Carol's Chickens

Marmite and Flame are beginning to look back to normal after their moult. Marmite is now all feathered up except for still having loads of pins on her head making her head look white.

Flame is just about feathered up with just a few pins on her neck.

Marmite still has white pins on her head

Flame has pins on this side of her neck

This side of Flame’s neck has feathered up

It is so good not to be picking up loads of feathers and also to see these two girls almost back to their forma glory.

In other news, Smoke came out of her broody spell after only five days. This is very brief for Smoke. I think the colder weather probably brought her out of it.

Marmte was being very vocal yesterday and looking in the nest box. Later in the afternoon she gave the shout out and there was her egg in the nest box. Well done Marmite!

I have been fighting mycoplasma for three years now, since it came into my flock, with Caramel and Pebbles. I have lost so many of my girls to this horrible respiratory disease.

I have been advised by my vet that I must let my flock die out as that is the only way to be rid of it and that I cannot go on treating it indefinitely. I have balked at this suggestion.

With the painful loss of Cinnamon and the ongoing symptoms with Salmon I am having to have a difficult rethink. I can only say that just writing this has me in tears.

I am no longer allowed to treat with tylan in the water and I don’t believe that baytril is as good. I  treated Cinnamon with baytril ten weeks ago and it seemed to improve her instantly. Three days later she started laying eggs again. She laid eight eggs and then took a break of three weeks as she had started moulting.

Cinnamon then started laying eggs again and laid six eggs in two weeks. Every one of these eggs had a blob of poop on them. Looking back I think that this shows something was adrift inside of her.

It was two weeks after Cinnamon had stopped laying  again that she showed the same symptoms as before. This time treating her with baytril had no effect at all and the next day she was gone.

It was only two weeks ago that I took Salmon to the vet and started her on baytril. She stopped wheezing after three days and I gave her a week’s course. It was only nine days later that she started wheezing again. I started treating her with baytril four days ago and this time so far she is still wheezing.

I am beginning to think that the vet is right that I can’t keep treating. If Salmon is still wheezing by the end of this course of bayrtil I will have to take her back to the vet. If she does improve this time but starts wheezing again in the near future I will have to take her back to the vet.

I am beginning to see that I cannot keep treating if it keeps coming back and I dread the thought of how I will get the flock through the winter.

I am afraid that I will lose Salmon in the near future and I will be very surprised if Speckles makes it through this winter. All summer we have noticed that her breathing is very noticeable as her breast feathers bob up and down with each breath.

This last week there have been very, large, wet, patches under her roost spot. She has become very anxious and is easily startled. Since the loss of Cinnamon she calls out throughout the day. I feel her unhappiness at losing Cinnamon. Speckles always roosted in the corner next to Cinnamon but now no longer roosts in the corner. Speckles now roosts between Ebony and Flame.

My vet wanted me to treat each girl only once when they showed myco symptoms and then let them go. I am considering doing this on my terms and treating each girl twice before letting them go. I know that the baytril is always generous enough to stretch to two treatments.

This may be a long journey but I am thinking now that the vet is right and I must let my flock go one by one. I can never add more girls to this flock and I can’t go on with the heartbreak of having this in my flock.

I had hoped that when Dandelion went maybe we would be free of this but I can now see that myco is very much still a presence in my flock.

I realise that what may happen is that I may lose the little girls one by one and then end up with just Ebony and Flame. It seems to me that the little girl are too fragile to fight the myco but the bigger girls are able to live with it. All the bigger girls, past and present, have shown no other symptoms than sneezing.

The fact that they are sneezing means they are carrying it and could pass it on. I love my seramas and ultimately want a serama flock and a flock of just two bigger girls in the future would not be a good place to be. I would have to cross that bridge if and when I came to it but if I did end up with just two bigger girls I may have to make a decision to let them go.

I have researched what needs to be done and this is what it says is needed. Thorough cleaning and drying of the chicken shed and then disinfection with bleach. Leave the shed open for several weeks before stocking with new birds.

I am tearful thinking about and writing about this but I just don’t know what else I can do.

