Carol's Chickens

We have our laptop on a corner of our kitchen worktop. Probably not a conventional position but it suits me. I pass it every day from any room to the cabin outside the back door which is our catering work space or from there to the front door if off on my deliveries.

It means I can constantly check if there are any new lunch orders and I can confirm them promptly. It also means I can write my blog or read blogs while keeping an eye on cooking our evening meal.

I also prefer to stand as both my husband and myself have spent our entire working life on our feet and we feel it’s good to continue that way. I am not comfortable sitting apart from eating meals and watching television in the evenings or reading in the sun in the garden in summer.

I hadn’t realised how low it was though and at Christmas when oldest son and I were working on a project together he commented that he didn’t know how my back could take stooping down to look at the screen. I admitted that it was sometimes uncomfortable.

My son said that the screen should be in line with my eye level and the keyboard should be on a level of my elbows held horizontally.

His job is in I.T. self employed and working from an office space in his home. He has a standing desk for a similar reason. He doesn’t want to spend his days sitting down at a desk.

This started me thinking that I should do something about this as I spend a lot of time on the laptop. I searched on line and found a simple stand which was inexpensive and adjusted to three heights. You alter the height by leaving the legs off for lowest height, slotting them in one way round for middle height and slotting them in the other way round for maximum height.

I decided to try it on maximum height as this fitted in with my son’s advice.

Our laptop on the kitchen worktop

I have a past flock as my screen saver. Sadly all those girls have gone now, the last one, being Emerald last summer.

Our laptop on the stand

The cooker is to the left and then my food preparation worktop to the left of that, so away from this corner, which only serves to house the vintage bread bin which stores potatoes and the utensils container and of course the laptop.

Yesterday was the first full day of using it like this and I am already getting used to it. At first the key board felt high as I have been used to having my hands down at hip height up until now. It is great though being able to watch the screen while standing perfectly upright rather than stooping.

I am amazed that I have managed for years like this without coming up with a solution. I think this will make a huge difference to me. Already I am very happy with the change.

Eggs are coming thick and fast at the moment. This morning when I poop picked the chicken shed I found another egg, this time under the silky girls’ perch. As Jasmine has been practising and I have never seen Sienna in the nest box I am concluding that it is Jasmine’s egg.

The egg is a normal size this time. As the morning went on Jasmine returned to the shed a few times as if she wasn’t sure she had laid it. This often happens on a first egg, from the perch, first thing in the morning.

And here are photos of these two lovely, newest laying, girls.

Salmon

Jasmine

Only Vanilla and Sienna to go now. We are going to have so many eggs which is lovely and something I didn’t expect at this time of year.

These tiny eggs seem to be a feature of the amigos starting to lay. This morning when I poop picked the chicken shed I found another teeny, tiny, egg under the amigos roost spot. I almost missed it amongst the shavings. It must have dropped from the perch because it had a little hole in it.

I know who laid it by it’s position under the perch.

Another tiny egg on a teaspoon

You can just see the tiny hole in it where it landed.

Next to a pound coin for size comparison

This one is nearly all white with the tiniest yolk

The shell was soft enough for me to break with my finger nails which must be why it cracked on landing in the shavings.

Only Vanilla and Salmon hadn’t started laying out of the amigos so that narrowed it down to two girls as the silky girls perch on the opposite side of the shed. I happen to know exactly where these two girls were perched.

The reason for this is that when I checked in on them at bedtime last night, before closing the door, I thought that there appeared to be only four amigos on their perch. There were no girls on the floor so I was a bit puzzled. I then swept my torch over the amigos and saw that salmon was sitting on Vanilla’s back! This isn’t the first time she has done this. There was no space either side of Vanilla as she was up against the side of the shed.

I lifted Salmon from Vanilla’s back and placed her on the other end of the perch next to Smoke and nearest to the pop hole. The tiny egg was under the perch next to the pop hole. This means that it must be Salmon’s egg.

These girls are all getting started thick and fast. I would have guessed at Vanilla being next as Salmon is the smallest of the amigos but it’s not always anything to do with size. I would also have thought that Jasmine may have started by now but she hasn’t shown any interest in the nest box since her practise.

