Carol's Chickens

Three weeks ago I put our chillies on a rack to dry out. This was the photo of them back then.

To my surprise they have changed colour. This is the photo of the chillies today.

I think they look quite beautiful. As they can be used as they are or ground to a powder I am going to leave them longer to see if they dry out some more.

An update on our pickles. The gherkins which we pickled in a mixture of brine and vinegar have turned out really well and are very similar to shop bought ones.

The runner beans have been a work in progress. I cheated and used pickling vinegar for them which can be used cold and so seemed a more simple method. When we tried them about three weeks later they were lovely and crunchy but so sour and acidic that we just couldn’t eat them.

I will never use pickling vinegar again. I googled and followed instructions for if your product is too sour. I drained off the vinegar and added quite a good amount of sugar and left it for a few days to dissolve. I then added it back to the beans and we tried them. They were still so sour that they were inedible.

Next I drained them again and poured over them the vinegar from a used jar of pickled onions. I thought that this would mean that the vinegar would be right.

The only thing is, that now, the beans taste just like pickled onions. They have the same crunch and with your eyes closed you wouldn’t know you were not eating a pickled onion.

It isn’t really what I would call a success as I am not sure of the benefit of beans that taste like pickled onions but I guess it has been a learning curve. Drying chillies and pickling are a first for us so it’s all experimental really.

I have learned a few lessons about vinegar and I think that is the part that we need to get right. It’s a shame about the beans as we have two jars of them and I think they will take a very long time for us to eat. There again there was such an abundance of beans that it wouldn’t really matter if we didn’t eat them

The chicks have been so fast to learn. I had decided not to help them to perch at bedtime. I thought that there was no rush to move them on to the next stage. They would have to run the risk of being pecked by the other girls and I felt they would stay warm in the shavings.

However the chicks had other ideas. It has only been nine days since I put the flock together and by the fourth night the chicks had learned to go in the chicken shed by themselves.

Only three days later I was surprised on checking them at bedtime to find that the chicks were perched next to Marmite. They have perched next to Marmite for the last three nights and I haven’t seen any pecking which is really good.

For some reason the flash on my camera doesn’t seem to be working properly so the photos are not great but it gives the gist.

Smoke is always at the opposite end of the perch. I think the other girls stay away from her as she pecks. Speckles is sometimes in the corner at the back as she is here and sometimes in the corner with Ebony and Flame on the side perch.

The girls have been in this same order for the last three nights. I am so pleased at how well the chicks are doing. I was surprised they had started perching at bedtime without my help but these two girls like to perch.

During the day they have found all the perches in the run and can often be found perched together in various spots. Well done girls!

The chicks are really growing up and learning new things every day. They have now learned to dust bath in the soil rather than the pine shavings.

One of the chicks favourite spots to chill is the big wooden shelter. Sometimes they sit side by side on the perch and sometimes on the platform at the back.

They look so cute sitting in here. This pair are totally inseparable.

The chicks are growing up fast. They have now explored the entire run and have discovered both ladders and the branch perches above the ladders.

They also spend time in the big wooden shelter and have found both the perches and the platform behind the perches.

After four nights of me showing them into the chicken shed they started finding their own way in. They are pretty quick to catch on.

They have also learned that they can jump on me. Sugar was the first to jump to my arm then down again then on to my shoulder and down again then on to my back. Shadow not to be outdone also jumped to my back.

Unlike the other girls when I tried to tip them off onto the nest box they wouldn’t budge. I ended up putting my fingers in front of their feet and one at a time they perched on my fingers and I lowered them down.

A few days later when I was crouched down Sugar jumped on to my head. She jumped down again on her own. This is so funny and sweet but we have yet to get a photo.

Only Ebony and Flame are still laying and they are laying less often so both food dishes now have growers pellets in which I crush a bit to make them smaller for the chicks.

Smoke has gone broody once more after eight eggs in twelve days. I am happy to leave her to it as there are only growers pellets on offer at the moment.

Seramas are supposed to moult a bit at a time but Salmon is moulting quite heavily. She is dropping feathers all around the run and in the chicken shed. She has dropped a few tail feathers. She does have pins on her head already and I am hoping that she will be feathered up before the weather gets colder.

