Carol's Chickens

On Tuesday, I was expecting my three new girls between 3.30 and 6.30 pm. At 5.30 pm the lady I had been in contact with arrived with two modern game girls. She said that her partner had loaded the van for her and by mistake had put in a gold laced wyandotte instead of the gold pencilled wyandotte I had been waiting for.

She said that for now she would leave me with the two game girls and that her partner would be delivering near by next Thursday and would bring me the gold pencilled wynandotte then.

I had closed off the corner part of the run ready for the new girls with a little coop and feeding station and we put them in their new quarters.

Unfortunately a few days ago my camera had developed a problem. It would now only take photos indoors or in the evening at low light levels. During the bright parts of the day the photos were all coming out really dark, almost black. This was frustrating just as I was getting new girls. We asked our friend across the road, who is a lot more technical than we are, to have a look at the camera for us and despite trying every setting we couldn’t resolve the problem.

I then went to a near by electrical store to see if I could buy a new camera but was told that they don’t stock them as every thing is on line these days. I had to resort to ordering a new camera on line. The camera arrived on the day that the new girls arrived but I could see that it would take time to get used to the set up of a new camera and would take a bit of time to learn how to get the photos to my computer and then to my blog.

I decide to take photos of the new girls at dusk with the old camera so that I could practise with the new camera over the next few days. This is why this blog post is a bit delayed and the photos are less than perfect.

I decide to name the silver/salmon modern game girl Cloud and the gold/salmon modern game girl Mango.

They spent their time on top of the shelter as that was obviously where they felt safe so I put a dish of mash there for them. I started it off with a layer of water on top so that they would get water and food at the same time. I was pleased that they drank the water then ate some of the mash.

At dusk they were sitting on top of the shelter and I moved them to the little coop and closed them in for the night.

Wednesday morning I went out early to open the little coup and the new girls found the feeding station straight away and had pellets and water so I was happy.

Around mid day Cloud went into the coop/nest box and started scratching around just like Storm does when about to lay an egg. I thought to myself that it seemed very much like she was about to lay. I had thought that Cloud had a big, red comb. Another surprise to me has been that these two girls have red combs whereas Storm’s comb is black/purple.

I checked back a little later and at first Mango was sitting at the edge of the ramp and then she moved to sitting in the box with Cloud as if keeping her company. I lifted the lid to see what was going on just as Cloud was in the egg laying position and I saw her lay her first egg.

I hadn’t realised the game girls were already at point of lay and was surprised to get an egg so soon. A perfect little egg.

A little later Sugar went into a nest box and managed to lay an egg with a good shell. A day of surprises! Sugar’s egg was just a little bigger than Cloud’s and had a normal shell.

So I have had a change of plan. Now I know that the game girls are older than I thought and at point of lay I have switched the growers pellets for layers pellets and decided to integrate these two girls as soon as possible.

My plan is to mix the new girls with the flock straight away and when the wyandotte arrives I will put her in the separate corner of the run and will put Salmon in with her to keep her company. As Salmon hasn’t laid last year or this year she will be okay on growers pellets. She can spend her days with the new girl but I will let her join the flock before bedtime so that she can perch in the chicken shed.

With this in mind I mixed the flock for an hour in the afternoon. It went quite well with the flock not taking too much notice of the new girls. I encouraged them to the patio area to explore and they pretty much explored the whole run. I then put them back in their part of the run to make sure they had some some food and water in peace.

At bedtime they didn’t find their way in to the little coop/nest box but instead were by the gate as if they wanted to be with the main flock. I put them in but decided that maybe tomorrow they would be ready to join the flock in the chicken shed.

It’s been a busy day and things are moving faster than I expected but I am happy with the progress so far.

It’s two weeks since Sugar came out of her broody spell so I knew that she was getting ready to lay again. Sugar had been sitting with a very humped back. She looked uncomfortable and I thought that she had an egg on the way.

Early this afternoon Sugar went into her favourite nest box. I kept checking on her and she was in for about an hour. She managed to get her egg laid. It was slightly smaller than Storm’s eggs but much bigger than her recent three tiny eggs. It had a crack and a hole in it. After taking photos I cracked it into a dish. It had a good sized yolk but the shell was paper thin.

It is so lucky that Sugar managed to get this egg laid without it breaking completely. I guess it is more normal than the three tiny eggs but Sugar has always laid with good egg shells before. I don’t know why this is happening and still think things are not quite right with Sugar.

Sugar seemed better once she had laid but later in the afternoon was back to sitting again. Only time will tell how she goes on but for now I am just glad that got her egg laid.

Our garden is looking lovely. The rose that climbs over the arches looks amazing. It is a little later than usual this year because of the cold, wet, start to the year. Now it hot and dry but the garden is holding up well.

I originally planted this strip with dandelions for the girls. I soon learned that although dandelions flourish where you don’t want them they are incredibly difficult to grow when you do want them. No matter how many dandelions I planted in this strip they never lasted. I gave up and gradually planted bits and pieces pinched from the rest of the garden. It now looks beautiful.

