Carol's Chickens

Yesterday Flame went broody. Flame has been laying for six weeks and has never gone broody this early in the year before.

I don’t remember ever having three broody girls before. Loads of times there have been two as Smoke is a serial broody and will coincide with another girl from time to time.

This is a bit frustrating because Flame is one of our best layers. Flame lays two days out of three whereas Ebony lays every other day at best and hasn’t laid for the last three days.

This will leave us with much fewer eggs and not many of the bigger eggs. It also clogs up the nest boxes. Last night I closed all the nest boxes before bedtime as it also means moving three girls.

By closing the nest boxes it meant that both Flame and Smoke perched at bedtime. Sugar settled in the corner of the chicken shed but it meant I only had to lift one girl to the perch rather than three.

Ebony in the background is looking in the nest box because I have lifted the lid. She always likes to take a look when I look in but she didn’t go in.

I wonder if Flame laying her eggs beside broody Sugar has triggered her going broody. Flame does like company in the nest box and it’s not the first time she has been broody alongside a little girl.

I guess we are going to be having less eggs for a while. We won’t be able to gift any more for a while. Sigh!

Not only were all three nest boxes occupied at once but occupied by seven girls. Our flock seems to be diminishing! This morning there were only two girls out in the run and that was Spangle and Shadow.

Two broody girls clogging up the nest boxes is meaning that they are all three in use and some sharing is having to become the norm.

I grabbed my camera and took some photos.

It is so odd seeing so few girls out in the run these days. Luckily the two bigger girls are happy to share a nest box with the two broody girls.

When I went back to check a little later Shadow was in the nest box by the gate with Salmon.

There is an awful lot of nest box sharing at the moment. I don’t think all three nest boxes have ever been so busy.

It is great to see the girls sharing instead of shouting about it. A few moments later the egg shout went out. I went back to check.

Smoke was now in the nest box by the gate which is a nest box she never uses. I lifted her out and there were Shadow and Salmon’s eggs side by side. How did Smoke know there were eggs to sit on!

It never ceases to amaze me how a broody girl will always find the eggs. It is quite amusing to see the nest boxes being so well used at the moment. They are funny girls.

Smoke has now gone broody as well as Sugar. Smoke has laid eleven eggs in fifteen days which is her average before going broody.

I can’t believe I said recently that for the first time in a long time all the girls were laying. That didn’t last long.

Sugar is sitting in one nest box and Smoke in the next one along. Ebony and Flame have shared the nest box with Sugar today and Shadow has laid her egg in the third nest box by the gate. Salmon also did the same thing yesterday.

It’s the first time I can remember having all three nest boxes occupied. Usually the girls like to try to get in the favourite nest box but I think that as Shadow is so docile she preferred to choose a different nest box.

I lifted both girls out to get a photo. I love the way they are refusing to look at each other.

I lifted both girls from the nest boxes to the perch in the chicken shed last night and will continue to do this. It is a pain when more than one girl goes broody at a time but what can you do!

Since Shadow and Sugar started laying I have wondered if one of them would be a broody girl. Shadow started laying earlier than Sugar and once she hit her stride she proved to be a really good layer.

I thought this would probably mean that Shadow would be a broody girl because it tends to be the good egg layers that go broody.

However it turns out that it is Sugar who is the broody. Shadow has laid 24 eggs so far and Sugar has laid 14 eggs and then gone broody. This is a similar number to Smoke before going broody.

I first thought she was going broody when I would check the nest box and Sugar would growl and raise her tail. I thought this meant she was going to be one of those angry broodies. It turned out that she was just trying to get her last egg laid.

Once Sugar actually went broody she wasn’t angry at all. She will let me lift her from the nest box with no fuss. When I put her out in the run she sits for a minute then starts scratching away. She will have a scratch and some food and water before going back in and doesn’t rush back immediately. Maybe this is because it’s just her first time.

Ebony seemed to push her way into the nest box and Sugar just held her position. Flame prefers company in a nest box and will choose an occupied one if there is one so they seemed happier with sharing.

I later removed both Ebony’s egg and then Flame’s egg from underneath Sugar. Shadow chose to lay her egg in the nest box next to this one.

