Carol's Chickens

It’s been raining all day today. Half the run stays properly dry and half the run gets wet from rain coming in at the sides and dripping in from above in a few spots.

All the girls managed to stay dry except for Butterscotch. She must have spent some time standing under a drip because she looked a mess. Her usually bouffant hair style looked more like a punk rocker. Her feathered feet were muddy. She looked ridiculous.

Butterscotch

A punk hair style and muddy feet

What do think of my hair do?

My good side

what are you looking at?

My not so good side

I was a bit concerned for her but my husband pointed out that I couldn’t follow her around with an umbrella. All the other girls managed to stay dry so why is it the one with the fluffiest hair do that insists on standing under a drip!

She has no idea how ridiculous she looks but I can’t imagine it can feel very nice either. I hope she learns to stay out from under the drips in future.

We had a few lettuce in the garden and I decided to give them to the girls as I thought that if I didn’t use them soon there may be a frost and then they would be ruined.

I gave them half of them yesterday and the other half this morning. Yesterday I took a few photos and the lettuce was gone in a matter of moments.

Some lettuce for the girls

They make short work of the lettuce

It was gone in no time

I think we can safely say they enjoyed the lettuce.

Most of the girls are not looking bad now that they are nearly through their moult. Honey though, was the last to begin her moult and she is looking the most shabby of all.

Poor little Honey

She has an almost bare face

Her neck is full of quills

She does look a bit of a sight

Honey seems to look worse this year than I ever remember her looking so I looked back at how she looked last year. It was then that I realised that it’s because it’s the first year she has moulted from being fully feathered. Last year was after we had had the plucking problem and her head and neck had been plucked bare. Therefore there were no feathers to fall out and I could see the pin feathers emerging as tiny dots to start with. They seemed to take forever to grow back in.

This year the pins have been coming through as the neck feathers have been dropping out so the pin feathers are much more advanced. It looks messy but is a good thing as they will soon open out into lovely new feathers and she will be back to normal more quickly.

My friend Jackie gave me a bag of autumn leaves for the girls as well as bag of greens from the allotment for them. Yesterday afternoon I tipped the autumn leaves in the run for them to scratch through.

As always they approached with caution at first but soon started scratching, pecking and spreading them around. The leaves entertained them all afternoon right up until bedtime.

Toffee and Barley were the first to approach the leaves

Butterscotch, Emerald and Honey also investigate

Toffee and Honey soon have the leaves spread around

Toffee and Honey remained interested even after the leaves had been spread around

Before bedtime the girls have a last scratch in the leaves

They have now spread the leaves over the entire run

What a lot of fun can be had from a bag of leaves. The girls say “Thank you Jackie”.

On 28th July of this year I added Butterscotch and Speckles to my flock. Speckles started her moult within days of being with us and her tail promptly fell out.

Because of this I delayed adding the new girls to the page “Meet the flock”. I have been waiting for Speckles to grow her tail back so that I could get a good, true photo of her. Now she has finally got her tail back to it’s former glory I have updated the pages “Meet the flock” and “Some information about my bantam breeds”.

I felt that “The history of the flock” was getting rather long so I have now called it “The history of the flock part one” and have added a new page called “The history of the flock part two“. This continues the history from the point at which I added Butterscotch and Speckles to the flock.

Below are the photos that I have used on these updated pages.

Butterscotch

Speckles

At last my blog is all up to date.

I decided to get rid off the apple tree in the chicken run. The run was built around the existing apple tree but since the tree has been in the run it has never produced any apples as the weld mesh puts the bees off from coming in to pollinate it.

I have to prune it back every year to keep it below the height of the roof of the run. It’s leaves get covered in dust as it’s in the girl’s dry dust bath area. It gets strange unpleasant insects on it each year. I have to pick up the dead leaves as they fall and the girl’s have to swerve round it when they fly from the patio.

There are lots of big shrubs in the run and the apple tree serves no purpose so there seemed no point in keeping it.

The apple tree

Part gone

Almost gone

Last bit

The girls rush over to investigate

They are very interested

I think the girls approve

A job well done

The girls were fascinated by the stump and saw dust. They rushed over to look at it and peck at it.

I think this is definitely an improvement and it allows a lot more light in the run. I think the girls like it too.

A few days ago we saw a slow worm and a frog in the garden. The slow worm disappeared down a crevice before I could get a photo. It was so smooth, shiny and beautiful.

I heard a rustle in the plants beside the path on my way up to the chooks. When I investigated there was a frog. It was very cooperative and waited without moving while I fetched my camera.

A frog in the garden

My husband touched and it and it jumped proving that it was a frog not a toad. Toad, slow worm and frog, what a great wild life garden we have.

Last night Honey had one remaining tail feather but when I went in to the girls first thing this morning Honey had no tail. I opened the chicken shed and there was her tail feather by the door. It must have dropped out at her first movement of the day.

