Carol's Chickens

Anyone who has chickens will have experienced the trance stare. Two girls will be staring at each other and will be as still as statues. I think it is probably a pecking order thing and they are waiting to see who will break away first. My husband jokes that they are communicating telepathically. He imagines a stream of messages passing between them.

Yesterday Topaz and Barley were doing this stare. I tried to get a photo but it’s not quite perfect because the camera distracted Barley and she slightly shifted her gaze towards me. It’s the best I have though and it gives a good idea of what the trance stare looks like. We call it that because the two girls appear to go into a trance like state and they stand motionless beak to beak.

Topaz and Barley do the trance stare

I like the way Peaches is in the background watching with interest. You can still see the trance in Topaz eyes but Barley has just broken away slightly. They are funny girls.

This morning we were surprised that Sparkle was sitting in the nest box. After her soft shelled egg the day before it seemed unlikely that she would lay again so soon.

Once again when Toffee wanted to lay her egg she chose company rather than one of the two empty nest boxes. Toffee really does seem to like company when laying her eggs which is quite unusual.

Sparkle and Toffee in the left coop

Toffee soon laid her egg but Sparkle was still in the coop. I started to think something was wrong. I lifted Sparkle out of the coop and she was slow and a bit wobbly. I tried to tempt her to eat and dropped chopped grapes in front of her but she ignored them. This wasn’t a good sign.

I offered her scrambled egg, mash and sunflower seeds along with chopped grapes and all she managed was two little bits of grape and about two sunflower seeds. She did a very liquid watery poop and then went to the water.

Poor Sparkle by the water

She drank quite a bit and then returned to the nest box. By now I was worried. A little later I lifted her out again and tried to temp her with food but again she showed no interest. She did another watery poop and went back to drinking the water.

I was by now beginning to feel alarmed. I picked her up and inspected her. I could hear a slight bubbly sound from her beak. Her eyes were clear and no liquid from her beak but there was a faint rattle as she was breathing. I thought this may be a respiratory problem and decided that I would need a visit to the vet.

I googled respiratory problems and it mentioned that it could effect egg shell quality, lethargy and lack of appetite were also symptoms. I phoned the vet and managed to get an appointment an hour later. Luckily the chicken expert who I have seen before was available.

I put Sparkle in a cat box with pine shavings and threw in a hand full of sunflower seeds just in case she decided to eat. She was very well behaved in the cat box and just sat quietly.

When I took her out and handed her to the vet she pecked him which was a surprise as she has never pecked anyone before. He listened to her chest and said that it was all clear but he could hear the slight rasping from her throat. He said it was rather like us getting a cold or flue and  that it was in her throat but hadn’t reached her chest.

He gave me liquid baytril to give her for ten days. When I put her back in the cat box she pecked at the sunflower seeds and he said she seemed hungry.

Back home I measured out the baytril and put it on a piece of bread (I wouldn’t usually give bread but needs must). She slowly ate it and I then put in the cat box some chopped grapes, sunflower seeds, corn, mash and water. At times like this if I can get them to eat anything I don’t care what it is as long as they eat something. I needed to build her strength back up.

I left her in the cat box for about half an hour until she had eaten all the grape, sunflower seeds, corn and some of the mash plus water. I then returned her to the flock.

When I gave them a handful of sunflower seeds before bedtime she joined in even though she was a bit slower than usual. She was looking more her usual self and better than she had all day. I felt relieved and felt glad that I had acted quickly and made the right decision to take her to the vet. The cost was twenty eight pounds which I thought was quite reasonable.

Before bedtime she was perched up next to Topaz as usual. I will put her in the cat box each morning with some bread soaked with the baytril to make sure she gets her dose and then return her to the run.

I am hopeful that having caught it early she will be okay. Just when everything seems to be running smoothly there is always something else to throw a spanner in the works. I really hope she will be okay now.

Yesterday was a dramatic day in the nest boxes although I could say every day has it’s dramas. Yesterday was quite typical but I don’t always take photos or report about it.

