Carol's Chickens

I am telling Autumn’s story in hind sight because there was a point we were sure we were going to lose her and I just couldn’t write this at that point. I am afraid this is a rather long post because in hind sight means there is a lot of background to tell.

Last year Dot had scaly mite which was the first time we had experienced this. I treated all the girls with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks. I deep cleaned the chicken shed. Shortly after I realised Dot had them I realised Sugar did too but I had treated the whole flock. I vowed to keep a regular check on their feet from then on.

I used vaseline on both Dot’s and Sugar’s feet to help soften the scales while healing. It takes a year for the scales to completely heal and the sad thing was that Dot’s had completely healed when we lost her.

This spring when checking their feet I realised Sugar had them again and Autumn had a mild case of them. I had caught it much earlier this time. I again sprayed the whole flock every three days for three weeks and cleaned the chicken shed and sprayed the shed.

I didn’t bother blogging about this because with red mite and scaly mite once you have them you have to be vigilant for ever and treat at the first sign. I had caught it early so there wasn’t really anything much to say or so I thought at the time.

Sugar’s feet are really gnarled as she has had it twice but again I used vaseline and she coped fine. I also used vaseline on Autumn and she healed well.

Quite a while after this I saw one morning that Autumn had pecked a scale off her leg and made it bleed. I googled what was the best thing to do and it says to spray three or four times a day with antimicrobal spray. I ordered vetericyn spray. It’s antimicrobal poultry care for healing aid and skin repair and doesn’t sting.

Within a week Autumn was healed so I didn’t bother blogging about it. Soon after Autumn was healed she pecked another scale off. This pattern continued with Autumn pecking another part of her leg every time one bit had healed. It was frustrating but it didn’t seem to hamper her and every time I sprayed the wound three times a day until it healed.

Autumn continued to do this probably about a dozen times and I kept spraying each wound until it healed. I had hoped that she would eventually stop doing this. It was really frustrating but manageable and it didn’t seem to be effecting her too much.

Then one morning Autumn pecked a bigger than usual wound on one leg. I felt really frustrated that she had done this when she was so nicely healed and used the spray again. Later that day she pecked another bigger than usual wound on the other leg. The next morning Autumn hadn’t come out of the chicken shed. When I went to get her I saw that she had pecked several wounds on both feet and more on her legs. I was horrified. She looked a mess and it was obviously painful. She also had a feather stuck to one of the wounds on her foot.

I bought Autumn indoors and stood her in a bowl of warm water. I soaked the wounds and managed to remove the feather. I dried her feet and put savlon on her wounds. I then put her in the dog crate with water, mash, sunflower hearts and chopped tomato.

While handling Autumn I could tell she was lighter and realised that she may have stopped eating. She refused to eat anything while in the crate.

By now I was worried about her not eating. I sprayed her wounds again and returned her to the run and she sat on top of the nest box as in the photo above. I put food in front of her but she didn’t eat. She continued to peck more wounds. At this point I felt sure we were going to lose her. There were two things that could be her downfall. She wouldn’t heal if she kept pecking more wounds and she wouldn’t gain strength if she didn’t eat.

I dreaded what I would find next morning but the next morning she was out in the run. I put dishes of mash on the patio area. I have put vitamins in the water and will continue to do that until this is over. I found that Autumn wouldn’t eat if I separated her but as long as she was in the run she would eat if I dropped bits in front of her.

I dropped corn, sunflower hearts, bits of spinach and chopped tomato in front of her through out the day. At one point when she was on the patio I put a dish of mash and chopped tomato in front of her and she ate some of that.

I have done loads of research about this. I had wondered about somehow covering her feet to stop her pecking them. The information says you can use vet wrap if a chicken has bumble foot which is a sore on the base of the foot which must be kept clean. It would be very difficult to wrap both feet. If it’s too tight the foot can die. If it’s too loose they will peck it off or it may catch on something or dirt may get in.

The advice is not to wrap unless it’s a wound on the base of the foot. It says even deep wounds will heal as long as they are kept clean with the spray several times a day.

I feel that all I can do is to keep doing what I am doing. I am feeling more positive now that she can get better. The odd thing is that her legs and feet were nothing like as bad as Dot’s and Sugar’s. But it seemed as if it had become a habit to keep on pecking them. Then she just went into a frenzy of two days of pecking them in many places.

I have seen photos of rescue chickens with very much worse feet and legs from scaly mite and they have got better. Autumn’s legs and feet looked barely effected and yet she just kept pecking away at them. This is a horrible experience.

I had just sprayed her again at this point. And again this is a new problem that we have never encountered before. I have just bought another spray as I can’t risk running out of it.

Over the last few days we were certain we going to lose Autumn. We have a long way to go yet but she is eating and gaining strength. She is limping though as it obviously hurts but we just really need her to stop pecking at it and that’s down to her because we can’t do any more than we are.

I am just keeping everything crossed and will continue to spray her and drop food in front of her and do all I can to keep her going.

