Carol's Chickens

Yesterday morning straight after the girls had had their morning sunflower hearts Topaz and Butterscotch took themselves off to the nest boxes.

Topaz is in the nest box again

Butterscotch is also in the nest box

Two girls in the nest boxes at the same time

Topaz was in the right hand nest box and Butterscotch in the left. About an hour later I checked on them again and they were both back out in the run. I checked the nest boxes and there was an egg in the left nest box. This egg had to be Butterscotch’s egg because she doesn’t go into a nest box and come back out again unless she has laid her egg. If she was broody she would stay in the nest box. It also had the satin sheen that her eggs have.

This afternoon the same thing happened again. Both Butterscotch and Topaz went into the nest boxes at the same time. This time Butterscotch was in the right hand box and Topaz in the left. A short while later I heard Butterscotch give her egg shout. I went and checked and sure enough her warm egg was in the right hand box and Topaz was still in the left box.

I thought to myself that if Topaz laid a bit later I could still presume the egg I thought was hers three days ago was actually hers. If she didn’t lay I may have to revise my thinking and conclude that it was Butterscotch’s egg after all.

I checked back fifteen minutes later and when I lifted the nest box lid Topaz stood up and came out shouting her head off (as before). There was no egg! I think I was mistaken about her laying an egg a few days ago. Topaz always has lots of false alarms. It’s seems as if she believes she has laid an egg.

This further confused me because I thought Butterscotch hadn’t laid for a few days and was about to go broody again. If the egg I thought Topaz had laid was Butterscotch’s after all then she only actually missed one day which is quite normal. What threw me was that she usually stops laying after three weeks and goes broody but she has now been laying for twenty three days which is a bit longer than usual for her.

I now think that Topaz isn’t laying but is just practising ready to start again soon. Her egg laying has always been somewhat confusing with lots of practice and false alarms. Topaz is such an unusual girl and therefore more difficult to read. She certainly keeps me on my toes.

I knew Topaz was ready to lay again after a few practice runs at it. Yesterday afternoon she was missing on parade and when I lifted the nest box she was standing in the “just laid an egg” position. I brushed her tail with my hand causing her to leave the nest box shouting. There in the shavings was her warm egg.

Topaz spotted the apple I had just bought in and immediately set about pecking vigorously at it. Her egg is a lighter colour than Butterscotch’s egg and doesn’t have the satin sheen. It is also slightly rounder and a bit larger.

I didn’t take a photo because I didn’t think the difference would show up in a photo.

This will change my end of year egg count. I had said that Topaz had laid six eggs last year and eight eggs this year but by starting back into lay a month early she has now added egg number nine and may yet add a few more. She hasn’t laid any for the nine months in between.

Research shows that the most prolific egg layers wear themselves out and it shortens the length of their life. With Topaz I would expect her to live a very long life. We will make the most of her eggs while she is laying and wait to see what the coming year brings for her. For now though, we will triumph in her early start back to egg laying.

I know that I have touched on this subject before but as time goes by I notice every day how together these two girls are. The rest of the flock don’t seek out any other flock mate and it is completely random which girl will spend some time with or near another girl. Peaches and Barley are totally different, they are always inseparable.

I had this same thing with Pepper and Dotty which is why it was ultra important that they were re-homed together and they are still happily together today.

Peaches and Barley were hatched together and kept with their mum until she tired of them at six weeks old. This was when I collected them and bought them to my run but kept them in a separate part of the run until they were mature enough for integrations.

It is being together from hatching that makes them so bonded. Other girls in my flock have been together in a big mixed flock with the breeder but it doesn’t have the same impact as being together from hatching.

My husband remarked recently that if we lost one of this pair it would be devastating for the one left. I can’t bare to think of that and hopefully they will be together for a long time.

I have been taking photos over the last two weeks to demonstrate this but when I looked back at older photos I realised that there were so many of the two of them together. I could actually compile hundreds of photos of them together but have limited myself to ten recent ones.

Peaches and Barley at the food dish

I love that they even mirror each other with one foot on the dish. They do the same at the water but I didn’t have my camera on me for that shot.

