Carol's Chickens

It’s taking a bit of fine tuning to get the chicken shed just right for the girls. Since we lowered the perches I have watched the girls come out a few times in the morning and I felt that it was still a bit of a struggle. It was still taking a while for them all to negotiate their way down and I felt that Butterscotch was still struggling with it.  She was always last and would take ages to take the plunge and jump down.

I decided to try the perches a bit lower until I could find the comfortable jump down height for Butterscotch.

The perches are lowered again

The perches started out at the top of the ladder’s uprights, then moved down to the top rung and now to the next rung down. This should be a really easy and safe height for Butterscotch to jump down.

It was now just a matter of seeing what the girls made of it. I hoped that moving the perches down gradually would get them used to the change.

They were not best pleased with this change and there was a lot of going in and back out again.

Emerald and Topaz were the first to check it out

Topaz and Emerald went back outside many times before they settled as did Toffee when she came in. Peaches and Barley were last to go in and seemed most dubious about the new perches. Butterscotch was the only one that went in, took up a position and stayed put.

Honey joins them

The ladder now has the most desired position

Emerald can’t find a position that she is happy with

They all now want to be on the ladder

The final position

I went out this morning as they were coming out and it was a much quicker process.

Butterscotch jumps down

As usual Butterscotch was the last to come down but she got her head right down, then dropped easily to the floor. I felt this was a lot better for her.

It now threw up yet another problem though. The girls that were on the top rung of the ladder jumped down from the top rung to land very tight up against the bottom of the ladder. I realised that it was now the ladder throwing up the problems and now that the perches are lower the ladder is actually no longer needed.

The girls can easily jump up on to the perches and the ladder is now just in the way. We decided to take the ladder out and put in another perch across the corner where the ladder had been.

The ladder has now gone and there is a new perch across the corner

I will see how it goes at bedtime tonight. I am hoping that now all the perches are exactly the same height it should be easier for the girls to settle in the evening and it will definitely be easier for them to jump down in the morning. Watch this space!

Butterscotch laid twenty eggs then went broody. She then started to moult but a little later starting laying again. The feathers stopped appearing in the run and she laid twenty one eggs then went broody once more.

This time none of the girls were laying so I shut the little coop nest boxes. It was quick and easy to break Butterscotch from being broody this time as there were no nest boxes open to her and the weather had turned cold. For the first two days she looked at the nest boxes and gently clucked to herself and then she seemed to accept it and continued to scratch and peck in the run with the rest of the flock.

A week later she started moulting again. I am finding a pile of her feathers under her night time roosting spot and picking up a trail of feathers from where ever she has been in the run during the day. Despite this she really doesn’t appear to look any different.

Butterscotch looks as good as ever

Meanwhile Honey is getting her tail back. The black tail feathers have returned.

Honey’s tail is growing

The flock are looking good again with the only real difference being Peaches and Barley’s pale and small combs. It will be good to see big, red combs once more in the spring.

The girls are looking good

As a foot note, usually when I get the whole flock in shot it’s because there are treats on the patio. Sometimes though, I just crouch down with my camera and they all come running to see if I have anything for them. This means they are all in shot with no treats on the patio.

Sorry girls, sometimes I just come in with only a camera in my hands but it is a good snap shot of a lovely looking flock.

I decided to harvest our corn on the cob as I think it’s too late in the year for them to fill out and I don’t want to lose them if we have a frost. I decided they would have to go to the chooks.

A pathetic harvest

Yesterday I put them on the chicken’s patio.

The girls were very wary

Emerald tries a different angle

Peaches has a look

Peaches has a peck

They decided these were not good and ignored them. I decided that they must need cooking as they were probably too hard for them. I gathered them up and cooked them then returned them to the chicken’s patio today. My girls are so spoilt! This got a totally different reaction.

This is more interesting

Topaz and Emerald like it

Butterscotch has no interest, she is on her way to the nest box

Toffee joins in

Toffee likes it

Even Speckles joins in

They had the corn stripped from the cobs in no time. I left them there for the rest of the day as they like to go back and peck them some more. At least they weren’t wasted.

Yesterday we had a visitor to our garden. He came in three times.

We have a pheasant in our garden

He is beautiful

On next door’s wall before he leaves

He was attracted by the sunflower seeds underneath the bird feeders. I couldn’t get close enough to him to get better photos than these but I think they show his beauty. We could hear him calling for some time after he had left. It’s not the first time we have had a pheasant visit the garden but it’s the first time I have managed to get some reasonable photos.

What a magnificent bird he is.

Yesterday morning I realised that Butterscotch had been in the nest box for about three hours. She is usually only in there for half an hour so I decided to lift her out. She had laid and had been sitting on her egg.

I wondered if this meant she was feeling broody again. I decided to shut the coops and she wasn’t too bothered but she was quietly clucking to herself which is a sign.

This morning Butterscotch went straight into the coop first thing. After she had again been in there for three hours I decided to lift her out. There was no egg.

Is she broody?

She stayed quite flat

I moved her off and shut the coops. I thought that as no one is laying it would be good if I could nip it in the bud.

