Carol's Chickens

A few times today we found Topaz in the hypericum bush. She would climb in from the table, head first, and try to reach the leaves higher up the bush. Peaches and Barley were either side of her waiting to see if any leaves fell.

Topaz has a new trick

Coming down

Who me!

I’m leaving the table

I don’t know how she knew I was there but as soon as I snapped the first photo she turned round and jumped out of the bush. She gave me her innocent look and casually left the table.

Emerald today

Emerald has now finished her second course of flubenvet. She is still gaping but she is eating, drinking, pooping, preening, scratching and dust bathing. She is eating pellets again which I think is a good sign.

I talked to the vet again yesterday. I showed him the photo of Emerald gaping and updated him. He is as mystified as I am. We both feel that if it was gape worm she would have responded to the worming treatment and he felt if it was a throat infection she would have responded to the antibiotic.

He said if it was an obstruction in her throat she would have difficulty swallowing and breathing and if it was a fungal infection in her throat she would also have difficulty breathing. He said the only thing he can suggest is to give it time and see what happens.

I know that if a chicken stops eating there is a serious problem but the encouraging thing is that she is eating. I just know that the gaping is not right and I still worry that we may lose her.

At the moment she is still happy and eating well so we can only wait and hope. It has been nearly a month now. I have grown so close to her as I have been hand feeding and medicating her. She stays close to me when I am cleaning the coop or go to the store cabinet in case I might slip her some extra corn or sunflower hearts. She has cottoned on to her special treatment. She was also waiting on the table this morning for me to give her the grape with flubenvet but was disappointed.

I am just willing her to get over this as she is beautiful and funny and endearing. I just can’t bare the thought of losing her. I can’t do any more than I have though. I will keep a close eye to make sure she continues to eat and will have just to give it time now.

Honey and Amber’s pin feathers are rapidly growing on their head and neck. I can’t wait to see them with their necks feathered at last.

Honey and Amber have lots of pin feathers on their head and neck

It looks like they will soon have feathered necks at last

On the photo above you can see where Honey, on the left, has had a peck to her comb and above her eye from Honey and Amber’s last spat. Honey has maintained her position above Amber though.

Close up of Amber’s neck

Close up of Honey’s neck

You can see one of Honey’s pins just starting to open into a little black feather. These girls will soon look beautiful again.

I wanted to show how Honey and Amber’s pin feathers are really coming along now but somehow when moulting the girls seem to have a loss of confidence and every time I got close to them they would turn away. I decided to take the photos when they are perched up tonight before bedtime and post about it tomorrow.

My resident poser however was only too pleased to have her photo taken. Not only had she photo bombed a few shots when I was trying to photograph Honey and Amber but she posed in the apple tree right in front of me and I just couldn’t resist.

Barley in the apple tree

I love how she has dirt on the end of her beak and her wattles from pecking around in the soil. She is a great poser but maybe not a show girl.

Peaches

You can’t really have one without the other.

Emerald

Emerald is a few days from completing the next seven days of flubenvet. She is still gaping but not so much. She is still not her usual self but she is dust bathing and preening. I am still hand feeding her as I have only seen her go to the pellets occasionally and very briefly. I think it is going to take time to get her back to normal. I still worry about her but am staying positive, as although very slowly, I think she is improving slightly. It’s been three weeks since she first started gaping.

Her face is very pale but it has always been very pale so it isn’t easy to judge her by that. She still feels strong when I pick her up at bedtime. I think it is going to be a waiting game and we have to just hang in there.

Last night when I went up to put the chickens to bed just after dusk I shone my torch on the path as I went so as not to stand on any slugs or snails. Lucky I did as there on the path in front of me was a toad struggling with a large worm.

It was so involved with it’s worm that it didn’t take any notice of me or my torch. I decided to head back inside and grab my camera.

I didn’t get close up as it was awkward shining the torch (it was now completely dark) and holding the camera and trying not to alarm it.

