Carol's Chickens

Two days ago we lost our beautiful Dot. She was unique with her beautiful comb and her dark eyes and her lovely character. She came in as bottom girl but grew in confidence and worked her way up the pecking order. She also had a lovely melodic voice which was quite unlike the other girls.

She had some funny ways. She would often stand in a corner looking out as if on guard. She was our best egg layer and never went broody. She liked to lay her eggs with another girl so if she wanted to lay and there was already a girl in a nest box she would choose that one. We often found her egg next to another girls’ egg.

Dot was really friendly and easy to pick up. She liked her food and at bedtime would often be lop sided because her crop would be huge. She had the biggest crop of any of our girls. She was such a lovely girl and will be very much missed.

Dot was four years old and came to us when she was a year old. She laid an egg on her first day with us.

Goodbye my lovely girl. Dot is very much missed.

I am heart broken to have lost Dot today. She went very quickly.

Yesterday Dot seemed absolutely fine. This morning when we went out to the girls we knew something was very wrong with Dot. She was sitting in front of the chickens’ patio and looking very poorly. Already her comb had gone pale.

Dot usually lays every other day and hadn’t laid for three days but I didn’t worry because every now and again she misses two or three days. Unlike the rest of the girls Dot has never gone broody so I always felt she needed a short break now and then.

I picked Dot up and checked her vent. She had some yellow egg yolk around her vent. I feared the worst, that an egg must have broken inside her. I didn’t know if this had happened this morning or a day or two ago as with Salmon. I was unsure what to do and left her a little while to see if she could pass it.

I checked back again and there was egg dripping from her vent. I thought this may have meant that it had just happened this morning so I decided to bath her and see if once her vent was relaxed she could expel the egg.

I have never had any luck with bathing a girl to help with an egg stuck or broken but as all the chicken forums suggest this I felt I must try. It seemed the only thing I could do.

I bathed her up to just above her vent in warm water while supporting her and she appeared to doze. I couldn’t see any shell which was the worrying thing. I dried her on my lap with the towel as best I could then I dripped a few drops of sugar water in her beak in the hope of giving her some strength.

I then made her comfortable on the towel.

I checked back on her ten minutes later and she was gone. I knew as soon as I walked into the bathroom because she was facing the other way. I have seen before the last flap before they go. I picked her up and checked her and she was gone.

I just don’t understand why this should happen to Dot as she has always been our best egg layer and never had a problem. Her last eggs we had for breakfast yesterday and they had good shells.

We buried Dot in the chickens’ strip. We dug out some plants, wrapped Dot in tray papers and buried her then put the plants back over her and marked her spot.

Dot’s sibling, Spot, died of suspected heart failure without ever laying an egg. I am wondering if Dot had a weak heart too. Dot was four years old. We have had girls go suddenly over night and then Speckles suddenly on her way into the chicken shed one night. But both Spot and Dot are the only two girls that had a problem and then went so quickly so it makes me wonder.

Dot had laid 75 eggs in four and a half months – March to July. She laid more eggs every month than any of the other girls in our flock.

Dot was beautiful and had a lovely character and was a favourite of mine from the day she came to us. She will be very much missed.

I will do a tribute to Dot over the next day or two when I have gone through my photos. At the moment I feel a bit shell shocked at how quickly she has gone.

We have had a fledgling blackbird in the garden for a while. It spends a lot of time around the strawberries and raspberries. It lets us get quite close to it and I have been dropping any squashed or damaged fruit in front of it. We have also seen it help itself to fruit from the plants too.

Yesterday it was sunning itself on the path between the strawberries and raspberries. It so reminded me of the chickens sunning themselves.

I went inside for my camera. I started clicking while gradually moving closer to it. I got within a couple of feet before it flitted away.

It has been lovely having this bird get so close to us. We don’t mind it taking a few of our fruits. There have been plenty enough to share.

For the first time this year we have six out of nine girls laying and out of those six, five laid today giving us our first, five egg day, this year.

Sugar came back into lay today after a two week break and laid a normal egg. Storm came back into lay yesterday after a three week break and laid again today. Gold came back into lay a week ago. Cloud was the only one of the six who didn’t lay today but she did lay yesterday. Snow is laying well and Dot has always been a good layer.

