Carol's Chickens

This morning I decided to give the girls some corn cobs as a treat that would keep them occupied. I took three half corn cobs and cut them in half again so that I had six small bits and put them on the chicken patio where they immediately got the girl’s attention.

I went back half an hour later and they had all been rolled into the run and were absolutely caked with dirt and abandoned. I really should have known better! I gathered them up and rinsed them under the tap then put them into two of the square bird suet containers. I got this idea from Terry of “Hen Cam” and I don’t know why I didn’t just do this in the first place. From now on I will always do this.

It soon got the girl’s interest and it wasn’t long before they got the hang of it.

Amber and Honey were the first to check it out

Barley takes a look

Toffee photo bombs

I kept this photo because I rarely get a close up of Toffee as she is the most shy girl of all but for some reason she just ran towards the camera. The next two shots were too close.

It soon got their interest

They are all interested except Toffee

Toffee never takes part in treats unless they are scattered on the ground. Again because she is shy she won’t get involved in treats if they are in any kind of container. If I have mash or fish in dishes I will drop some on the ground in front of Toffee so that she gets a share.

Toffee is very much a loner and doesn’t get involved in a lot of the flock activities and yet she isn’t bottom girl. She will peck at Emerald to show Emerald that she is below her and Emerald in turn will peck at Peaches and Barley to let them know they are below her.

Later when I returned I turned round the containers so that the girls could get to the other side of the corn cobs. By the end of the day the cobs were pecked bare. I think they had fun with this.

A couple of weeks ago I spent some time with Jackie while integrating her new girls in their walk in run for the first time. It went really well and Jackie has continued to mix the flock in the run but hadn’t yet let the new girls free range in the garden with the other girls. We had arranged that I would spend some time with Jackie this afternoon to give her some moral support while the flock free ranged together for the first time.

The old girls were in the garden and the new girls in the run when Jackie opened the gates. The new girls were reluctant to leave the safety of their run and had to be enticed out with some corn and the gates shut so that they didn’t immediately go back in.

Soon all the girls were pecking at the corn together.

Corn on the patio

The girls mingle with the help of some corn

We felt it was going really well. The one who took most notice of the new girls, was as we had suspected it would be, Blossom (formerly my Bluebell). Blossom as bottom girl, was determined to show them that they were going to stay below her in the pecking order. It wasn’t anything too bad though, mostly just running at them and just an odd peck to the back of the neck.

Jackie decided to open up the gates again so that the new girls could return to the run if they wanted to and they immediately went back into the run. While we chatted and kept an eye on them the new girls became a bit more brave and came out of the run again on their own.

They started to explore a bit and Ruby came over to the patio door.

Ruby seemed intrigued by her reflection in the patio door

A close up of Ruby

Ruby and Chelsea stick together

It was a bit like two gangs, as Jackie put it, with the old girls in one gang and the new girls sticking together.

The patio furniture seemed to make them feel safe

A close up of Chelsea

Chelsea seemed to like the safety of the patio table.

We agreed that it had gone really well and I think they will all be fine together. We are sure that the new girls will soon grow in confidence and soon the flock will be used to free ranging together. A job well done I think and I will be checking in on their progress as usual.

I recently realised that the small rosemary bush that I had planted in the chicken run last summer had died. The large rosemary bush in our garden is a vivid green whereas the chicken’s rosemary bush was grey.

I decided to take away the protective frame around it and let the girls have it. Within minutes they had found it and when I returned about half an hour later it had already been stripped of all it’s needle like leaves.

I pulled it from the ground and let the girls get to it’s roots. I am not bothered about losing it as there are seven shrubs plus the apple tree in the chicken run so they have plenty of other plants.

This small plant gave the girls so much entertainment. Every time I went in to the girls the plant would have been moved from one end of the run to the other. This was yesterday and by the end of the day the roots had been picked clean.

Today the girls have managed to get the plant to the only sunny spot in the run and were still having fun with it.

Sparkle pecks at the roots

Barley pecks at the roots

Emerald and Peaches join in the fun

The girls congregate in a patch of sun

What I love about this photo is that it looks as if the dividing wire is a mirror and the girls on the other side look like reflections.

Only Sparkle is missing from this photo as she is still pecking at the plant which is just beyond the foreground of this photo. The other thing about this photo is that the flock very often sit together but are never bothered if some of them are on the other side of the wire. It seems that as long as they are close and can see each other they feel together and a wire between them makes no difference.