Peaches and Barley having a dust bath together

All the other girls switch around with who they dust bath with or sometimes dust bath alone but these two always dust bath together and preen each other.

Peaches and Barley on top of the little coop

Peaches and Barley share a cabbage stalk

Peaches and Barley are looking at something outside the run

They even yawn together

You just started me off

At dusk they stand together under the wooden table

Before bedtime they peck at the shavings in unison

At bedtime, if they can, they roost together

They really are an inseparable pair of girls and it is quite touching to see how together they are.

Topaz has been very vocal for days now and has been having a twirl around in the nest boxes. This morning I thought she was actually going to lay her egg. She sat in the nest box for nearly two hours.

Topaz sat in the nest box

She then came out shouting and with excitement I went in to look in the nest box. No egg! Oh well, she is just practising. Topaz always did need a lot of practice and has always had a lot of false alarms. I am sure she will lay an egg soon.

My girls are looking beautiful after their moult. The only thing left now is for Peaches and Barley’s combs to get big and red again in the spring. All the girl’s feathers are stunning though.

I am going to put out some portraits that I have taken over the last couple of days in their pecking order.

Topaz

Topaz has always remained firmly at the top of the pecking order. She keeps all the girls in order and none of them dare to contest her.

I think she is getting ready to lay again. She has been very vocal and has been checking out the nest box. I know she has been in them because only Butterscotch is laying at the moment and she doesn’t disturb the shavings but just settles on top of them. Lately though the boxes have had deep wells in them with shavings scratched down the ramp and Topaz has had tell tale shavings on her fluffy bottom.

Honey

Honey is second in command and is our eldest girl at three years of age. This actually shows on her now as she is plumper than she used to be and sits down more often. Recently all the girls were stood in a close group and Honey was the only one sitting down, right in the middle of them.

Butterscotch

Butterscotch used to be below Peaches and Barley in the pecking order but she seems to have gradually worked her way up and I think she is now above them. She is full of confidence and only Topaz and Honey ever give her a peck these days to keep her in her place.

She is still laying at the moment but no doubt will go broody again soon. She is always last to bed at night. The other girls all go to roost about half an hour before the automatic door shuts but Butterscotch will still be casually drifting around from the food dish to the water to the grit, to peck at the shavings and back again, then suddenly she decides it’s time to go in and briskly marches to the shed and straight up to the perch about ten minutes before the door closes.

Jackie noticed yesterday that her beak has a blue tinge similar to the blue of her lobes. I looked back at older photos of her and realised that her beak had always had a blue tinge but I hadn’t really noticed it before.

Toffee

Since Toffee’s moult she has some feathers around her neck with a slightly green sheen to them. One of Toffee’s characteristics is that every day when the treat of corn or sunflower hearts runs out she makes a real sound of complaint. As soon as we hear this sound we know the corn has all gone. She marches around complaining for a few minutes and does this without fail every day.

Emerald

Emerald has such beautiful glossy, shimmering feathers. This pose with one foot on the food dish is very typical of her. One of her habits is to come and scratch in the shavings every morning when I poop pick the shed. It’s as if the open door is just too tempting for her. Every morning I end up scooping a pile of shavings back into the shed. As soon as I hear the scratching behind my back I know that it will be Emerald.

Peaches and Barley

Peaches and Barley are absolutely inseparable so I had to take their portrait together, Peaches is on the left and Barley on the right. They do everything together and I have been taking photos of them during the last week to do a post on their total togetherness. If we ever lost one of these girls it would be a terrible shock to the one left.

They are constantly chatting or “squeaking” as I call it. They still love to jump on my back if ever I bend over and ride on my back while I clean up the run.

Speckles

At last Speckles is no longer nervous around me but she is still wary of the other girls as she is firmly bottom girl. The only one she has no fear of is Toffee and Toffee will run from her. Speckles seemed to sense early on that Toffee is a nervous sort of a girl too and while she remains above the flock mates that have never contested her place in the pecking order she never managed to put Speckles in a place below her. I am glad that Speckles has one girl that isn’t above her as she takes some stick from the rest of them. She is very speedy though and manages to get out of the way.

