Carol's Chickens

The first day was more difficult than I thought it would be. Everything seemed calm when I was out with the girls first thing. I went upstairs for a bath and looked out of the window to see Bluebell and Topaz really going at each other through the wire. They were both chest thumping and pecking through the wire.

I ran out to them and sprayed water at Bluebell but she didn’t stop. I threw some sunflower hearts as a distraction and she finally stopped.

I had my bath then we had some work to do. We could hear the big girls shouting at the top of their voices. We had a very stressful morning with me keep running up to the girls and trying to calm them and my husband stressing about the neighbours especially with it being a Sunday.

Dotty had laid her egg in the little coop earlier in the morning and now Bluebell was in the little coop and Pepper was shouting to get in. I lifted the lid to find to my horror that Bluebell’s comb had been pecked and was bleeding.

Bluebell’s comb is bleeding

I then checked Topaz and sure enough her comb was pecked and bleeding too.

Topaz has a bleeding comb

I found this quite upsetting, I thought all the girls would be safe with the wire between them but they obviously both pecked each other.

I then thought that Bluebell may be in the little coop because she had been pecked rather than wanting to lay. She had laid four days in a row already and Pepper didn’t lay yesterday so I thought her need may be more urgent. I lifted Bluebell out and let Pepper go in.

Bluebell continued to shout her head off and my husband suggested we put a crisp box in with some pine shavings as another nest box. It’s under the dry covered area so a crisp box will do the job for now.

The new crisp box nest box

Bluebell in the crisp box

A few minutes later when I checked them again Bluebell was settled in the crisp box. I felt quite guilty that she obviously did want to lay after all. A little later I found Bluebell’s egg in the crisp box. This is quite pleasing as it means that it’s one problem solved and the crisp box has been accepted as a nest box.

After all this fuss Pepper left the little coop an hour later without laying an egg. Pepper always takes the longest time to lay her eggs and does often have a false alarm.

Amber went into the nest box and finally laid her egg after nine days since her partly soft shelled egg. This egg was normal.

I then saw that Honey and Topaz were sparring through he wire.

Honey has a go at Topaz

I only took this one photo as I already had my camera in my hand and wanted to show what the little girls look like with their ruffs raised. I then immediately went to break it up as I didn’t want Honey to get pecked.

Every time Topaz has been sparring with the old girls Sparkle stands on the little coop roof as she is in the photo above. It must feel like her place of safety.

Shortly after this Sparkle went into their little coop and laid an egg. What a clever girl. It is the same size and colour as the other little girls but slightly more matt in appearance. Topaz then went into the little coop and had a practice but didn’t lay, so I think she will soon be ready too.

I then went round to my neighbours next door and also next door but one to apologise for the noise (the house the other side of us is empty at the moment). Both neighbours were fine and said they didn’t mind at all and I promised them both some eggs soon.

All the shouting and sparring seemed to occur around the egg laying time and after they had all laid things were calm for the rest of the day. It was a stressful and noisy morning but dare I hope that things may be a bit calmer now. I do hope so.

At dusk I went and got the old girls in as usual and Topaz was in the little coop already and Sparkle on the ramp. I thought I could ease her in but my presence caused them both to come out again. I realized that I was probably rushing it and decided to leave them a bit longer. I went back ten minutes later and they were both in so I closed the coop.

The end of the first day which was more difficult in the morning than I had hoped but much calmer in the afternoon. We can only wait to see what tomorrow will bring and hope it gets easier.

I went out at half past six this morning to let the new girls out of the little coop.

I opened up the little coop

Sparkle and Topaz came down the ramp

They went straight to the food

They started inspecting their new surroundings

The two sets of girls didn’t take much notice of each other

It will be interesting to see if the new girls put themselves to bed tonight. I really hope so as I don’t want to have to catch them.

It will also be interesting to see when they start laying. The farmer said he thought Sparkle may have started laying but couldn’t be sure as she was in amongst all the other birds.

Today we went to the farm in Amersham that has silver and gold bantam wyndottes. The farmer was lovely and so was his farm. He showed me a gold and silver bantam from last year that he was willing to sell to me.

A bantam silver and gold laced wyndotte

I fell in love with them instantly. They are so beautiful. He then showed us round his farm. He has been breeding silver laced wyandottes for twenty years to show standard but this is only his third year of breeding gold laced wyndottes which is why he was a little reluctant to part with the gold. I felt quite honoured that he was willing to let me have a gold one.

