Carol's Chickens

It turned out to be a very short break for Topaz and Honey. It seemed to have started so well with them both putting themselves to bed last night which came as a bit of a pleasant surprise to me.

By eight o’clock this morning they were back home again. Jackie called me in desperation and near to tears saying that her three girls had been screaming their heads off since first light. Nothing she could do would stop them. Being the Easter break and with her neighbours being in very close proximity she was really worried about the racket.

My two girls were as good as gold in their enclosure while Jackie’s girls were non stop shouting and treats and attention would not distract them. She said she was sorry but she just couldn’t do this.

It was good of her to give it a go but this just wasn’t going to work so I went straight up to Jackie’s and collected my two girls.

Topaz had taken a peck to her comb, probably from last night’s stand off with Chelsea. She had a bit of pine shaving stuck to the dried blood. I sponged the shaving off with tepid water and her comb started to bleed again. I dusted her comb with some anti bacterial powder from my chicken medical supplies and returned her to the run. She went back in happily as if she had never been away.

I then returned Honey to the run and straight away Honey and Barley went at each other with their ruffs raised. This happened a couple of times until Honey had established her status once more. It made us think that putting her back after a week’s break may not have been as simple as we had thought it would be.

Topaz’s comb immediately looked better. Luckily combs heal really quickly.

Topaz looks none the worse for her experience

There is just a slight dark spot on her comb by her left eye. It is now barely noticeable.

I started to think about a plan B. I could close the area I use for integrations and put Topaz in there on her own for a week. I now know that she would probably put herself to bed in the little coop/nest box and if she perched up instead I could lift her down at dusk.

Once the clocks go forward tomorrow night I wouldn’t have to get up so early to let her out so it would be a good time to do it. If it stopped her pulling feathers once she rejoined the flock I could then separate Honey and see if this would work for her too.

When I popped back to see how they were getting on Honey and Topaz were sat with their flock mates in a patch of sun. I didn’t have the heart to do anything more about this today.

The girls are together in the sun

They had all been sitting together until I went closer with the camera. Topaz stood up as she is now wary of me after picking her up yesterday and this morning and dabbing her comb too.

Butterscotch takes a dust bath on her own

Butterscotch prefers a solitary dust bath. She is moulting once more and looks rather scruffy.

Emerald was in the nest box and had just laid her egg and Toffee was just going into the nest box.

The flock are all happy together and today is forecast to be the one sunny day before a week of rain so I am not going to do anything more today. I will let the flock enjoy the sunshine and see how things go for a few days before deciding what, if anything, to do next.

Today is the last day that my eight girls will be together. I gave them another whole cabbage which was only fifty pence from Tesco.

Another cabbage for the girls

Meanwhile Honey is in the nest box even though she had laid her egg in the run earlier

The girls are getting stuck into the cabbage

Barley keeps Speckles company in the nest box while Peaches watches

Speckles lays her egg

Barley then goes to keep Honey company

Honey leaves and Peaches comes in to keep Barley company

Toffee then takes her place in the nest box and later when I check Toffee leaves and there are Peaches, Barley’s and Toffee’s eggs. This is our first five egg day this year. Honey, Speckles, Peaches, Barley and Toffee. Well done girls.

I decided to leave it until four o’clock to take Honey and Topaz to Jackie’s so that it was just a couple of hours before bedtime.

We put them into the separated area and they were soon happily exploring, scratching and pecking at this new environment.

Chelsea was the only one of Jackie’s girls to take a brief look.

Chelsea is the only one to take a brief look at the new girls

Topaz checks out the coop/nest box. We have one (two in fact) just like this!

Honey showing off her missing neck feathers

I stayed for an hour and a half while Jackie and I caught up on all the gossip and put the world to rights. My girls were happy in their holiday home and Jackie’s girls were hanging out by the patio doors having a bit of a moan.

Jackie called me before the girl’s bedtime and said that Chelsea and Topaz had had a bit of a stand off against the wire but Topaz didn’t back down. I knew she wouldn’t. Topaz thinks she is much bigger than she is and she doesn’t ever back down.

My girls went to bed leaving a gap where Honey and Topaz usually roost.

Where have Honey and Topaz gone? There is a space where they normally perch

Jackie rang me again a little later and said that Topaz first then Honey had gone into the little coop and they were snuggled up together for the night. I am so thrilled. My one reservation was that they wouldn’t go in at bedtime but I think the little coop/nest box is familiar to them and with nowhere else to go they made the right choice.

So far this has gone better than I could have hoped. A good start to this plan and hopefully more good progress to come. Thank you Jackie.

This morning Emerald was in one of the nest boxes and there was more togetherness going on in the other nest box with Peaches and Barley sharing.