From left to right we have Dot’s egg then Gold’s egg then Storm’s egg then Sugar’s egg then Snow’s egg arranged in size order from largest to smallest.

The non layers are Mango who is molting quite heavily, Red who hasn’t started yet and Autumn who laid through the winter then stopped.

Well done girls! Our eggs have been given a boost today and very lovely they all are.

The girls have been mixed together for nearly a week now. It has gone really well and they have settled together with no more spats. There is just the occasional bit of chasing but nothing aggressive.

Unfortunately at bedtime Red and Snow have continued to settle on top of the nest box. I now have four girls to put in each night and all my efforts to guide the new girls in haven’t worked.

Sugar has come through her broody spell after a few nights in the broody crate. Sugar still spends the majority of her time sitting in the run but when she is up and about she looks perfectly normal.

Storm is now molting as well as Mango. Mango looks tatty but although I am picking up loads of Storm’s feathers from the chicken shed and run she still looks really good. She does have only a few tail feathers left though.

I don’t know if the moult means that’s the end of eggs this year from Mango and Storm or if they come through it quickly maybe they will come back into lay. We can never tell how short the game girls’ season will be.

I thought gold was coming back into lay after her two week break as for a couple of days she had a sit in the nest box. There was no egg though and today she hasn’t bothered sitting. She looks like she does every summer with a bit of an explosion of fluffy under feathers just before her tail.

We currently have Dot, Cloud and Snow laying. Snow has now sussed out all of the nest boxes and the chicken shed and mostly lays in the nest box by the gate as the other girls don’t bother her there.

Autumn still has a sit in the nest box every day but doesn’t lay which is most odd.

Before the portraits of the girls I couldn’t resist this photo of Dot, Storm and Mango sunbathing together. I have put the portrait photos on in the order that I took them.

Cloud has the most amazing red comb and big for her small size.

And there are all my beautiful girls. Even with a bit of molting going on I think they are a stunning flock.

Yesterday I left the girls together all day and it seemed fairly calm. I decided it’s time to get them properly together. We have had the new girls seven weeks now so this has been a very slow integration.

I unblocked the corner by the chickens’ patio. I hoped at bedtime this would help the new girls to follow the other girls in to the chicken shed. It didn’t work!

At bedtime the main flock were in the shed and Mango and Cloud were on top of the nest box waiting for me to put them in as usual. Red and Snow were in their usual bedtime position between their little coop and the corner of the patio even though they were sitting next to an open gap instead of it being blocked off.

I picked them up one at a time and perched them in the chicken shed. This morning the girls were all out together without any agro.

I decided to put the run completely back to normal apart from the extra feeding stations. I opened up the wire netting at the bottom of the run. I propped the gate open. I put the little coup/nest box back in it’s position on the patio area. I hope without it in their part of the run they might be more inclined to follow the other girls in but I am not holding my breath.

Red and Snow are still sticking together and not really mixing but at least it’s a start.

Where Snow goes Red follows. The last hurdle now is training them to go in at bedtime. I really hope they get the hang of it and I don’t end up having four girls to put in each night. I am sure that if one of them goes in the other will follow. Snow is the most likely to catch on first.

For now though I am happy that we have made progress at last.

In other news Sugar has now gone broody after laying only six eggs. The tiny egg followed by five normal eggs. I will put her in the broody crate for a couple of nights to break her out of it. Gold stopped being broody a couple of days ago.

We are now back to our usual three layers, this time Dot, Cloud and Snow.

I have been giving the girls some time together each day. For a while it seemed to be going well with them all getting along. Dot and Autumn do some chasing but no fighting. Snow is more inclined to stand up for herself than Red. Dot and Snow went face to face and both froze and stared each other out. Snow refused to look away first.

But then a couple of days running there was a spat. Again it was Sugar and Snow. The next time Storm joined in so both Sugar and Storm were having a go at Snow. I can’t bear to see that happening and separated them again.

After that it was calm again but what seemed to happen was the girls would switch to each others side then when the novelty wore off they both returned to their own side. The only difference is that the gates were open but it seemed a bit pointless as they still weren’t mixing.

Today I decided to leave the gates closed but switch the girls to the opposite sides. I thought it might help the new girls to find the chickens’ patio. I feel once they are familiar with the patio area it will be a good time to mix them.