It is fun seeing them start one by one as I haven’t ever had so many point of lay girls at one time before. I wonder who will be next!

Since I posted a few days ago about seeing first Dandelion and then Cinnamon having a dust up with one of the amigos I haven’t seen Dandelion do this again. It’s as if she is happy that she has proved her point and that’s done with.

Not so with Cinnamon. Cinnamon has continued to have spats with the amigos. Twice today I saw her take on the amigos two at a time. I am not sure if she meant to or if it’s their strategy that when she start a battle with one of the amigos another joins in as a safety in numbers measure.

I worry that Cinnamon is going to get hurt. She is the smallest girl in our flock but seems to have no conception of that or that she is outnumbered.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon tries to make herself look bigger by standing upright with her chest thrust out. Her chest seems out of proportion for her small size.

Cinnamon’s back view

Her wings almost touch the ground and she marches around full of purpose. I will be glad when she tires of proving her status as she is so tiny that I worry for her when two amigos manage to corner her.

Cinnamon is a tiny girl who imagines that she is much bigger than she is and is feisty and fearless!

There are signs of spring in the garden. The pulmonarias have started to flower and so have the primulas. Bulbs are pushing through and new green growth is erupting. The first proper sign of spring though is always the snowdrops and hellebores.

Snowdrops

hellebores

I love to see the first snowdrops appear every year. Bigger, later, ones will follow but these smaller ones always come up first. It brings the feeling that spring is that little bit closer.

We have recently been asked by friends to join them in sharing a local allotment plot. It’s going to be shared by our good friends and neighbours opposite who have two boys a similar age to our eldest two grandchildren and their friends further up the road, who through them, have also become friends to us and have two girls a little younger, plus ourselves and then our friends opposite got their next door neighbours on board too.

We all felt the more the merrier as it is a large plot and the more hands the better. The idea is to provide a bit of social interaction and community spirit, to get some fresh air and exercise and to share some fresh produce.

The plot is in beautiful surroundings but has been empty for a few years so was very overgrown. We have been advised that we will need to put some fencing around the plot or the deer will eat everything.

Between us we are able to supply different things to get us started. Some of the guys are able to obtain stuff from their work such as pallets to build raised beds and a pathway and posts to attach the fencing. Someone has supplied a couple of wheel barrows and we have supplied a fork and spade.

The ground is full of large bits of flint which is why we have opted for some raised beds.

We plan growing some fruit canes, vegetables, probably a lot of potatoes in the first year and some flowers so that there is something for everyone. There has also been talk of a bench and some possible beer and wine partaking!

Overgrown allotment plot

The most daunting thing was getting the plot ready but we have until March before we can start planting so we will all do a bit at a time, individually or together, as and when we are able.

The allotment plot is now taking shape

The first raised bed is in place

In the wheel barrow are some of the large bits of flint removed from the plot. The pallets are ready for the next raised bed and a walkway through the middle of the plot.

View from the other end

A few weeks ago a guy from the parish council used a digger to scrape the top layer for us. We opted not to go for a rotavator as we didn’t want to dig in the couch grass. We plan on gradually digging a strip at a time and pulling the grass and roots out as we go.

My husband has been working on trying to get an edge to the plot and digging the strip as he goes. It is going to be hard work but this bit is the worse bit. It also gets dark early and has been quite cold so as we move into spring it should bring better conditions for working on it. It will also be much nicer working on it in the summer.

I will do some updates as we progress.

Time to give Ebony her own post. I described Ebony as a bit of a thug recently but she has just redeemed herself in my eyes.

The reason I said she was a bit of a thug is this. All the girls have their pecking order behaviour. This usually involves a bit of pecking usually on the head or the back. Sometimes the pecks don’t even connect they are just a warning. Sometimes a stare will do and sometimes a girl will run at another and chase her away.

Ebony is different. Ebony grabs a girl and holds on to her. I have seen her grab Flame’s wing and as Flame tries to get away her wing is at full stretch. Ebony grabs the little girls by their back and as they run away Ebony is left with a beak full of feathers. It is not nice to watch.

Over the last few days I have seen spats between the little girls. I am putting it down to hormones as egg laying has begun because we have noticed this before at the start of egg laying.