He had lots of pens with babies at different ages and let me hold one of the babies. They were so cute.

A mother gold laced wyndotte with her chicks

He says he encourages the handling of his birds from the start and children handle them too. He says they have never come to any harm and his birds go to shows so they need to be used to being handled. He said the mother would peck my hand when I returned her chick but although she did it was a gentle warning peck and felt like a whisper. I have never held such a tiny chick before.

Each pen had chicks getting a little older. The farm also has cows and ducks.

Some pretty ducks

The ducks were huge and very pretty but I can’t now remember what they are.

Silver laced wyndottes

There were many more silver than gold as he said that being in his third year he is really only just getting the gold started. They were very inquisitive.

We talked about integration and I told him of my plans. He was happy with the way I intend to do it and said slowly is always best.

He said my two birds were in one of the smaller pens that he uses to train his birds ready for shows. He said he keeps his best and most perfectly marked birds for shows and sells the slightly less perfect to people like me which is why he was at first reluctant to let the gold one go. I said it doesn’t matter to me how perfect their markings, I would love them anyway.

They were twenty five pounds each (my other birds have always been twenty pounds each) but he said this is because they are top quality and I wasn’t bothered at all as I was so thrilled to find some and thought this very fair.

The farm was very clean and tidy and the farmer very proud and enthusiastic which I really liked. He explained that he has electric fences all around the perimeter to keep out the foxes and is always building more pens and making improvements.

He also showed us his broody hens sitting on clutches of eggs. It was a very interesting visit.

He said the gold one was louder than the silver one which proved to be true when they protested at being put in the dog crate but they soon settled down once we were on the move and sat quietly together through out the half hour journey home.

In the dog crate while I get the run ready

I put some food and water in the dog crate for the new girls while I got the run ready for them. I first put the spare little coop that I had recently bought for this purpose in the side of the run that will be separated and put some pine shavings in it. It will eventually become a third nest box once the girls are integrated.

The girls were very interested in this new addition.

The new coop attracted lots of interest.

Bluebell had a good look and Honey was inside trying it out

I then closed the chicken wire down at the patio area and heaped soil against it. Then I closed the gate which after being open for a year needed the soil digging out a bit to allow it to close. The run was now ready for the new girls.

I lifted the dog crate into the separated side of the run and pushed it up against the little coop so that it makes a small temporary run just for this afternoon. I added the food and water bowl and an upturned flower pot base to make a step up to the ramp.

This makes a small run attached to the coop just for this afternoon.

The idea of this is that when it gets dark the girls will go into the coop and from today onwards I hope it will mean that they will know that is where they must go at dusk each day. I intend to shut them in the little coop tonight then let them out in the morning and remove the dog crate giving them this separated part of the run. I hope this will mean that they will know the little coop is where they will go to sleep each night.

I intend to leave them on their side, where all the girls can see and hear each other but not get at each other, for a week so that they get accustomed to each other before I start integrating.

I will then start mixing them before bedtime gradually extending their time while I watch with the water spray at hand to stop any pecking. That is my plan.

The good thing is these girls have been used to being handled and are not bothered by me at all. They have been as good as gold so far and seem quite happy in the dog crate.

The girls go and check out the new girls

The new girls carry on feeding and don’t seem to be at all bothered by the other girls

When I checked on the girls again I gave them some grapes and gave the new girls their first grapes.

They soon got the hang of their first grapes.

I have also been thinking of names and wanted to stay with my theme of descriptive names. I very quickly decided on Topaz for the gold one but found the silver one more tricky. I tried out Snowflake, Diamond, Spangle, but settled in the end on Sparkle.

So here we are with our new girls Topaz and Sparkle.

At dusk I went in and got the old girls to bed and had hoped the new girls would have gone into the little coop. I think they were confused and they didn’t even look into the little coop. I tried to steer them in but they weren’t interested.

I had so little room to move that I decided it would be best to move the dog crate away from the little coop. I then reached through the side opening and picked up Sparkle and put her in the little coop. Next I picked up Topaz and put her in. I closed the coop and took the dog crate away.

I set up a feeding and water station for the morning then closed the dividing gate. The  old girls will come out at first light and I will let the new girls out when I go out between half past six and seven in the morning.