I am happy that when I lift Sugar she is docile and accepting. It’s much nicer than an angry girl. At bedtime I am lifting her from the nest box and perching her in the chicken shed and she perches happily without dropping down from the perch.

Sugar doesn’t shout when I remove her from the nest box unlike Smoke, sometimes, so that is a bonus too. Sugar is turning out to be a sweet broody girl so far.

It will be interesting to see how she long she will stay broody. The good thing is that we are getting plenty of eggs.

All the girls love to dig holes but Smoke is our current most avid digger. I say current because back in the day that title went to Cinnamon.

Cinnamon was our smallest girl but had big feet and we soon came to realise that she put them to good use. Cinnamon would dig holes that she would disappear into.

Smoke has taken this job over from Cinnamon. Smoke did this last year and I posted about it but I think it can take posting again.

Ebony and Flame can dig good holes because they are bigger girls. But their holes don’t compare with Smoke’s holes in comparison to her size. Smoke will dig a hole that she can disappear into.

Sometimes I go back to check on the girls and Smoke may be still digging away at her hole an hour later. I guess it keeps her occupied. The bigger girls come along and fill in her holes and then Smoke sets about making them again.

I fill in the holes when I clean up the run and Smokes makes them again. I figure it gives her a purpose. It also seems to be to do with the time of year because Smoke was doing this last year at this time of year.

Perhaps there are bugs to be had or perhaps it is just for fun.

I have to say that I do find it quite entertaining to watch. I am sure she is having fun.

I have always removed the top from our soft boiled eggs with a knife. A swift side ways cut through the top and remove.

However with the little serama eggs it’s a little more difficult. I think because they are loose in the saki cups holding them is much hotter on the fingers and the shells themselves are also harder and the whole operation is much more fiddly. Plus I have to do four instead of two.

My husband suggested that I look at gadgets to take the top off boiled eggs. I looked on Amazon and as I didn’t know what they were called I typed in to the search – taking the top off boiled eggs.

It turns out they are called egg toppers. The one I chose was the princely sum of £2.99 and free next day delivery. I couldn’t go wrong at that price.

I wasn’t sure if it would close small enough for a serama egg but I thought that if it didn’t work it would still be worth having for our winter medium sized shop bought eggs.

I was waiting to try this out before giving it a review.

In the mean time, in case anyone hasn’t read the comments, David said that his wife uses an upturned regular egg cup for bantam eggs. I thought this was a genius idea that I would never have thought of.

Left, regular egg cup, next it’s upturned and right serama eggs in the dip of the base. Thank you to David and his wife for this tip.

Now for my review of the egg topper. The next time we had soft boiled eggs I tried it. It didn’t seem to close tightly enough on the tiny egg and although it did make a cut it didn’t remove the top of the egg shell and I had to finish with a knife.

I decided to wait until this morning and try it on the slightly bigger eggs of Ebony and Flame. I thought this would work better but it was exactly the same. It crushed the shell a bit but didn’t remove it.

I squeezed it a bit harder and the egg topper came apart in bits. Well I suppose this is what I get for buying the cheapest one.

My husband put it together again easily enough. I will keep it for the winter and try it with regular sized eggs but I won’t bother using it again for my little eggs. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Over winter while our girls weren’t laying we were having a soft boiled egg and toasted soldiers for breakfast one day a week. It became one of my favourite breakfasts.

I hadn’t often done this with our girls’ eggs because I thought it would be difficult to judge the timings. However I decided on a bit of trial and error so that I would know for the future and I now have it down to a fine art.

I had to also take into consideration the two different sizes of my eggs. Regular bantam sized for Ebony and Flame and tiny serama sized for the rest of the girls.

It may help others as a starting point and then you can tweak it to suit your own tastes. I like my soft boiled egg to have a firm white but a liquid yolk to dip in. I like my hard boiled eggs to still have just a little softness to them.

With a medium shop bought egg I give them 5 minutes for soft boiled and 10 minutes for hard boiled.

With Ebony and Flame’s eggs I give them 4 minutes for soft boiled and 8 minutes for hard boiled.

With the serama eggs I give them 3 minutes for soft boiled and 6 minutes for hard boiled.

