Carol's Chickens

I decided to give the girls a treat of some fish in the hope that the extra protein helps Butterscotch to get her feathers opened.

Some fish for the girls

They share the fish with no aggravation

Barley takes a water break

It is so nice seeing the girls share happily together. I no longer have to spread the dishes far and wide to allow Speckles to get her share. My flock of six get along together peacefully.

At bedtime they settle quickly without any of the girls being chased out of the chicken shed and they all seem to interact with me more. It’s been a surprise what a difference it has made to the flock since Topaz and Honey have been re homed. I think six is a better number for our space and these girls seem much more settled together.

There is a new bargain store that has just opened next door to one of the supermarkets that I use regularly. I decided to take a look and found quite a few items at bargain prices. They also had seventy litre bags of potting compost selling at three for ten pounds. I decided to get three to help keep the soil level topped up in the chicken run.

It was a mission getting them up the garden path on my trolley, one at a time, between my husband and myself.

Emerald is the first to investigate as the first bag is emptied into the run

Emerald, Peaches and Butterscotch scratch in the compost and it is soon spread around

I caught Butterscotch mid shake

Butterscotch often does this sudden shake that seems to almost knock her off her feet.

Three girls snoozing together

I think all the scratching must have worn them out as these three girls, Toffee, Butterscotch and Speckles were stood together dozing.

Speckles has a spectacular comb

Finally I couldn’t resist this close up of Speckles. She is such a beautiful girl and she has the most amazing comb and wattles. She would do a cockerel proud. For such a little girl that is a big comb and she lays the biggest eggs too.

Butterscotch has been broody for just under two weeks. The last few days she has been staying out of the nest box for longer and I could tell she was coming to the end of her broody spell.

Yesterday morning when I went out to the girls first thing, she was already out, instead of me having to get her out of the nest box. That was it, she stayed out all day. At bedtime I didn’t bother closing the nest boxes and she went to roost in the chicken shed. It’s over for now.

I am struggling to tell if her head looks better or worse. Some of the pins are opening and there are little bits of fluff there now but I think some of the pins have also disappeared. I hope there will be enough feathers remaining to eventually cover her head even if she no longer has a crest.

I think this side of her head does look a little better

I’m not sure if this side looks a little worse

A little out of focus but a closer view

There are now some little bits of fluff. I hope that next year will be different because she won’t be laying and going broody through the winter. I hope this means she will moult and regrow her feathers more quickly.

Butterscotch really has had the longest moult I have ever come across. She has been moulting bit by bit for eight months now. It would be so good to see her with feathers on her head again.

Every time Butterscotch goes broody she performs a strange habit. When I get her out for one of her breaks she always runs off and jumps on the log. She scratches and pecks at it for a moment then goes about her business, scratch, quick dust bath, large poop, pellets, water and back to the nest box.

I meant catch this behaviour with photographs last time she was broody but kept missing my chance. This time round I thought I would try to catch it again.

Once  again every time she did this I kept missing it. I either didn’t have my camera or when I did she had jumped down before I got the shot.

Yesterday I finally got the shots I wanted. The thing that is so odd about this is that she only ever does this when she is broody. When she isn’t broody she never goes on the log.

Butterscotch on the log

She is looking at me

She pecks at the log

She turns to face the other way

She then jumps down and continues with her normal routine. Why should she only do this when broody? Why is this ritual connected to her being broody? It is most odd but unique and amusing to watch. Who can tell what goes on their chicken brains!

Butterscotch has been broody for a week now. I get her out of the nest box three or four times a day for a break. She is a docile and easy to handle broody girl. She accepts me taking her out with good grace and not a murmur.

She sits until I move her on then runs off and frantically scratches, takes a quick dust bath, poops and has some food and water, then returns back to the nest box.

While she has a dust bath Barley always helps her. She seems fascinated by Butterscotch and is always by her side while she has a dust bath. Barley scratches and pecks the dirt around Butterscotch and pecks specks of dirt from her feathers.

Butterscotch takes a dust bath

Barley is always on hand to help

Barley with Butterscotch

I then noticed that Barley would peck at the pins on Butterscotch’s head and I would chase her off. Yesterday I noticed that Butterscotch now has a bare patch on her neck.

I worried that Barley may have pulled feathers from her. I dreaded the thought of this happening again.

Butterscotch has a bare patch

Butterscotch is missing feathers

I then realised that Butterscotch has pins on the bare patch. You can just see them on the photo above and below.

Butterscotch has pins

I think what is happening is that Barley is trying to pull these pins. The white pins on black skin really show up and Barley probably thinks she is being helpful trying to remove these specks.