We have had Shadow and Sugar three weeks tomorrow and they have settled in really well. They are very adventurous and quick to learn and totally at ease with me which is lovely. We have a very happy and settled flock.

This has been a really easy integration. We have come to the conclusion that it’s much easier to integrate younger girls as they pose no threat to the flock and therefore there is no aggression towards them.

The day before yesterday I decided to help the chicks find their way round the whole run. I opened the hatch and guided them out to the bigger part of the run. I then closed the hatch and opened the gate to let the flock into the chicks part and closed them in.

The flock actually loved being in this part because it’s been denied from them and therefore had become attractive.

I then guided the chicks around the entire run. I do this by having my open hands behind them and just move them forward. I guided them to the patio area and put their dish there so that they would know that this was where the food was. I then guided them back down from the patio area and then repeated the excercise so that they would get used to finding there way to and from the patio area.

I then opened the gate and let the girls mix together. There was no aggression at all so I decided that I would try leaving them together.

I opened up the corner near the patio and propped open the gate. I had also closed the chicks coup and moved their food dishes to the patio area.

At bedtime the flock was in the chicken shed but the chicks were standing at the edge of the patio and were cheeping. I guided them towards the pop hole and through into the chicken shed. They wanted to come back out but I blocked them with my hands and a few minutes later the automatic door shut.

I checked on the chicks and they were settled on the floor in the back corner of the shed. I made sure they were not in the firing line of being pooped on.

The next morning the chicks had become very adventuress and had explored the entire run. They love to be off the ground and discovered all the low perches, the wooden blocks, the log, the perches in the large shelter and the top of the small shelter.

I had changed all the food dishes to a mixture of growers pellets and chick crumb. Unfortunately the bigger girls were attracted to the smaller dishes and flicked pellets all around the patio area.

I was really pleased to see that the chicks were able to get to the food even with the bigger girls close to them.

At the end of the day the same thing happened as the night before and I had to guide the chicks through the pop hole. It will probably take a while for them to get the hang of it but I am sure they will soon.

After the chicks first night in the chicken shed I put their little coup back on the patio area to become a nest box once more.

Spangle seems to like to be wherever the chicks are and will follow them around.

By the end of the first day I had seen the chicks eat from the bigger food dishes and drink from the metal water dish. I decided that now they knew where the food and water was that I would take away the small dishes so that the patio area doesn’t get covered in pellets and then I swept the patio area.

I am really pleased with how easily this has gone. The chicks just need to learn to go in the chicken shed by themselves and once they have got used to that I will then try to perch them at night. I am confident that it won’t be too long before they get the hang of it.

Since the chicks have discovered the little perch in their part of the run it has become a favourite spot for them. Before if they wanted to chill they would go in their little coup but this perch has now become the place to chill.

They have also discovered that the little perch gets a shaft of sunshine in the afternoons and they hang out there in the spot of sun.

The chicks are growing up fast. They no longer spend time in their little coup during the day. I think they are cheeping a bit less too and are having less mad moments tearing around. They also seem to have slowed down with their feeding.

They were always in the food dish at first but they now spend some time just chilling in the run or on the perch. They are losing some of their baby ways. They have also dropped some of their baby feathers.

I think we are ready to start integrating now. I will let them spend some time with the flock tomorrow.

It’s difficult when we have new girls not to post about them every day. They grow up and change so quickly.

But my husband picked me these from the allotment yesterday and I thought they were so beautiful.

We also have a bumper crop of chillies from our two plants in pots on our patio. We have tried them and they are mega hot. Too hot to be manageable.

I was going to freeze them but realised that they would still be too hot to use. One of our allotment sharers suggested drying them so I googled it.

You can string them up or put them on a rack in the sun or in the oven on a very low heat. I decided that as we have sun at the moment that I would try that method.

The great thing about drying them is that you can use them three ways. You can grind them up to make chilly powder or you can use them as they are like sun dried tomatoes or you can re hydrate them in water.

I haven’t done this before so it’s experimental and I will report back at a later date. They do look pretty in the sun.

Today I decided to let the chicks mix with the flock and see how it would go. I first opened the hatch and directed the chicks out into the bigger part of the run as I didn’t want them to get cornered in their smaller part.