As we get many more serama eggs than the bigger ones it seemed more useful to get the timings right for these. The next problem was what to use as egg cups.

I have loads of regular sized egg cups of course. I have only one bantam sized egg cup that my youngest son gave me one Easter with a chocolate egg in it. It is perfect for Ebony and Flame’s eggs but not much use as there are two of us and only the one egg cup.

The serama eggs drop so low in the bantam sized egg cup that you wouldn’t be able to get at them. I then had a brain wave. I have four sake cups that were also a gift from my youngest son in the days when a lot of my gifts had a chicken theme. They have cockerels on them and sit in my kitchen display cabinet.

The eggs are loose in them but they are low enough to be able to get to the eggs and they actually work fine for us. It’s been nice to have a use for them rather than just decoration.

I have to cut the soldiers a bit thinner to dip in the eggs but this works perfectly. We are having this as our regular mid week breakfast and I love them.

Although the eggs are small you get more yolk ratio with smaller eggs so they are really lovely. I am pleased with myself for solving this. Perfect little eggs every time.

The girls have really got into their egg laying stride. Even Ebony is now laying again. Ebony laid an egg three days ago followed by another one yesterday.

I am glad that Ebony is laying again. It’s not because we need the eggs but because it means there is no problem going on with her. I really don’t want any more health problems with the girls.

For the first time in a very long time the entire flock is laying. For the first time this year I am using all three of my egg rollers in the fridge.

Also for the first time this year I have enough eggs to give some away. Yesterday I gave all the eggs from the back roller to my lovely neighbours. There are three of them as their adult daughter lives with them.

Because our eggs are so small I needed to accumulate a good number of eggs before I could give some away. We have them two or three each at a time.

My neighbour shares books with me. We each put the books that we have enjoyed on the wall to be read and then passed back. We pass each other small gifts from time to time. It is lovely to be able to share some eggs.

It is lovely having such an abundance of our girls’ lovely eggs. Thank you girls!

I have to warn that this will be long. We had Speckles for so long that there is a lot to say about her and I have lots of photos of her. I spent all yesterday afternoon going through photos and then I had to half them to a more manageable amount.

Speckles was the most amazing girl we have had. We bought her home at the end of July 2015. She was already moulting and promptly lost her tail.

This means that she was two years old as hens lay through their first year instead of moulting. That means that Speckles was about eight years old. I have just been researching bantam ancona to see how many eggs they are expected to lay and it says that eight years is the average lifespan for an ancona.

This makes me feel better as Speckles has lived a good, full, life. It says that ancona are prolific egg layers laying between 200 and 270 eggs a year. Speckles was never a prolific layer and halved the number of eggs she laid each year.

Speckles laid none with us in 2015 as she was already moulting and she always moulted that early every year since.

Speckles number of eggs were:

2016 – 50, 2017 – 27, 2018 – 12, 2019 – 6, 2020 – 1 and of course none this year.

I have often thought that her lack of egg laying probably gave her her longevity as egg laying wasn’t wearing her out. When she did lay though they were the biggest bantam eggs we have ever had. They were a long, oval, shape and were white and huge.

Speckles came into the flock as bottom girl. She was so nervous of all the girls and of me. She soon got used to me though and within six months of having her she would regularly jump on my back. Speckles continued to do this all the time that she was with us. When I would poop pick the run she would jump on my back and ride with me until I passed a perch where she would step off.

Speckles was also my most chatty girl. She had an easily recognisable voice and would follow me round the run chatting to me and I chatted back to her.

Because we had her for so long Speckles saw a lot of girls come and go and she soon rose up the ranks to become top girl. Speckles was a very gentle top girl. I have never seen Speckles show aggression. She would just give a gentle peck to her underlings when needed and even Ebony who is quite a thug has never challenged her being top girl. I think she gained respect through age.

During the time we have had Speckles we have re homed 5 girls and lost 13 girls plus 1 cockerel. That is many more than those that came before her which were 3 re homed, 3 lost and 1 cockerel.

Speckles also formed close friendships. From the time that we lost Toffee and Emerald became the only other remaining bigger girl the two of them formed a close friendship. They were always together.

