Carol's Chickens

I have had to write this post in hindsight because my camera card stopped working. It wouldn’t let me access my photos so there has been a delay while I ordered another card and waited for it to arrive.

Smoke went broody again four days ago. She had laid eight eggs in ten days. As a serial broody her laying time between bouts of being broody is getting shorter and shorter.

It is frustrating that our best, little girl, layer only has such short bursts of laying.

Marmite is still struggling with laying. She often looks miserable in the afternoon and then lays a soft shelled egg in the chicken shed in the morning. This is happening on average about every three days.

A few days ago I found a really tiny egg in the chicken shed in the morning. This may be the tiniest yet. It was about the size of a small blueberry. I am guessing that this was from Marmite.

Smoke is broody so isn’t laying and both Salmon and Spangle are laying normal eggs on average every two to three days. They had both laid the day before the tiny egg. Marmite had laid a soft shelled egg two days before and has since laid another soft shelled egg two days later.

I looked inside after I had taken this photo and there was no yolk.

Marmite has laid a selection of the most odd eggs I have come across during my time keeping chickens. There is obviously something adrift with her ability to make shells because I see her taking the grit and oyster shell and sometimes her soft shells have calcium bubbles/pimples on them. It is as if the calcium isn’t forming in the correct place.

It is also odd that Marmite laid properly last year and this problem has developed this year. Fortunately Marmite bounces back as soon as the egg is laid.

I just hope that Marmite continues to bounce back and I have a faint hope that maybe in time her egg laying will improve again but only time will tell.

Having just found a source of asparagus for both allotment plots I decided to go back to the garden centre before they sold out and get another two for our garden veg plot. It will be lovely to have some in our garden too.

I thought that before the rose goes over completely I would take a photo from our bedroom window.

The roses have gone mad and everything is looking so lush. We have finally had some much needed rain during the night before last and then yesterday afternoon.

A day off from watering veg and the rain will do so much good. I am missing the sun though but mustn’t complain.

As I have mentioned in a previous post the three of us sharing an allotment plot have taken on a second plot next to the first.

Sometimes we have been working on one plot while T or D work on the other plot. Just after my 60th birthday I mentioned to T, who was working on the second plot that day, that I would like to grow asparagus now that we have much more space.

T instantly put together a raised bed and said that would be for the asparagus. We all agreed that it would make a great extra 60th birthday present and as asparagus is for the long haul we would all remember it being planted around my 60th birthday.

I started looking online and found that all the asparagus crowns and asparagus plants were sold out. I ordered seeds but was disappointed because plants take two years to crop whereas seeds take four years to crop which is what I meant by it being the long haul. Once cropping though the plants produce for twenty to fifty years.

Garden centres had now reopened and the next day T sent a photo to our allotment phone app of asparagus plants at our local garden centre. They were eight pounds each which I thought expensive so I said I would get three. My lovely husband said I must get six and have them as my 60th birthday present.

I bought six plants and prepared the raised bed with manure in the bottom then a layer of compost then a layer of topsoil. In the meantime word had got round the allotment grapevine and someone had been digging out asparagus from their plot. They had recently taken the plot over and didn’t like asparagus! They had already dumped some but had now very kindly saved me three crowns which was very much appreciated.

The ones I had bought were purple asparagus and these were green asparagus. I decided to alternate three purple and three green in the raised bed. I then decided, with agreement from T and D that I would plant the other three on the first plot so that we would have some on each plot. There was a patch where some of last year’s raspberry canes had died over winter so I prepared this patch for the remaining three plants.

This will be a birthday present that will go on and on in the future and we will all benefit from.

I also condensed my three birthday bouquets into one vase this morning.

This is not at all bad for a week and a half later and still looking lovely. I am so lucky.

I seem to have veered away from chickens lately. I thought that I should put out a group photo just to prove that the girls are still here and all doing very nicely.

The best way to get a group photo is to give the girls a treat. There have been a few occasions recently when the entire flock have all been sitting together either in the sun or later in the day in the shade but every time I go back with my camera one of the girls will have moved away from the group.

This morning I decided to give the girls two dishes of mash with plenty of cold water, as a cooling treat, to get a few group shots of them.

Back row from left to right we have Speckles, Spangle, Marmite and Flame and front row from left to right we have Ebony, Smoke and Salmon.

My lovely girls.

Our rose always peaks for my birthday and it is quite spectacular at the moment.

It is so beautiful. This is probably the most spectacular moment of the year for our garden and always happens for my birthday. How lucky is that!

Yesterday ( Monday 25th May ) was my 60th birthday and I had a wonderful day.

A year ago my boys said that we must all get together for my 60th and being a bank holiday there would be no excuse.

Sadly, corona virus came along, followed by lock-down. I felt sad that we couldn’t be together.

But I had an amazing day. It was a gloriously sunny day and I love the sun. Parcels and cards had started to arrive.

My day started with a birthday message to my phone from my mum and I called her for a chat. Then after breakfast I went into the garden and my neighbour had put a gift and card on our wall and we chatted. I then got a video call from my eldest son and had a chat with my three year old grandson.

Next my youngest step son had cycled over to leave a card and cake and have a distanced chat. That was followed by my eldest son and daughter in law arriving with a card and gifts and another distance chat.

