Carol's Chickens

Mango recently started laying again after a two month break. During that time Mango had been moulting and after looking very tatty she was then a mass of pins. Now she looks smooth and completely back to her former glory which is why, I think, she has started laying again.

Cloud last laid two and a half weeks ago and now it’s her turn to moult. She too has been very tatty and then a mass of pins. Now the pins on her head and neck have started opening into small spiky looking feathers.

Gold next to Cloud is still looking a little shabby but much better than she was. She is gradually getting back to her former self.

As Cloud took a little bit of spinach off of Salmon’s beak it gave me the perfect shot of her neck. Her feathers almost look like fur at the moment.

Dot took a week off of laying and then started laying again. She has been losing feathers especially some long wing feathers but doesn’t really look very different from usual as yet. Her comb is an amazing red crown.

The moulting has been sporadic throughout the flock. I have been surprised how much Mango and Cloud have moulted for first year girls. Storm didn’t appear to moult at all last year and this year Storm’s moult seemed more gradual and she had shabby patches rather than all over at once.

Having both Dot and Cloud laying again is a real bonus. The game girls have turned out to be better layers than I expected which has been a lovely surprise.

Dot has now laid her third egg after her break and this time only two days after her last egg.

I recently noticed that Mango’s comb had gone red once more after being paler while she had her partial moult. Then I noticed that she had started squatting when I came up behind her. I wondered if she was getting ready to lay again.

Yesterday Mango was very vocal and I again wondered if she was about to start laying. She then had a twirl round in all three nest boxes and all four corners of the chicken shed. She flicked pine shavings out of each nest box in turn and spent quite a bit of time scratching round in them.

The next time I went up to check on Mango I took my camera with me to see if I could catch her in a nest box. I caught her just as she had laid her egg. She had a pile of pine shavings on her back. What a surprise. I really didn’t expect Mango to start laying again this year. It was exactly two weeks after she last laid.

On the left is a shop bought egg for size comparison. In the middle is Dot’s third egg after her break. On the right is Mango’s egg.

I had assumed that game girls had a short season but it seems that maybe these girls don’t. It is lovely to be getting a few eggs when I thought we were finished for this year. It will be interesting to see how many more we get.

Autumn is now six months old. She has been very slow to mature. I have just been doing some research and it says that hens that reach a potential laying age in autumn rather than spring or summer tend to mature more slowly. Also as the days are getting shorter that can delay them starting to lay.

It says rather than six months it can be seven, eight or nine months before they start laying. Also if it gets too late in the year they may delay until early spring. I think there is a possibility that Autumn won’t lay until early spring. It doesn’t matter when she starts as they all start laying eventually.

I don’t think Autumn’s comb looks mature. It also has a slightly odd shape. Rather than being flat and straight it has a little flick upwards on the top, pointy part. I don’t know if it will remain like this or if it will change when mature. Only time will tell.

Autumn’s comb, wattles and face are all a lovely red colour so she looks lovely and healthy. She is a beautiful girl and I don’t mind at all if she takes her time to start laying.

I thought we were finished with eggs for this year unless Autumn started laying. But Dot has laid two normal sized eggs. The first one was nine days after her tiny egg. The second one was yesterday, four days, after the first one.

Dot’s eggs were just in time for one weekend breakfast after having to buy eggs recently.

It was lovely having our own eggs for breakfast. Shop bought eggs have so much white compared to our bantam eggs.

The moulting continues. Cloud is now dropping loads of tiny feathers. Gold looks really scruffy and has pins around her face and on her head.

Mango and Cloud may finally be ready to go in the chicken shed at dusk. A few nights ago Cloud was in and perched when I checked after the pop hole had closed. Mango was very awkwardly perched on the chicken shed roof. She must have felt less secure without Cloud.

I hoped this would mean Cloud would continue to go in and Mango would eventually follow her. However the weather brightened for a few days and Mango and Cloud continued to settle on top of the nest box closest to the chicken shed.