I knew that Snow was due to lay her egg and thought it would be a good time for her to find the other nest boxes. So far she had laid two eggs in her nest box and two eggs in the corner where they settle at bedtime.

I put some spinach on the patio to encourage them.

After this Red didn’t go back to the patio area but Snow wanted to lay her egg and started looking in the nest boxes. For ages she was in the nest box then back in the run then trying to get back in to her corner then on top of the nest box and so on, on repeat. I felt that at least she knew where the nest box was so I decided to let her sort it out.

I felt this was already a step forward. When I checked back a bit later Snow was back in the run with Red and her egg was in the nest box. This is her fifth egg. I was really pleased as I feel this is a break through.

So far Snow lays two days in a row then misses a day then two days in a row again.

I was really pleased with today’s progress and feel that when they are mixed, if Snow needs to lay her egg, she will know where the nest boxes are. I have also put a couple of feeding stations out in the run. This means the new girls have got used to where they are so when they are mixed there will places to eat and drink without having to compete with the other girls.

I usually do this until I feel the new girls are confident enough to eat alongside the main flock. I think we are getting very close to mixing them completely now. I just need to be brave enough to make the move. I sometimes feel it is harder on me than it is on the new girls.

Yesterday for the first time Snow went in and out of the nest box/little coup a few times throughout the day. She has gone from being totally quiet to making a twittering sound. I felt she was getting ready to lay. I managed a couple of photos of her on the ramp.

Today Snow was in and out of the nest box several times. She would then settle on top of the nest box and then in the corner beside the nest box where they settle at bed time. She didn’t seem sure where she should settle but eventually she did choose to sit in the nest box.

I wasn’t expecting eggs just yet because somehow I thought the girls were about a month younger than they are. I checked the note I had made on my egg records. We got them on the 10th of May. Suzanna had told me that Red was 14 weeks and Snow was 18 weeks. This means Red is now 20 weeks (5 months) and Snow 24 weeks (6 months) so that is about right for Snow to start laying.

A little later I checked again and Snow was out. There in the nest box was her first little egg. It had the usual little blood streak on it.

Well done Snow! What a clever girl to lay her first egg in the right place.

Cloud has come back into lay after a 2 week break and has laid 3 eggs so far. I have no idea why but she has taken to laying her eggs in the corner between the new girl’s part of the run and the chickens’ patio. She had been putting bits of shavings on her back.

I could tell that Sugar was getting ready to lay again today. She has had a two week break which is the usual and was quite vocal and going in and out of the nest box. I kept checking on Sugar and after about an hour she marched out of the nest box and went straight to the water.

I checked the nest box and there was another tiny egg. As we have known for a long time things are not quite right with Sugar but as long as she keeps getting her eggs laid that is a good thing.

Sugar seems fine after laying it apart from her usual sitting on the ground a lot.

Mango has started molting after her last broody spell. I have been finding her feathers in the shed and run and when I pick her up I can feel her pins.

It was Mango’s first year last year (along with Cloud and Autumn) so this is her first molt. I don’t know if she will molt and then come back into lay or if this will be the end of her laying this year. It seems rather early to be molting. We will just have to wait and see.

Storm has also just gone broody after laying 9 eggs in 2 weeks. Luckily now that Snow has started laying we should get eggs from her regularly and possible through the winter. Red should start lying in a months time and also may lay through the winter but as Autumn stopped laying on 1st February you just never know with these girls.

I really need to get the new girls integrated now. Sugar is no longer hormonal and has gone back to taking no notice of the new girls. But Dot has now taken to chasing Red. Dot has moved up from the bottom of the pecking order to near the top and she has grown in confidence and wants to make sure the new girls are below her.

The problem is that Red is really timid and nervy. Dot chases Red and Red not only runs but she panics and tries to get back into her space. If I close it off she jumps at the wire or hatch and if I leave it open she stays in the corner behind the nest box.

I can’t bear to see Red so anxious and end up letting her back into their part of the run again. Recent integrations have been so easy but Red is much more skittish than any of our recent girls. I know that we have to move past this but I still feel we don’t need to rush it.