Speckles also took on a mothering role towards some of the little girls. When Cinnamon, Dandelion and Apricot joined the flock Speckles acted like a mother hen towards them. She never pecked them and she would call them to treats or titbits.

When we lost Apricot and then Dandelion Speckles formed a really close bond with Cinnamon. They were always together until we lost Cinnamon.

After losing Emerald we got Ebony and Flame so that Speckles wouldn’t be the only bigger girl. Speckles was equally at home with the bigger girls or the little girls.

At bedtime the bigger girls use the side perch which is wider for their bigger feet and the little girls use the back perch which is narrower. Speckles would equally perch with the two bigger girls or with the little girls. She was the only girl to divide her time between the two perches.

Speckles was always the first to the lunch time apple and she loved chopped tomato. On her last day with us she was as usual first to the apple at lunch time. I gave the girls chopped tomato later in the afternoon as one had gone soft and Speckles was very quick to hoover it up.

Speckles came running when I shook the bedtime corn. It was less than an hour later that I found she had gone. She was still warm and had a full crop. It is as though she was good and then she was gone which is why it was such a shock.

I am so glad that Speckles was able to enjoy a long time as top girl with us and enjoyed all her food and treats right up to the end. She has had a good innings as they say. She will be very much missed.

I have picked some photos from each year. There were many photos of Speckle’s huge red comb and of her on my back but I limited myself to just one of each. I always said that when egg laying Speckles had a comb that a cockerel would be proud of.

What an amazing girl. She is already very much missed but we were lucky to have had her.

Speckles was our oldest girl and we knew that the day would come when we would lose her. What we didn’t expect was for it to be now.

What I would have expected was a gradual slow down. Speckles was still eating well and enjoying the treats. She was always the first to the lunch time apple every day. She was still full of life and was always chatty. She was our most vocal girl.

I could see her age in her eyes though. She still had a red comb but her eyes had become very narrow.

Last night I went out to give the girls their bedtime corn at half past five. I always give it at about an hour before the pop hole closes which at the moment is at half past six.

I rattled the corn and Speckles came running as usual. After the corn the three bigger girls always go in the chicken shed first followed by Spangle. Spangle has worked out that it’s easier to go in before Smoke who will block the pop hole for a while.

Shadow, Sugar and Salmon are always the last in. Since I have stopped leaving the shed door ajar all the girls have been in before the pop hole closes every night.

I closed our bedroom curtains as I always do before going out to the chickens. I was surprised to see the white shapes of the little girls running back and forth across the edge of the patio area and knew that they must be shut out.

I went out and as soon as I got to the gate I could see why they were out. Speckles was lying, dead, in the middle of the patio area. I think that Salmon, Shadow and Sugar hadn’t wanted to pass her.

I felt her and her breast was still slightly warm. It had been less than hour since I had left the girls. It was such a shock.

My husband took her from me and put her in the shed until morning as it was quite dark by now. Shadow first and then Sugar jumped on to my back and I got my husband to pass them to me so that I could perch them. Salmon by then had made her way to the open shed door so I picked her up and put her on the perch.

I inspected Speckles and there was no sign of anything untoward and her crop was full. I think she would have been on her way in to the chicken shed and just didn’t make it. It must have been quick.

My husband said that it was the best chicken death you could want as their was no decline and no decision needed but the quickness of it has left me reeling. I am just stunned and I didn’t have any time to get used the idea of her going.

I can’t believe that Speckles has gone just a week after Marmite. This morning my husband dug a deep hole in the chicken’s strip to bury her and I planted a big primula on top of her. My husband made a wooden cross to mark her spot. Sadly Speckles is number seven in the chicken’s strip.

I took this photo a week ago to show how pale Marmite’s comb was. Even our elderly Speckles had a red comb. You can see her age in her eyes though.

Both my husband and myself had noticed her eyes over the last couple of days had narrowed a bit more and had a far away look to them.

I took a photo for my record and wasn’t sure if I should put it here or not. I decided that as it is blurred I would because I feel it shows how I found her and how sudden it was.

I will do a tribute to Speckles over the next day or two. I have many years of photos to look back through so it will take me quite some time but I want to do her justice.

Speckles was a very special girl and will be very much missed.