Carol's Chickens

Over the last week Ebony and Flame have taken to sharing the middle nest box and I would find their eggs side by side. Vanilla also favours the middle nest box at the moment. It seemed that while just these three girls were laying they had agreed that they must lay their eggs in the same place.

Ebony and Flame had taken to sharing a nest box

These two bigger girls filled up the space in here but they seemed happy enough with the arrangement.

The day after I took this photo Ebony went broody. I had a feeling she was about to as she had been sitting on her eggs for longer than usual and she had started making the tell tale clucking sound.

At bedtime she was settled the nest box and I had to lift her to the perch in the shed. The following morning she was once again in the nest box and I lifted her out for the morning sunflower seeds.

The good thing is that she is so easy to handle and is completely docile when I lift her out. This is amazing compared to how she would peck me when we first had her last summer. It is funny how accepting of me she has become and yet Flame pecks me just the same as she did last summer.

The not so good thing is that we now only have Flame and Vanilla laying. I can’t believe that out of a flock of ten we have only two girls laying. For now it will be eggs for the weekend breakfasts only until production is up again. Sigh!

Edit

I delayed this post as I wanted to put my birthday post out first. As if the girls knew it was my birthday we had a sudden flurry of eggs. Ebony laid a last broody egg as these girls often do and Flame and Vanilla laid as usual. The surprise was that Jasmine and Cinnamon also laid after a two week break. Five eggs on my birthday. Well done girls!

It’s my birthday today. I am having a lovely day and have received some lovely, thoughtful, gifts. I also received a surprise, beautiful, bouquet of flowers from my eldest son, daughter in law and two year old grandson. They live an hour and a half from me so it was lovely to get a knock on the door this morning and receive these.

My beautiful birthday flowers

I have also had very thoughtful gifts from my lovely husband and my youngest son and daughter in law and some money from my mum which is going towards a birthday meal out.

I had this birthday card from my youngest son and daughter in law which is adorable.

Birthday card

Thank you all. xxxx

The garden is looking amazing at the moment. We have had lots of sunny days and the giant poppies are amazing. Me and my mum always say that just as they reach their best the wind and the rain comes and batters them down. The forecast is for a change over the next few days so this may well still happen again this year.

Giant poppies

They are amazing

Close up

A splash of white

Lilac

This is pretty

Self seeded poppies

More blue

There is so much colour in the garden at the moment and it all looks so lush and full. The paths are fast disappearing. I love this time of the year.

Hurrah! Smoke came out of being broody yesterday but Marmite is still broody. I knew Smoke was getting ready to come out of her broodiness because for the last couple of days she had been out in the run for the morning sunflower seeds and the evening corn but in the nest box the rest of the time.

Marmite is much more determined. I had been closing the nest boxes in the evening and this meant that Smoke would perch up at bedtime but Marmite would simply sit in front of the closed nest box and I had to lift her to the  perch each evening.

It was so good to see Smoke outside all day yesterday. Marmite remains determined to sit in the nest box all day. Each afternoon I would lift both Smoke and Marmite to the run and they would have a quick dust bath together. It always makes me glad that I have lifted them out when I see them dust bath. It is almost like I have granted them permission to do this.

Marmite and Smoke dust bath together

They are joined by Vanilla and Spangle

I love the way that once a couple of girls start to dust bath a couple more will join in. Chickens are such communal creatures.

I didn’t bother closing the nest boxes last night because I knew that Smoke would perch at bedtime and I decided it was as easy to lift Marmite from the nest box instead of in front of it.

There is quite a lack of egg laying at the moment. I have a theory that because seramas are a very broody breed I think that those that don’t go broody need to take a break from laying from time to time.

Speckles doesn’t really count in the egg laying stakes as she has only laid one egg this year in March and I don’t really expect her to lay again.

The odd thing is that only Ebony, Flame and Vanilla are laying at the moment. Luckily these three are all good layers so they are keeping us going with eggs.

Jasmine last laid six days ago. Salmon last laid seven days ago. Marmite last laid eight days ago. Smoke last laid ten days ago. Cinnamon also last laid ten days ago. The really odd one is that Spangle last laid twenty four days ago.

Spangle was never a good layer. She laid twice a week for four months before stopping. The odd thing is that she goes to the nest box from time to time and sits a while then leaves without laying. Spangle looks fine though so it is a puzzle but then again in the past Topaz hardly laid at all.

In all of the time that we had Sienna I never ever saw her in a nest box so it was obviously her heart problem that stopped her laying. Spangle has laid in the past and does go to the nest box so she must feel like she wants to lay or should be laying. It is a puzzle but as long as she looks fine I try not to worry.

The orange netting on our allotment plot has now been lowered so that it is less obvious.

The nets have now been lowered

View from the opposite corner

Inside with the lowered nets

From the other direction

The nets simply lift up

The potatoes have been mounded up

Overall we are really pleased with how the plot is coming along.

This morning Flame settled in a nest box. A little later she was out in the run and Marmite was sitting on Flame’s, large, white egg. I had forgotten how big Flame’s eggs are. It has been three weeks since she last laid and ten days since Vanilla started laying again.

Flame is in the nest box

It obviously takes longer to start laying again after the broody hormones than after regressing to being a chick. It is good to have another layer of bigger eggs again.