A toad with a worm under it’s right foreleg

It’s difficult to see but that is the worm under the right elbow. The toad is holding it down while the other end is in it’s mouth.

The toad struggles to get the worm down

It was contorting itself while trying get the worm down. Oddly enough this reminded me a bit of the chickens. Topaz sometimes pecks off a too big bit of grape and she holds her wings up to try to push it down. I do tell her not to swallow big bits but of course it falls on deaf ears.

The worm has almost gone

I moved round to the front of the toad

The worm has almost gone

The worm has gone

Once the worm had gone the toad ambled away. That was an unexpected interlude on my way up to the girls.

Our first winter with chickens, the winter before last, we had a real problem with rats getting into the run.

I wanted to keep rats out for several reasons. I like to leave the chicken food dishes out because in the summer the girls come out, at their earliest, at half past four and I want them to have food available but don’t want to go out at that time. Also in the winter when I have resorted to taking the dishes in it is difficult to pick up all the spilled pellets from the crevices of the patio.

I don’t want the rats fowling the run and I don’t want them around my chickens.

Unfortunately on the other side of the fence that borders the chicken’s patio there is some decking and that is a perfect place for rats to live and breed. Although we had put vertical tiles under the fence they were still digging under. We also had a wooden box that stepped down from the patio and they were tunnelling under this.

We also found a hole chewed through next door’s fence into our shed which forms the back of the chicken run and then through our shed into the run.

They were determined! We blocked the holes and we replaced the wooden box with concrete. We put chicken wire under the soil of the entire area next to the fence, topped with a horizontal layer of tiles then soil back on top.

They still got in but we could see they were trying to dig out then hitting the tiles. They had to be getting in through the roof. We sealed the roof area with a double layer of fine chicken wire.

At last we stopped them getting in and once that was achieved we put poison down in sheltered spots outside the run and once the poison stopped disappearing we knew we had got rid of them.

I documented all of this at the time. It was a battle but we were determined not to be beaten by them.

Last year as soon as the cold weather came the rats came in again. I know when they are getting in because I clean thoroughly every morning and as soon as I see rat droppings, usually behind the little coop nest boxes, I know they are getting in.

I didn’t bother to document it last year because it was brief and our fault I felt.We had missed a bit of tightening up the roof by the gate and as soon as we repaired that the problem was over.

Now the run has been extended dramatically over the summer and again as soon as the cold weather came so did the rats.

There was no sign of digging in, so we inspected the roof. We thought that where the wire overlapped over the top of the new part of the run there was a possibility of rats squeezing under it. We painstakingly tightened this area. I took wire and wove it through the overlapping wire, in a running stitch and pulled it tight. It was time consuming and arm aching but I felt sure this would do the job.

After each process I would clear all rat dropping so that I could check if there were new ones in the morning.

Still they were getting in. I checked the roof area again and found a fist sized hole in the wire by the gate. I blocked it with layers of weld mesh and felt sure this was it.

Next morning they were in again. I checked everything again then noticed some soil by the coop. We pulled the coop out and there was a hole chewed through the fence behind the coop. I blocked it with layers of weld mesh then a heavy paving stone in front.

The next morning I despaired as they were still getting in. I searched every where again and when I pulled out the table next to the fence I could see a hole by the bush. The chicken wire appeared to have been chewed through. I rammed a large rock into the hole then covered it with a layer of chicken wire. I then covered it with broken bits of tile and topped it with a brick which I hammered and jammed into to place. This was not only to stop rats getting in but to stop the chickens getting to the wire.

I felt pleased with my work and quite confident that this time I really might keep them out.

At this point my husband entered the run to see how I was getting on. The next thing that happened really stunned us. A rat ran right past us and Toffee nearby who gave out her angry sound. I thought it would head for the hole I had just blocked and wondered what would happen when it couldn’t get out. But before my eyes like lightening it disappeared through the weld mesh.

It was like watching magic. I think it was a young one but if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it could have got through the weld mesh.