The other small change I made yesterday was to move one of the wooden blocks. I originally placed the two wooden blocks beyond the chicken’s patio area for me to use as stepping stones when it was muddy. Yesterday it suddenly occurred to me (I have no idea why this didn’t occur to me sooner) that this was the driest part of the run and that not only did I not need a stepping stone but it was taking up dry dust bathing and scratching space.

I decided to leave the first block as it is a handy step down from the patio but to move the other block to a different position as the girls do like to sit on it at times.

The block in it’s new position

The second block was where Sparkle is in this photo. It is now behind the log on the left of the photo. This gives a bigger dry area (where Sparkle is) for dust bathing and scratching. It’s such a simple improvement that I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before.

Synchronised drinking

It always amuses me how as soon as one girl goes for a drink another will join her.

Synchronised eating

At the same time one girl went to the food bowl and was immediately joined by a couple more girls.

The girls are such a tight flock and everything must be done together.

Topaz

My final photo is of Topaz looking so good with her red comb and wattles. She laid her fourth egg this year a few days ago which compared to her total of six last year is quite amazing. I really think this is going to be her year.

At the weekend we visited a few charity shops as we are always looking for vintage crockery to add to our crockery hire business. I found this for a pound and couldn’t resist it.

Chicken tea strainer rest

I will use it as a spoon rest. A bargain for a pound and just so cute!

This morning I gave the girls some spinach. I like to give them some greens each morning.

Spinach

They are all looking so beautiful and this is just an excuse to get a photo of the flock really.

We are planning some changes to the coop in the spring. As anyone who follows me regularly will know my girls like to perch high at night and don’t go into their coop. They roost on the high perches over their patio area and at dusk I lift them down and pop them in the coop. I leave a torch inside the pop hole until they settle then remove it and close the door.

I don’t mind putting them in each night but I know they are not best pleased with the arrangement and I often hear them bumping about in the coop before they settle which is probably not great for them. It also makes me reluctant to consider going away for a weekend.

Recently my husband came up with a plan to give them a high shed with high perches and try to encourage them to put themselves to bed at night. This has come about for several reasons. We are thinking towards semi retirement in the near future.

We have worked for seven days a week for many years (we are self employed caterers) and we don’t have holidays and rarely go out. We have been working our socks off to chip away at our mortgage and are now in a position where we should be able to pay it off by April. hurrah! There will be a celebration and we will go out.

We then intend to work less and have already given up doing hot food events and functions where we have to attend. We would like to cut out weekends and gradually slow down a bit. We would also like to make more of our hobbies to enrich our retirement (or semi retirement).

My husband has taken over our back bedroom for his model railway and he would like to make my chicken keeping work as best it possibly can.

The back boundary of the chicken’s run (their patio area) is a large shed that runs the width of our garden and houses our two business freezer’s and crockery and glassware that would cater for two hundred and fifty people plus all sorts of other catering equipment. In front of this shed is our small garden shed. The back of the large shed provides our boundary and is in poor shape. It is however standing on a concrete base.

We don’t need the crockery and equipment now that we are not doing hot food and large functions so the plan is to gradually get rid of it all, which isn’t going to be an easy task!

My husband’s plan is to have a really sturdy fence constructed as our boundary and to have it on a concrete base. We will then lay a path of flags or concrete inside the fence to allow us to be able to sweep up leaves.

We intend to buy a really good shed for the chickens of a similar width as their patio. It must be strong and tongue and groove so that it’s waterproof. We will have to give it some ventilation. It will have a full size door for me to enter from outside but we will make a pop hole through the side into the chickens patio area. We intend to make a sloped ladder of perches so that the chooks can easily get up and down to perch and won’t poop on the girls below. It will be on the concrete floor and will have a thick layer of pine shavings on the floor and I will poop pick each morning as I do now.

The important thing is that it is predator proof and rat proof as well as being water proof and having some ventilation. Having concrete and another fence behind will stop anything from being able to dig in.

I will entice the girls in with corn and get them used to the perches and once we have removed the perches from the patio area I hope they will then go in at bedtime. We can remove the coop from the patio area and intend to use the automatic door from the current coop on the new shed.

If the girls put themselves to bed at night I would feel happier about having weekends away sometimes during the summer months.

We will then have another bigger shed next to it for the freezers with a separate section for the garden tools. We can then get rid of the garden shed and create a seating area in it’s place. This would give us room for patio furniture and we would benefit from the lovely brick wall which is hidden behind the garden shed. We want to make everything look as attractive as possible.

This is going to be quite a project but we feel it will look better and be more practical. We intend to stay in this house so we want to get this right.