It’s good news that she isn’t pulling feathers but bad news if she pulls out the pins as this would leave Butterscotch with a bare patch.

I really wish her pin feathers would hurry up and open. Luckily she is in the nest box most of the time and I am watching over her when she comes out. The problem is that while she is constantly either laying eggs or broody her feathers are opening at a painfully slow pace. This leave the pins vulnerable to being pulled.

There is nothing more I can do though so I just have to hope enough feathers open to give her some covering. Butterscotch has had the longest and slowest moult of any chicken I have ever come across. I hope she has new feathers soon.

Every time I go in to the run Emerald jumps on the inner child gate. It’s firmly become her habit. Now Toffee has started to do this as well. She doesn’t do it all the time but she is doing it more often recently.

Toffee on the gate with Emerald

What a funny pair of girls they are.

For the past three days Emerald has shared a nest box with Butterscotch despite the other nest box being empty.

Emerald is sharing a nest box with Butterscotch

Butterscotch and Emerald together

They look so cute together. Soon after I took this photo I checked back in on them and I knew that Emerald had just laid because she was standing up next to Butterscotch but no egg was in sight.

I reached underneath Butterscotch and rolled Emerald’s egg out. Butterscotch promptly rolled the egg back underneath herself with her beak. I had to lift Butterscotch to retrieve the egg.

I wonder if Butterscotch has got some kind of telepathic communication going on with Emerald to make her lay her eggs next to her so that she can sit on them. It is interesting and quite funny and sweet.

We have just had a massive amount of work done to our sitting room. I decided to write three posts covering the three weeks and then put them all out together when the sitting room was finished.

What I didn’t think of, is that they are in reverse order. So if you want the whole story instead of scrolling down to the first post you can click on the links below. I have named them – Part one, part two and part three.

Here are links to the posts in order:

Part 1 – Some changes to our sitting room

Part 2 – Week two of the sitting room make over

Part 3 – The sitting room is finished

After the weekend we gave the sitting room it’s finishing touches. We had moved the furniture back in and now we put up the pictures and the mirror. I filled the bureau and gave the dado rail another coat of wood stain. We added new lamp shades and cushions. We also added new window furniture. We got the window furniture from an antique shop so that it is in keeping with the period of the room.

The finished room before we put the pictures up

The finished room the following day when we had put the pictures back up

The room in the evening with the curtains closed

The detail on the skirting

The smart antique window stay

The cornice

The cornice over the chimney breast

A new lamp shade

Another new lamp shade

A new cushion

The new ceiling rose in the finished room

The settee with the new dado rail behind it

Another new cushion

Fireplace

The opposite side of the room

The photos don’t do it justice but the walls and ceiling are all now smooth and the skirting, dado, cornice, ceiling rose and window furniture all add detail.

It was a lot of work for just one room but we feel that it should be the best room in the house and we spend our evenings relaxing in this room so it is worthwhile making it a beautiful room.

We are really pleased with the way this room has turned out.

On Monday our neighbour spent a very long day plastering all the walls except the last wall which didn’t have plaster board and was just being skimmed.

The plaster is drying out

On Tuesday he skimmed the last wall and made a start on putting up the cornice.

Starting on the cornice

He has started with the trickiest bit in the alcove. By Wednesday the cornice was completed.

The cornice is completed

My husband stained the dado rail to blend in with the rest of the woodwork

Then he stained the skirting boards

He was trying to get some of the jobs done to help speed the work up.

By Thursday the walls have had a white undercoat and we have tried a bit of the warmer peach colour which will go under the dado rail. Soft peach will go above the dado rail which is the colour on the radiator.

The walls have had the undercoat applied

The two shades of paint

The white line between the two shades of colour is where the dado rail will go.

The walls have now had the first coat of colour

Our neighbour needed to leave early today to take his daughter to the airport. My husband stepped in with painting the walls to help speed up the work.

On Friday our neighbour completed putting on the skirting and the dado rail. He had to leave early again today to attend a funeral but is returning in the morning. Meanwhile my husband continued with filling and painting.

The plain block skirting

A moulding on top of the skirting adds detail and transforms it

The dado rail is added

The ceiling rose is up.

Decorative ceiling rose

On Saturday the ceiling light is put back up.

The ceiling light is back up in the centre of the new rose

Our neighbour left at one o’clock once he had done all the bits we needed help with. He replaced the sockets and helped my husband put back the tricky curtain track.

We then cleaned up the floor together and I painted the ceiling rose and the inside of the radiator while my husband had given the outside of the radiator it’s second coat. We went round the room tweaking the final details.

We then put the curtains back up and moved the furniture back in. Tomorrow we will add the details and put up the pictures.

I will do a final post of the end result over the next few days.