The first year we had this problem I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if a rat could get through weld mesh and one person said that they could because this person had seen it with their own eyes. I thought that the rat in question must be a very small young one. Now I too have it seen it with my own eyes and would never have thought a rat that size could pass through weld mesh. I don’t think a large adult one could get through though.

Our weld mesh has one inch squares.

The problem now is that all the blocking we have been doing has been in vain if they can get in through the weld mesh. This makes it a lot more difficult problem but we feel sure that it’s only young ones that can get through such a small space and the fact that it was trapped and desperate to get out.

My next move was to take all the food out at night so there is nothing for them to come in for.

The next morning there was no sign of any rat droppings so we again put poison down in sheltered spots.

Every morning there were no more rat droppings in the run and the poison was all gone. We kept on with this until the poison slowed and eventually stopped being taken. There has been no evidence of them since so I feel we have now got rid of them again.

Hopefully that’s it for this year but I am sure they will chew their way in again next year and we will have to go on finding the entry holes and blocking them. I am determined not to let them beat me.

Yesterday we noticed that Honey looked very subdued. She was fluffed up with her head down and looking sorry for herself. I then noticed Amber didn’t look much happier. On a closer inspection I could see that they had been fighting again.

Honey had blood on her comb and a little on her face. Amber had a spot of blood above her eye, a little on her face and a splash of blood on her lobe.

I wondered if Amber wanted to take back her place above Honey. I don’t know why these two can’t just get along without these little battles.

They are the only ones in the flock that fight like this and draw blood. Peaches and Barley raise their ruffs and run at each other but never peck. I had seen Honey and Amber having a spat a few days earlier and Topaz aimed a peck at Amber and stopped them fighting.

Amber’s face with blood above her eye

Honey’s face with blood at the base of her comb

The photos don’t show it very clearly but they both have some spots of blood. Time will tell who is now top out of this pair. I think Amber may have resumed her place above Honey.

The other development yesterday was that just as I thought Emerald was getting back to normal I noticed her gaping much more, wider and more frequently and shaking her head again.

I am guessing that the gape worm eggs have hatched and the next worms have made their way to her throat. I decided that even though it was only a week and a half since I finished the flubenvet I should put her on another seven days right away.

I will keep treating her every time I see symptoms to try to break the egg/worm cycle. I don’t want her throat to become sore again so feel it is important to act straight away.

Emerald always goes to the high perch first at the end of the day as she wants to secure her place (she often gets pushed out being bottom girl apart from the youngsters). This meant that I could hold a plate up to her with two chopped grapes and a sprinkle of flubenevet and get her to take it without being bothered by the other girls.

She is used to this system now and took all of the grape pieces. I wanted to start straight away rather than leave it until morning as I felt the quicker the flubenvet has a chance to start working the better. I feel I have to just keep staying on top of this to give her the best chance of beating this.

With all the grown up girls at various stages of their moult Sparkle has been our only girl still laying for the last three weeks. She is starting to lose a few feathers now and her egg laying is slowing. She was laying five eggs a week but then dropped to laying every other day and more recently she has missed a couple of days in a row.

Sparkle has always laid the smallest eggs. They are noticeably smaller than any of the other girls. Bantam eggs have the same size yolk as big girls eggs but less white. In Sparkles case her eggs have the least white I have ever seen, about a teaspoon.

We eat them two at a time and they are lovely eggs but I digress. Yesterday when we got back from our deliveries I went and checked the coops as always. There in the right hand coop was a tiny egg, smaller than Sparkles usually are.

Could it be that Peaches or Barley had laid it. The left hand coop is the one Sparkle usually favours but I haven’t seen Peaches or Barley show any interest in the nest boxes. It’s usual for chickens to do a bit of practising before they start laying. As we were not here we just can’t really be sure. Sparkle had missed a couple of days so I wonder if she just laid a smaller egg as she is starting her moult.

Who’s egg is this?