Meanwhile an update on the egg laying. Peaches and Barley laid a total of twenty five eggs in December compared to just eleven in January. I did wonder if it was due to low light levels but lately have been finding some fine, tiny, feathers from them. I think they may be having a mini moult. There are a few in the dust bath and the coop overnight and a few flutter from them when they are preening. This may be why their eggs have slowed down.

Topaz has so far laid three eggs and continues to practise most days.

I am looking forward to spring to getting the mortgage paid and starting our project and maybe even having my little flock put themselves to bed. I can but hope!

Today Jackie and I had arranged that we would spend the morning together while integrating her girls. Jackie had a bit of loss of confidence without Ian and I had an unusual free (no lunch orders) day so it seemed a good time.

Jackie has changed April’s name to Chelsea in memory of Ian as Chelsea was the team he followed and he watched every match. Ian had actually named Ruby for their ruby wedding anniversary in March and it was the first time Ian had named any of their chickens so it is a bit special.

It was an awful morning, raining and very windy. We were going to let the old girls free range and open up the walk in run for the new girls to explore but soon the rain dictated that this wasn’t going to work. It may well have been a blessing because it moved things on more quickly.

We decided to get all six girls in the run which is under cover (persuaded with a handful of corn) and let them get on with on it. It was much easier than we expected and there wasn’t much fuss at all.

The thing that really surprised us was that head girl, Clover, seemed to be looking after the new girls. Clover stayed close by the new girls pecking at the ground but whenever Bluebell got close, Clover pecked her away, whereas she doesn’t usually take any notice of Bluebell. It was as if she was protecting the new girls.

As expected Blossom had a little peck at them every now and again but nothing too bad. They soon mingled without taking too much notice and as we spent a couple of hours together chatting and observing the girls we felt really pleased that it was going so well.

We chatted about Ian as we kept an eye on the girls and I think it was a good thing, we felt comforted by doing this together and by including him in every thing we talked about.

Chelsea is in the foreground and Ruby is behind her with Bonnie on the right, Blossom in the middle and Clover on the left

Clover is just leaving the scene

Chelsea photo bombs, Bluebell is on the left

Looking for corn together

One flock together

Jackie took away the little temporary coop that the new girls had been using overnight so that the flock would sleep together that night for the first time.

It was rather like two gangs with the old four together and the new two together but we were pleased by the lack of fuss and sure they would all be mixing as one flock very soon.

Jackie called me later to say that at bedtime there was a little bit of fuss but once the old girls went in she then put the new girls in with them and it was “job done”. We both feel pleased at how well it has gone. As Jackie says “tomorrow is another day”. She will keep me posted.

Mid morning when I paid the girls a visit they were in almost exactly the same positions as yesterday. Once again Topaz was the only one busy scratching.

Topaz was busy scratching and pecking

Emerald and Amber were together on their favourite little perch but the other way round from yesterday.

Emerald and Amber together as usual

The rest of the girls were on the other favourite perch in exactly the same order as yesterday but when I went to take a photograph Toffee jumped down.

The line up was the same as yesterday

You can see the space where Toffee had been and once again Emerald and Amber are in the background.

Toffee moved on to the table

I took the girls a dish of warm mash as it was a frosty day but when I returned later Emerald and Amber were back together on their little perch. They do seem to be good friends and they are all definitely creatures of habit.

This post is dedicated to Ian, Jackie’s dear beloved husband, of forty years who sadly died suddenly yesterday. This has been a huge shock and our thoughts are with Jackie and her family at this sad and difficult time.

Ian loved their chickens and Clover their oldest hen and top girl was his favourite. He also shared my husband’s interest in model railways. He visited our flock and took a look at my husband’s set up before Christmas.

Ian and Jackie had a lovely Christmas holiday together in Spain and Jackie I know will take some comfort from that and the fact that as it was so sudden Ian didn’t suffer.

Since I met Jackie through our shared love of chickens, we have become really good friends and I love her dearly. I have found that we have a lot in common and often have the same opinions on many subjects. We like reading the same books and of course we chat about chickens just a little!

I have been quite intrigued by the friendships in my flock too. Topaz is top girl and the only one in the flock with a grumpy nature. When she went broody last summer she was an angry broody, shouting and pecking at anyone who came near her, be that me or the rest of the flock.

Topaz doesn’t tolerate any of the girls getting in her way and anyone to get too close to her will get a swift peck. None of the girls are bothered at all by this. They know she is top girl and they move aside for her but soon bounce back seemingly not offended by her behaviour.