One of the less usual things yesterday was that Sparkle didn’t look her usual self and had the look that I recognise as a girl about to lay a soft shelled egg. She looked a bit less enthusiastic about the morning greens and just a bit off is all I can describe it as, because it wasn’t the full poorly look that Amber used to have, but I knew she just didn’t look her usual self.

I have mentioned before that Toffee seems to like sharing a nest box which is quite unusual in itself because most of the girls like a bit of privacy when laying their eggs. Peaches and Barley in particular will growl when another girl looks in on them.

Topaz is our resident broody so she often occupies a nest box even though she doesn’t actually lay any eggs.

The process of going in the nest boxes and getting ready to lay eggs involves a lot of shouting so I am well aware of events taking place and yesterday I decided to record some of this. I also find the girls that are not ready to lay (and I have to say Barley and Peaches in particular) do like to be nosey and watch the proceedings. Honey and Emerald are close behind this pair for doing this but these two girls are the ones always on watch and often shouting about it to let me know what is going on.

So to begin, Topaz as usual took up residence in a nest box and Toffee decided that she should share.

Toffee shares the right nest box with topaz

Toffee looks in on Sparkle in the left nest box

Barley is taking a look at Toffee and Sparkle in the nest box

Just a little note for my mum, she found this really comical so I thought that I would  capture a little bit more of this. Sparkle is sitting in the nest box and you can just see Toffee’s leg as she is watching her.

Peaches joins Barley watching Toffee who is in turn watching Sparkle in the nest box

Honey also wants to see what is going on, these girls are really nosey about who is in the nest box

Emerald wants to know what is going on too

Soon after this photo I just missed Emerald on the nest box craning her neck down to look in like Barley and Peaches earlier. I will have to catch that photo another time. At this point she was as usual more interested in me.

Meanwhile Toffee went back in the right nest box with topaz

Toffee changes her mind and goes back in the left nest box with Sparkle and a few minutes later lays her egg

Sparkle then remained in the nest box for a very long time. She then came out and I checked the nest box and found this.

Sparkle’s soft shelled egg

It looked like it was just an egg yolk in a membrane but once I opened it I found it was yolk and white in a soft shell. The shell was like paper.

Sparkle’s egg

The yolk came out first then the white beside it and above is the paper like soft shell now folded. I hope this is just a blip as Sparkle’s first egg of the year had a thin shell (not as thin as this) but they have been fine since then, until now. She didn’t look too poorly and afterwards bounced right back and was soon at the food bowl. Note the lovely colour of the yolk. All my girl’s eggs are this lovely rich colour due to their varied diet and daily greens.

I wonder if  too many treats have caused the thin shell. I will give the girls a big bowl of mash today to make sure they eat what they should be eating. I will also scramble the egg and feed it back to them. I give them a small amount of sunflower seeds first thing and corn last thing or visa versa and greens mid morning, apple at lunch time and either fish, egg or yogurt once every one or two weeks. I think this is a good regime but occasionally maybe they get a bit extra when we have visitors and I have to be careful to keep the balance healthy for them.

After the musical nest box manoeuvres, Toffee laid first followed by Emerald and Honey,  once again together in the main coop nest box, then Sparkle’s soft egg followed by Barley’s egg in the left coop.

Five eggs is a good day as only six girls are laying because seventh girl, broody Topaz, doesn’t lay. It was the usual drama with a bit extra from Sparkle which of course we would rather not have, but the drama of musical nest boxes is really all part of a day in the life of this little flock.

I had to get all of that into the title as I didn’t want to set off alarm bells. Stress is definitely one of the factors in feather pulling. This year, Mid March, Honey struggled at the start of laying. She laid one egg with no shell then another with a thin shell. She looked quite poorly while this was happening and then we noticed she was pulling a few feathers from bottoms.

My heart sank as I wondered if this habit was going to be a problem among the flock once more when I had made so many changes to stop this happening. Honey’s eggs were fine after that and we didn’t see any more feather pulling so I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then Amber died and during the days after she went we noticed Honey pulling feathers from bottoms again. Again my heart sank and I thought how unfair it seemed that once again a death amongst my flock seemed to spark this behaviour.

