Carol's Chickens

This morning when I went in to clean the coop there was a broken soft shelled banty egg in the doorway again. It was once again Bluebell pecking at it that alerted me to it. I quickly cleaned it away.

I am certain it was Amber’s egg as Honey has never laid a soft shelled egg and Amber’s last egg was also soft shelled. When she started laying in the summer she laid two soft shelled and one soft at one end then they were normal from then on. This is her second soft shelled egg since she has started laying again after the moult so it seems it is following the same pattern again.

I have been giving the girls limestone flour mixed into their mash for a week now but I guess like last time it takes a bit of time. Amber has always struggled with her egg laying. There is one improvement though. During the summer Amber always looked ill and miserable before laying then fine afterwards even when her eggs were normal. This time she looks fine and doesn’t seem to struggle before laying.

Amber soon returned to the nest box which is also something she tends to do. It’s as if she doesn’t realise she has laid an egg and the fact that it was in the coop doorway seems to indicate that it took her by surprise. She was determined to stay in the nest box even though Bluebell kept chasing her out. Bluebell had already laid her egg earlier that morning so it isn’t because she wants to be in there. Bluebell doesn’t like the little girls in the nest box which is really annoying.

I shooed Bluebell out a couple of times and Amber got chased out a couple of times only to return to the nest box again. Eventually Amber gave up and went out into the run. Why is the banty’s egg laying always such a drama!

Amber in the nest box with Bluebell harassing her.

You can just see Bluebell in the top left corner of the photo. I do everything I can to protect the little girls from Bluebell’s harassment but I suppose they have to look after themselves when I am not there. Bluebell’s behaviour still drives me nuts though and it’s a good job the little girls are such feisty characters.

The little girls both laid an egg on the same day two weeks ago. I am sure they will both lay another egg soon as they keep going into the nest box together. They seem to like to keep each other company and the big girls like to come and check them out.

Amber in the nest box while Pepper checks her out

Honey in the nest box

Notice on the above two photos how different in shape the little girls combs are. This is because Amber had the top of her comb pecked off during integration with the big girls.

The little girls go into the nest box together

Honey is on the perch, she has the bigger spots near her tail.

The little girls leave the nest box together

They have been in and out of the nest box like this for the last few days. I am sure the elusive eggs will arrive soon.

All my girl’s apart from Dotty are back to laying again giving me an assortment of lovely eggs.

My girl’s eggs

Their eggs remind me of the sugar almond eggs you can buy because of the lovely pastel colours. Apart from a few flecks of dirt they don’t look real.

A week ago Honey laid her second egg since her moult (four days after her first egg since her moult) and I thought that she may be broody. She stayed in the nest box all afternoon and I lifted her out for the bedtime corn only to see her return to the nest box until bedtime.

In the morning Honey seemed to have forgotten all about being broody and came out as usual and stayed out. I was pleased that she seemed back to normal although she hasn’t laid another egg since but the little girls never have laid many eggs.

Amber also laid a soft shelled egg on the same day as Honey last laid and hasn’t laid since. I have been giving limestone flour to all the girls most days over the last week in the hope that it will help Amber with her next egg.

Both little girls had stopped laying for four months since moulting. I am not sure if they have really started again or are going to just lay now and again and work up to it gradually.

Bluebell didn’t do a full moult and never stopped laying although she just lays a little less frequently. She is laying an average of five eggs a week instead of laying weeks at a time without a break.

Dotty stopped laying for two months while moulting then laid for five weeks before stopping again and she was laying four eggs a week. She is eating as well as ever, has a bright red comb and wattles and seems perfectly happy and healthy with a normal crop so I am sure it is probably just down to the weather or an after effect of her moult.

Pepper also stopped laying for two months after moulting and has been laying for the last two weeks. She is laying four eggs a week.

I don’t really mind how many eggs they lay as long as they are happy and healthy. There are enough eggs for us and we haven’t bought eggs since the girls started laying so I am more than happy with that.

Last year Valentines Day was rather sad because it was the day we had to have Treacle put to sleep. She had been very ill for three weeks and I couldn’t let her suffer any more. My husband drove me to the vets and I held her and cried buckets over her and despite the usual cards, roses etc it didn’t feel like a celebration.

This year we wanted to do something lovely (my husband doesn’t believe in going out as he finds it too commercial and over priced for what is usually disappointing) but we just couldn’t come up with something to cook that was really special. I had cooked rib eye steaks for my husbands birthday in January and fancied something different.

