Carol's Chickens

Today was hot again although not as hot as it was a few days ago. I decided to give the girls some frozen peas again, to cool them, but as they didn’t seem to like the water bath I hit on the idea of just giving them in two dishes of water.

My big girls used to stand in the water bath but my little girls have no intention of getting their feet wet. The peas in dishes went down much better.

Two dishes of peas in water

Topaz gets a pea

Emerald gets one

Toffee gets one

The peas are going down well

I like this idea because as well as cool peas they get a bit of cold water at the same time. They seem to really enjoy this and I am sure it must be refreshing for them.

A few days ago we had a couple of over ripe bananas that had been forgotten and I thought  that I would see if the girls would like them. I knew that my previous big girls didn’t like them but I hadn’t ever tried them with my current flock.

I know “Flock Mistress” has a girl that loves banana.

Well it was pretty conclusive that they didn’t like them at all and Topaz reacted as if I was trying to poison her.

Barley and Peaches take a cautious look

These two are always the bravest and were the first to have a little peck.

Honey also had a cautious peck

Toffee gave her alarm sound when she first saw them but after the other girls had a peck she had a peck too

I added some familiar apple as encouragement and the apple was much preferred

Toffee as usual had been brooding in the nest box but came out to see what the fuss was about.

Topaz tried a peck of banana

All the girls took one peck then did a lot of scraping their beaks on the patio and didn’t return to have any more. They clearly didn’t like the texture.

Topaz was funniest though. She had one big peck then scraped her beak on the patio in a frenzy. She then shook her head vigorously then scraped her beak, shook her head, scraped her beak and shook her head again. She then glared at me as if to ask what on earth I was trying to do to her.

For a moment I thought she was having an allergic reaction. She was not a happy girl and took herself back to the nest box in disgust.

At the end of the afternoon I removed the offending bits of banana. They hadn’t been pecked again and the apple was all gone.

I think the message is clear. My girls do NOT like banana!

We are having a heat wave at the moment. Today the temperature was 34 C – 93 F. This is the hottest day in twelve years and the hottest July day on record.

It is also the first day that I have seen signs of my current girls feeling the heat. First it was Emerald lifting her wings and gaping then a little later it was Toffee. I think Emerald feels the heat more because of her black feathers but the game girls seem to feel the heat more than the other girls as they were the only ones showing any signs.

I set about trying to cool the girls down. I offered them some frozen peas in a water bath. This gives them the cooling peas, cool water as they take the peas and the opportunity to cool their feet if they stand in the bath. Well they were having none of that. No one was brave enough to stand in the water.

Only Honey has seen the peas in a water bath before and I would swear she remembered. I didn’t use it last year so it would have been the year before but she was the only one to go straight to it and start plucking peas from the water.

Honey is first to take a look

Honey is first to take a pea, does she remember!

Emerald takes a pea

Toffee, Peaches and Barley join in

They are getting the hang of it but Topaz is having none of it, you can see her in the background on the left of the photo

Once they had had enough of fishing for the peas I decided to empty the water and peas under the table in the shade.

This gave Topaz a chance to have some cool peas and some cool damp soil under her feet

I poured some water over the table and sprayed the bush above with water then poured water over some of the perches.

Emerald and Topaz went to the table but they will stand facing the bush

Barley joins Emerald on the table

The table is quick to dry out but I wet it several times again during the afternoon.

I also wet the patio area. I thought this would help keep it cool but an added bonus for the girls was that it turned any spilled pellets to mash.

The girls can cool their feet while having some unexpected mash

Peaches joins in for some mash

When Emerald and Toffee were looking at their hottest I lightly sprayed them with water. I don’t think they liked me doing this but I felt it would help cool them.

I gave the girls melon and grapes from the fridge to help cool and hydrate them. I shall keep doing all these things throughout the hot spell.

I also let the girls sleep out last night as last night was the first night forecast to have a high temperature. I will let them sleep out until this hot spell ends. They have their high perches over the patio area and the run is predator proof.

When we have the new shed for them I will be able to walk in and assess the temperature plus I will be able to leave the window open and even the door too if it’s hot. This project begins next week.