It will be interesting to see how they are on their first day in their new space. A new chapter begins.

Yesterday afternoon we bought a turf for the girls. They have just started selling turf at our local D.I.Y. store and we bought one to cut up into squares and treat the girls to some grass. We put a strip into the run and the girls were very wary at first.

Dotty was the first to investigate the grass

They all cautiously take a look

They soon decide this is good

Definitely good!

This won’t last long

We like grass

After half an hour I decided to take it out as the girls hadn’t moved from it since I put it in and I was afraid they would overfill their crops with grass.

I will put it back in this morning and let them have it for a few hours a day. They certainly love the grass.

A quick update on my search for bantams. I decided on a different approach and put “poultry farms in Amesham” into google search. This gave me eighteen farms with addresses and telephone numbers. Over the last few days I worked through the list ringing them all.

Most didn’t have any bantams, some didn’t have poultry at all, some didn’t exist any more, some simply didn’t answer and only the first one on the list gave me some hope. The farmer has a few silver and gold laced wyndotte bantams and although reluctant to let the gold ones go he agreed that we could go see them this afternoon and he may be able to sell me one of each.

It’s the gold ones that I really like, their feathers are gold edged in black and really striking. The silver ones are actually white with white feathers edged in black.

I also phoned the farm that I got my little girls from last year and she gave me two numbers to call. From one I got no reply but the other lady chatted to me for a while. She has a few blue laced Wyndotte bantams from last year but explained that I was looking for them too early. She said most breeders will be starting to hatch now and the bantams will be ready to sell in June, July or August. This is encouraging as it means that if I can’t get some now I can wait a while and try later in the year.

She also said that when integrating them into my flock it may be better to take bantams that are not too young to give them less chance of being bullied. I feel much better prepared for integration this time but I think she is right and if today the farmer has last years wyndottes and would be happy to sell them to me I will seriously consider taking them.

Once again watch this space!

Having decided that I would like some Dutch bantams, I went on to find that they are impossible to source. After two days of searching the internet every site I tried came back to me saying they don’t have any and one said they had stopped breeding them because they are so difficult to find.

I was disappointed but moved my search on to sebright bantams which are quite similar. They are a British breed of bird and there are golden and silver sebrights. It was the golden I fell for. They are a rich gold colour with each feather edged in black. They are similar in colour to my bantam vorwerks but so striking with the black edged feathers. The silver are actually white but also edged in black. Their body size is about the size of a wood pigeon. They are also a true banatm with no larger counterparts.

They are also proving just as impossible to find and after two days of searching I am having no luck here either.

I am feeling a bit down hearted about this.

Oddly enough the difficulty has made me more determined and I am going to widen my breed search. The reason I am more determined is because with Amber’s egg laying problems I am afraid that one day I may lose her. If this were to happen I wouldn’t want to leave Honey as a lone bantam with three big girls and now that I see how difficult it is to find more I can see that if this were to happen Honey could be the only little girl in the flock for a while.

Therefore I feel it is even more important to add some more bantams now so that if anything happened to one of my existing bantams they would still have bantam flock mates.

Honey is laying every other day at the moment but Amber hasn’t laid since her partial soft shelled egg just over a week ago. It concerns me that there may be something wrong with her egg laying equipment. It wouldn’t worry me at all if she didn’t lay often but what worries me is the problems she seems to have laying. Amber has so much character that I would be heart broken if I were ever to lose her but know that I must be realistic and would like to have the safe guard of a bigger group of bantys.

I am now going to move my search on to wyandotte bantams. The wyandotte originated in the United States. They appear in a wide variety of colour patterns and lay pale brown or tan eggs. I love the look of gold laced, chocolate laced, blue laced and partridge to name just a few.

The farm I got the little girls from a year ago had white bantam wyandottes but she said at the time that she knew of farms near by that bred coloured ones. I am going to get in touch with her tomorrow. At least this gives me a start point.

Will I be any more successful? Watch this space!

I have started thinking about adding two more bantys to my flock. I have been doing a lot of research. I had already decided that if for any reason I lost one of my girls (this came to mind when Amber looked so ill when laying her last egg), that I would add two more bantys.

