Carol's Chickens

A few days ago I wrote a post titled  “A girl’s eye view“. This view is from the perch where Peaches and Barley always watch me whenever I am sat on the patio.

View from the perch where Peaches and Barley watch me

I thought I would reverse this view and show my view of them watching me.

Barley watches me from the perch

It seems so far away but whenever I sit in the sun on the patio Barley always keeps an eye on me from this perch and makes her squeaky little noises to me.

Barley and Peaches watch me

If I move a bit closer Peaches will join her. This is the view that I always have as I walk up the garden. The other girls all run down to the wire as I approach. You can see them making their way down.

They then run back up again beside me as I walk past the side of the run. It is lovely to be greeted by my girls every time I go up the garden and it is amusing to have Peaches and Barley watching over me as I sit on the patio.

We moved into this house nine years ago and the garden was really bare. A friend of ours had a beautiful rose in her garden which we had much admired. She gave us the same rose as a moving in gift. It was about three feet high at the time and is called Paul’s Himalayan Musk.

Nine years on it is absolutely stunning. It is very fast growing and has masses of dainty flowers and doesn’t seem to suffer from aphids and black spot like other roses in the garden. The flowers don’t last very long though. At the moment half of the buds have opened so I thought I would photograph it now and then again in a few days time when it reaches it’s peak.

Half the buds on the rose are now open

It’s going to be amazing

Close up the flowers are two shades of pink

It is beautiful

It rambles along the side fence towards the front of the house

Every year we are stunned by how amazing this rose is. It is one of the highlights of summer in our garden.

I was only saying yesterday that Toffee and Emerald are often perching together or sitting together. They often sit together in the run and take turns dozing.

Yesterday afternoon they were together again and Toffee usually dozes the most often but on this occasion it was Emerald dozing. I think her moult is taking it out of her.

Toffee and Emerald sit together

Emerald dozes

It is sweet to see them sitting together and at the end of the day they were perched together again.

Toffee and Emerald perch together at the end of the day

Emerald dozes again

Once again Emerald dozed for a bit and it really seemed as if Toffee was standing guard. Usually Toffee dozes and I always think she is like an old lady but it seems that at the moment Emerald is dozing more as she is having such a heavy moult and Toffee appears to be watching over her.

It’s so sweet to see them together like this.

Emerald has been moulting big time. Whereas Toffee is losing a steady stream of feathers and not actually looking any different Emerald is dropping masses of feathers and looking really tatty. I am picking up more feathers than poop at the moment.

The good news is the pins are coming in quickly. While preening I could see loads of pins on her behind when she lifted her wings. She has long pins on her wings and she has pins on her neck where Topaz had plucked her.

Emerald preening

You can see pins by her beak and also Toffee looking quite good in comparison.

She is tatty

Emerald and Toffee sit together or perch together a lot at the moment. Maybe they feel sympathetic towards each other.

She has pins on her wings

She has white tips to her under feathers

She is having a stretch in this photo. We think she is going grey because her under feathers are getting more white patches on them with each moult.

She has no tail

Pins on her neck

This is a bit too close because I had to hold a dandelion leaf in one hand to get her to stretch her neck and click the camera with the other hand but it does show the pins on her neck.

Emerald will soon be looking beautiful again whereas I wonder if Butterscotch will ever get all her feathers back again.

Butterscotch’s neck

She has such a tatty head

It is so sad that she had these feathers back in before she went broody. As soon as she goes broody she moults again and it is odd that she has moulted her new feathers. There are some pins but I am never sure if she will be fully feathered.

Butterscotch’s head

Unfortunately once more her head pins have proved irresistible to Barley and I have caught Barley pulling them. I despair of Butterscotch ever getting back to normal.

Butterscotch has only stopped being broody for the last couple of days. Today I saw Barley have a go at her several times. She chased her and grabbed her by the back of the neck. I broke them up and then later saw Barley chase her again and hang on to a feather on her back until it came out. It seems as if Barley is trying to move up the pecking order.

I wonder if this attempt to move up is spurred on by Butterscotch having been broody. I read recently on the Down The Lane chicken forum of some people saying their broody girls were being bullied. At the time I said that I was lucky this had never happened with my girls.

I spoke too soon because today I saw it happening. I think Barley is just trying to move up the pecking order though. I will keep an eye on this. Nothing stays the same for long.

While poop picking the run I stopped to consider the girl’s view of the garden. I don’t know how much they appreciate something pretty to look out on but I feel it must be better for them than having a dull outlook.

The girl’s outlook in to the garden

The view from their perch

When I am sitting on the patio the girls stand on this perch and watch me.

The girl’s rose in the run

The girl’s rose from the other direction

The girl’s also have several flowering shrubs in the run. They may not, perhaps, appreciate how pretty their rose is but they do love to eat the petals. As the petals fall they are hoovered up by the girls. I sprinkle any remaining petals from the spent rose blooms and the girls are quick to take them.

I love to think that the girls have a pretty environment as well as a practical one. I like to think that like us they enjoy something pretty to look at.