Now that Snow is laying I am going to do a half and half mix of growers and layers pellets for a couple of weeks as suggested by the breeder’s partner who delivered the girls.

I will use these two weeks to try to mix the girls a bit more and I hope that as Red matures she will grow in confidence. They always get mixed in the end so I don’t mind going a bit slower than usual.

Edit – The next day

Sugar laid again and this time her egg was her usual size. Snow also laid again and this time no blood streak and the egg was slightly longer and narrower than the day before. Well done girls!

Mango and Cloud gave up being broody after three days. Storm came back into lay after a two week break and has laid five eggs in the last week. At the same time as Storm started laying Sugar went broody after laying six eggs.

We constantly seem to have one girl start as one stops so that we have only three girls laying most of the time. At the moment it’s Dot, Gold and Storm laying. I decided to break Sugar out of it straight away as I didn’t want her sitting in a nest box for a very long time. I gave her a couple of nights in the broody crate and she gave up.

I have been trying to continue giving all the girls time together but some days it has been too wet to spend time in the run. After the main flock taking no notice of the new girls things changed when Sugar went broody. She is always angry with the other girls when she is broody. Hormones! It has caused her to have a few spats with Snow.

At this point I usually put the girls back on their own sides. I am hoping that with time Sugar will calm down again. Snow responds by fighting back with Sugar, which is horrible to see, whereas Red is much more timid and runs away if any of the girls approach her.

Three days ago

Today

Up until now it has been as if there was an invisible barrier in front of the chickens’ patio. Today this was at the point that Sugar and Snow had a spat. In the background you can just see Snow moving away from Sugar. This caused Red to run in the other direction and finally jump up to the patio area. She didn’t get any further because Mango and Cloud were there. I had sprinkled a few sunflower hearts to try to encourage the new girls to go there but Mango and Cloud found them first.

It is slow progress but there is no rush as I want the girls to stay on growers pellets for as long possible before getting to the age when laying is imminent. As Snow is a month older than Red I plan to wait until Snow is ready to start laying/ has started laying before letting them have layers pellets.

I will continue to give them some time mixing until this point but sometimes it doesn’t all come together until they are together full time and going in the chicken shed together at bedtime. It always works out in the end so I am happy to take it slowly.

It always seems that just as one girl comes back into lay another goes broody. Today Gold has come back into lay after a two week break.

At the same time both Mango and Cloud have gone broody together again. These two are just too in tune with each other. Cloud had laid fourteen eggs and Mango had laid nine eggs. It doesn’t seem to matter how many eggs they have laid as it seems that as soon as Cloud goes broody it triggers Mango to go broody too. It’s a bit of nuisance because when they are broody together they are harder to break out of it.

Storm hasn’t laid for ten days. I don’t know why she has just stopped although I did think she was going broody for about half a day and then she seemed to give up so maybe that was enough.

When Sugar started laying she laid five eggs then took a break of eleven days. She then started laying again and has now laid four eggs. She is laying every other day and her eggs have good shells. Sugar laid soft shelled eggs last year. I feel as if she has sorted this problem out for herself. Since before she started laying this year Sugar was going to the grit and oyster shell.

Sugar has been constantly going to the grit and oyster shell since then. She is always flicking the oyster shell out and picking through it. It is as if she knows that was what she needed. Her egg shells now even have little calcium bubbles on them. Because she is laying good shells she no longer has any problem laying her eggs.

But Sugar is still the same in that she is sitting in the run a lot with her wings slightly held away from her body and the humped shape before her tail. It’s as if she has worked out what she needed to lay good shelled eggs but the underlying problem with her is still there.

When Sugar is up and about she looks perfectly normal and she has been digging holes in the run with the rest of the girls. But she still sits for ninety percent of the time and still has the strange posture. I thought at first when she started laying her posture was worse but I don’t now think it was. I think I just noticed it more. Her posture has remained like that when she is sitting.

Whatever is adrift with Sugar she is managing to live with it so we will just accept that this is Sugar and see how she goes on.

We hardly ever have more than three girls laying at the same time. It will be good when we have the new girls laying to add to the numbers laying at any one time. They are keeping us going with eggs though so we are not complaining.

Edit

Three days later Storm is back in lay after a two week break and Sugar has gone broody after laying six eggs.