Last night to my surprise Mango had gone in and Cloud was standing on the nest box whimpering. I assume Mango had gone in at the last moment and Cloud hadn’t made it in time because Mango was standing just inside the chicken shed door. It was probably too dark for her to perch.

This gives me hope that as it gets dark earlier and as it gets colder Mango and Cloud may start going in without my help. I have never had girls take this long to start going in on their own before. I am hopeful that they will start to get the hang of it soon though.

Moulting is in full swing at the moment. Last year’s two girls Gold and Storm are in full moult. Gold’s explosive tail feathers have returned to normal but now the feathers on her breast and necklace are looking loose.

Storm is looking shabby and she has white patches of pins on her shoulders. Her leg feathers are patchy too.

Cloud is only showing a small amount of feathers dropping pretty much like Storm last year but Mango seems to being having a proper grown up moult.

Sugar and Salmon don’t look any different although I have picked up some feathers from Salmon. Dot is losing a few feathers but not too bad as yet.

Autumn had pins on her head but they seem to have opened up now and she looks really good.

It won’t be long before they all look beautiful again and hopefully go into winter fully feathered.

At the moment we only have Dot and Cloud laying. They both laid two days ago and they both laid again today. First Cloud laid in the nest box. Then Dot went to her favourite corner of the chicken shed.

When I returned to check Dot was just leaving the chicken shed. At first I thought there wasn’t an egg and then I spotted a tiny egg. Dot has never had any egg laying issues before so I was very surprised at this.

The egg shell was really hard and it took several hard cracks on the side of the dish to break it. It has a yolk which I think got broken when I was trying to crack the shell.

I asked google why an older hen would lay a tiny egg when she has always laid normally before. It said that it can happen in older hens at the end of the season just before they go into the moult. This is what I had thought it may be.

It will be interesting to see if this is Dot’s last egg for this year or if she lays any more and what they are like. These girls can always throw a surprise at me.

Sugar started off this most recent broody spell by not being as committed as usual. But as time went on she gradually became more committed. She would no longer perch in the chicken shed at bedtime and no matter how many times I put her back on the perch she just dropped back down again.

I decided the time had come to put her in the broody crate overnight for a few nights. The odd thing is that she accepts sitting on the perch at night in the crate. It only usually takes a few nights to break her out of it.

This morning when I took Sugar out of the broody crate I saw that there were worms in her poop under the perch. I usually worm the girls in March and September and this was a timely reminder to do it straight away. I usually like to worm after new girls have come in as well so this would be a good time to do them too.

I will as usual put flubenvet in dishes of mash for seven consecutive days as this is the easiest way of doing it. This morning was the first day.

In other news there is now a lot of moulting going on. There are loads of feathers in the chicken shed in the mornings and in the run during the day. Most of the feathers are from the three game girls with a smaller amount from Autumn too.

I am quite surprised how much Mango and Cloud are moulting as it’s their first year. Storm didn’t moult at all last year although she is this year but not as much as Mango and Cloud at the moment.

It will be good to get the girls through the moult before winter and also good to get them wormed.

Both Gold and Storm went broody together five days ago. I just kept them out of the nest boxes and after a couple of days they were over it.

Sugar laid egg number seven four days ago and it was the third one that had a soft patch and a bit of crazing on the shell. To my surprise she still wasn’t broody at this stage.

Then an odd thing happened. Cloud came back into lay the next day which I wasn’t expecting. Sugar was missing and when I checked Sugar was sitting on Cloud’s egg. Sugar had gone broody but it’s the first time she has gone broody when it hasn’t been straight after laying her own egg. It seemed that seeing Cloud’s egg triggered her into going broody.

The other odd thing is that Sugar isn’t as committed as she usually is. I found that if I kept removing her from the chicken shed she would stay out for a few hours before returning. Also at bedtime whereas she wouldn’t usually stay on a perch I found that as long as I returned her to a perch at dusk she would stay there.