I then remembered that my husband does some lovely canapes and said I quite fancied those. Well my lovely husband did me proud. In the morning we exchanged cards and he had bought me a dozen red roses and some truffles in a heart shaped tin. I had bought him (us) the romantic D.V.D. “The best exotic Marigold Hotel”, a film we both thought we would like to see and also some truffles by coincidence plus some special offer fiz to go with dinner.

In the early evening while I did my bedtime chicken chores and got the girls to bed my lovely husband prepared the canapes and set the table making it look romantic. He put the roses, the heart shaped truffle tin and some candles on the table.

The lovely thing was that I didn’t have to do anything and that made it feel really special.

Valentine table

Happy Valentine

It was just lovely and we both agreed it was much nicer than going out. How did you spend your valentines? Happy Valentines every one.

We have now had four months of continual rain. I have never known rain like this in my lifetime and they are saying in the newspapers that the south of England is having the wettest year since records began. They are also forecasting more to come for weeks yet.

All the areas around are experiencing flooding and a lot of roads are closed. Other parts of the country have much worse floods with many homes flooded and I feel so sorry for them.

The woodland near us is under water and it is creeping over the road. I decided to take my camera with me today when we went out to do some chores and try to capture some of the scenes I drive past every day.

I was stood out in very heavy rain while I took these first photos.

Beyond the road

The woodland in Wooburn Green

The woods

Woodland and flooded road

Driving to Slough (I was the passenger of course)

All the surrounding roads are like this and many are closed

A cul-de-sac in Bourne End

There were ducks swimming in the cul-de-sac but my camera ran out battery before I captured them

The river levels are going up and down but the woodland areas are remaining under water because the ground is so saturated that the water has no where to go. It will be a long time before everything gets back to normal. We are lucky compared to other parts of the country and my heart goes out to those flooded out of their homes.

It seems there is always something going on with the girls. This morning when I went in to clean the coop there was a broken soft shelled banty egg in the doorway and Bluebell was pecking at it.

I moved Bluebell away and removed the egg to the bin. I assumed it was Amber’s as she laid soft shelled eggs when she first started laying, Honey’s first egg after her moult, a few days ago was fine.

This turned out to be the case as Honey laid an egg in the nest box later this morning and Bluebell also laid her egg in the little coop.

A bit of history, Amber has always struggled with her eggs and I was hoping that when she resumed laying after her moult she may have grown out of this.

Her first two eggs in June were wind eggs. They were tiny, the size of marbles, and had no yolk. Her third and fourth egg were soft shelled but her fifth egg was normal. Her sixth egg was soft shelled just at one end and her seventh egg was her second normal egg.

After this she always seemed to look unwell when she was about to lay but her eggs were normal from then on. At the time I mixed limestone flour with their mash to help make stronger egg shells. I did the same thing today and will continue to do so untill her eggs are normal. Amber doesn’t seem to go to the grit like the other girls do so I wonder if this is part of her problem.

After Honey laid her egg she returned to sit in the nest box. At first I thought perhaps she hadn’t realised that she had laid her egg already as this has happened with both the little girls in the past. But this time she stayed in the nest box all afternoon.

This is a dangerous behaviour because Bluebell doesn’t like the little girls being in the nest box and she went in and pecked Honey’s comb a couple of times and made it bleed. I find this so frustrating.

An hour before bedtime when I give the girls some corn, Honey was still in the nest box. I lifted her out and set her down then sprinkled some corn in front of her and threw some out in the garden area as usual for the other girls. Bluebell came and gave her comb another peck much to my annoyance.

Honey ate her corn, went into the garden to poop then returned to the nest box. Oh dear, does this mean she is broody! Being broody can be difficult enough but when it’s one of the bantys they risk the extra disadvantage of being pecked by Bluebell.

I suppose I will have to wait to see what tomorrow brings to be able to tell if she really is broody but I really hope not.

Every morning when I clean up the coop the little girls come into the coop and watch me. They spend the whole of my clean up time in the coop inspecting my work and chatting away to me. Sometimes I have to gently move their feet with my hand to complete my task.

When Bluebell misses laying an egg for a day she always goes into the nest box to lay her egg first thing in the morning. The little girls desire to be in the coop with me is so strong that on these mornings they risk the wrath of Bluebell. The ensuing commotion always brings Pepper in to check out what is going on. The little girls get swift pecks from Bluebell and Pepper but it doesn’t stop them hopping straight back into the coop.

I decided to take my camera with me this morning and see if I could capture the drama.

I pick up the poop using a plastic disposable glove and collect it in a plastic grape container. Being in catering we have a constant supply of these two items and I can just throw them away afterwards. I only mention this because my gloved hand appears in the photo when I am blocking Pepper from pecking Amber.