We saw her try to pluck feathers from Topaz and Topaz would round on her and give her the warning peck to stay away. We saw her pull feathers from Peaches and Barley and their bottoms began to show small bare patches. I thought it odd that she was targeting the top and bottom girls.

When Steve asked me how Honey was since Amber had gone I told him about this and said that I hoped it would pass. He said I should post about it because if it passed it would reassure others and if it didn’t I would have to post about it anyway.

Happily this only continued for about four days and we haven’t seen it happening since so I believe it has passed. I believe it was the loss Honey felt at Amber going that sparked this, as they had been together since they were chicks.

Today I took photos of bottoms to demonstrate this and the fact that it was difficult to see it in a photo shows that it isn’t actually that bad and I was grateful that it was only bottoms and not heads and necks like before. I also think that as Pepper and Dotty were so closely bonded this allowed Pepper to pull feathers from Dotty’s neck but Honey isn’t close enough to any of the other flock members for them to allow this behaviour.

Sparkle and Toffee have lovely fluffy bottoms

Emerald also has a fluffy bottom

Topaz has a bare patch on the left side of her bottom

See the little pink patch showing on the left.

Peaches also has a a bare patch on the left side of her bottom

Again you can just see a pink patch.

Barley has missing feathers behind her wing

Again it is the left side of her bottom under her wing. It’s odd that all three girls have missing feathers from the left side, I wonder if this has some relevance, such as being an easier side to sneak up on perhaps.

I have to apologise to the girls for trying to sneak up behind them and photograph their bottoms but I feel I must tell every story.

I will be keeping a close eye on them but thankfully I do believe this phase has passed for now.

It’s been over a week since Amber went and I have just realised that in that time I haven’t taken any photos of the girls or posted about them. Somehow I just haven’t felt able to. After my post about Amber passing I did one on the garden, one on my birthday plaque, one on the apple tree and one on the veg plot.

I need to get back to the girls but somehow it’s just felt too painful. Ironically two days before we lost Amber, Steve my eldest son and I.T. guy, set me up with a new computer as my old one had become really slow and my photos were not importing which was a real problem to me for my blog. I chose my favourite photo of the girls having yogurt, with all eight of them in shot, as my screen saver.

My screen saver

Steve put this on my computer on Thursday evening and I love this photo. Saturday morning I found Amber’s dead body and now every morning I switch on my computer and there she is in the middle of this shot with her beak in the yogurt. It tugs at my heartstrings, she is so cute. I still absolutely love this photo.

Today I decided that as a part of moving on I would give the girls yogurt again and take some photos.

The girls have yogurt as a treat

Look at those yogurt beaks!

Enjoying the yogurt taken from a different angle

Notice in all three photos Peaches and Barley are together eating from the same dish. They remain as inseparable as ever.

Honey has been the most changed by Amber’s passing. Amber and Emerald had formed a little friendship and would often sit together and Honey never much bothered about sitting with any of the girls.

Since Amber has gone Honey has taken to sitting with Emerald and also to going in the nest box with her. Yesterday Honey and Emerald were settled side by side in the main coup nest box. When I went back a little later they were out in the run and their eggs were side by side in the nest box. This is when I realised that I should have taken a photo. They looked so sweet settled in the nest box together. I will try to get a photo another time.

Another slight change in Honey is her behaviour leading up to bedtime. Early evening the girls settle on the high perches ready for bed but when we check in on them after our evening meal we always find Toffee, Peaches and Barley still out in the run. These three are always the last to perch up in the evening.

Since Amber has been gone Honey now comes back down from the perch to greet us when we check in on them. She then stays out in the run with the usual trio until they are ready to perch up. It’s as if since Amber has gone Honey is participating with the flock more than she did before.

Toffee has also changed but this isn’t anything to do with Amber it’s just been a gradual change. She used to be so shy and nervous but she has really grown in confidence recently. She now doesn’t mind me being close to her. She has become really nosey when I am doing anything in the run and comes to investigate and she now jumps to the coop roof to get on eye level with me which she never used to do. It has taken a year for Toffee to become really confident around us. It is lovely to see her blossom and makes me much more fond of her than when she would have nothing to do with me.