I took away their dishes as I knew the bigger girls would scratch soil into them. I closed the little coop as I didn’t want to risk them getting trapped in there and I opened up the corner by the patio area to give them an escape route.

Then I opened up the gate to see what would happen. Of course the flock were keen to get into the chicks area as it was suddenly new to them after being unavailable for a week.

The chicks were quite adventuress and soon explored the bigger part of the run. They then moved up to where the rest of the flock were. Most of the girls didn’t take any notice of the chicks.

Spangle was the only one who chased them a couple of times. I wasn’t too surprised at this as Spangle recently had spats with Marmite and Salmon so she already wanted to move up the pecking order. It made sense that she needed to show the chicks they were below her in the pecking order.

There was very little notice taken of the chicks and we felt it went really well. I wanted to take the opportunity to show the chicks the patio area which is always the most difficult part for new girls. I ended up picking them up and putting them on the patio.

Smoke was in the nest box and I thought that they were very brave to have a look in. Today Smoke laid her first egg since her last broody spell.

I then put their dish in front of them and sprinkled a bit of their food outside the dish. The chicks were happy enough to peck at the food.

At this point I felt that this was enough for the first day. I closed the part at the corner of the patio and I closed the hatch. I then shook the corn and sprinkled some outside the gate to get the other girls back out.

I then picked up the chicks and put them back in their area. This seemed the quickest and easiest way to get them back to their part of the run.

I am very pleased with how it went. I just want to get the chicks confident with the growers pellets before I move on to the next stage. By this afternoon they had eaten all of the chick crumb that I had mixed in the dish and just left the pellets. I think it’s going to take a bit longer to get them changed over.

It was a very encouraging start though and I don’t think it will take too long to get them all together.

The chicks have now been with us for a complete week as we collected them last Tuesday.

I open their little coup between seven and half past seven and they tumble straight down the ramp into the food dish.

I looked up when to start the chicks on growers pellets. It says at about ten weeks and I think the chicks are twelve weeks or more so I decided to give it a try. I broke the pellets up into smaller bits for the changeover and mixed in some chick crumb too. They seemed to take to it easily.

Today the chicks discovered the little perch which we put in this section when we first had chicks.

Once the chicks had discovered the little perch they kept returning to it as if they were really pleased with their new found skill.

I am really pleased with how it is all going.

I have looked back at the last serama integration and I had mixed the five new girls in five days. I am amazed that it was so quick. I think that they were a bold bunch because they had a safety in numbers. As these chicks are just a pair I feel that I would rather take it a bit more slowly.

There is no need to rush and I am at home all the time now so I have plenty of time to spend with them. I want to get them used to all the different parts of the run before I start mixing them.

This corner part of the run seems to be a good size for their size and the thought of letting roam the bigger parts feels too soon at the moment. I am happy that there is no animosity from the other girls but I think it’s better for the chicks to take our time.

Getting the chicks on growers is a step forward and they seem very happy in their own little space for now. If they are happy I am happy.

The new girls are growing before our eyes and are also growing in confidence. At first they spent a lot of time in their little coup just popping out for food, water and a quick run around.

Today the chicks have been outside all day apart from when they went inside to “dust bath”. I guess it will take a while for them to realise that they can do that outside too!

I think the good weather is encouraging to them stay outside. Yesterday they were side by side in a shaft of sunlight but I didn’t manage to get my camera quickly enough. Sunshine is also new to them.

All the older seramas have taken an interest in the water bottle and Spangle especially. Spangle has actually worked out that she can just about get her beak through the wire to the spout. It’s quite amazing because it seems that she remembers the water bottle and yet it was three years ago that the seramas had water bottles on their arrival with us.

There is another thing that has been really cute and I managed to get some photos today. Spangle will be at the water bottle on her side and the chicks will be at the water bottle on their side and they are not at all bothered by each other. They actually go and join Spangle at the water bottle or she joins them at the water bottle.

And something even more cute than that. Speckles and Spangle often stand beak to beak. They will stand perfectly still but beak to beak. It seems to be their special thing. A couple of times today Spangle and Sugar were standing perfectly still and were also beak to beak. It’s difficult to capture the exact moment but I got a shot just as they had moved slightly apart.

I am loving how adorable the chicks are and how there is no animosity between the the rest of the flock and them. I am very pleased with how it is progressing.