Butterscotch

Butterscotch is looking good. She has grown back the feathers that Honey pulled from her back, during the integration period.

Butterscotch protested about being locked out and when some time later she was still clucking away I decided to let her back in. I didn’t want to stress her and thought perhaps she really did want to lay.

I checked on her another two hours later and found her sitting on an egg. This is egg number twenty one which beats her previous record of twenty. I am so glad that I had let her back in. I lifted her out once more and shut the coops again. I still feel she is wanting to go broody.

An hour later I was pleased to see her in a dust bath.

Butterscotch leaving her dust bath

By the time I got my camera she had just stepped out of the dust bath.

Peaches and Speckles

I just had to include this photo because a short while ago Speckles would never have let me get this close to her. She is standing in Butterscotch’s dust hole.

I shall keep a close eye on Butterscotch as it would be good if I could stop her going broody again especially as she is the only girl laying any eggs. In the end though if she is determined it will just have to be.

Most of the girls are now through the moult. Honey and Topaz were the last two to moult and the only two not quite back to normal.

Honey’s neck feathers are back in.

Honey was the last to start her moult and she looked the worst. Her neck is almost back to normal and she just needs her tail to grow back.

Topaz is just about back to normal

Peaches

Barley

These two are almost back to normal. Usually I can tell Barley at a glance because her comb is bigger than Peaches but since the moult their combs have shrunk and they are much harder to tell apart. I now have to look at which way their combs flop with Peaches to the left and Barley to the right. Barley was the last of the two to lose her tail and it isn’t as full a fan yet as Peaches tail is.

Emerald

Emerald was the first to moult and has been back to normal for some time.

Toffee

Toffee was second to moult and is also looking great now.

Speckles

Speckles is looking good and has her tail back to it’s former glory. She has more white on her now but has still retained the little tuft on her head.

Butterscotch

I think Butterscotch only had a partial moult which may have been triggered by her broody spell. She has never really looked different and the feathers have stopped dropping except for the odd one or two. She has now laid twenty eggs since she resumed laying after her broody spell which equals the twenty she laid before going broody. I am waiting with baited breath to see if she continues to lay or goes broody again.

It is so nice to see the girls all fully feathered again apart from Honey’s tail which I am sure won’t take too much longer. It is also lovely to have Butterscotch’s eggs which are giving us our weekend breakfasts.

It seems crazy that I hadn’t checked on how the girls come out of the chicken shed before now but the fact is that I knew that they could use the ladder, I have seen them do so, it seems that they just prefer not to.

We have a similar ladder in the run leading up to a high, branch, perch. At certain times of the day it gets the sun and all the girls sit on the rungs of the ladder. I have seen them fly down from the top when the ladder is empty but I have seen them move up and down the ladder while changing positions.

When I poop pick the chicken shed in the mornings I am sometimes accompanied by a few of the girls and as I am in front of the perch they move up and down the ladder.

Last night while jostling for their bedtime position (Butterscotch wanted their space) I watched Peaches and Barley jump from the perch to a rung half way down the ladder and then work their way up to the top.

So I was aware that they could use the ladder and expected them to come down that way in the mornings. I think they just prefer the quicker and more direct route of jumping straight down and once one girl has done this the others all follow suit.

But I do feel happier now that the perch is lower. I also kept it at the same height as the top of the ladder in the hope that this would mean that they would be happy in either position as one is no higher than the other. This is also not the case though. The perch is still preferred to the top rung of the ladder. I can only think that it’s because they all want to be on the same perch and the ladder may be seen as being a bit apart from the perch. Who knows what goes on in those chicken brains!

The current bedtime line up

If you compare this photo to last nights photo you will see that the line up is identical. You would think that they all just take up their places and that this would be an easy routine. Not so! The line up changes during the course of the bedtime routine. Toffee, Emerald and Speckles get chased out a few times. Peaches and Barley take up the position where Butterscotch is in the photo above. Butterscotch always come in half an hour later and because she is bigger, when she takes her place on the perch, Peaches and Barley are forced off and end up on the top rung of the ladder.

My husband asks why, if they always end up in this order, don’t they just accept it and go to their final positions. It’s not that simple. They go where they choose first then get moved and end up where they are now. Peaches and Barley don’t want to end up on the ladder but they have no choice.

Peaches and Barley are above Butterscotch in the pecking order and out in the run they will chase her from a position they want. But at bedtime her bigger size just pushes them out of the way and they can’t hold on to their position so they move over to the ladder.

A close up has to miss Toffee as she is so far over to the left of the perch

Toffee gets pushed around and often forced back out into the run. She then ends up as far away from the rest of the girls as possible, making it difficult to keep her in shot. Speckles also gets forced out but eventually ends up next to Honey as Honey doesn’t see her as a threat to her position in the pecking order and therefore doesn’t bother her.

Peaches and Barley are always together where ever they end up. They are such a tight pair of girls.

I could take this photo night after night and it would look as if the routine is simple but I see all the jostling that goes on leading up to this. This was why we added some extra perches but then I realised that they brought their own problems so the bedtime routine is now back as it was before.