So there we have our beautiful eight girls and all of them so full of character and with their own funny little ways. I am so happy with how lovely our flock are together.

Today Jackie and I met up to visit each other’s girls before Christmas. The last time we met up was a few weeks ago when Blossom was heavily going through the moult and looking quite shabby. Today she is looking much better and has her tail back.

Chelsea and Blossom at the patio doors

Chelsea comes in for her close up

Chelsea, Blossom and Bluebell

Blossom has a full tail again

Jackie handed me Chelsea for a cuddle

It was so lovely to catch up today and we both agreed that both our flocks are looking lovely. Chelsea is such a friendly girl and it makes a change for me to hold a big girl. It was a lovely afternoon.

Yesterday at about mid day I heard what I think of as the egg shout. I was surprised because only Butterscotch is laying and she had laid late in the afternoon yesterday so this would be too early for her.

On inspection it was Topaz making all the noise. She was being very vocal and was looking in the little coop nest boxes. Her comb and wattles are also a lovely red colour. I wonder if she is about to start laying again. It seemed a bit early but I looked back at last year’s egg record and she started laying on the eighteenth of January so it’s only a month earlier.

Topaz has a lovely red comb and wattles

Topaz is being very vocal and is looking in peak condition

I love the way the other girls in the background are all looking at her as if wondering what all the noise is about.

She is walking around the little coop nest boxes and shouting

She is having a good old shout in between pecking at the shavings

Topaz is my anomaly. She laid six eggs in her first year and eight eggs in her second year. The rest of the time she plays at being broody but doesn’t commit to it. She likes to sit on other girls eggs and stops laying herself.

In her first summer she started laying in June. She laid one egg on the twenty third of June and another on the twenty seventh of June. She laid one egg on the second of July. She then laid another egg on the ninth of August and then again on the eleventh of August. She laid her final, sixth egg, on the eleventh of September. Soon after that she started her moult.

This year she was the first to start laying again. Hurrah! I thought. She laid her first egg on the eighteenth of January then another on the twentieth and then on the twenty seventh of January. She laid again on the fifth, twelfth, fifteenth and twenty third of February. She then laid her final, eighth egg, on the third of March.

That was it for Topaz. She didn’t lay again all summer and once again started to moult at the beginning of September.

I was so surprised when she didn’t lay any more last year but this year I won’t be surprised. In fact I would actually be surprised if she did lay more than one clutch. With all my research I have never come across another hen like Topaz. She is unique. Some people complain that their broody girls don’t lay much but Topaz is exceptional. Not laying much doesn’t quite go far enough. But there you have it, she is my unique girl and we will just have to wait and see if she remains the same this time round. I suspect she will!

This year we have an exceptionally busy Christmas so I have had to be much more organised than usual.

Tonight we have our annual get together of twenty friends. We all club together to cover the cost and we are supplying the mains and desserts (being the caterers) and another couple are hosting at their house and getting in the booze and doing a cheese board. They are supplying bed and breakfast for some of the couples and we are supplying bed and breakfast for one couple (dear friends from Dorset).

We are all meeting up tomorrow for a pub lunch before everyone goes on their way again. Some of the friends are far flung and this is an annual chance for us all to meet up and catch up with each other. Tomorrow we also have to fit in preparing Monday’s lunches.

Next Saturday we have a wedding for a hundred and fifty people, this has been booked since the spring. We are doing an afternoon tea on our vintage crockery then they will have a hog roast in the evening. This means a lot of time leading up to it will be spent getting everything ready. We also have a lunch for twenty on the same day which I will deliver in the morning and it will be going into their fridge until later.

A few days before Christmas we are doing the full turkey Christmas dinner and all the trimmings for my husbands family (and exchanging and opening gifts) and on the same morning we are delivering a finger buffet for a hundred for a memorial service (which we will have prepared the day before).

We will then do the whole  turkey Christmas dinner again a few days after Christmas for my family (along with exchanging and opening gifts) and have also had a party enquiry for that day too.