It was then time for lunch followed by a call from my husband’s cousin and a long chat. This took us up to our next meeting.

Our lovely friends opposite had invited us for a distance birthday drink at three o’clock in their large front garden. They had set up a table and chairs for us in a sunny spot and another for them at a distance and we each took our own prosecco and glasses.

While there I had a birthday call from my eldest step son and several text messages plus our friend’s neighbours came out to wish me a happy birthday.

We came back home at seven o’clock and our neighbours the other side called to me to wish me happy birthday and see how my day had gone.

It was then time for a later than usual evening meal and afterwards a few more text messages. There had not been a gap in the day from start to finish and it worked out better than I could have imagined.

I have had lots of lovely gifts but will just show my flowers here.

Because of the bank holiday I have been told that I have another parcel and some more cards to come. It is spreading my birthday out nicely.

My lovely husband also did me a B.B.Q. the day before instead of me cooking the usual Sunday roast. On my birthday I had organised a seafood cocktail for our evening meal because we knew we might be late back home.

We have said that we will celebrate together next year but this birthday will always be memorable. It has been amazing. Thank you to everyone.

Over the last few days I have seen a fair sized slow worm on the path. Most times it had gone by the time I got my camera but eventually I just managed one photo before it disappeared.

Our rambling rose is just getting started. I took a photo of it against the blue sky.

In chicken news Smoke came out of being broody nearly a week ago. I decided that as Smoke was no longer broody I would close the nest boxes at the end of the day to encourage broody Flame to go in the chicken shed at bedtime.

Flame would then sit on top of a nest box.

Despite this Flame still went and perched in the chicken shed at bedtime. This makes life easier as I don’t have to lift her at bedtime and it is also less disturbance for her too.

After doing this for a couple nights I decided to close the nest boxes during the day once the laying girls had laid their eggs. I was pleased to find that Flame stayed out in the run instead of sitting on the nest box.

I have now been closing the nest boxes for the last couple of days and I am hopeful that Flame will soon give up on being broody. I am also expecting Smoke to start laying again soon.

It is always good to have a bit of respite between broody girls.

The three of us sharing the allotment plot have just taken on the plot next to ours. It had an older couple sharing it with their daughter but she has now moved away and they couldn’t manage it on their own.

It is overgrown but it has the advantage of having a row of mature raspberry canes which is an absolute bonus for us all.

T has been going up early in the morning and digging it over and is doing a great job. We went up yesterday so that I could take some photos of both plots. I wanted to photograph the new plot before it’s cleared so that I will have before and after photos.

Some photos of our first plot.

We feel so lucky to have the allotment at the moment. We feel that this year will be even better than last year as we have learned a lot and we all have plenty of time.

We are looking forward to seeing how much produce we get this year, probably enough to keep our neighbours supplied too, but the main thing is that it gives us all a lot of pleasure.

There are lots of lovely splashes of colour in the garden at the moment. I thought I would try to capture a few.

The garden is so lush at the moment and we feel so lucky to have the garden. All birds are also welcome visitors to the garden too.

Smoke has now been broody for two weeks and Flame went broody four days ago. Once again our best two layers are broody together but as we have been getting plenty of eggs it’s not a problem at the moment.

Smoke and Flame have taken to sharing a nest box quite a lot of the time and at bedtime I have to lift them both from the nest box and put them on the bedtime perch.

A few days ago Marmite looked a bit down again and I knew she was leading up to laying another egg. The next morning her egg was in the run and the shell was fine. Marmite always looks a bit down the day before laying which must be when the egg is at an uncomfortable stage. When she actually lays the egg she seems unaware as it has been on the patio or, this time, in the run.

Marmite then goes to sit in the nest box showing that she is unaware of having laid her egg. We have seen this behaviour before with Amber in the past and with Salmon last year so it seems that the pattern is discomfort the day before but no awareness of the egg being laid.

Marmite really wanted to sit in the same nest box as the two broody girls. Obviously if they were both in one nest box then that had to be the best nest box.

Flame is a tolerant girl but Smoke isn’t. Smoke had pecked Marmite away every time she got too close to her. Smoke is happy to sit with broody Flame but she doesn’t want to share a nest box with any of the little girls.

Smoke got fed up with all the intrusions and moved to the nest box next door. In the meantime Ebony was ready to lay her egg and her current favourite nest box is the one that Flame was occupying.

I don’t understand why Marmite wants to be in the same nest box as Smoke because Smoke clearly doesn’t want her there.

Marmite spent ages stood on the ramp to the nest box Smoke was in. Every time Marmite stepped over the threshold Smoke would peck her away.

Once Ebony had laid her egg, and I quickly removed it, Marmite decided that it would be better to share with the more tolerant Flame.

Soon after this Marmite gave up on laying the egg that she had in fact already laid and left the nest box. This gave Smoke the opportunity to take up residence with Flame once more.

The two broody girls were still together like this at bedtime when I moved them to chicken shed once the pop hole door had closed.

It would seem convenient that these two are happy to share a nest box leaving the other two free but in fact it doesn’t help at all as the rest of the girls want this nest box too. Sigh. That’s chickens for you!