Butterscotch had missed laying an egg yesterday but her egg was in the little coop when I first went in, so true to form, she must have laid at first light. I am still finding her feathers though and it still amazes that she lays as well as ever while moulting.

Honey has no tail

What a funny little girl she looks

My poor little Honey Bunny

She is the last to start her moult but I think it will probably be quite quick.

Her pin feathers are coming through on her neck already so I don’t think it will be too long before she will be looking  good again. I always think she looks so comical when she loses her tail.

I don’t usually touch too much on personal stuff or work stuff but it has been so mega busy that I just haven’t had time to blog and have left a longer gap than usual. This does frustrate me a little.

We had three functions last weekend plus a busy week peaking with an afternoon tea for one hundred and sixty on Thursday on our vintage crockery. This meant a lot of washing up the following day amongst the usual work load.

During this busy spell we have my ninety five year old mother in law staying with us for a couple of weeks and to cap it all our bathroom sprung a leak. It is our guest bathroom, downstairs and had a fitted bath. To get to the leak the bath had to be cut free and once the leak was fixed the bath has had to remain in the middle of the room to allow the plaster behind it to dry out. The bath will be fixed back in place next week.

The one bit of luck was that our lovely next door neighbour is a plumber and was able to come to our rescue straight away.

I just thought I would explain my lack of blogging and am in fact writing this now while my lovely husband and mother in law watch the rugby. I have little interest in contact sports I have to admit and am glad of the chance to catch up.

And so, back to the chooks. This is the first year that I have had eight girls moulting at once and I am picking up loads of feathers every day. Last year I had eight girls but it was Peaches and Barley’s first winter so they didn’t moult.

Topaz is looking a bit scruffy now

Topaz is missing some neck and tail feathers

Topaz despite being top girl does seem to have become a bit more subdued than usual while moulting. It does seem to knock the girl’s confidence.

Honey is missing neck feathers and has only one tail feather remaining

Poor Honey

Honey is the last to start her moult. She only started a couple of days ago but it has been a very quick dropping of feathers with her neck bare and one remaining tail feather in just a few days. Honey laid one last egg two weeks ago after not laying for two weeks before that. Oddly enough since starting her moult she has actually perked up back to her former self despite looking a bit sad.

Toffee is looking good

Every photo I took today of Toffee she had one or other foot raised

I didn’t manage to catch Emerald looking at me in any of today’s photos

Emerald feathers shimmer

Butterscotch still looks good

Butterscotch is still fluffy front and back

Butterscotch has been moulting for three weeks now and I am picking up loads of her feathers. Despite this she doesn’t actually look any different. She has also laid nine eggs in the last twelve days since resuming laying after a broody spell. She didn’t lay today but before that laid five days in a row. She is amazing! I am now not sure if this a full or partial moult. I am confused by the fact that despite picking up loads of her feathers she doesn’t look any different and continues to lay so well. Time will tell but I am amazed by her.

Barley is now looking scruffy

Peaches tail has grown back in

Peaches and Barley as synchronised as ever but note their different tails at the moment

Barley and Peaches have changed places with their moult. Barley has now lost most of her tail while Peaches has grown hers back in. Both of their combs have got smaller and paler.

Speckles

Speckles

Speckles has grown her tail back but still has the feathers sticking up from her head just as they were when she first came to us. Speckles has been moulting for two months now and apart from losing her tail within days of coming to us she hasn’t looked much different despite me still picking up some of her feathers every day. I think she does has more white spots than she did before moulting.

I want to update my “Meet the flock” and “History of the flock” but Speckles lost her tail within days of being with us and I have been waiting for it to grow back so that I can get a good “true” photo of her first. I will do this soon and am going to start a second “History of the flock” as it is getting rather long.

These are posts in the pipeline but for now I have at last caught up with the girl’s current state of moulting and despite some of them looking a bit shabby all is well and Butterscotch continues to supply us with enough eggs for breakfast at the weekend.

Butterscotch is dropping feathers by the hand full but is still laying. She laid two days running then missed a day. Whenever she misses a day she always lays at first light the next day. Her next egg was still warm when I went in first thing in the morning. She must have come out of the chicken shed and into the little coop nest box as soon as the automatic door opened.

She then laid two more days and missed a day. We now had four bonus eggs from her so had two each for Sunday breakfast. It was a real treat to have our own lovely eggs again for breakfast after having to buy eggs.

The next morning I checked the little coops for an early morning egg and when I didn’t find one I assumed she had probably finished laying.

I then looked in the chicken shed and there was her egg under the roosting perch. She must have laid before the automatic door opened and her egg dropped to the floor and cracked.

Butterscotch’s egg

This girl is quite amazing. I scrambled her egg in a little olive oil and water and gave it back to the girls as a treat. Every egg is a bonus now and I am amazed that she continues to lay.