Carol's Chickens

Spring sets the girls hormones racing. They start to lay their eggs and seem to grow in confidence. They also strengthen or contest the pecking order.

I saw a few blood spots, this morning, behind their roosting perch in the chicken shed and on inspection see that Peaches has a spot on her comb that has been pecked. Peaches and Barley’s floppy combs are a target for pecking.

This afternoon when I went in I saw that Honey had blood on her comb that hadn’t been there earlier. Just as I was wondering what had happened to her Barley and Honey started scrapping. They were circling each other and grabbing each other by the back of the neck.

It seems that Barley is trying her luck at moving up the pecking order. At this time of year Honey and Amber used to do this. Honey finally moved up the ladder above Amber and has been second in the pecking order since we lost Sparkle. I don’t think Honey will give up her position easily despite a bloody comb.

Honey has blood on her comb

A close up of the blood on Honey’s comb

I hate it when the girls have these spats but there is nothing that we can do to stop them when we are not around.

Butterscotch’s pin feathers on her head have grown.

Butterscotch’s pin feathers

Those spikes on her head are the unopened feathers. I hope that when they open they will be fluffy enough to cover her head despite having some of her pins pulled out by Topaz. At least she is safe in the nest box at the moment while she is broody.

Finally I know I have put out a lot of egg photos recently but I can’t resist another one. Both Honey and Speckles laid today and their eggs are at each end of the size spectrum.

Honey’s egg is on the left and Speckles egg is on the right

The contrast in these two girl’s eggs makes me smile.

There always seems to be some drama going on in the run. I just hope there isn’t any more blood shed but I guess chickens will be chickens and the pecking order isn’t called the pecking order for no reason.

Last Sunday I received some lovely Mother’s day flowers. Gorgeous purple tulips. I decided to take a photo and then take another one a week later to see if they open up a bit more. The single tulip in the little vase on the right is one that I broke while arranging them but I didn’t want to waste it.

Mother’s Day flowers

Mother’s Day flowers one week later

The tulips are still looking lovely a week later. They have hardly changed apart from opening up a bit more. I think they will last a bit longer yet. I have enjoyed these lovely tulips.

Today Peaches was sharing a nest box with broody Butterscotch. This time there was no one in the other nest box though. The new trend seems to be to share with Butterscotch.

Peaches and Butterscotch share the nest box

Peaches pushed herself under Butterscotch’s wing

Peaches pushes her luck

I don’t know what Peaches was playing at but she pushed herself further and further underneath Butterscotch until Butterscotch lost patience with her and chased her out of the nest box.

Butterscotch landed a couple of pecks to Peaches back until Peaches jumped out of the nest box and went straight into the nest box next door. There she stayed until she had laid her egg.

Butterscotch is left in peace

Butterscotch fluffed herself up and settled in peace on her own once more.

Today Honey and Barley wanted to lay their eggs while broody Butterscotch just wanted to sit in a nest box.

This was the result.

Honey is in one nest box

Barley and Butterscotch share

This is good news because it means that if  we have a summer of Butterscotch going broody there won’t be a problem with the girls queueing up for the nest boxes.

The pattern here is that the other girls don’t like to share but Butterscotch is such a docile broody that she accepts sharing and she is the one the girls choose to share with. The other day Honey shared the nest box with Butterscotch. Today Barley has chosen Butterscotch to share with.

All the other girls make a fuss, lots of shouting and chasing each other out of the nest box but Butterscotch just sits quietly with no fuss at all. What a good broody girl she is.

I think the girls will manage together this summer just fine and Butterscotch will go her own sweet way without rocking any girls boat. What a sweet girl she is.

Since Butterscotch has been broody she has only taken a few seconds of dust flicking as her token dust bath.

I haven’t seen her come out of the nest box on her own at all but I am getting her out four times a day. I get her out for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more a few hours later and then again for the bedtime corn.

Today when I got her out for the third time she took herself straight into the run for a proper dust bath. It was so good to see her having a proper dust bath and I am sure she wouldn’t have done this without me getting her out.

It’s almost as if when I get her out she feels she has permission to go and eat, drink, scratch or dust bath. She sits on the patio in the spot that I put her down then when I give her a gentle push she takes off at speed to get her jobs done as quickly as possible.

Butterscotch takes a proper dust bath

She covers herself in dust

At such speed that she is blurred

Barley is always so interested in what Butterscotch is doing

You would be forgiven for thinking that Butterscotch had popped her clogs in this one

Here she is in dead chicken mode with a concerned Barley looking on, except of course we know that she is having a blissful moment and Barley is just helping. Barley scratches around her and straightens her feathers and flicks dirt from her.

Being broody may be doing her a favour at the moment. The pin feathers on her head are growing and while she is safely tucked away in the nest box all day Topaz has no chance to pull her pins out. I am hoping that her feathers will grow in while she is broody and this will give her a chance to keep her feathers.

On some of these photos you can just see some pins on her head although it is more difficult to see in a photo than in real life. I hope she will get enough feathers to cover her head.

I am quite used to the broody routine now and I think she is getting used to it too. She is an easy to handle broody girl so I don’t mind the routine at all.