I am perplexed about what is going on with Sugar. She spends a lot of time sitting on the ground in the run. In between she does all the usual things that chickens do. She runs to the treats, she eats, drinks and poops and she dust baths and she perches at bedtime.

Since Sugar has been doing this she also sits on the chickens’ patio before bedtime. All our seramas have been last in at bedtime. Now we are down to two Sugar and then Salmon are always last in. Salmon has been last in for many years.

The other three girls go in and Salmon potters around and Sugar sits on the edge of the patio. I have never seen any of the girls do this apart from when they are broody and I lift them from a nest box and put them on the patio and they take a while to move off.

This has become the end of the day habit.

I have researched hens spending a lot of time sitting and there doesn’t seem very much in the way of answers. I have looked on the reddit forum and other chicken keepers have posed this problem so it’s not that uncommon. One took her girl to the vet and the vet could find nothing externally wrong and said that she could only conclude that it was something internal.

One possibility that was surmised was that it could be a reproduction problem. Given that Sugar recently laid three tiny eggs I think that could be a possibility.

The main thing is that she isn’t going down hill fast, it isn’t contagious and there isn’t anything I can do. It will be interesting to see if she lays normally next time or does the same again. If she does the same again we will know that it is something to do with her reproduction system.

As long as she is happy we will just wait and see what happens.

I have felt that Gold was ready to go broody for about a week. As she heads towards going broody she gradually spends longer and longer in the nest box but keeps laying yet another egg. Then she spends most of the day in the nest box without laying and I know she is broody.

Storm is quite different and just suddenly goes broody. She does the typical tail up stance and growl and just stops laying straight away.

Gold has laid twenty two eggs in five weeks since her last broody spell. Storm has laid sixteen eggs in four weeks since her last broody spell. This leaves us with only Dot laying. Luckily both these girls are easy to break out of it. I simply close the nest boxes when Dot has laid and leave them closed at bedtime so that Gold and Storm will perch in the chicken shed.

As Gold had only laid her last egg yesterday I opened a nest box for her today just in case she had one more egg to lay. Gold went straight in closely followed by Storm. Dot usually lays in the chicken shed but because these two girls were in the nest box together she wanted to join them.

At this point I had to go out for a couple of hours. When I got back Gold and Storm were sitting on Dot’s egg. Now I knew that Gold wasn’t going to lay another egg so I lifted both girls out and closed the nest boxes.

It usually only takes about three days for Gold and Storm to give up being broody as they are not very committed and it helps that they perch at bedtime. It then usually takes about two weeks for them to start laying again. So for now it’s all up to Dot to keep us going.

Yesterday I gave the girls some mash so that I could get a couple of group photos.

I washed both Salmon and Sugar’s bottoms on Monday. I bought them into the bathroom one at a time and stood them in a washing up bowl. I cleaned them and dried them and they now both have clean fluffy bottoms. They have stayed that way since.

Salmon has bounced back to normal with no more sitting in the run so I don’t know what was the problem with her but for now it seems to have passed.

Sugar laid her three mini eggs over seven days and then went broody. It had been six weeks since she had previously laid her first seven eggs of the year. This time I decided that the best thing for her was to break her out of it straight away. I put her in the broody crate overnight and closed the nest boxes in between the girls laying during the day while moving sugar to the broody crate while they laid. With only Dot, Gold and Storm laying it hasn’t been difficult to do this.

After three nights in the broody crate sugar is over it. She is still sitting in the run a lot of the time but in between seems normal and is speedy to the treats. Only time will tell how she goes on. It’s usually a couple of weeks before she starts laying again so we will just have to wait and see what she lays next time.

Yesterday Sugar once more spent about an hour in the nest box. She came out having laid her third tiny egg. I now have to revise my earlier thinking and have come to the conclusion that the mystery egg in the run must have belonged to Dot. It seems very unlikely now that Sugar has laid three tiny eggs that she would have laid a large one in between.

In other news I will be getting new girls from pipinchick in a couple of weeks time. I was going to keep it as a surprise when they arrived but as Sophie and myself having been discussing pipinchick and possible breeds in the comments of my last post I decided to reveal this now.

I started looking at pipinchicks web site two weeks ago and I started a conversation with them first by e-mail and then later by phone.

The web site has a section for all the breeds they can have and then another section for all the breeds currently in stock. From the breeds not yet in stock I chose bantams French copper maran and splash maran. The copper maran looks like a smaller version of Star and the splash maran is white with blue/grey splashes. I would like three girls to make the most of the delivery charge so looked at bantam wyndottes too. I liked the gold pencilled and the white laced. Being laced it is white but with a hint of lavender/grey.

During our first conservation it transpired that the marans won’t be available this year and wyndottes wouldn’t be ready for a couple more months. I ticked the box to be notified when the wyndottes became available. I felt disappointed but couldn’t resist continuing to look in on the web site every day.

I had often said that it was a shame they only did one colour of the modern game because Storm is a firm favourite for me and I would love some more modern game in different colours.