Two days ago I was surprised to see Dandelion having a go at several of the amigos. She pecked and chased a few of them and then started a spat with Smoke. It looked quite brutal and they both had their ruffs raised and were really going for each other. I tried to get my arm between them to break it up but it had no effect.

Ebony spotted what was going on and went straight over and broke it up. I was amazed! Then yesterday when I was giving out the afternoon corn Cinnamon did the same with Marmite. Again both girls had their ruffs raised and were really going for each other. Once again I tried to get my arm between them but they moved round me and carried on.

Once again Ebony marched over to them and immediately broke it up. She sent the two girls in different directions. I was so surprised to see this two days running. It is as if Ebony is taking on the role of a cockerel. Despite being a bit of a thug herself she won’t tolerate girls fighting. She broke up the fighting so quickly and easily whereas I was unable to do this.

I think Dandelion and Cinnamon are reinforcing their top positions because the other girls have started egg laying. It’s the only thing that makes sense because Marmite is bottom girl. I think the egg laying gives them a new found confidence which lead her to retaliate. It’s probably not a coincidence that the spats are with the egg laying girls.

Ebony with her “mini me” in the background

These two girls look quite different really but their colour is exactly the same.

Ebony

Ebony has a funny face when straight on

I always think this face looks like the face of a thug but well done to Ebony in being a keeper of the peace.

As Dandelion is still wheezing I have decided to continue with tylan in the water. Dandelion has been wheezing for seven days and I had given tylan for seven days but have now decided to continue until Dandelion improves.

In the comments Sophie said that her vet recommended three weeks as she hadn’t shifted myco symptoms from one of her girls. I also did some more research on mycoplasma as I seem to be compelled to do each time I have this problem.

I find sometimes by putting a different question in the search you can throw up new information. I put in the information that after using tylan in the water for seven days I still had a chicken wheezing. This lead me to some threads on forums which have the advantage of being conversations between people that have chickens or have had chickens with myco rather than just medical facts.

Some of the threads had chickens that had symptoms for many weeks despite using tylan. The answering chicken keepers said that it can be difficult to shift and can need three weeks of tylan to clear it.

The good news was that chicken keepers said that despite being difficult to shift in some cases they hadn’t lost any chickens that they had treated once symptoms had been seen. This is reassuring and I haven’t lost a girl to it since I have been able to identify and treat.

It is said to be stress that makes it reoccur and my research stated that the stress of moulting or cold spells can be the trigger so for Dandelion moulting combined with a frosty spell will have been the trigger.

The other thing that I am aware of is that chickens drink less in the winter as their days are shorter. To encourage them to have a bit more tylan I make a dish of mash from the tylan water. As Dandelion and Cinnamon are top girls I don’t have to worry that they will be kept away from the mash and it’s a good way to get a bit extra to Dandelion as she will be first to the mash.

Dandelion and Cinnamon are first to the mash

Dandelion has some mash

The conversation on one of the threads said that myco is much more prevalent in back yard chickens than most people think. It is very contagious and gets passed from hens through their eggs and on to their chicks so breeders may have it and be unaware. It can be passed from a chicken keepers clothing or footwear.

The general feeling was that we should be less scared of myco because once we are aware we can be vigilant and treat when symptoms show. Some flocks may have carriers and never know as it doesn’t present itself. Some flocks will experience stress and it will appear. Chickens become carriers for life.

Chicken keepers, rightly, have a dread of myco but back yard chicken keepers can live with it in their flock as long as they are ready to treat it. For me it means that I no longer need to worry about it coming into my flock because that ship has sailed.

The problem for me is that Dandelion is vulnerable to it. I already have to accept that Dandelion is unlikely to be a long lived chicken but I felt that about Amber and I had her for four years. I just hope to keep Dandelion as long as I can.

There is a chance that if I lost Dandelion the myco may not reoccur but only time will tell. For now all that I can do is continue as I am doing. I write posts like this because I hope it may be of help to others.

I am just hoping that continuing with the tylan will shake Dandelion’s wheezing in time. I will keep updating on her progress.

Dandelion and Cinnamon are such a close little pair. They can often be found sharing a dust bath, they keep each other company in the little shelter and they perch together at bedtime. They are never far from each other.