We lost our lovely Cinnamon yesterday. She has always been a firm favourite of both of us and of my readers too I think.

I made a mistake yesterday when I said she was four years old, in fact she was only three years old. I was counting my egg record sheets which have the date of new arrivals at the top and I had forgotten that due to a larger flock I used two sheets this year.

We collected the three amigos, Cinnamon, Dandelion and Apricot, in February 2017. Cinnamon was the only one of Dave’s girls still with us and she was the one we went back for. I instantly fell for her small size and red/brown colour. Dave didn’t want to sell her to me as he noticed she had red mite. We drove round the block and went back for her. I couldn’t leave her behind and reasoned that if she had red mite, they probably all did, and we could deal with it.

I have always been glad that we went back for her. She turned out to have a huge character for a tiny girl. She was feisty and soon rose to top girl of the girls we had at that time. She had big feet for her small size and always dug the deepest, dust bath, holes. Cinnamon also formed the closest friendships.

Cinnamon and Dandelion were inseparable from the first day they arrived. Dandelion used to cry if she lost sight of Cinnamon. Speckles soon took these girls under her wing and was very motherly towards them.

When Dandelion was unwell in April, Cinnamon kept her company, until we had to have her put to sleep. From that moment on Cinnamon and Speckles were inseparable and they roosted next to each other in the corner of the new chicken shed.

I am including many photos of Cinnamon as she was such a character and I want to give her a fitting send off. She is already much missed.

The three amigos before the later arrival of the five amigos (of which there are now four)

Cinnamon always dug the deepest, dust bath, holes

Cinnamon during her first summer with us

Cinnamon liked to perch on the high, branch, perch

Speckles and Cinnamon looking at something through the weld mesh

Dandelion and Cinnamon in a patch of sun

Speckles and Cinnamon at the pellet dish together

Cinnamon always had a big crop for a little girl

Dandelion and Cinnamon together

Dandelion and Cinnamon in a dust bath together

Cinnamon’s fluffy bottom

Another portrait of Cinnamon with Dandelion next to her but out of shot

Cinnamon had to get her, dust bath, holes just right with her busy, digger, feet

Another dust bath together and both girls have pins on their head

Beautiful Cinnamon

Cinnamon checks on Dandelion in the nest box

Cinnamon only went broody a couple of times

Cinnamon keeps a poorly Dandelion company

These two were always together after we lost Dandelion

Cinnamon with Speckles not far from her

Cinnamon perches between Speckles and Flame, after we lost Dandelion, Cinnamon always preferred the bigger girls company

Cinnamon stays close to Speckles

Cinnamon last month

For a tiny girl she was a big presence in the chicken run and I can’t get used to not seeing her there at the moment. Speckles didn’t perch in their corner for the first time last night but perched near the door next to Flame.

Our sweet Cinnamon will never be forgotten. She was a very special little girl.

I wanted to get back as early as I could to see how Cinnamon was but everything seemed against me. Everywhere I went I had to queue and the traffic coming home was really slow.

When I got home my husband held his arms out to me and said that Cinnamon was gone. I burst into tears. He went to check on her and she was huddled in a corner. He picked her up and liquid poured from her beak. For a moment he thought this may be a sign that she was getting rid of it and he thought it might help her.

He put her back in the nest box and her breathing was very shallow. Suddenly her head went down and she scratched with her feet and then she was gone.

We wrapped her up and dug a very deep hole in the chicken’s strip. My husband made a cross from some odd bits of perch and said it was the biggest cross for our smallest girl. I planted some poppy and primrose seedlings over her.

Cinnamon is buried here

The chicken’s strip

We have had Cinnamon for three and half years making her about four years old which is our longest lived serama. She has always been a firm favourite of ours.

She will be very much missed. I feel for Speckles losing her close little friend. When I cleaned up the run Speckles followed me around making a mournful sound. Cinnamon is the last girl from my first serama breeder. She was such a sweetie. I will do a tribute to her tomorrow.

The day before yesterday I noticed that Salmon was wheezing again. Then yesterday afternoon we both saw that Cinnamon was in trouble again.