Sometimes we just have to accept that as much as we can do to try to ease things there are some things that we just can’t change. At the end of the day the girls will do what they do and I can’t tell them to use the ladder and I can’t tell them to settle at bedtime without any hassle. This is how they will do things and all I can do is make sure they are safe.

Last night the girls went in the chicken shed and all spent time looking up as if wondering where the high perches had gone. There was much squabbling with Toffee and Speckles being forced out a few times before they finally all settled in position.

The first girls are in

All in except Butterscotch and lots of looking up

They are all in with Peaches and Barley on the top rung of the ladder

I was glad that they still went in even with the lower perches and I think it’s better to put up with the squabbles if it makes it safer for them.

This morning I went out just as the automatic door had opened. I opened the door just a crack so that I could see in as there is no room inside for me now that the perches are lower.

One by one they took up the position in front of the door and jumped down. Butterscotch was still last and was still quite hesitant. Seeing this made me wonder how on earth she had been managing the jump before. This has got to be easier for her. I only got one, not very good, photo as I had to hold the camera through the crack of the door. Barley was just about to jump then it was a minute later before Butterscotch jumped.

Getting ready to jump down

I will keep the shavings deep where the girls land. I am so glad that we have done this as it must be a lot easier for the girls.

I have been taking photos each evening since we put in the higher perches to monitor how the girls were getting on with them.

The third evening with the new perches

The pattern seems set

Honey seems to favour the spot by the window. Once Butterscotch comes in she goes to the top and usually Toffee and Speckles drop down to the old perch.

As it is getting light later in the morning I have been in the run before the girls come out of the shed and over the last couple of mornings I have realised things were not as I expected.

I imagined the girls rushing to get through the pop hole as soon as it opened but when I went in the girls were still on the perches and the pop hole was open.

On the first morning I hooked back the door of the shed as I do each morning when I poop pick. The automatic door was open (it may have only just opened) but all the girls were still up on the perches.

One by one they came to a position in front of the door and flew out over the patio and into the garden part of the run.

They all came out except for Butterscotch who seemed agitated and didn’t appear to know how to get down.

Butterscotch can’t seem to work out how to get down

She was clucking loudly and seemed unsure how to get to the lower level

Butterscotch looked about to jump

She made it the lower perch like the rest of the girls and then also flew over the patio into the garden part of the run.

This quite unsettled me as I had always assumed that the girls just came down the ladder in the same way as they went up. I wondered if this behaviour was simply because the door was open and it was the quickest way down. It worried me though that Butterscotch was struggling to find her way down to the lower perch.

Another result of the higher perch was that once again Butterscotch had missed laying for a day then laid her egg at first light as usual. Because she was on the new higher perch her egg didn’t a stand a chance and lay broken beneath the perch.

I decided to take photos in the evening again and then to go out once more at first light but this time to watch the girls from inside the shed with the door shut so that I could see how they get down from the perches.

All the girls are on the top perch while Butterscotch has her extra half an hour out in the run

I thought that with no room for Butterscotch on the top perch it may at least stop her going so high. No such luck.

Butterscotch is now on top and Toffee and Emerald have been forced down to the old perch

There she was back on the top perch once more. Now it was a matter of seeing what happened in the morning.

I went in this morning before the girls were out. The automatic door was once more open but none of the girls were out. In the old coop the girls used to squeeze under the door as it opened.

I went inside and closed the door then crouched in the corner under the perch so that I was out of the girls way but could observe them. It was quite light from the window and the open pop door.

I had always assumed the girls would quickly come down the ladder and had imagined them behind the pop door waiting for it to open.

I was horrified by how difficult it was for them to get down. They didn’t use the ladder at all. They one by one took up a position in front of the door and took their time weighing up how to judge the jump down. They each dropped into the small space between the nest box and the bottom of the ladder. They landed with a thump and loose feathers flying. They then made their way round the ladder and out the pop door.

They were all down except Butterscotch who once more appeared to be struggling and agitated.

I couldn’t bear it any more and opened the door, hooked it back and stood out of her way. She once more flew over the patio and out into the garden part of the run.

I had no idea the girls didn’t use the ladder and wasn’t happy at all that they came down this way. I had to work out a better way and quick. I worried they could hurt themselves like this.

For a start I could see that the nest box must be moved as it’s in their way and making their landing spot smaller and more hazardous. I decided to thicken up the layer of shavings to soften their landing. Most important of all I felt the perches needed to be lower so that their jump down was much smaller, easier and safer.

The chicken shed before the changes

They were landing in the small gap between the nest box on the left and the ladder on the right.

The chicken shed as it is now after the changes

When I think about it in the wild they would roost in the top of trees but they would fly down. I think when first getting them used to the new shed they needed the perches high to encourage them to use them. I just hope that now they are used to going in the shed they will accept the lower perches.

The nest box is now in a new position behind the ladder on the right of the photo.

I will take photos again this evening and watch them jump down in the morning and then post again.

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.