Carol's Chickens

This afternoon it was Rusty and Freckles turn to dust bath together.

Rusty and Freckles are dust bathing together

Rusty and Freckles with Peaches watching over them

It’s Rusty’s turn to “help” Freckles

Rusty stood up, shook herself and then pecked at the dust on Freckles tail.

Freckles and Rusty

What an adorable pair of girls these two are.

Just in case anyone is worried about my run, the chicken wire behind these two girls divides the run into sections with gates which are open most of the time but closed to separate areas of the run at integration times. The outside of the run is all weld mesh and very secure. If you look closely you can see Speckles on the other side of the wire in the first three photos.

The soil this side of the wire is always dry and therefore is a great place for a dust bath.

The flock seems to be really together since their number has diminished. Yesterday they were all on the high branch perch again. This seems to be the current favourite place to congregate.

All the girls are perching together

Six girls on a perch

A little later the girls were having a lovely dust bath.

The girls dust bath together

Freckles is “helping” Rusty

Freckles didn’t actually dust bath but she stayed close to Rusty pecking dust from her and around her. I did see Freckles having a dust bath a few days ago but she isn’t as enthusiastic as the other girls. It may be because of her different feather type.

It’s a communal affair

Emerald had a big dust bath session on her own the day before so she didn’t bother to join in. She stayed on the perch.

Meanwhile Emerald is still on the perch

Are you looking at me!

It is good to see the flock happy together.

Today we bought our Christmas tree and I decorated the tree and the sitting room and dining room. We are doing an afternoon tea for a wedding for a hundred next Friday and so we will be washing up the vintage crockery on Christmas Eve. This was booked in the spring and it gives us some income to tide us over the Christmas holiday period when we are not earning.

This means that I felt that I must get myself organised this weekend. We thought this afternoon would be less busy than tomorrow and I had a voucher through the post for twenty percent off Christmas trees from our local garden centre. We felt our tree was a bargain. It cost less than last years and is one that the needles don’t drop whereas last year half the needles had dropped by Christmas day.

Our Christmas tree

I set about decorating the tree while my husband went out to do some Christmas shopping.

The Christmas is decorated

All the decorating is done plus all my Christmas shopping so I am feeling quite pleased. Apart from food shopping I am ready now. I always think I won’t be ready but somehow it all comes together in time every year.

This morning all six girls were perching together on the high branch perch. By the time I ran back inside for my camera and then back through the gate they were ready to disband so I only managed two quick photos.

The whole flock perching together

What is Rusty looking at!

But not for long

Emerald was first to jump down.

Rusty and Freckles

I did manage a close up of Rusty and Freckles though. It is so nice to see the whole flock so together.

The garden always looks a bit of a mess at this time of year but there are a surprising few spots of colour hanging on in there.

We have had some really hard frosts recently and yet now it’s turned really mild again and there are some unexpected late buds on the roses.

A rose bud in mid December

It’s not impressive by any means but it is surprising for mid December.

Some buds amongst the rose hips

A bedraggled winter jasmine

It always seems odd that the winter jasmine drops all it’s leaves just before it flowers.

A splash of red berries

A hanging basket of cyclemen

The cyclemen in the chimney flower pot looks a bit sad but the hanging basket still looks quite good.

At this time of year it is a surprise to see these bits of colour hanging on.

Rusty and Freckles just love the wooden table/winter shelter. If they are not inside it pecking around they are on top of it pecking around. Sometimes as we approach the run we can hear the tapping of this pair pecking away. They seem to love pecking at everything all day long but especially pecking at the wooden table.

At the moment I am letting the girls out before the automatic door opens as the mornings are dark. Yesterday it was a murky morning and a bit darker than usual. I decided to stay and sweep the patio so that I could linger with the girls until it got a bit lighter. They don’t seem at all bothered about the dark mornings and are eager to come out however murky it is.

I gave them some sunflower hearts and Rusty and Freckles pecked around in the shed with me while I poop picked as they always do. They then had a quick drink and were off straight to the table. The bigger girls were scratching near the patio but these two were straight on to the top of the wooden table were they commenced their pecking at goodness knows what.

Freckles and Rusty on the table on a dark morning

Rusty’s fluffy bottom makes me smile

Rusty’s close up

Today I took a few more photos of them on the table.

Rusty and Freckles on the table again

They are pecking away together

They are so funny the way they peck together all day. My husband says that he somehow feels these two are the happiest chickens we have ever had.

I know what he means. They rush around the run together, they are always pecking often with their heads together and a fallen leaf will cause them to run over at speed to investigate. They run to greet us and somehow just have a joyfulness about them. You can’t help but smile at this pair.

Today has been a manic busy day with no time for photos or much time for blogging but I couldn’t resist just one photo at bedtime.

The current bedtime line up

Emerald is in Toffee’s former position with Speckles next and Peaches and Barley in their favourite positions together and Rusty and Freckles on their perch.

Today was the last day of the tylan so no more medicating for now. I will be keeping a close eye on the flock and am really hoping that we are through this now. I am trying to stay positive that we can now go forward as a healthy and happy flock.