Cinnamon was making the same twisting, neck motion, that she was last time. In between she was sitting hunched and miserable.

I had saved the remains of the baytril from treating Cinnamon last time and also saved the remains from treating Salmon. I have enough to treat both girls. I know that the vet will not treat either girl a second time so I decided to use the baytril to treat them both.

We gave both girls a dose right away. Last time Cinnamon bounced back about four hours later. By the end of the day I was disappointed to see that there was no improvement in Cinnamon. I decided to give Cinnamon another dose. I waited until she had perched for the night so that I could lift her from the perch with minimal stress.

This morning Cinnamon joined in with the morning sunflower hearts and I felt hopeful. It didn’t last long though. As the morning wore on Cinnamon looked more and more miserable. She was sitting hunched in the corner between the wooden block and the patio.

A very poorly Cinnamon

I am certain that I am not going to get her back from this this time but as one last ditch attempt I decided to give her one more dose. I had to go out to do my lunch deliveries and she was very weak. I thought of putting her in the cat box but then decided that she would be more comfortable in a nest box.

I put her in the nest box and I don’t know what I will find when I get back at lunch time. I am preparing myself for finding her gone or taking her to the vets. I am in tears right now. Cinnamon has always been a favourite and she is my longest standing serama.

I am so upset by this happening again and felt that I had to get this post out before going out as I don’t know what will happen this afternoon.

Smoke has laid nine eggs in fourteen days and then she went broody again. Ebony is now our only girl left laying. Smoke only ever seems to lay for two weeks before going broody. It seems so late in the year to be broody.

Broody Smoke

A familiar sight. I doubt if Smoke will lay again this year. Sigh!

Both Marmite and Flame have white heads at the moment because of the amount of pins they have.

Marmite’s head is white with pins

A white head

Flame’s head is also all pins

One side of Flame’s neck is also a mass of pins

Flame’s neck seems to be moulting one side at a time. These two girls are having a messy moult. This is often referred to as an ugly moult but my girls could never be ugly therefore I prefer to call it a messy moult!

It will be so good to see these two girls back to normal. I am picking up much less feathers though so I think we may be through the worse of it.

There have been lot’s of tiny feathers from Flame in the chicken shed each morning. She is now looking quite tatty. I am not surprised because Flame looked very tatty last year when she moulted.

Flame is moulting

Flame is looking really tatty

It’s funny how they all moult quite differently. The little girls hardly look any different except for Marmite who lost loads of feathers at once and is now a mass of pins.

Speckles has moulted a few feathers at a time this year and has hardly looked any different apart from when she lost her tail feathers.

Ebony has had two partial moults. She didn’t moult last year but this year she went broody and had a partial moult and then started laying again. She then went broody again and once more had a partial moult. To my surprise she then started laying again. Ebony took a break for two and a half weeks then started laying again four days ago and has now laid three eggs.

Smoke also started laying again eleven days ago and has laid seven eggs. All the other girls have stopped laying. Between Ebony and Smoke we are getting enough eggs for the weekend breakfasts.

It is great to still be getting some eggs and I look forward to seeing the girls all fully feathered again.

Marmite is now a mass of pins. She does look a sight.

Marmite has loads of pins

Pins everywhere

Pins on her head

Like Ebony she has also developed white tips to her feathers. She does look a state but the pins have come through quickly so hopefully she will soon be all feathered up again.

It’s odd that Marmite is the only girl to moult like this. I am looking forward to seeing her back to normal soon.

Ever since we have lived here we have had a frog in the garden but we only see it occasionally. There may be more than one but we only see one at a time. We only see it once or twice a year and last year we had a hot summer and didn’t see it at all. This year we have also had a hot summer but yesterday morning after a it had been raining I saw it on the path.

I went back indoors for my camera and the frog was still on the path when I returned. I took a photo of it facing me and then it turned sideways and I managed to get a close up. It then jumped away into the flower border and disappeared.

Frog on the path

Close up of the frog

It’s quite a big frog and quite beautiful. I am really pleased to see that it is still here.