On the left is a normal sized (medium), shop bought, egg for comparison. I was forced to buy some eggs for the first time in two years as Sparkle has only been laying about four a week. The middle egg is Sparkle’s normal sized egg. On the right is the mystery egg.

I won’t be able to solve the mystery until I can tell who lays the next egg. I will be keeping an eye on any activity in the nest box and will update when I have a clearer idea.

Honey and Amber are now moulting with drifts of feathers flurrying from them with every movement. There are feathers in the coop in the mornings and I am constantly picking up feathers from the run.

The good news is that Honey now has pin feathers on her neck and head and Amber is just beginning to show some although not nearly as many as Honey.

Honey has pin feathers on her neck and head

Amber is just beginning to get a few pin feathers

It will be so good to see these two fully feathered again. I just wish Sparkle would get some feathers on her bottom. I don’t want her to go through the winter with a bare bottom but she is only losing the odd feather at the moment. I am so looking forward to seeing a fully feathered flock.

I just love Peaches and Barley’s opposite flopping combs and love that I can tell them apart at a glance now.

Barley and Peaches at bedtime

They look so funny straight on. Barley is on the left and Peaches on the right.

Barley is such s poser

Barley is easier to photograph. She is the one that jumps on me the most and she photo bombs other girl’s photos. Her comb isn’t as floppy as Peaches and that seems to make it look bigger.

Peaches floppier comb

Peaches

Peaches comb reminds me of a mop cap. I love how when they are pecking at the ground together their combs bob up down. These girls really make me smile.

A while ago my friend Jackie gave me a bag of leaves for the girls. With my attention focused on Emerald I had forgotten that I had put them in the shed for later.

It’s been wet and miserable today so now seemed like a good time to give them to the girls. I emptied them in a pile and as they were dry and rustling I think at first they scared them.

Peaches was the first one brave enough to investigate the leaves

Honey, Amber and Toffee take a look

A selfie of Barley on my back

I held the camera over my head and blindly snapped with no idea if I would get Barley or not. I am wearing a hooded cardigan under my fleece and she is just below my hood. She jumps to here when ever she can, that is whenever I bend over slightly.

Topaz takes a look at the leaves

Toffee has a scratch in the leaves

An hour later the leaves are well scattered

I think once they started to scatter the leaves they had fun with them.

Emerald is now on the fifth day of tylan and although it’s been slow she is getting better. She is still gaping after she eats but not as often and she is brighter.

As usual I hand fed her twice today but while taking the photo above I saw her peck at a bit of apple then eat a few pellets. It’s the first time I have seen her eat any pellets for days.

Emerald has a drink of water

Emerald has a peck at the apple

Emerald has some pellets, Hurrah!

This was so good to see and I really hope it means she is on the mend.

Other news is that after Topaz laid an egg almost a month ago she hasn’t laid another. I think she is still recovering from the moult. We have had Topaz and Sparkle for six months now and in that time Topaz has laid six eggs and Sparkle has laid ninety nine.

I wonder if Topaz will hit her stride in the spring or if she will always remain a poor layer. Sparkle on the other hand is our only girl laying at the moment and is laying about five eggs a week.

Amber laid one egg in July, August and September then stopped altogether. With her egg laying problem I am glad of that. Honey stopped laying three weeks ago and both Honey and Amber started moulting a few days ago. This is a good thing as they should get their missing feathers back in. Honey already has pin feathers showing on her neck.

I just wish Sparkle would moult and get her fluffy bottom feathers in even if it meant no eggs for a while.

We have had Toffee and Emerald for four months and in that time Emerald has only laid one egg and Toffee has laid five. They had been broody before this and then went into their moult so they may start again in spring (If we can get Emerald back to full good health).

Peaches and Barley are four and a half months old now, I can’t believe we have only had them three months as I couldn’t imagine not having them now, so they may start laying next month. They haven’t shown any interest in the nest box yet.

Eggs are always a delightful bonus but my main concern at the moment is getting Emerald well again.