Despite the loss of Amber the flock are really united and apart from perpetually broody Topaz they are all laying well. We had our record breaking total of one hundred eggs last month and this was from just six girls as Amber wasn’t laying and Topaz laid only one. On quite a few days we are getting four eggs a day and sometimes we are getting five eggs a day. I wonder if we will ever get six as it will be unlikely that Topaz will lay on one of the days that everyone else does but you never know.

My remaining girls are all quite robust whereas Amber was always fragile so I am hopeful that my flock of seven should be quite settled for some time or at least I hope so. You never know what chickens are going to throw at you.

Yesterday we completed planting the veg plot. The forecast for the over night temperature  is a bit higher than it has been lately so we feel reasonably confident that we are past any frosts.

The broad beans and leeks were already in and the seed potatoes are now showing. Yesterday we planted runner beans, tomatoes and courgettes. It doesn’t look very impressive yet but I thought I would take some photos now and then some later to compare how well it does.

The veg plot is all planted

View of the veg plot from the other direction

The runner beans are on the right and you can just see the potatoes showing through. The tomatoes are on the left then the courgettes behind them and the broad beans further down. The leeks are alongside the path but are so fine that they don’t show up yet.

This year we decided to limit ourselves to just the crops that always do best in the hope that we will have more success. Now we just to have to watch them grow.

When we had the chicken run built we had it built with the existing large shrubs and the apple tree left inside it. We planted the apple tree when we moved here eight years ago.

The apple tree produced more apples each year than the year before and they were really good to eat. What I hadn’t anticipated was that once the apple tree was enclosed with weld mesh the bees stopped coming in to pollinate the blossom. For the last three years there have been no apples at all on the tree.

I wasn’t that bothered because I thought it was nice that the run had a tree and the chickens are much more important to me than having apples. The tree also looks very pretty when it is in blossom.

The chicken’s apple tree

Apple blossom

This year I thought I might experiment with pollinating the blossom myself using a small paint brush. As I give the girls apples in the afternoon, to give them something to peck at, it would be good if they had their own supply for a while.

I have no idea if this will work but there is nothing to lose so I will give it a go. Watch this space.

Today Jackie and I arranged to see each other and we went to the allotments to pick a bagful each of dandelion leaves for our girls.

Jackie said she had my birthday present but couldn’t wait for my birthday (which is the twenty fifth of May) to give it to me.

Jackie knows that I always call my flock girlie’s, I often think that they must all think their name is girlie. She thought I could hang this plaque over the corner where the girls have their dandelion patch and where Amber is laid to rest. As soon as I got home my husband hung it for me.

My birthday present from Jackie

Bleeding hearts

I thought that after Amber’s recent passing these bleeding hearts just outside the run seemed appropriate and beautiful.

I just love my plaque, thank you Jackie.

It’s been hard to get back to my blog after losing Amber. It’s odd when I go in the run and do a head count to see who is laying and count seven instead of eight. It’s odd in the morning when I poop pick the coop and Amber isn’t standing in the nest box watching me and chatting away.

The day she went the girls stayed together in a tight group all day. The first evening after she was gone the girls all perched up together on one perch instead of spread out like they usually do.

When I cleaned the coop in the morning the poop was all under one perch instead of spread out evenly as it usually is.

The oddest thing of all was that the next day Honey followed my every move as I poop picked the run all the time making a sad little whimpering noise. I really think she was missing Amber.

Everything moves on of course and I thought a good way to kick start the blog again was to look to the garden. It’s bluebell time in the garden so I thought would try to capture this.

Morning tulips among the bluebells

Afternoon tulips among the bluebells

Bluebells

Bluebells and helibore

Spring colour

I have been looking at recent photos of Amber and she looked so good. At least she went out on a high, looking her best and not suffering. We have two years of memories of her and I will always remember her when I see the bluebells.

This has been a difficult post to write. I was shocked to find Amber dead this morning. At first light I could hear Peaches and Barley shouting. I couldn’t decide whether to go out and investigate but as they lay most days and had missed laying yesterday I decided that they were probably just about to lay. I recognise their shout as it’s quite distinct from the other girls and they always do a bit of shouting before laying. Being as it’s Saturday and we had no need to be up early I decided to stay in bed a bit longer.

