this for the time being. The good thing is that once they are on the perch they stay put.

This morning I went out at seven o’clock and the automatic didn’t open until ten past seven. It wasn’t such a bright morning as the day before and the door opener is very sensitive to the level of light. This gave me a chance to see what was happening inside the shed.

It was all very quiet with no sounds of any aggravation. I slowly and quietly opened the door a crack and peeked in. The girls were all down from the perches ready to come out and the new girls were in the back right hand corner keeping out of the way. I opened the door wide and they all came out with the new girls evenly mixed amongst them and no problem from them.

I am happy that are fine sleeping in the shed and getting out okay in the morning. I gave them the morning seeds but as soon as they had had them the new girls headed straight up the ladder. I decided to separate them and put them put them back on their side of the run as I worry that this means they don’t get food and more important, water. They went straight to the water.

This is so frustrating because we are so nearly there and yet if they can’t get food and water when mixed we can’t go any further. I just don’t know how to get them brave enough to go to the patio or to go to food and water. This is a stumbling block I haven’t encountered before and I just don’t know how to get past this.

Yesterday I mixed the girls all afternoon and once again they spent the entire time at the top of the ladder.

The really annoying thing was, that Rusty actually perched next to them at the top of the ladder without any fuss at all, but every time they came down and attempted to get to the food dish she chased them back up the ladder again.

Rusty snoozes in the sun on the same perch as Cinnamon and Apricot

Look how close Rusty is to Cinnamon

At one point I went to pick Rusty up and she squatted for me so she is getting ready to lay any time now. Maybe that will help her calm down a bit.

I separated the girls before bedtime to give the new girls a bit of respite and decided to try sleeping them together to see if this would help things along. We put up another low, broom handle, perch in the opposite corner to the one Rusty and Freckles sleep in.

I waited until the main flock were all in their bedtime positions then I picked up the new girls and placed them in the shed. They came straight back out again.

I put them back in again and this time unhooked and closed the pop hole door. I checked on them after a few minutes and all three were huddled in the corner directly below the bigger girls. This was no good as they would get pooped on.

I picked them up one at a time and put them on the new perch. I checked back in a few minutes and they were still where I had put them.

The new girls on their new perch

The rest of the girls

The new girls perch is just showing on the right of the photo. I went out a bit later and they were settled on the perch so I hooked the automatic door back up. It was already in the closed position by now.

Yesterday the automatic door opened at quarter past seven so I planned to go out at seven o’clock and make sure the new girls got out okay. I looked out of the window at five to seven and the girls were already out so I missed the door opening.

They all seemed okay though. I scattered the morning sunflower hearts and the entire flock took them together. I was kicking myself that I had forgotten my camera and by the time I went back with it the flock had dispersed and I had missed the shot.

By the time I had done the morning clean up in the shed the new girls were back up the ladder. I put a few extra dishes of mash around the run and decided to leave to them until it’s time to go out for my lunch deliveries. I will then separate them again so that can have a scratch, possibly a dust bath, and feed in peace while I am out.

It will be interesting to see if they remember where to go at bedtime tonight. If they don’t go in on their own I will put them in again. As their perch is right by the door I feel it’s easy for them to get out first in the mornings. We have achieved the new girls first night on a perch so that is a step forward.