Most of the girls haven’t looked much different while moulting. Gold however looks the most shabby while moulting that she has ever looked.

Gold has one tail feather remaining. She had lost all the tiny feathers around her face and comb which gave her really odd look. She now has pins through around her face and comb.

It won’t be long before Gold looks back to normal. At least some of the girls are getting through the moult before winter. It does seem to have come early this year though.

Before Autumn and then Red I have only previously had two bantam wyandottes. Many years ago I had Sparkle who was silver laced and Topaz who was gold laced. Sparkle was a good layer but didn’t live to much of an age. Topaz laid very few eggs, in fact only thirteen in total. She only laid now and again and then stopped completely.

Autumn started laying last October and laid her last egg on the first of February. Looking back at my egg records I see that there was a slowing down. She started laying every other day but in January she had slowed to laying every fifth day. Autumn laid a total of forty five eggs.

But the thing that is different about Autumn is that she sits in the nest box every day for between fifteen minutes to half an hour. She has a very red comb, face and wattles and she squats if I hold my hand behind her, all things that normally point to a laying girl. She has her daily sit in the nest box and sometimes even gives the shout when she comes out and yet there are no eggs. It’s as if Autumn thinks that she is laying.

Autumn is happy to allow another girl to join her. Storm once again has her beak open as she constantly chats.

I have never come across this before. Usually the girls either lay or they don’t but only occasionally have a false alarm and sit in a nest box without laying. This is usually a day or so before starting to lay or occasionally a day or so after stopping laying. I have never had a girl sit in the nest box every day like clockwork without laying. Autumn has done this since she laid her last egg on the first of February.

Then we have Red who has yet to start laying but I am sure that she will start some time over the next month and it remains to be seen what sort of layer she will turn out to be. I hope she turns out to be a normal layer.

I am assuming that Autumn will resume laying next spring but of course that remains to be seen. I am also assuming that Red will lay through her first winter but after Autumn that also remains to be seen. Only time will tell. We do seem to get the odd anomaly.

We had three days without eggs then Sugar came back into lay. The following day Storm came back into lay. So we now have eggs again.

Red is six months old. Autumn started laying at six and a half months old so Red may start laying in a few weeks time. Her comb is finally growing and is very red.

I think Snow will soon start laying again because she is the least committed broody we have ever had. I only knew she was going broody because like Gold she spent longer in the nest box when laying her last two eggs and would growl at me when I lifted the lid. She also did the bok bok chant when in the run. Once I had closed the nest boxes she completely lost interest.

With a bit of luck by the time Sugar has laid her regulation six eggs another girl may have started laying. It is good to have eggs again and at least the break was only a short one.

For the first time in all our chicken keeping years, we have no girls laying, at this time of year. Snow who was our only girl still laying went broody three days ago.

Snowflake before her hadn’t gone broody so I was hoping Snow wouldn’t but she has! She has laid twenty six eggs in a month and a half. She wasn’t committed though. As no girls are laying it has been easy to just close all the nest boxes and Snow didn’t seem at all bothered. I have now opened them and she hasn’t shown any interest so I think she is through it already. Hopefully this means she will start laying again in a couple of weeks time.

Storm has had a two break from laying and is now being very vocal so I think she may be about to come back into lay. Her moult is very gradual and she never looks much different. Her tail has grown back in but is just a bit shorter than usual at the moment.

Gold is molting more heavily. I am finding lots of her feathers in the chicken shed and the run. She now has only one tail feather left. It is three weeks since she laid which is a week longer than usual so I am not sure if she will come back into lay this year due to her early moult.

Mango and Cloud are getting their feathers back in now. It’s a month since Cloud last laid and two months since Mango laid so I think they are finished for this year.

It is three weeks since Sugar laid so she may come back into lay soon but she only lays for a week before she goes broody again. Sugar is so much better than last year as she is laying good shelled eggs and therefore not looking unwell before laying.

Sugar still sits a lot of the time but it suddenly occurred to me that if I didn’t break her from her broody spells she would spend most of her time sitting in a nest box. I think therefore she is used to sitting a lot and it doesn’t bother her. I feel it’s better for her to sit in the run instead of a nest box. With this in mind I am not going to worry about her. She has obviously adapted and it is just her way of life.

Autumn looks pristine and continues to sit in a nest box or the chicken shed each day without laying.

Red’s comb is still very small and she isn’t squatting so I think it will still be a while yet before she starts to lay.

So there we have it, a lovely flock but no eggs to be had. I am sure we will start to get some eggs again soon. As I always say, as long as the girls are happy and healthy, I am happy.

I gave the girls a yogurt treat today. It’s the first time the new girls have had yogurt, plain probiotic yogurt.

It also gave me the first chance to get a group photo of our current flock of eight.

I love seeing those yogurt beaks. I think the new girls like yogurt just as much as the rest of the flock. It was really nice seeing all eight girls together on the patio area.

The flock have become very close and the new girls are now fully accepted. I often see all eight girls hanging out together in the afternoons. They are a lovely flock.