The little girls have really taken to the winter shelter. It is just perfect for them because it’s too small to interest the bigger girls. This is a good thing because if the shelter was big enough for all the girls the bigger girls would probably chase the little girls out and it’s the little girls that need a little extra winter protection.

I am so pleased that they seem to love it and want to spend time in it because we all know that you can’t just make chickens do something because you think it’s good for them, they have to want to do it themselves and I think the fact that they love being in there may encourage them to go in during bad weather.

Rusty perched in the shelter

Freckles soon joins her

Emerald evicts Freckles

Emerald has been throwing her weight about since Toffee went. I think she is trying to show the flock that she is firmly in top place now.

She will intimidate the little girls into leaving the shelter but they bounce round in a circle and return once she has moved away. They are not bothered by the bigger girls for long.

Later in the day Rusty and freckles are in the shelter again

I wonder what they are pecking at

They have definitely made this shelter their own

They spend a lot of time pecking at tiny specks of dust in there. I have no idea why they do this but the little girls peck at specks all day all, over the run.

I think this shelter is one of the best things we have done for the little girls. It seems to be a resounding hit.

We have recently got rid of a chest freezer which we kept in the shed and this has freed up some space. We have also sold a few catering items. This is all part of the plan to slightly downsize our business.

This meant my husband now had room in the shed to build a work bench, which he had wanted for a while. He then picked up a free pallet from a neighbour in case we needed it for a mixer that we had put on ebay. In the end the buyer lived nearby and collected it so my husband decided the pallet could be up cycled into a work bench.

The pallet that we picked up for free

The base of the pallet

The pallet has been taken to bits

The beginnings of legs for a work bench

An inexspensive work bench to help with building the proper work bench

A bit more work on the bench and the other work bench fits underneath

The bench is almost finished

The bench is finished

I think this bench will get a lot of use and make future projects much easier. It has also made good use of a free pallet and parts of the pallet have also been incorporated in the little girls perch in the chicken shed and in the wooden table shelter. Not a bit got wasted.

We have had a really bad run of luck here lately. I have never before lost three girls in quick succession, in fact, I have never lost more than one girl at a time before.

I took photos of the girls at the water yesterday morning and I was intending to use the photos in a post later on in the day. However I took Pebbles for her appointment with the vet in the afternoon and didn’t bring her back with me. After that I didn’t have the heart to write a post, but today I know I need to do this, so I am going to use yesterday’s photos as they are the last ones of Pebbles.

My post was going to be about the way Pebbles liked to stand on the side of the pellet or water dish. She sometimes stood on the edge of the pellet dish but she always stood on the edge of the water dish. She was the only one of the girls to do this.

Pebbles stands on the edge of the pellet dish

Pebbles stands on the water dish

This is how Pebbles always drank from the water dish

This is the first time that I have seen Rusty drink from the other water

Well done little Rusty!

And back to Pebbles

I had been increasingly worried about Pebbles because she had been wheezing for a month and on the antibiotic, baytril for three weeks, but wasn’t improving. Added to that she had taken to sitting on her favourite perch all day and dozing. She was eating but then so was Caramel right up until the end.

I also thought she was spending a lot of time with one eye closed and was rubbing at it and shaking her head vigorously. I took her to the vet at four o’clock yesterday afternoon.

I put Pebbles on the vet’s table and we immediately noticed that her right eye had swollen and was foaming. She was shaking her head and it was obvious that it was really bothering her. At that moment I knew with dread that she probably had the same thing Caramel had. The vet took some photographs and asked me to wait while she called the specialist.

While sitting in the waiting room with Pebbles in the cat box I could hear that her breathing was worse. The specialist confirmed my worst fear that it was mycoplasma. I have since looked it up again and the symptoms are foamy eyes, swollen eyelids and breathing problems. I had researched it before and it is one of the worse respiratory illnesses for chickens. Even if the bird does recover it can come back again and can potentially spread through the entire flock.

I told the vet that I really felt it would be best to have Pebbles put to sleep because I couldn’t bare her to go the same way Caramel did and I couldn’t risk the rest of the flock getting it. The vet said she felt that I was making the right decision to both spare Pebbles suffering like Caramel and to protect the rest of the flock.

She suggested that I treat the rest of the flock with tylan, which is a powder, in the water for five days to protect them.

I held Pebbles while the vet tried to inject a vein in her wing but Pebbles was struggling so the vet took her away and gave her some gas to put her to sleep before giving her the injection and returning her to me. She seemed to be gone ages and said it was because Pebbles breathing was so poor that it took a while for the gas to work and she didn’t want to give the injection until she was asleep so that she wouldn’t feel any pain. I am so lucky to have found a good vet.

I hated having to make this decision while Pebbles still appeared lively but I know how Caramel fought this when she was in such a terrible state and I couldn’t let that happen again. I also couldn’t risk the rest of the flock especially  Rusty and Freckles who were in such close contact with her.

This morning I started the five days of Tylan in the water. I can only hope and keep everything crossed that the other girls are okay. If we can get through this I will add two more seramas in the spring but I want to be sure we are through this first and get these girls settled and through the winter. I am feeling very sad right now that the flock has so quickly diminished to six and I have a dread of losing any more girls but I must stay positive and concentrate on keeping the remaining girls happy and healthy.