This hot weather is only forecast to last for about  week. I know lots of countries have these high temperatures and more but for the U.K. this is unusual. I will continue to do all I can to keep the girls cool and happy.

Honey hadn’t laid an egg for two weeks and I thought she was about to moult but she sat in the nest box most days anyway. Then for the second time recently I found her egg in the run. It was extra long for her and she then went and sat in the nest box again. She never seems to know when she has laid.

Honey’s egg is in the middle between Peaches and Barley’s egg

I wondered if it would be a double yolk. I broke it into a dish this morning with Peaches egg.

Honey’s egg is on the right

It wasn’t a double yolk just an egg that was a bit bigger than usual. Well done Honey. Look at their beautiful colour. We had the eggs for breakfast and they were lovely as usual.

For the last few days I have been picking broad beans ready for our Sunday dinner. Broad beans are always the first crop from the veg plot and the first ones always seem to be the nicest.

The first crop of broad beans

The beans once they have been shelled

These will make two meals for the two of us. I am looking to them for dinner tonight.

The girls have quite a few big shrubs in their run but last year I put in a new shrub. As it was being stripped I enclosed it in a cage of chicken wire to allow it to get taller than the height that the chickens strip the leaves from.

A year later and is still hasn’t grown very tall. I was fed up with the ugly cage and the space it took up in the run so I decided to let the shrub free. I decided that if it got stripped it didn’t matter too much as there are plenty of established plants in their run.

As soon as I uncovered it the girls were straight to it to investigate. They scratched around it and set about stripping the leaves from it despite having had their mid morning spinach.

The girls are very interested in this plant

Only broody Topaz is missing as she is sitting the nest box.

I don’t think this plant will last long

There are plenty of other established plants in the run

The hypericum is just starting to flower

This shades the table which is probably why that is a favourite place to sit and they also have the apple tree too.

By the afternoon the shrub has been stripped to peck height

It will probably go further and get stripped to jump height next. Only tall things can survive the girls but luckily there are plenty of big and tall things in here already so this little shrub can just take it’s chance.

I did a post a little while ago about what I thought was a pretty weed that had arrived on our front drive. A few days ago I phoned my mum and she told me that my uncle had identified it as a plant. My mum gave me it’s scientific name and I googled it for more information.

Here is the plant on our front drive

A closer look

And a little closer

It’s scientific name is cymbalaria muralis. It has many common names such as:

ivy-leaved toadflax, kenilworth ivy, colseum ivy, mother of thousands, wanderingsailor or chaenohinum and blue dream.

It is an alpine rockery plant excellent for growing in between flagstones, crevices in walls, on rockeries, in gravel gardens, in containers or hanging baskets and in borders. It is easy to grow, takes little maintenance and self seeds.

All of this explains why it is thriving on neglect on our gravel drive.

It is a hardy evergreen and has a height and spread of eight by eight inches.

It has little scalloped leaves with tiny lilac-blue snapdragon like flowers. It has it’s heaviest blooms in spring but flowers all summer long.

So there you have it! I am so glad that we decided to keep it.

I have been having a terrible struggle  making a decision about Sparkle. This morning when I threw out the corn she didn’t even come down from where she was perched. I lifted her down and she had a few bits of corn then drifted away uninterested.

I had no lunches to deliver today but we are doing a B.B.Q. for sixty from five o’clock onwards so I thought it best to ring the vet while I have a free day. I got an appointment for eleven o’clock.

I picked Sparkle up and put her in the cat box for the last time. I thought that I would just take one last photo of her but seconds later her eyes gradually closed and I knew then that I was making the right decision.

Goodbye Sparkle

Sparkle’s eyes gradually closed

I think Sparkle may have been nearing her end anyway but I couldn’t let her suffer any longer.

The vet said that if she had still been eating he would have offered some different antibiotics but as she wasn’t eating there was nothing more to do for her. He said she felt much thinner than when he last examined her and said that I was doing the right thing.

He was very good and let me hold her while he gave her an injection in her tummy. She very quickly went to sleep but I was surprised how long it was before she went. I could still feel her breathing and talked to her, stroked her and cried for her.