In all our years of chicken keeping we have never had to buy eggs in the summer before. We have only one girl laying which is the first time during summer. Snow is our only girl laying and she lays the tiniest eggs. She lays four eggs a week and we need to eat them two at a time so she is providing enough for one breakfast a week.

We usually have eggs for our weekend breakfasts and one weekday breakfast. Having lost our lovely Dot we have not only lost a lovely girl but also lost our best egg layer. She never went broody and she laid quite big eggs so we could eat them just one at a time.

Had we not have got new girls this spring we would have no eggs at all.

Red has yet to start laying. Autumn should be laying but stopped on the first of February. Mango and Cloud are moulting and probably won’t lay again this year. Sugar, Gold and Storm have all been broody and should start again in a couple of weeks time.

I thought Storm may have come to the end of her season but realised she had gone broody. It’s more difficult to tell with Storm because she isn’t a committed broody which is a good thing. She spends half her time in the nest box and half her time in the run when broody whereas the other girls want to spend all their time in the nest box when broody. She also gives up after two or three days.

I have always said that eggs are a bonus but I must admit that with a flock of eight girls I would never have thought that we would have only one girl laying.

I am hoping that next year will be better because we should have Autumn and Red laying during the summer. That remains to be seen though.

In no particular order as once again I am going to put them on in the order that I took them.

Snow is so different from Snowflake before her. She is prettier, quieter and friendlier. She also lays tiny eggs compared to Snowflake’s rather large eggs which were probably her downfall. I am so glad I decided to give a chabo another go as Snow is a lovely girl.

Gold looks like this every summer. It is as if she has an explosion of under feathers at the base of her tail but other than that she looks really good.

I have to have two photos of Sugar. When she is up and about she looks the picture of health but she still spends ninety percent of her day just sitting like the first photo. I had to wait for my chance to catch Sugar on the move. But she has been like this for two years now so whatever her problem is she is managing to live to with it. She is now getting her eggs laid easily too and with good shells.

Red is still looking some way off laying yet. Her comb is still small compared to Autumn’s but her face is red. Red is six months old now but she seems to be maturing slowly.

Autumn continues to sit in the nest box each day but without laying. She laid from October until the first of February and hasn’t laid since. We do seem to get the anomaly’s.

Storm continues to lay despite losing a few feathers including some tail feathers. She is looking pretty much back to normal now though.

Mango and Cloud continue to do everything together and that includes molting together. They are full of pins so they will soon look beautiful again.

Both Gold and Sugar are now through their broody spell and at the moment Snow and Storm are our only egg layers.

Gold and Sugar usually start laying again after a two week break and sometime over the next month or two Red should start laying. As I always say eggs are a bonus and as long as the girls stay healthy I am happy.

Sugar is now the only girl in our flock that isn’t a pipinchick girl. So I thought I would just mention that I have added pipinchick to the links on my side bar should any one wish to have a look.

Just over a week ago I did a post about a five egg day. I said that we had six girls laying as Cloud had laid the day before. What I didn’t realise was that we had five girls laying because that egg the day before from Cloud was her last one. She has joined Mango in molting. I doubt we will be getting any more eggs from either of these two this year.

Then we lost our lovely Dot and on the same day Gold went broody. She had laid eight eggs in two weeks. So we were now down to three girls laying.

Then two days later Sugar went broody. She had laid six eggs in eight days. Her last three eggs were laid three days running which is always a sign that she’s about to go broody. So we are now down to two girls laying. Just Storm and Snow. How quickly it all changes.

At least with only two girls laying it is easy to keep everything closed once they have laid. I am lifting Gold and Sugar out in between but I will start Sugar in the broody cage over night for a couple of nights because otherwise she is unbreakable.

The funny thing is how strong chickens’ instincts are for the potential of chicks. The two remaining laying girls choose to their egg next to the broody as they know the broody will then sit on their egg. What they don’t know of course is that without a cockerel it is futile.

I just hope Storm and Snow don’t go broody or we won’t have any egg layers. We could do with Red getting started but her comb doesn’t look anything like Autumn’s comb yet. She doesn’t look ready to start laying any time soon.

Oh well, whatever will be, will be.

Two days ago we lost our beautiful Dot. She was unique with her beautiful comb and her dark eyes and her lovely character. She came in as bottom girl but grew in confidence and worked her way up the pecking order. She also had a lovely melodic voice which was quite unlike the other girls.

She had some funny ways. She would often stand in a corner looking out as if on guard. She was our best egg layer and never went broody. She liked to lay her eggs with another girl so if she wanted to lay and there was already a girl in a nest box she would choose that one. We often found her egg next to another girls’ egg.

Dot was really friendly and easy to pick up. She liked her food and at bedtime would often be lop sided because her crop would be huge. She had the biggest crop of any of our girls. She was such a lovely girl and will be very much missed.

Dot was four years old and came to us when she was a year old. She laid an egg on her first day with us.

Goodbye my lovely girl. Dot is very much missed.