Emerald is in one of the nest boxes

Peaches and Barley share the other nest box

Barley has laid her egg

Barley is standing after laying her egg and seconds later came out shouting about it. A little later Emerald and then Peaches had laid and a little later still, Toffee had laid. Another four egg day. Well done girls.

When shopping at Tesco I always check out the yellow stickers on the marked down items. The basil plants were reduced. They were starting to go limp but only because they needed water so I bought one for the girls.

I watered it and kept it indoors over night for protection. Today I planted it into a pot that already had compost but no plant as it had held one of last summer’s annuals. The bigger pot will stop the girls knocking it over or pulling it from it’s small pot and when the basil is finished the girls can have the compost from this pot to scratch through.

A basil plant for the girls

I know it will only last minutes once it’s in the run but it’s part of my plan for keeping them distracted and giving them a little fun.

The whole cabbage I put in the run two days ago has been reduced to a tiny lump. It has kept the girls pecking at it for a couple of days.

These photos will be the last ones of all eight girls together, for a while at least.

The girls surround the basil

Butterscotch isn’t interested in the basil

I love the way Barley’s floppy comb stands up as she swings her head.

Ten minutes later

I empty the flower pot with a little help from Speckles

The girls spread the compost

It’s soon smoothed out

This afternoon we visited Jackie to fit the gate my husband had made, for her separated part of the run, ready for Topaz and Honey.

Jackie and I fitted some netting above her fence to make the garden more enclosed. I am taking Topaz and Honey to her tomorrow.

We plan for her to keep Topaz unless she has any problems with her and to have Honey for a holiday. Honey will not be let out of her separate part of the run. She will stay long enough to give her a break from my girls, take her down a peg or two and hopefully help her forget about the feather pulling. She will also be company for Topaz until she is settled.

We hope that Jackie will gradually be able to integrate Topaz with her girls. Topaz won’t be able to reach to pluck the big girls necks and nor would they let her whereas my little girls offer themselves to her.

I am now feeling more positive that this plan will work out for both of us. As long as Topaz behaves herself I think Jackie will enjoy having a little girl. I think there will be a lot of posts to come on Topaz and Honey’s progress. Watch this space!

Yesterday Jackie suggested that she take both Topaz and Honey together as integrations can be easier with two rather than one and they would be familiar company for each other while being separated from her girls.

I didn’t want to let Honey go. I feel more protective of her as I know Topaz could hold her own with big girls but am not sure Honey could.

Last night I gave it a lot of thought and discussed it with my husband. It would be a better  start for the two girls to stay together. I am just not sure if I can part with Honey. Honey is my oldest girl, now in her fourth year and we have been through a lot together. I call her my  little Honey Bunny and am very attached to her. I would miss her funny little side to side run towards me and her constant chatter.

I have to do what is best for all the girls though and so I had another chat with Jackie this morning. We decided that she would take both girls to start with but at any sign of a problem I would take Honey back. If the big girls go after her I would take her back straight away.

We thought that instead of separating her in my run she could have the separation with Jackie instead, Jackie said she could have a holiday with her and Jackie may even get to have some bantam eggs. Even if she just takes a few days or a weeks break with Jackie it may be enough to bring her down a peg or two and may break the feather pulling. Equally it may not and I may just have to have her back and accept her pulling from fluffy bottoms which although bad it’s not as bad as necks and heads.

We have decided to trial it and see how it goes. Nothing is set in stone and I can take her back at any time. Also Jackie is only five minutes from me and we have the Easter break coming up. I can pop in at any time and see how the girls are doing. Jackie may end up getting fed up of me!

Honey Bunny

I thought I should take some close ups of Honey

Such a sweet girl

It’s such a shame that such a sweet girl has started pulling feathers like this. I do hope a break will work and that I can have her back with my flock again. It’s going to be a work in progress for a while. I must admit I shed a few tears over her this morning.

After saying that Honey seemed to be doing more plucking than Topaz we have caught Topaz going for Emerald and Butterscotch’s necks today. Emerald now has a much longer white streak on her neck.

I am at my wits end with this. I can’t bare to think of it becoming a habit throughout the flock and ending up with all the girls plucked.

I went to Jackie’s to have a chat about it as she had half intimated on Friday that she might consider taking Topaz. She is at a stage of thinking of having more girls and has been undecided for a while and she also thinks Topaz is beautiful, which she is.

The reason that I think Topaz will be okay with Jackie’s three girls is that she is a feisty top hen who couldn’t wait to get at my flock when I was doing the introductions and in minutes had shown my big girls that she was now top hen. I feel that she will be able to stand up to big girls.