This means I don’t feel the need to put Sugar in the broody crate. I am keeping the nest boxes closed as both Dot and Cloud lay in the chicken shed anyway. I am removing Sugar from the chicken shed several times a day and am perching her at bedtime. I am hopeful that this will be enough to deter her after a while.

Cloud’s first two eggs on the left, she has laid a third one today. Dot’s two eggs on the right and she has also laid again today. We have been quite lucky that each time some girls stop laying another girl starts.

When I lift Sugar from the chicken shed she will scratch and dust bath then return to sitting like this and then eventually return to the chicken shed.

Mango is moulting much more than Cloud so I don’t expect her to come back into lay. When I pick her up she feels full of pins.

Autumn is now five and a half months old and over the last week her face has turned red. I think she may start laying soon. It may be that as the rest of the girls stop laying for winter Autumn starts laying. This would be really good to keep some eggs coming over winter.

Despite a bit of moulting the girls are looking good. It’s just Cloud and Dot keeping us going with eggs at the moment but any eggs are gratefully received.

Today Sugar laid her sixth egg. She didn’t look poorly before laying this time. The shell was the same as the last one. It had a soft spot in the middle with a bit of crazing round it. She has now laid six eggs in eighteen days. Last time she laid six eggs in nine days so she is taking longer to lay them which I think is better for her.

Sugar also isn’t broody as yet so she may lay a few more this time. She used to lay eight eggs each time until she started having problems this year.

Once again I scrambled Sugar’s egg in a little olive oil and water, added some chopped tomato and gave it back to the girls.

I thought I would take the opportunity to get some group photos. I had to snap them really quickly as the egg and tomato mixture lasted seconds. It is the girls’ very favourite treat of all.

I think we can safely say the girls enjoyed that albeit only for a few seconds.

There is a bit of moulting going on at the moment but not too heavy. Mango has been dropping fluffy baby feathers and has some loose ones sticking out. Cloud has a ragged tail but doesn’t seem to be dropping feathers. Storm dropped a few tail feathers but still looks good.

Autumn is dropping, fluffy baby feathers, but doesn’t look any different. Dot dropped a tail feather in the chicken shed overnight. Gold still has her weird under feathers showing at the base of her tail. Salmon and Sugar don’t seem to be dropping any feathers yet.

Gold, Storm and Dot are laying as usual. Sugar is still struggling with her eggs. She used to lay every other day but now lays less often. When she came back into lay she laid her first two eggs with a day in between and they had normal shells.

Sugar then laid six days later with a soft shell which was broken under her roost spot in the morning. Two days later I found Sugar’s broken soft shelled egg out in the run. It must have taken her by surprise and afterwards she sat in the nest box for a while as if she didn’t realise she had laid it.

Today which is three days later she has laid an egg in the nest box which is almost normal. It just has one soft patch and a bit of crazing on the shell. I will scramble it and feed it back to the girls.

Behind Mango is Gold and you can see that she still has her weird explosion of feathers at the base of her tail. This must be typical of her breed because I checked in on Pipinchick’s web site recently to see what chickens they now had for sale, purely out of curiosity! Their photo of a bantam ardennaise could have been a photo of Gold. It had the exact same feathers as in this photo. It reassured me that this must be normal for her breed.

Sugar hadn’t moved from her position next to the food and water for a few hours before she took herself off to the nest box. She always looks uncomfortable and I feel so sorry for her.

Sugar usually lays six eggs before going broody and she has now laid five. This should mean she will stop laying again soon. Her eggs have been laid over a longer period of time, this time round, so I don’t know if she will lay more because of this.

Only time will tell how Sugar goes on. Any time we have her with us is a bonus as we really didn’t think she would still be with us this summer, after her difficult start in the spring. I feel that if she can get to the end of her egg laying this summer she will be okay for the winter. It will be next spring that could be troublesome for her.

Only time will tell. At the moment, although I hate to think of her being uncomfortable while laying, she bounces back and seems happy in between. As long as she is having a good quality of life we will let things take their course.

We are also realistic and know that Sugar isn’t likely to be long lived with whatever problem she is having but for now she keeps bouncing back.