Then on Wednesday I looked in again and my heart leapt. There were two new colours of modern game and only a few in stock. There was one gold/salmon modern game and four silver/salmon modern game. I knew that I needed to jump on it fast. No more e-mail, it was time to call.

I had a good chat with Suzanna. I said that I would like to order the two colours of modern game but would like a third girl and was hoping for a wyndotte too. She said that they had no white ones hatched this year as yet but had some gold pencilled wyndottes that she thought were almost ready.

Suzanna said to go ahead and buy the two modern game and in the mean time she would ask her partner how soon the wyndotte would be ready and if it was in a couple of weeks they could hold the modern game and I could have the three together.

Suzanna e-mailed on Thursday, which was my birthday, to say that the gold pencilled wyndotte would be ready in about two weeks time. I had paid for the two modern game so she sent me an invoice for the wyndotte and I paid for that too. I told her it was my birthday and it was the best birthday present. She has pencilled me in for a delivery on Tuesday 13th June. Below are the photos from the web site.

I am so excited. The reason for the wait is that pipinchick don’t like to let their girls go too young. They prefer for them to be three and a half months old. In two weeks time the modern game will be three and a half months old but the wyndotte will only be two and a half months old.

Suzanna was willing to make an exception for me so that I could have three girls together. We discussed that they would need to be on growers pellets and I explained that I am happy to keep them in the separated part of the run and of course on growers pellets. I said that this was what I did last year.

I am so looking forward to getting these new girls and I think that they will fit in with the flock perfectly.

Yesterday Sugar sat in the nest box for about an hour. I hoped that she might lay a normal egg this time. She came out of the nest box and I checked. She had laid another tiny egg that was possibly even smaller than the last one.

I held off writing a post until today to see if it would be followed by a large egg. Sugar sat in the nest box for two hours this morning but came out without laying.

It has a little calcium bubble on the top of the shell and the shell was hard to break once more.

Sugar’s feathers seem a bit ruffled and she has a mucky bottom. She also spends a lot of time sitting on the ground although she has spells of looking normal in between.

I know that all is not right with Sugar. I have never had this before though so there is nothing to do but wait and see how she progresses.

I am also a bit worried about Salmon. Salmon has been very vocal lately and I dread that she may come back into lay. Like Sugar she looks fine some of the time but also has a mucky bottom. Some of the time she too sits and seems to be breathing heavily.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost these two girls this year. I am not happy with how they are both looking. Salmon has had a good run being our eldest serama yet but I know that her time may be running out. I also know that whatever is going on with Sugar she is not quite right.

The other girls are looking fine and all three laid today.

I am trying to stay positive but I am also trying to be realistic and prepare myself for the worst. If I lose Salmon and Sugar in the near future that will be the end of my serama journey. I have loved these little girls but they seem so fragile and I have lost so many that it has also been heartbreaking.

Going forward I will try to bring in hardier breeds. After recent additions I have decided that I am happier with small bantam breeds but I need to go for more robust breeds in future. I don’t want the constant worry of seramas despite loving each and every one of them that we have had.

Our flock is small and harmonious. All five girls are quite different, very pretty and have lovely natures. They get on so well together that they will share one small dish of mash.

I love the flower formation as they all eat together. Because of the bobbing heads I only managed two photos without at least one girl being blurred. The photo above is my favourite photo.

Salmon had moved out a bit on this one but it was the only other clear photo. They are such a lovely little flock.

Yesterday morning, the day after Sugar’s tiny egg, there was an egg in the run. It was right at the bottom end of the run. It was white and bigger than Gold and Storm’s egg. It was almost the size of Dot’s egg but Dot’s eggs are a slightly beige colour.

I think that it is Sugar’s egg. I think she has had a blip in her egg production and instead of producing two normal sized eggs she has produced a tiny egg and a large egg.

I waited before writing this post because I thought that if all the laying girls laid as well that would be proof that it was Sugar’s egg. Later in the day Gold laid and then Storm laid. I was really hoping that Dot would lay too but unfortunately she didn’t which means I can’t say with complete certainty but I am still convinced and it would explain why Sugar has been struggling to lay.

Also it seems odd that it was laid out in the run which is something that Dot has never done. I think it may have caught Sugar by surprise and later she went to the nest box and sat for a short spell before leaving.

Dot always lays a slightly bigger egg (the egg on the right) after a day’s break. She then lays two or three days in a row producing a slightly smaller egg. Her eggs are always a slightly beige colour whereas all the other girls lay white eggs.

These three eggs were all laid yesterday so the mystery egg could only belong to either Sugar or Dot and looking at the first egg photo it really doesn’t look like Dot’s egg.

We lost Shadow last spring due to her getting a large egg stuck and Sugar and Shadow came in together. They were from the same batch of chicks so a larger egg from Sugar is a possibility.

Only time will tell if Sugar now goes on to lay normally which I am hoping will be the case. Whatever will be will be and there isn’t anything I can do about it so I am going to try to stop worrying and enjoy the girls.