I have been reading up about problems with feather pulling or indeed any bullying within a flock and the general opinion seems that there is likely to be less of a problem in a larger flock. The smaller the flock the more intense the problems.

Bluebell chases the bantys from the treat bowls and in fact often chases them for little or no reason. I wondered if four little girls to three big girls would give a better balance than two little girls to three big girls. Bluebell would have to split her chasing from the treat bowls between four little girls instead of two little girls.

I realise that there may be spats between the the two sets of little girls to start with but wonder if four little girls would flock together and feel less intimidated by the three big girls.

I realise I may be crazy and may take on more problems and I do worry about being selfish by adding more because I want more when I need to think about what is best for my flock but I also think there may just be a chance that they would end up a better balanced flock.

Please jump in and comment and tell me if this may or may not be a good idea.

I had already decided quite a time ago that if I added to my flock I would like some Dutch bantams. I will come to more details of the breed in a moment but first I just want to add that after adding my little girls a year ago I feel I have learned such a lot and would do it much better this time.

We have an area that can be separated simply by closing the gate that is left open at the moment. I would install another small coop (actually called a small animal house) like the one we use as a second nest box now and feed and water bowls. I would keep the new girls in the coup with the dog crate attached as a small run for the first day so that they know where to go to sleep. I would then let them into their enclosure the next day so that are separated but can see and hear the rest of the flock and visa versa.

I would then start a slow integration process over the next few weeks allowing time together before bedtime and gradually lengthening time together if it goes well, always supervised and with the water spray at the ready to stop any aggravation.

The Dutch bantam is a breed of chicken originating in the Netherlands. It is also one of the true bantam breeds, meaning it is a naturally small breed with no related large fowl form, from which it is miniatureized.

Dutch bantams have many colour variations. They are hardy and good layers for their size. They are the smallest breeds of bantam. Females weigh 450 grams which is 200 grams less than my bantam vorwerks.

They fly well and their breed is friendly in temperament. They lay cream or white eggs and are suited to backyard chickens due to their small size.

These are all details which attract to me this breed. I have researched where I may find some that is not too far away from us and have found a farm in Reading that breeds them and has the gold partridge colour. I don’t mind any colour as they are all lovely. I am going to phone tomorrow (Monday) to see if they have any.

I may be disappointed and am ready for that but I also feel excited too. Am I crazy!

Just when I thought Amber was finally past her egg laying problems she had a set back. Yesterday she looked really poorly just like she always does when she is about to lay a soft shelled egg. I have been giving the girls crushed egg shells in their mash every day and limestone flour a couple of days a week. All the other girls lay hard shelled eggs and I just don’t know why Amber has such a problem.

Amber looked really wobbly and took herself into the coop about an hour before bedtime. Even the bedtime corn just got a half hearted peck then she returned to the nest box.

This morning Amber looked a little brighter but still not her usual self. I made sure she was eating by giving mash in the morning with both crushed egg shells and limestone flour mixed in then later some grapes which she loves and did eat.

The big girls were queueing up for the little coop to lay their eggs and doing a bit of shouting about it. Bluebell laid first followed by Pepper then Dotty. I am seriously thinking of getting another nest box as now that the big girls are grown up they will no longer share and there is always a lot of fussing when they all want the coop at once.

By the afternoon Honey had settled into the nest box and she often takes quite a long time so I just check on her every half hour.

I then heard a banty shout so went to see if Honey had laid and was surprised to find both her’s and Amber’s egg in the nest box.

Amber’s egg was soft at one end, the pointed end. This must have been why she had struggled with it.

Amber’s latest egg on the right and Honey’s egg on the left

Last summer when she started laying it followed this same pattern of a few soft shelled eggs then normal for a while then one like this, soft at one end. After that she went on to lay normal eggs so I am still hopeful that she may now lay normally.

The drama wasn’t over yet though. I had just removed the eggs when Honey and Amber started to spar again. They both had their hackles raised and were flying at each other. I scooped Amber up and held her while Honey calmed down. I felt that after being poorly Amber didn’t need any more aggravation.

I put Amber down and the next minute they were at it again. I picked Amber up again and waited a few minutes before setting her down again.

I don’t know why they do this. The big girls have never done this. I said to my husband that I wondered if Honey sensed Amber wasn’t feeling great and thought she had a chance of moving up from bottom hen while Amber was out of sorts. My husband said if that was the case I should probably not interfere but let them sort it out. I said that I couldn’t just stand by and watch them fight, especially when poor Amber has just had a rough time.