We agreed that if for any reason this didn’t work out then I would have her back and even if that happened the break from my flock may be enough to break her of the plucking and perhaps take her down a peg or two.

This has been another difficult decision but I have to do what will be in the best interests of the flock. My husband is going to visit Jackie with me tomorrow to see how we can adapt her run to separate Topaz for the beginning of introductions.

I took some photos of Topaz today with a lump in my throat but at least she will only be five minutes away for me to visit.

Topaz

She always looks grumpy

But she is beautiful

I am thinking of separating Honey for a while to see if I can break the habit but I am not totally convinced this will work. Worst ways I would rather have missing bottom feathers than bare necks and heads.

This is going to be a bit of trial and error but I am so lucky to have Jackie to help with this. Thank you Jackie.

For the last couple of days Butterscotch has been coming out of the nest box on her own in between me lifting her out. I could tell that she was coming out of her broody spell.

The odd thing is that she always lays for three weeks, then takes a two week break, then starts laying again. Two days ago it was exactly two weeks since she started going broody and she surprised me by laying an egg.

I knew it was her egg as only she and Honey had been in the nest box and Honey had laid her small, slightly beige, matt, egg and this one was small, slightly pinkish and with a satin sheen. Butterscotch is the only girl that lays an egg with a satin sheen.

I was really surprised because I thought they didn’t lay until a couple of weeks after coming out of being broody.

Yesterday I only got her out for the morning sunflower seeds then again a couple of hours later when I took the girls some spinach. I thought getting her out for an extra time might speed her back to normal and it seemed to work as she stayed out for the rest of the day.

Last night I didn’t bother to close the nest boxes and she went to roost in the chicken shed with the rest of the girls of her own volition.

This morning she was out in the run with the flock and has stayed out all day. Hurrah! Her broody spell has passed. It will be interesting to see when she lays her next egg. I wonder if that egg was a one off or if she will start laying again soon.

Butterscotch joins in with the morning seeds

I didn’t have to get her out of the nest box this morning

She stayed out after the seeds had gone

Toffee is just heading off to the nest box. She spent some time in there scratching around. When I next went to check on her she was just coming out of the nest box with pine shavings on her back and a warm egg beneath her. This is Toffee’s first egg of the year and is two weeks earlier than last year.

Toffee leaving the nest box after laying her egg

At this point I had just taken in a dish of peas as a treat for the girls. It was quite funny to see Toffee tucking in to the peas with the shavings still on her back.

A dish of peas

I love that toffee still has shavings on her back

The girls loved the peas

The peas were all gone ten minutes later. I have tried to keep the girls occupied as much as possible. I dug the entire run over and we found some worms. I cleaned out the chicken shed and nest boxes and swept the patio area. I cleaned the food and water dishes. I spent time with the girls.

It seems at the moment that it is Honey more than Topaz that is pulling feathers. She is sneaking up behind all the girls and taking a feather when she can. I just don’t understand why she has suddenly started doing this. It always seems that just when things are going along smoothly something else crops up. I am so frustrated by this behaviour.

Topaz has been pulling feathers from the girl’s necks. She has so far targeted Butterscotch on the head and breast, Honey and Emerald on the neck and now Toffee’s neck has just started to miss some feathers.

Honey has been pulling feathers from all the girls fluffy behinds. I have seen her pull a handful of feathers from Butterscotch and today she was trying to pull feathers from Peaches and Barley and then Speckles behind. I shout NO NO NO every time I see this and move between her and the target.

I am so upset to see this again and just can’t understand why this has started now. These two girls were the only ones that were part of the flock when this happened before but surely they can’t remember this behaviour from so far back and why now!

I think it’s to do with the start of egg laying and raging hormones because this sort of behaviour always starts at this time of year.

Emerald is getting a bare neck

Emerald’s bare patch

Honey is getting a bare neck

Toffee is just starting to get a bare patch

Toffee has a pale patch just below her beak which is where she is just starting to lose some feathers.

When I got Butterscotch out for her break today, I put her down on the patio and Topaz rushed over to her and pulled some of the fluff from her head. This is all that she has left on her head.

Butterscotch’s remaining head feathers

Butterscotch’s missing neck/breast feathers

I have also seen Topaz target this area on her breast and it is remaining patchy.

I hope against hope that this is a phase that will pass. I can’t re-home any more girls, especially little girls. I also can’t bare the thought of having a ragged flock like before.

I guess only time will tell and we will have to wait to see how this progresses and just keep everything crossed that it passes.

Last summer we paid off our mortgage and we are slowing down our business as we head towards semi retirement. My husband will get his pension next year, although it will be another ten years before I get mine. With this in mind we want to get any works needed on the house and garden done while we are still working full time.