Today I went out to take some photos to illustrate this and as usual Topaz was scratching about and doing her own thing.

Topaz is looking great

Topaz has a lovely red comb and wattles and is the only one to start laying again since her moult.

The most interesting friendship to me is Amber and Emerald. Peaches and Barley are the closest of friends and are inseparable. This makes perfect sense to me though because they have been together since they hatched and together in my flock from six weeks old. They always perch together, dust bath together and perch next to each other at bedtime.

Amber and Emerald though have just become friends over time. They are often sat together during the day and nearly always perch together at bedtime. Often when they sit together they are a little apart from the rest of the flock and at bedtime they often choose the lowest right hand perch which has just enough space for the two of them.

Amber and Emerald always sit together

This little perch also only has room for two and seems to be their favourite. Amber is number four in the pecking order and bottom of her pair (Honey and Amber) and Emerald is number six in the pecking order and also bottom of her pair (Toffee and Emerald). Honey and Amber are friendly but Amber does seem to seek out Emerald to sit with and Honey and Amber rarely perch together at bedtime.

Toffee and Emerald who joined the flock together have nothing at all to do with each other and Toffee will chase Emerald away. Toffee is a loner and doesn’t seek out anyone to sit with but will randomly perch where ever she can fit in.

This is the favourite daytime perch

This perch is the one most used and as usual Peaches and Barley are next to each other. Honey is on the left, then Peaches, then Barley, then Toffee and Sparkle on the right. You can see Amber and Emerald in the background on the other side of the weld mesh.

I love seeing these friendships in the flock and love that all the girls have such different characters. They are often grouped together and are very much a flock despite Topaz being rather grumpy and Toffee being a bit of a loner.

Ian also got to see Jackie’s new girls and I know Jackie’s flock will help her by giving her something to focus on and take some comfort from. This has been a difficult post to write but I wanted to honour Ian and his love of chickens too. My heart goes out to Jackie and she knows that I will be there for her if she needs me.

Topaz was the first girl to start her moult after her broody spell. She is the first to get her red comb back and for the last few weeks she has been practising laying. She goes into a nest box, swirls around, sits for anything up to an hour then comes out shouting.

Every time I check there is no egg. Topaz has always done a lot of practise laying. Peaches and Barley both laid an egg six days ago and none since. They have slowed down from every other day to an egg each once a week.

On Sunday Topaz was in the right hand little coop but we didn’t hear her shouting as usual. When I checked the little coop there was an egg and it looked a little larger than Peaches or Barley’s egg but as we had eaten their eggs for breakfast that morning I didn’t have one to compare it with. I decided to wait until we got another egg before I jumped to conclusions.

Today Topaz was in the right hand little coop again and this time she did come out shouting. There was another egg in the right hand little coop the same size as the one on Sunday. Hurrah, Topaz is laying again.

A shop bought medium sized egg on the left and Topaz’s two eggs on the right

Maybe Topaz is going to lay properly this year. Well done Topaz!

Jackie has been trying to make up her mind for ages if the time is right for getting new girls. Finally she had made up her mind and we arranged to go and collect them this morning.

We set off on our adventure with my dog crate and our cameras to Willow Court Farm where Jackie got her new girls at this time last year. Jackie was thinking of getting a ginger and a bluebell but when we arrived the farmer said the only hybrids ready for sale at the moment were the ginger girls. They are warrens crossed with columbian blacktails.

As ginger girls have always been a favourite of Jackie’s she was happy to take two of them.

Ginger Chickens

Jackie with the first ginger girl to be caught

Two ginger girls ready for the journey home

The farm has a variety of animals as well as poultry.

The pigs

A young goat

Some very friendly goats

A Peacocks and hen just out of the photo

Holiday homes for chickens

The farm also a offers a holiday service. They will look after your hens in these holiday homes while you are away and they worm them during their stay here.

The new girls in their new home

The girls went into their new home happily and soon found the food bowl and the water. Jackie had already picked out names for them. She is calling one Ruby as it is her ruby wedding anniversary this year and the other April a it is her birthday in April. I thought these were pretty names. One of the girls is darker than the other so Jackie decided the darker one will be Ruby and the lighter one will be April.

Ruby and April

I stayed a while and the other girls were chatting about the new girls but not shouting. It all seemed to go very well.

Jackie e-mailed me this evening and said that they were noisy for a while this afternoon but it calmed down again and once the old girls went to bed Jackie put the new girls in their temporary coop. As Jackie said tomorrow is another day and she will keep me posted.