It’s funny how much easier it is to tell which egg belongs to which girl when there are more girls laying. When there was one egg and I hadn’t seen who was in the nest box it was really difficult to tell. But now with four girls laying I can tell their eggs apart.

There would be five girls laying if Butterscotch hadn’t gone broody once more but Butterscotch’s eggs have always been easy to tell apart as they are quite distinct.

Four eggs from four girls

Honey’s is on the left and has a beige colour and is small and slightly pointed. The other three are all white but are different in size. Next to Honey’s egg is Barley’s small egg then Peaches bigger egg is next and on the right is Speckles large egg.

Speckles egg is almost the size of a small standard girl’s egg. Our smallest girl lays the biggest eggs. Ouch!

Each of these girls are laying an average of three eggs a week at the moment but that will probably increase as the season continues. Honey is in her fourth year of egg laying and I am really pleased that she is doing so well. By that I don’t mean because we are still getting eggs, although that is a bonus, but because she is laying without any problems. The older the girls get the more likely they are to run into egg laying problems.

I love that in a back garden flock we know our girls so well and can identify their eggs and also that they are not uniform like shop bought eggs. We embrace their eggs being different and each girl is so different too.

During the winter when Butterscotch went broody I just closed all the nest boxes and after a few days she came out of it and continued spending her days with the rest of the flock as usual.

Now though I have four other girls laying so closing the nest boxes is not an option. I therefore have a different routine. I get Butterscotch out of the nest box for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more mid afternoon and again for the bedtime corn. At this point I close the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed which I feel is better for her than disturbing her again by moving her from the nest box to the chicken shed myself.

I know they are supposed to have the sense to come out of the nest box a few times a day to eat, drink, poop and scratch or dust bath but I have never seen Butterscotch do this without my intervention.

Maybe if I left her she would do this but I prefer to take her out so that I know she has had some breaks and she seems to respond well to this intervention. By that I mean that she doesn’t turn straight back to the nest box but accepts my helping her to take a break and as quickly as she can she goes for a scratch, sometimes almost a dust bath, a quick preen, then food and water, a large broody poop somewhere along the way and then back to the nest box.

At least this way I can actually see her have some food and water and a little exercise. I decided to record her day with photographs.

Butterscotch is in the nest box

I lift Butterscotch out of the nest box

I close the nest box

A quick cuddle, I usually put her straight down but made an exception today

I put her down and touch her tail to move her off the spot

She has a furious peck

And scratch

She almost has a dust bath as Barley watches

She has a quick preen

She eats some pellets from the floor, no time to take them from the dish

She has some water

Some more pellets

Some more water

Then she heads back

To the nest box

In she goes

And fluffs herself up again

At the end of the day I lift her out again and she joins in with the bedtime corn

She tries to find her way back into the nest box which I have now closed.

She tries from the other side

It must be here somewhere

Maybe up here

Maybe down here

She gives up and goes to bed

A little later all the girls are in and Butterscotch is in her usual position in the middle

And so Butterscotch ends her day ready to do it all over again tomorrow. The other girls are managing to get their eggs laid and Butterscotch goes through this routine each day  and repeats the very same actions even down to standing on the nest box at the end of each day while searching for the way in.

I am satisfied that she is eating and drinking, scratching and pooping and we will continue in this way until she comes out of her broody spell once more. I guess we will be doing this at regular intervals all summer. At least she is a docile girl and no trouble to pick up and she lays very well in between her broody spells.

Butterscotch is broody and spending most of her day in the nest box and the other girls are queuing up to get in to lay their eggs. Up until now they seemed unwilling to share a nest box but when I checked in on them today this was what I found.

Honey and Butterscotch sharing a nest box

Butterscotch is fluffed up in broody mode and Honey has the tell tale shavings on her back and her egg beneath her. She must have just laid. It’s her distinct tiny egg.

So it seems that they can share after all. How cute is that!

Yesterday Emerald went into the nest box for the first time this year. Her tiny comb and her face are now quite pink. In winter her face is white.

Emerald in the nest box

Emerald started laying half way through March last year so she could be getting ready to lay soon.

Broody Butterscotch

Butterscotch is properly broody. Because I can’t close up the nest boxes I am going to have to let her stay broody. I am getting her out of the nest box three times a day to have a quick feed, drink, poop and scratch.

After the bedtime corn I am closing the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed instead of sitting in the nest box. This is working quite well, she just goes to bed earlier than usual. She is now first in instead of last in but it means I don’t have to move her from the nest box.

Once Butterscotch is settled for the night I reopen the nest boxes ready for the morning. It will be interesting to see how long she stays broody with the nest boxes open. Luckily I now have four other girls laying eggs and maybe more will start soon.

Speckles loves to jump on me when I go through the gate.

Speckles jumps on me as usual

She is so relaxed that she is preening while on my back

I lower her down

And gently tip her off while being watched by Peaches

I pick her up for a quick cuddle

Unfortunately she blends into my dress and I am pulling a terrible face as I think I was talking but the fact that I can pick her up shows what a long way she has come. I never dreamed when we first had her that she would become this friendly with me.