We need to get our garden path done some time this year as it is cracking up and we would like to make some changes to our sitting room. But for now we want to have a new floor in our dining room.

We have wooden floor boards throughout the house which we have sanded and varnished but the dining room has a sort of parquet floor. This has been sanded to within an inch of it’s life (we have sanded it twice since we have been here) and the blocks are now so thin that they are coming out and it will only get worse.

The other thing that prompted us to do this now was that Homebase had a half price sale on their wooden flooring until March. Our next door neighbour is a handy man and we will pay him to lay the floor but we needed to get the boards while they are half price. Our neighbour said to store them in the room they are going in so that they are at the same temperature as the room.

We bought them in the last week of February even though our neighbour isn’t free to do the work for three more weeks as we didn’t want to miss out on the sale price.

The boards and the underlay came to three hundred pounds which we thought was very reasonable. Carpet would probably cost more. The underlay will go on top of the parquet flooring and then the boards on top. It will be a floating floor and the boards slot together so there are no nails.

The old floor went from the dining room and into the small space in front of the front door. There is concrete under the dining room floor but floor boards by the front door. My husband had to take up the floor in front of the front door as if we laid the new floor on top it would be too high creating a small step.

It was a mission taking this bit of floor up as it went under the door frame and caused all sorts of problems but my husband has now fixed the problems and repainted the dining room in readiness for the new floor.

The old floor

It doesn’t look so bad in a photograph but there are bits missing all over and the lines are now quite dark.

From the other direction

Close up

Bits missing

In front of the front door

We will continue the new floor through here as before because the boards have been cut in a line for pipework and there are loads of screws. We will have a threshold at the dining room door like the one at the sitting room door.

The new floor is stored behind a piece of furniture

Comparison between the the new boards and the old floor

We wanted to keep to a similar light colour as it keeps the room light and contrasts well with our furniture. There are two boards in this photo which I have laid side by side instead of staggering just to give a comparison of how different they will look. It will smarten the room up. We are looking forward to having our new floor but dreading the upheaval.

Today work begins

At half past eight our handy man began his work.

The first boards go down on top of the underlay

By lunch time nearly half the floor is laid

It’s three quarters done

Nearly there

By the end of the day the main part of the floor was laid. Tomorrow our man will be back to finish off. There is still the bit by the front door to do and the beading to go round the edges. It is looking good though.

Finishing the floor

Our man arrived first thing in the morning and continued his work. He laid the floor in front of the front door which was an awkward little area to do. He put the beading on the edges and by the time I got home at lunch time he had finished the floor and left.

The floor is finished

The area by the front door

Looking from the other direction

We decided to use beading instead of a threshold and luckily already had this piece from another job.

A closer view from this direction

We are really pleased with the look and also the feel of it. It will be easier to keep clean and is warmer under foot as instead of just concrete underneath there is now underlay, then wood, then the concrete.

To most people this won’t seem a dramatic change but we have been in this house for nine years and in that time we have done every room to how we like it so this was just a case of replacing a tired and worn out floor. It had been stained darker originally and when we sanded it back to the lighter colour it made the room look so much lighter. This is why we wanted to replace it with something of a similar colour.

It looks smarter and will last for many years as the boards are much thicker than the original flooring. We have no intention of ever doing it again.

One of the longest jobs while doing this room was getting this piece of furniture out of the alcove and removing and dusting my antique bottle collection then getting it back in place and arranging my bottles back in. I think they look really good now that they are clean and sparkly again.

My bottle collection

We are really pleased with this floor and it has been well worth doing. Our neighbour has made a really neat job of it and will be coming back soon to start the renovations in our sitting room.

I have thought recently that Emerald was getting ready to lay. Today she was very vocal and her face is very red. She settled herself in the nest box and flicked some shavings over her back.

A while later she gave a shout and when I checked there was a large egg. I remember that both Emerald and Toffee lay large eggs.

Emerald has a really red face

I am sure that I have never seen Emerald’s face so red. She has such a tiny comb but her face gets very red when she starts to lay. It is white during the winter months.

We now only have Toffee left to start and she is always the last, it was April last year, that is apart from Topaz who doesn’t seem to be bothering this year. Topaz laid eight eggs during January and February last year and six eggs during July and September the year before. I have never come across such an erratic layer before. I have no idea if she will begin to lay this year at some stage.

It’s odd because she practised in December and January but didn’t actually lay and she hasn’t been sitting on other girl’s eggs this year either. It’s as if she has just given up altogether.

I am pleased to have another girl laying and we have four eggs again today, that is, Barley, Peaches, Honey and Emerald. Well done girls!