Dandelion and Cinnamon in a dust bath together

Dandelion and Cinnamon also have matching head pins. I thought that Dandelion had stopped wheezing but I could hear it again the last couple of evenings and I could hear it while she was dust bathing. She looks fine but I don’t like the fact that she can’t seem to shake off the wheezing.

I have extended the tylan in the water to seven days. The use by date on the tylan is the end of July so I may as well use it but want to keep enough back in case February has really bad weather which may set Dandelion back again. Once I have used my current supply of tylan I will order some more to keep in stock.

I think that Jasmine is getting ready to lay. Today she looked in the shed and the nest box and settled in the nest box for nearly an hour. I thought it was going to be her first egg but she left the nest box with no egg.

Jasmine in the nest box

I think she is practising and will probably start laying soon.

It seems that the girls are all getting ready to lay and we may well have them all laying before long. We are going to have an abundance of eggs.

There will come a time soon when I will no longer be able to tell which eggs belong to which girls unless I actually catch them laying. This morning I caught Spangle laying and her eggs are narrower and darker than Marmite’s eggs and Smoke’s eggs are rounder and larger but once there are quite a few more girls laying I know that I will lose the ability to tell them apart.

The bigger girls are easy because Ebony’s egg are beige while Flames eggs are white. Speckles lays so few but her eggs are white and enormous and so are easy to tell. Nine little girls laying will be a different matter though.

I will just mark any unknown eggs with a stroke like a five bar gate. It means my end of year egg record will look quite different this year.  It is going to be interesting to see how many eggs we will get this year.

Since we lost Emerald, last July, Speckles has become our longest standing and our eldest girl. We got her in July 2015. Speckles was already moulting when we got her and promptly dropped all her tail feathers. I waited until September to add her photo to my “meet the flock” page as it took until then for her to get her tail completely grown back in.

This means she was about two years old or more so I would guess that she is about six years old. Anconas are supposed to be prolific layers. I have just researched them again and it says that they can lay 220 eggs a year which is an average of 18 per month.

Speckles is a very poor layer. Apart from Topaz, who only ever laid a few eggs, Speckles is our worst layer. She does lay the biggest eggs we have ever had from a bantam though. Her eggs are the size of a standard girl’s egg. Below is her egg record with us:

2015 Speckles laid no eggs as she was already moulting when we got her in July.

2016 Speckles laid 50 eggs in 6 months giving an average of 8 per month.

2017 Speckles laid 27 eggs in 5 months giving an average of 5 per month.

2018 Speckles laid 12 eggs in 4 months giving an average of 3 per month.

There is a pattern here. She is laying for a month less each year and laying half the number of eggs each year than the year before. This shows that even if she is older than I am guessing I don’t imagine she has ever been a good layer. It shows that a girl doesn’t always do what her breed is said to do.

It doesn’t matter to me because Speckles is a lovely girl and the number of eggs isn’t an important factor to me, it’s just something that I find interesting. I will be interested to see how she does this year.

Anconas are also supposed to become more white each year. I have just looked back at photos through her years with us to see how much she has changed. The main difference is that she has got fatter.

One thing that never changes with her moult is the little head feathers that stand up like a little crest. One of the things that changes the most with Speckles is her comb. When she is laying it is huge and red and in winter it’s small and pink. Her comb changes more than any other girl we have ever had. A cockerel would be proud of Speckles summer comb.I have gathered some photos of her from when we first got her until today.

August 2015

This was a month after we got Speckles when all of her tail feathers had dropped out.

September 2015

This was the photo I used on my “meet the flock” page once her tail had grown back in.

May 2016

Speckles has always liked to jump on my back. You can see her footprints where she has jumped on my back and worked her way up to my shoulder. I keep a cardigan for going in the run as it always gets footprints on it.

As soon as I bend she will jump on and she will stay on my back until I duck near the shelter or a perch for her to step off. I have no idea why she likes to do this but it is something that she has always done.

April 2017

As soon as Speckles is getting ready to lay her comb gets huge.

July 2018

Speckles with Ebony and Flame last summer.

January 2019

This is Speckles today. I think she definitely has more white than she first did.

Speckles today

I took this one to show her back and head. I think her head is whiter too. Speckles is a lovely girl.