Carol's Chickens

The round table under the big bush is one of the girls’ favourite places to hang out. There are usually one or two girls on it and sometimes four or five. But when it rains this table gets wet and is then avoided.

This is the only time that the girls hang out on the wooden table instead. There is usually, only occasionally, one girl on the wooden table. For some reason it just isn’t as popular as the other table until it’s a wet day. This table stays dry.

Our favourite table is wet so we will just have to hang out on here instead

Five girls on the wooden table

Speckles doesn’t get to share the dry table

Poor Speckles is bottom girl and isn’t allowed on either table at the same time as any of the other girls. She is often on either table when it is empty though. She has found a small dry edge to cling to. It doesn’t look very comfortable. I know someone has to be bottom girl but I do feel sorry for Speckles.

Every night there is a battle to see who can get on the high perches and who gets stuck on the top rung of the ladder. We hear a lot of clunking about and then usually a squawk and then either Toffee, Emerald or Speckles will come running out of the chicken shed.

Butterscotch has remained in the habit of going in last. She will wander around the run for up to half an hour after the other girls have gone in.

No one wants to end up on the top rung of the ladder. Occasionally all eight will make it to the top perch but usually it is Toffee, Butterscotch or Speckles that ends up on the top rung of the ladder looking a bit dejected.

This battle was a nightly occurrence with much protest and changing places before the girls settled for the night. We wondered if another high perch would help the situation.

There weren’t many options of where to put another perch as we needed it to be where it wouldn’t restrict the ladder being lifted up and also not too close to the shed walls. We decided to put it across a corner.

New perch

Topaz and Emerald went straight to the new perch

Peaches joined them

It quickly became obvious that all the girls now wanted to be on this new perch. My husband suggested that we put another one up in the opposite corner to give them more choice. I encouraged the girls back out with some corn while we put up another perch.

Two new perches

Honey finds the new perch

Four girls on the new perches

Five girls on the new perches

Butterscotch joins them

Speckles is out on her own

six girls on the new perches

Butterscotch makes it up to higher perch.

The final line up

We feel this is successful as although there is some changing of positions there was no squawking and girls coming back out. The highest perches are obviously the most sought after perches. This perch system is very similar to the arrangement we used to have over the patio area before we had the new chicken shed.

On the second evening the girls quite quickly took their places and once again there were six girls on the new perches. Toffee and Speckles ended up on the original perches so it is the same bottom girls that get left with the lower position but at least it is a step up from the ladder.

The second night with six girls on the new perches

Butterscotch had to go to bed with her punk hair do

Someone will always end up lower down but the bedtime routine is much quicker and smoother now so I think they like this change. It also shows that given the choice they want to perch as high as possible.

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.