With all this going on I needed to get ahead of the game so I started Christmas shopping earlier than usual and by the first week of December I had bought and wrapped all the gifts, written all the cards and posted everything that needed to be posted.

All that remained was to get the Christmas tree and decorate the house. Yesterday afternoon we bought a tree and I set about decorating it.

We have a Christmas tree

The lights are on and the fairy is on the top

The tree is decorated

The final touch, the gifts are under the tree

It looks a lot of gifts but it is for all our family including the grandchildren. Now we are ready for Christmas! We have a lot of work to squeeze in over the Christmas period but the house is ready.

Butterscotch is my star winter egg layer. She laid at first light this morning after missing a day yesterday. For a bantam girl her eggs are a good size. They are only fractionally smaller than a medium shop bought egg.

Butterscotch’s egg

A medium shop bought egg on the left and Butterscotch’s egg on the right. Thank you Butterscotch.

I have done a few posts on getting the bedtime perches to the right height. I knew there was a problem when I went out to the girls at first light and the automatic door was open but none of the girls had yet come out.

I realised they were struggling to get down from the perches in the restricted space and were not using the ladder as I had expected them too. Never expect them to do what you think they should do!

Since we took out the ladder and lowered the perches they have gone back to squeezing under the door as soon as it starts to rise which I have photographed recently.

I thought I would continue looking at this habit a bit further. They come out so quickly that I knew they must have already jumped down from the perch and were crowding behind the door waiting for it to open. I decided to open the big door a little and shove my camera in and try to capture them behind the door. Once again the photos are not great because I can’t really see what I am going to get as if I open the door a little bit more they will all squeeze through the smallest gap just as they squeeze under the pop hole. They are so eager to get out.

You have to make allowances for a night time’s worth of poop under the perches. I like to keep the shed clean and don’t like poop in photos but to get this early morning shot I had to put up with the mess being on show.

I thought I would start with the night time line up. I have taken a photo on each of the last three nights. The pattern seems to be that as it’s got colder they prefer to all perch on the back perch rather than the perches on either side.

None of the girls seek out being next to each other except for Peaches and Barley. Sometimes as they are bumping around and sorting out their positions I can hear Peaches and Barley making a sound that is almost like crying, a tiny whimpering sound. I would look in thinking that they were being pecked (some of the girls, in fact mainly Peaches and Barley give poor Speckles a hard time at bedtime) but no, it was simply that either Peaches or Barley couldn’t find a space next to her soul mate. They would sound upset if they couldn’t perch next to each other. Honestly, they are like children at times!

Bedtime three nights ago

Peaches and Barley have managed to get next to each other at the expense of Emerald being pushed off of the favoured back perch. I love how the girls look at each other.

Bedtime two nights ago

Peaches and Barley didn’t manage to get next to each other on this evening. This was when I could hear the whimpering because there was no space next to Barley so Peaches had to settle for grabbing the remaining space between Toffee and Emerald.

Last night’s bedtime line up

Last night all was quiet during the bedtime routine because Peaches and Barley had bagged their spot next to each other and all the girls had managed a spot on the favoured back perch, hurrah! Still love how the girls look at each other.

This morning the automatic door still wasn’t open at quarter to eight. It was raining heavily and still quite dark. I opened the main door a crack and stuck my camera in. I have included all of the photos that I took.

Behind the door

Toffee, on the right, looks as if she has just landed down from the perch.

We want to come out

Hurrah! The door is open

Lets get out of here

It was so dark out in the run that I gave them a sprinkle of sunflower hearts on the patio so that they didn’t need to go out in the dark. It made no difference though. As soon as the sunflower hearts were gone they were off out into the run.

A sprinkle of sunflower hearts on the patio

Although they perch up well before dark they are always willing to come out in the morning in low light. They obviously know that at night it will get darker and they need to get in before that happens but in the morning it will only get lighter so they are happy to come out as soon as possible.

Their enthusiasm to get out as quickly as possible makes me smile but then again it is understandable after a long night of being shut in. Once again I have to say that I know both the girls and I are looking forward to the longer days of spring and summer.