Ebony and Marmite share a nest box

I love seeing these girls of different size but the same colour together.

Ebony and Marmite sitting side by side

Broody girls are happy to share a nest box because they get to snaffle an egg. When I next checked Ebony was out in the run and Marmite was sitting on Ebony’s egg. Marmite looked so proud to sit on two large eggs in one day! Sigh!

We have been waiting to be fairly certain there won’t be any more frosts, before planting the last few things in our veg plot, which is a courgette plant and some tomato plants.

We are not planting so many plants this year as there should be plenty of produce from the allotment. We decided just one courgette plant should be enough and I bought four tomato plants as they came in a pack of four and were low cost. I decided to try a yellow courgette as a bit of a change.

Yesterday I planted the courgette and tomato plants which now means the veg plot is full for now.

Our veg plot

There are broad beans nearest on the left. Left of the path are white onions, red onions and garlic. To the left of them are runner beans and dwarf beans. Furthest away are the tomato plants and strawberries.

To the right of the path is a row of leeks that went to seed before we used them. Alan Titchmarsh says if your leeks have gone to seed you can leave them for striking alium like flowers. They are in bud at the moment. To the right are two rows of potatoes and at the back the raspberry canes. The courgette plant is at the front on the right.

All planted

From this direction you can see the tomatoes on the right (just watered in) and behind them the beans. This should be enough to give us some veg to pick on days when we don’t visit the allotment but will be supplemented by the allotment produce.

The boys are nearly finished with their new, low level, netting frame at the allotment and once it’s finished I will post an update.

As fast as some of the broodies come out of it some more start. Our current seramas are more prone to broodiness than our past seramas.

Two nights ago Flame perched at the back of the chicken shed. A little later Vanilla perched under Flame’s wing. I moved Vanilla to the amigos’ perch and she stayed put so I left Flame in the chicken shed overnight.

Last night Flame perched at the back of the chicken shed again but this time Vanilla perched with the amigos. Hurrah! After three weeks of this silly behaviour Flame and Vanilla are back to normal. Vanilla also laid a normal sized egg today.

At precisely the same time Smoke and Marmite have gone broody. There is quite a difference between these girls though. It is two months since Marmite last went broody and in that time she has laid twenty eight eggs. Smoke has laid eight eggs in eight days and gone broody again. Smoke has the record for laying the most eggs in a row but the shortest time before going broody again.

It’s such a shame because Smoke was our best layer but it seems that no sooner she started laying she is broody again. I have decided to lift the broody girls just once in the morning and once in the afternoon and then shut the nest boxes at bedtime so that they perch up for the night. I think that I just have to accept that I have a few serial broodies and lifting them less often will be less stressful for them.

Broody Marmite

Broody Smoke

Two broodies

We seem destined to have two broodies at a time but after the Flame and Vanilla behaviour I am actually relieved to be back in the realms of “normal” broody behaviour. I can also lift these two girls easily with no pecking and they use the nest boxes rather than the shed so it is easier all round.

I am just going to go with the flow!

I added the tiny egg to the frying pan with our breakfast eggs on Saturday morning. I took a photo but unfortunately I didn’t give the camera time to focus and it came out blurred. Because of that I didn’t use the photo but David asked in the comments if the egg had a yolk in it so I decided to show the photo. You have to excuse it being blurred.

The tiny egg in the pan with four normal serama eggs

The egg had quite a dark yolk. This is a terrible photo but it does show the size of the yolk.

We have taken out the pallet, board walk, paths on our allotment plot and replaced them with turf. The pallets became very slippery when wet and also needed lifting to weed underneath them. The turf is so much nicer to walk on.

My husband spotted a simple push lawn mower for twenty pounds in our local D.I.Y. store so he bought it for mowing the turf and the grass around our plot. He also fixed a bracket to the post in the foreground to store the hose pipe.

The allotment has a turf path running through the middle

I suggested that perhaps we should lay another turf where the soil is trodden down as this is the path from the water butt to the centre path.

The hose draped around the plot is going to be our irrigation system. We fill the water butt from the communal tap and then the hose is attached to the tap on the butt with holes in the hose, so that it will self water, or at least that is the plan.

We have had complaints about the orange netting (from a house overlooking the allotment) and are planning to lower it to just above the raised beds using the wood from the pallets as supports. This is a work in progress.

All the netted area is now turfed

We also fill this butt and use watering cans to water the raised beds. The lawn mower is parked across the plot from this water butt.

Turf around the raised beds

The raised beds

The pockets around the raised beds have had wild flower seeds sprinkled in them.

We will leave the strawberry bed uncovered so that the bees can pollinate the strawberry flowers.

There have been some honey beehives set up in a sheltered part of the allotments.

The back of the beehives

The yellow warning sign says that the bees are active and warns that you may get stung.

The front of the beehives

The bees are unlikely to sting if you don’t get in their way. We were advised not to block their flight path. They were very active but didn’t bother us. Notice the bee on the right entering the hive.

We are enjoying the process of the plot evolving and are pleased with how neat and tidy it is looking. It has also been nice to chat to other people working on their plots.

It will be fun when we start to get some produce but at the moment it quite satisfying seeing it evolve.