When I went out to the run as soon as I was through the gate I saw a body just outside the pop hole. I knew it was Honey or Amber and as soon as I got close I realised it was Amber. She was on her back and her head feathers were raised so it seems that she had been dragged out of the coop. I realised that was what the shouting was about and felt bad that I hadn’t gone out although it wouldn’t have changed anything. There was a bare patch in the coop just inside the pop hole and she had some shavings on her so I felt sure she had died just inside the coop and been dragged out. She hadn’t been touched other than that.

I picked her up and there was no obvious sign of anything wrong with her. She has always been the runt of the litter with her small size, her little hump shaped back and her inability to lay eggs. We always knew she was vulnerable but lately she has looked in the peak of health. Even in death her face and comb were a lovely red colour.

I laid her on a sheet of paper (a catering sheet) in the shed while I did the morning poop pick. I sobbed as I worked, I just couldn’t help myself.

We have had her exactly two years this month which is longer than we thought we would have her. We thought we were going to lose her so many times in the past but recently she had been so well that this came as a total shock.

Yesterday Jackie and I collected some broccoli stalks from the allotment for both our flocks. I took some photos of the girls with the broccoli intending to take some more photos once the broccoli was stripped and use them in a post. Little did I know that they would be my last photos of Amber. Amber joined in with the broccoli enthusiastically and you can see from the photos that her comb is a lovely red colour.

Broccoli stalk

The girls are enjoying the broccoli

Amber is on the left and Honey on the right. Amber has a lovely red comb and was enjoying the broccoli.

Amber had only laid one egg this year and that was five weeks ago. Despite that she would have a twirl round or sit a while in the nest box most mornings when I clean the coop. I know that whatever has caused her death it is probably to do with the little bump on her back and her egg laying problems. I know that the fact that she wasn’t laying eggs meant there was a problem and yet she was chatty and lively and seemed fine.

Yesterday she enjoyed the broccoli and when my husband swept up the dirt the girls had scratched onto the path and tipped it in their run she sprang to it to pick out the blossom petals from it. She also went running round the run with grapes at lunch time in the same way as she always did. She chatted, dust bathed, ran around and scratched in the dirt as usual. At bedtime she perched up next to Honey. When I put the girls to bed and lifted her down to the coop she was just the same as usual. In fact I thought how full all their crops were after their feast on the broccoli.

That’s why it was such a shock this morning. On the positive side she wasn’t unwell and didn’t suffer. She didn’t need any trips to the vet and I didn’t have any difficult decisions to make. She had a stress free life with no one pulling feathers and none of the feeling ill when laying eggs that she had had in the past and she had had a good last day feasting on broccoli.

We decided to bury her in the garden but our garden is so full that it’s difficult to find a space where a deep hole can be dug. I decided to lift the dandelions from the girl’s strip of garden next to the run and bury her there. My husband dug a really deep hole and I wrapped Amber in the sheet of paper. I then planted the dandelions over her. It seemed fitting somehow that she was underneath the dandelion patch and next to her flock.

My husband made a rough cross from our kindling. He said that although it was a bit crude it’s what they do in the westerns and I was quite touched.

Amber’s resting place

Honey and Peaches are watching over her.

When I picked Amber up this morning Honey and Barley had a little spat. Amber had been next in line below Honey and I think that Honey was showing Barley that she is now next in line below her.

Each time I go into the run I always do a quick head count to see who is missing so that I can check who is laying. It has been weird today counting seven instead of eight. My husband said that he would miss her too.

She was so full of character, feisty, funny, chatty and so cute looking. Of the two of them Amber had a prettier face and shape than Honey and she had more personality.

I wanted to end with a few recent photos of Amber as my tribute to her.

Amber in the nest box

Amber used to stand in the nest box like this nearly every morning while I poop picked.

Amber’s sweet little face

Amber had such a sweet face and always looked so cute.

Amber on the coop

Amber liked to get on eye level with me and would jump on to the coop to chat to me.

I will really miss her.