I took the photos with my left hand while blocking both Bluebell and Pepper from pecking the little girls with my right gloved hand so it’s surprising how well the photos came out.

An angry Bluebell chases Amber out of the coop

Amber dares to go into the nest box

My gloved hand is stopping Pepper from pecking Amber

Bluebell wants to lay her egg and Honey stands in the foreground

Amber is in the foreground

The little girls know that when Bluebell or Pepper are blocking the door they are safe to run out past me through the open side. They get chased out and simply hop right back in. Dotty came over and jumped onto the coop roof. She was craning her neck down to watch as if wondering what on earth we are all doing.

On the days that Bluebell doesn’t need to lay her early egg the little girls are free to stay in the coop and chat to me. Sometimes Bluebell or Pepper will look in to see what they are doing but this mornings drama only happens on the early egg days. It does nothing to put the little girls off though. These little girls are so full of character and attitude. They are so entertaining and so much fun to be around.

I have contemplated adding sand to the run because it’s so wet after so much continued rain. The amount we would need to make a difference would be an awful lot of sand and impossible to carry up to the run so I rejected the idea. Besides it has to stop raining eventually doesn’t it!

The middle strip of the run is the only part that stays dry enough for the girls to dust bath in, but even though I dig it over all the time the soil has diminished to a couple of inches of loose soil there. Usually I would top up with soil from other parts of the run or the garden but there is nothing dry to add. I decided to compromise by buying the smallest bag of sand I could (which was only £1.80) and add that to the dust bath area. Even the smallest bag was pretty heavy!

I cleaned the run, dug it over and added the sand to the dry middle area. I sprinkled a few sunflower hearts in to the mix to get the girls scratching.

I have added sand to top up the girls dust bathing area

The girls inspect the sand

Honey is missing from these pictures because she has gone into the nest box.

Honey in the nest box

Honey stayed in there for half the afternoon. Later in the afternoon there was honey’s first egg since her moult after a four month break. Well done Honey.

Bluebell’s egg is on the left, Pepper’s egg is in the middle and Honey’s egg is on the right

The egg famine is over. Dotty has stopped laying at the moment, Bluebell never stopped, Pepper and Honey have started again and I am sure Amber will start too. The photo isn’t very good because the light indoors takes out all the colour, Bluebell’s egg is really blue. Usually I take my egg photos outside on the patio table as daylight is much better but it didn’t stop raining for one moment today so I wasn’t able to do that.

The girls had taken a dust bath this morning so I will need to wait until tomorrow to see if they like their topped up dust bathing area. I am sure they will appreciate it.

Last night we sprayed the bare skin on Bluebell’s neck with the blue spray to cover the redness. She wasn’t very happy about it and I felt bad.

However this morning she was her normal self and laid her blue egg first thing. At bed time she was as eager as usual for me to pick her up and put her in the coop. I love the way chickens don’t bare a grudge. It seems that I am forgiven or it’s been forgotten.

Blue Bluebell

Whether it does any good or not remains to be seen but it can’t do any harm and at least I feel we have done something. I think Blue suits Bluebell.

I don’t know why the girls are so fascinated with my feet and my boots but they do tend to follow them, stick close to them and peck at them, why, I have no idea! Sometimes I wonder why they see no danger. I could step on them and have to be very careful not to do so.

The little girls have a fascination with my boots

Because the little girls were paying such attention, Pepper had to come and see what the fuss was about.

The little girls like to peck at my boots

The little girls do this every day, they follow my feet and they peck at my boots. Why do they do this! I like to think they just enjoy being close to me. It is just one of the many things they do that brings them close to me.

When I sweep up in the evening the little girls jump on the nest box part of the coop while I sweep that corner. I look up and am eye to eye with them. I carry on sweeping and one of the little girls  will reach out and tweak a strand of my hair. It is so funny that these little girls don’t want to be touched yet really like to touch me. They like to get close on their own terms and have no fear that I might tread on them, yet I know they don’t want me to stroke them. They love to get close and will walk over my hands and feet and will peck my cloths and my hair but they don’t want me to touch them.

They are getting bolder all the time with their interactions with me and stick close to me whenever I am in the run. They get on eye level when ever they can and they watch me from inside the coop when I clean up in the mornings. Yet I know they don’t want me to stroke them or attempt to pick them up. It is funny how they have developed so much close contact but it is completely on their comfort level.

When we first bought them home they used to move away from me when I cleaned up the run but now they move towards me and more than that they get as close to me as they  possibly can.

I just feel honoured that such skittish creatures allow me so much close contact. I love to see them peck my shoes, my fleece, my hair and occasionally my fingers. I am fine with close contact on their terms.