The vet said it takes time to get round her bloodstream but that she was asleep and couldn’t feel anything. After about ten minutes he said he would give her a little more to speed it up and then he listened to her heart and said that she was gone. He said he would leave me for a minute and that I could take as long as I wanted.

I stroked her beautiful plumage and when he came back in I said that I was ready to leave now. He had asked me if I wanted to take her but I said that now that she was gone, it’s over and I don’t need to take her.

It cost sixty pounds which I think is quite a lot but I still think it’s worth it to give her a peaceful end. My husband and myself both know that we couldn’t do it so it’s the only way for us.

I carried the empty cat box across the car park while sobbing and hoping no one was watching.

Once back home I began to feel a bit better because I know it was the right thing to do and I have been wrangling with this for so long now. It has been seven weeks since she first showed signs of something being wrong and in all that time I haven’t seen her eat pellets and once did she have a dust bath.

I think it was probably because she had always had the most voracious appetite and was our fattest hen that she lasted so long. I have only had her a year and last year she was my best layer so this was really unexpected.

In four years of chicken keeping I lost Treacle right at the start at only nine months old and now I have lost two girls in two months.

As a tribute to Sparkle I thought I would end with a few photos of her.

Sparkle four days ago still beautiful even in ill health

Sparkle had the fluffiest bottom of all the girls

Sparkle

And then there were six. Goodbye Sparkle.

Yesterday morning Sparkle half heartedly joined in with the morning corn. After that she refused anything I offered her. The only thing she does now is a little preening. She was always the girl that preened the most and had the fluffiest feathers and in fact still does.

The rest of the day she just sits, sometimes in a patch of sun, sometimes on a perch and often on the table.

At one point her flock mates joined her on the table.

Five girls on the table

Topaz is sitting at the back, Peaches and Barley are the book ends and Emerald is on the right, Sparkle is in the front. Honey was in the nest box trying to lay her egg (she takes ages) and Toffee always a bit of a loner was wandering around the run.

I visited Jackie and her flock today and then bought her here to visit my flock and see what she thought about Sparkle. Sparkle was always a favourite of Jackie’s and I wanted her opinion on the situation. I told her that I am at a crossroads where I don’t want to give up on Sparkle too soon if there is a chance for her but I don’t want her to suffer either.

I am afraid of giving up too soon but equally I know that chickens hide their suffering and I don’t want Sparkle to starve herself to a slow death and suffer. I picked Sparkle up and gave her to Jackie to hold as she did a few weeks ago. Jackie said she could feel how much thinner Sparkle was. Sparkle had always been our fat hen which may be why she has survived this for so long. She always had the biggest appetite and was plump with a waddle in her walk. Now she doesn’t look so bad as she has the fluffiest feathers of all but when picked up she feels so much thinner than she did.

All she does now is eat a little corn in the morning, preen a little and then sit all day much of the time dosing. Sometimes when sitting she has her head down and her sad eyes keep shutting. I can see her in eyes that things are badly wrong with her.

Jackie said that she felt only a miracle could help Sparkle now and that I have to make the tough decision to end her suffering because keeping her going is for me and not what is best for Sparkle. I have done every thing in my power to help her but it’s been a month now and whereas with Emerald and Amber I could entice them to eat and build their strength with Sparkle the refusal to eat anything makes any progress impossible.

I can hardly bare to make this decision but I know in my heart that I need to make it soon for Sparkle’s sake. I almost hope to find her gone in the morning but that is only to make it easier for me and I wonder how long she can linger on if she just starves herself.

I know that I must make this awful decision very soon. I will give it one more day and then I must decide.

This morning as planned I separated Sparkle and gave her some corn and spinach as this is all she will eat now. I have given up on the pellet mash as she refuses to touch it. She ate some of the corn and a little spinach.

After an hour I let her out again as it was obvious that she wouldn’t eat any more. At lunch time I repeated the process. She voiced her complaint and refused to eat anything. Again I let her out after an hour.

Sparkle seems determined to only eat in the mornings so I think it’s a waste of time to separate her any more. It only distresses her. I think the time has come to leave her be and wait and see how she goes on. I can’t force her to eat. I am so frustrated by this but I am all out of ideas now.

Sparkle spent her afternoon perched up as usual

Her flock mates watch over her

Whatever will be will be.