After this everything returned back to normal and this was our second five egg day this year.

This post is a tribute to my mum. My lovely mum, Marion, was born in Sheringham, Norfolk but when my lovely nan had a large family she moved them down south to ensure that her children would have a better chance to find work.

When my mum reached retirement age she moved back to her roots for a better quality of life (cheaper houses) and to be near other family living there too.

Now she is a three to four hours drive away, at best, and it is really difficult for us to see each other especially as we are self employed and often work six or seven days a week.

My mum doesn’t like technology and doesn’t have a computer or even a mobile phone. Since I have been keeping my chicken keeping blog I have been printing out each weeks posts and sending them to my mum. I then phone her a few days later, giving her time to receive it and read it, and we have a good natter, for anything up to an hour.

I feel this helps to keep us close and lately I have included the garden and outside trips sometimes too, so that my mum can see what is going on in my life.

Usually I send my mum flowers for Mothers Day but being one of three daughters I am always aware that she may get three lots of flowers so this year I wanted to do something different.

I want to start by saying “HAPPY MOTHERS MUM” and instead of a bouquet I will share a little spring from our garden.

Spring bulbs in the garden

Primula

And I am also sending a few goodies for mum to enjoy.

Some gifts for my mum

The little cushion says “mums are like flowers, they brighten up your day”, the chocolates are a little treat and I do have to choose things that can be sent through the post (not too heavy).

This may seem a little early but I also have to be aware that there are no post deliveries in Sheringham on Saturday or Sunday so to reach mum by Friday, I must post by Wednesday, to be sure it will get there in time.

Anyway to sum it all up, this one is just for you mum. Happy Mothers Day with lots and lots of love, Carol xxxx

I have a storage cabinet in the chicken run on the covered patio area. It houses all of my chickens supplies including food, bedding, medicines, cleaning products and also their treats. I go to the cabinet many times a day to clean up the run but twice a day the girl’s get some treats from here.

On my early morning visit the girls get either a handful of corn, dried meal worms or sunflower hearts. Mid morning the girls get their daily greens and mid afternoon something to peck at such as apple. An hour before bedtime the girls get a handful of corn between the five of them.

Although I go to the cabinet many times a day and they only get the treats from there twice a day they all run to the cabinet every time I open it just in case they might get lucky.

If I have the cabinet door open for more than a few seconds the big girls will have jumped up onto the cabinet. They crane their necks down to look in. I swear if they could learn to open this cabinet and open the treat tubs, all the treats would vanish very quickly. They even tap the tubs with their beaks. There is absolutely no doubt that they know where the treats are.

We know where the treats are

Please get the treats out

If only I could get the lid off that box

Come on Mum, you know you want to give us some treats

They are so funny. They deserve some treats though, yesterday was our first five egg day this year. They are really back in egg laying mode. Well done girls.

I am so sad to see the girls getting gradually more and more plucked. Sadly last years pattern is repeating itself.

Amber up close and chatting to me

Amber’s neck is becoming more bare. Amber is easy to get a close up of because when I crouch down she runs over to me chatting away. It’s just a case of clicking before she is too close. She is always chatting and photos of her are often open beaked like this. I look at this photo and can almost hear her.

Honey is now also getting a bare neck

Dotty is getting her head plucked too

The light patch on the back of her head is where she is losing feathers.

This really saddens me as I felt I could just about bare her neck being plucked if she didn’t get her head plucked. Steve, my eldest son, did warn me that the most likely outcome was that the same pattern would just repeat itself.

The awful thing is, that after just a few months of being fully feathered, they will probably have another year of being partly bare.

As before Pepper is intact except for a bare patch on her bottom

Bluebell has a bare neck

Pepper has a small bare patch on her bottom which I know from experience will get bigger

Bluebell has some of her head crest feathers broken

It is also sad that Bluebell, as a crested bird, has no crest most of the time.

I have been through all this before and know that there is nothing more I can do. The girls are happy and healthy and laying well and I know it doesn’t bother them, it only bothers me.

On a lighter note little Honey laid three days in a row for the first time ever and Amber laid another hard shelled egg with only one missed day in between so it seems the little girls have really got the hang of egg laying now.