Carol's Chickens

I swear Speckles tail is growing before my eyes. It seems slightly longer than yesterday.

Flame’s tail seems shorter but that’s because what I thought was a short new tail feather was actually a last tail feather waiting to fall and now it’s gone.

I thought it would be fun to get a photo of the two tail-less girls together. Not easy! I just set up a good shot when Salmon photo bombed it!

I thought it was fun so kept it in. Salmon’s tail looks very long in comparison to these two bigger girls.

It won’t be long before there are normal tails all round!

I am now picking up a full punnet ( which is what I use for poop picking ) of feathers from both the run during the day and the chicken shed in the morning.

I photographed Speckles and Flame again yesterday, just the next day, from the photos taken for the previous post and more tail feathers had fallen out.

I don’t suppose it will be long before Speckles last tail feather falls out. I always think the girls look very odd without their tails. Tail feathers do seem to grow back quickly though unlike head feathers.

The new tail feathers will already be there underneath and will soon grow to their usual length. These girls will soon be back to normal.

And the next day:

As I had expected it wasn’t long before Speckles had no tail. She does look quite cute though.

It’s funny but every year I am surprised by how early the moult starts. First Speckles was dropping loads of feathers and now Flame.

I checked back to July last year and I had taken some photos of Flame with no tail and I had titled my post “The moult has started early this year”.

I have also been looking back through the history of the flock and we collected Speckles in July and she promptly dropped all her tail feathers. I had to wait for her tail to come back in to get a good photo of her for my history.

So it is odd that every July I think that the moult has started early when in fact it actually starts at this time every year. I am going to try to remember that in future.

I also wondered if eggs would cease so I looked back at last year’s egg record. Flame started laying again after her moult and stopped after the first week in September so hopefully she will start laying again later this year.

Flame’s moult is faster than Speckles. They both look okay though and the most obvious thing is their tail.

It’s actually far better to moult in summer than winter so it’s probably not a bad thing. I am sure they will both be back to looking their best soon.

With the recent mixture of sun and rain everything in the garden has gone mad this year and got really big.

It all looks amazing but we will have to have a big chop back at the end of the year.

I recently noticed that Flame has spurs. It’s usually cockerels that have spurs but there are no hard and fast rules with chickens.

I have just researched this. All chickens have buds on their legs from which spurs can grow. In most hens they remain latent but spurs are not uncommon on Mediterranean breeds. Flame isn’t a Mediterranean breed but as I said before there are no hard and fast rules!

Chickens have three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards. The spur is a little higher up the leg.

On Flame’s left leg you can clearly see her fourth, backward facing, toe and then above it the spur. On cockerels this can be scythe shaped and with a sharp point.

Luckily on Flame the spurs are short and blunt. I don’t think we have anything to worry about especially as she is such a placid girl.

Flame is definitely all girl as she is our best layer and goes broody a few times a year. In fact what made me notice her spurs was that I was hunkered down on her level trying to block her from joining Smoke in the nest box.

Over the last few days I have been closing the nest boxes after the girls have laid to try to break Flame out of being broody. It has worked as she has now given up. She had been broody for a week.

Flame lays five to six eggs a week compared to Ebony who lays four to five eggs a week. I used to say that Smoke was the best layer of the little girls but actually her constant broodiness means that isn’t really the case any longer. For the last two months Smoke has only laid seven eggs and then gone broody and taken the rest of the month off. Salmon has never gone broody and lays between ten and fifteen eggs a month.

There are definitely no rules when it comes to chickens. I quite like that Flame is a bit different with her spurs. All chickens are so individual which is one of the things that makes them so interesting.

This is the part of the garden that the girls look out on.

I think it is one of the best parts of the garden. I love the way everything intermingles.

Two days ago Smoke came back into lay after three days of dropping feathers. Smoke stopped dropping feathers and she laid both days.

On the same day Flame went broody. Smoke and Flame are our two best layers but I suppose it is lucky that they are not broody together, as they have been in the past, because that drastically reduces the amount of eggs we get.

With Flame occupying the favourite nest box there is a lot of shouting when Ebony or Smoke want that nest box too. However Salmon and Flame are happy to share. It’s so sweet to see them side by side.

If only all the girls were so happy to share. It is so much more peaceful that way. I have to collect the egg as soon as possible though or Flame would happily sit on it.

Yesterday we picked the first broccoli from our garden veg patch. We will be having it with our Sunday roast dinner.

We know that it is caterpillar free due to the net cage we have grown it in and the more we pick the more it will sprout again.

The first of each crop is just that bit special.

Speckles is moulting and sitting around in dust holes during the heat. Smoke came out of being broody more quickly than usual. She was broody for just under a week and as usual started staying out for longer periods.

I closed the nest boxes at the end of the day for two evenings and she perched in the chicken shed and then no longer returned to the nest box.

Two weeks on and Smoke would usually start to lay again but instead she is also moulting. I am finding a little heap of feathers under her roost spot in the mornings.

Marmite looked uncomfortable again yesterday afternoon and I knew another egg was coming. This morning she looked fine once more and her soft shelled egg was actually in the nest box. It’s the first one in ages that has made it to the nest box and it was partly intact this time.

As it was so hot I decided to give the girls a treat of mash made with ice cold water and topped with frozen peas.

The girls love this and it’s a great way to get all the girls in shot and to cool the girls down. It won’t be long before the dishes are emptied.

I have been picking up feathers from Speckles for the last few days both from the chicken shed in the mornings and the run during the day.

Speckles is moulting early. I think it’s because she hasn’t laid at all this year and her hormones have decided that she is done with that for the year. Speckles only laid six eggs last year and I wondered if she would lay three this year following her pattern of halving her total each year.

Speckles had a few moments of sitting in the nest box almost as if to remind herself that this is the usual thing to do but no eggs. She is really looking her age these days and does a lot of sitting in the run so I don’t expect her to lay again. I am just happy that she looks okay.

Yesterday afternoon Speckles was having a lovely dust bath surrounded by feathers. I wanted to get a photo but as soon as I walked through the chicken run gate with my camera she ran to me.

Instead I took a photo of her dust hole and of her at the water dish.

Speckles comb has never got as big or as red as when she was laying and I can see her age in her eyes but as long as she stays well and happy I am happy.

Yesterday we picked more raspberries and strawberries from the allotment plus a few lettuce. D and S, our lovely allotment friends, who lived opposite moved on Friday. They are only ten minutes walk away but we felt sad to no longer have them across the road from us.

We gave them a prosecco send off on Thursday evening with all of us allotment sharers, at a suitable distance, in their large front garden. We will miss spending time in their front garden, who would have thought we would have had so many meetings for drinks in their the front garden!

T and C picked three bunches of wild flowers from the allotment so that we could all three have a vase of them.

They are longer stemmed than usual so fitted nicely in a different vase.

I know the allotment will keep us all together and we will all still see each other but it is a bit of an end of an era not having our friends opposite us. We know that they will be happy in their new home though and at least they haven’t moved far away. Times are changing but we will always be friends.