Whilst being broody Butterscotch seems able to get all the girls to lay their eggs next to her. I swear she has telepathic powers.

Recently I have taken photos of Barley and Butterscotch in the nest box together and then Speckles and Butterscotch. Yesterday it was Peaches turn.

Peaches lays her egg next to Butterscotch

Barley looks on

Peaches and Barley are so together that whenever Barley is in the next box Peaches stands guard and looks on and whenever Peaches is in the nest box Barley does the same.

I do find it fascinating that when Butterscotch isn’t broody the girls don’t want to share a nest box but while she is broody they all ignore the empty nest box and lay their eggs next to her.

Last month before she started moulting Emerald shared the nest box with Butterscotch. This month all three girls that are still laying have shared the nest box with her.

Emerald and Butterscotch

Speckles and Butterscotch

Barley and Butterscotch

Peaches and Butterscotch

In the two photos above you can tell it’s Barley in the first photo because her comb flops to the right and in the photo above it’s Peaches with her comb flopping to the left. In both photos the other one is looking on which is something they almost always do.

Telepathic Butterscotch should be coming to the end of her broody spell any day now. It would be good to have her laying again as eggs are sparse with only three girls laying. It will also be good to see her out in the run again.

Butterscotch is such a character. She is a serial broody but she has some funny little habits when she is broody. I lift her three times a day so that she gets a break. I have taken to setting her down in the run because she always takes a load of pine shavings with her and it saves me sweeping them from the patio.

Butterscotch sits in the run

Sometimes she just continues to sit where I have put her. Eventually I ruffle her tail feathers and she moves off, slowly at first, then at breakneck speed. The first thing she does is flick bits on to her back like Emerald did recently.

I have said before that one of her broody habits is to go to the log which she rarely does when not broody. Sometimes she perches there briefly, sometimes she stands there and preens but yesterday she just sat there. She remained fluffed up and just stayed there for quite a while.

Butterscotch sits on the log

An odd place to sit

This is the latest place to be. I do wonder what goes in her little head. She does make me smile. She is two thirds of the way through her latest broody spell so should be back to normal soon, until the next time!

A couple of days ago Jackie and I went to the allotments to collect some chard for our girls. It had been left over winter and gone to seed and now the owner of the plot wanted it removed to replant the space. Most people at the allotments know that Jackie and I will take unwanted greens for our girls.

We cut it into sections as it was really tall. I then cut it into smaller sections and put them in a bag in the fridge and put all the big leaves in another bag in the fridge. I wanted it to stay fresh so that I could give it to the girls a bit at a time.

The girls enjoy some chard stems

The chard stems keep the girls occupied

By the end of the day the stems are stripped and I throw them away. Butterscotch is missing from the photos because she is still broody.

Butterscotch stays in the nest box

I found that the big chard leaves were too tough for the girls to manage when they were loose on the patio so I stuffed them into the square bird feeders. This kept them occupied all day and by the end of the day just some stems were left.

Peaches and Barley at the right hand feeder

Peaches and Barley at the left hand feeder

Emerald joins them

Toffee at the feeder

Emerald joins Toffee

Speckles joins Peaches

Every time I went up to the girls I could hear the feeders bumping around. Half way through the day I turned the feeders round. They managed to get every bit of green and just left a few stems for me to throw away at the end of the day.

I think we can safely say that are enjoying the chard and as Jackie says it is free. It should keep them going for a few more days yet.

I recently did a post on our mystery lilac tree. The lilac is now fully in flower so I thought I would put out some more photos of it. I have pruned the tops out of it in the hope that it won’t get any taller but I am not sure if that will work. It is now about seven feet tall.

Lilac and peonies

lilac

The flowers are fully out now

A close up of the blooms

The blooms have the distinct lilac scent and it is very pretty. We are happy to have this new lilac in our garden.

Both Emerald and Toffee are moulting but Emerald is moulting much faster than Toffee.

Emerald and Toffee are both moulting

Emerald was looking a bit shabby yesterday morning.

It’s Barley’s turn to share the nest box with Butterscotch

While Peaches looks on

Barley soon laid her egg and Butterscotch sat on it until I removed it. It is so odd that whereas the girls used to make a fuss about sharing a nest box they all go and lay their eggs next to broody Butterscotch while the other nest box is empty.

I swear Butterscotch is somehow influencing them to do this.

Emerald has lost her tail

A little later in the afternoon and Emerald has lost her tail completely.

Emerald does look rather odd

Toffee

Toffee has a few feathers sticking out but otherwise looks pretty good.

Today is the last day of worming and after the initial two worms I only ever found two more worms in one poop on the third day after I started worming. I think I must have caught it early.

I have ordered some more flubenvet as I like to keep a supply in stock just in case, like this time, I ever spot worms. Otherwise I will worm them again in November.

I am picking up loads of Emerald’s feathers from the run each day. At least the good news is that the moulting is staggered rather than them all moulting together and I am hopeful that once Butterscotch finishes her broody spell she will start laying again.