Carol's Chickens

This morning I gave the girls some fish.

Snow laid six eggs in two weeks and then stopped. She hasn’t laid for just over a week now. Hopefully she will start again when the other girls get started.

Red has increased her laying to every other day. She has now laid like clockwork every other day for the last three weeks so she seems to have hit her stride now. Gold squatted in front of me yesterday so I think she will start laying soon.

Sugar is doing okay so we are hopeful she will continue that way into the summer. They are such a lovely happy flock.

We have been having a battle with Sugar’s feet. First we noticed that Sugar was limping. When I inspected her feet I realised her toe nails had got so long and curled around that a nail was pressing against her ankle. I clipped her nails and have checked her regularly since then and now regularly clip her nails.

After clipping Sugar’s nails her limp disappeared so we thought all was well. Some time after that Sugar was limping again. I checked her feet and couldn’t see anything wrong. As her limp continued I kept checking and realised that cracks were appearing on her toes.

I thought this indicated that she had scaly mite again so I treated her with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks again. This was about the time that I had finished treating Autumn. Sugar’s limp disappeared and I thought we were okay again.

It is very difficult to tell if Sugar has scaly mite because her scales are already raised from the first time and scaly mite are microscopic so can’t be seen. Also she had never pulled off her scales like Autumn so until she was limping there was no way of knowing.

Like Autumn Sugar improved while I was spraying her legs and feet so I had to conclude it was scaly mite causing her to limp. But also like Autumn soon after I stopped treating her she started limping again so I treated her again. Recently Sugar started limping again.

I am now treating her for the fourth time and once again she has improved. It took four treatments to clear Autumn so I am hoping that this fourth treatment will clear Sugar.

As always I have researched this endlessly. I have asked why the treatment hasn’t worked and it says (as I thought) that only one mite or egg left behind will start the whole process over again. By reading other people’s experiences it seems that sometimes it can be cleared with one treatment but sometimes it can be very very difficult to clear. I can only keep going and hope that like with Autumn I can clear Sugar of this with continued spraying.

At the moment Sugar appears well but I am mid way of this current round of spraying. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Snow has settled into laying every other day. Red is a bit more erratic with her laying and often misses a few days. Autumn’s face and comb have now turned red. Gold also has a very red face and comb and has looked in the nest boxes a few times.

I think there will more girls laying soon which will be lovely.

Yesterday Snow laid her second egg this year, two days after her first one. It was long and torpedo shaped. We have always said that there is no mistaking Snow’s eggs because they have a very distinct shape.

Red laid today, also two days after her last egg. Red has spells of laying every other day and then she slows down again. She may continue to lay every other day when we get into spring.

Last year Snow laid every other day most of the time and sometimes two days running in between so she probably will again once she gets into her stride. She was a good layer last year.

It is lovely having our own eggs again and I am sure there will be more girls laying soon.

After checking out the nest boxes for the last couple of days today Snow settled in the nest box.

When I next checked on Snow she was back out in the run. I checked the nest box and there was her egg.

On the left is Snow’s egg laid today, in the middle is Red’s egg laid yesterday and on the right is a medium shop bought egg for size comparison.

Well done Snow! That is early in the year to start back laying. It will be great to have a few more eggs at this time of year.

For the last couple of days Snow has been investigating the nest boxes. I think she may be getting ready to start laying. We usually have the first girls come back into lay half way through February and the rest in March. This would be quite early but it’s Snow’s first winter/spring with us so I have no comparison.

Red on the other hand had taken a nine day break from laying. I was just beginning to think that Like Autumn maybe she had stopped laying when she settled in the nest box today. I was pleased that she laid an egg today as this is a good sign that she will continue to lay.

Snow sits for a minute and then comes out again. She has done this several times in two nest boxes. I think she is familiarising herself with the nest boxes before she is ready to start laying.

In other news Sugar has looked much perkier since the end of the frosty weather.

Sugar has been a little more active, on her feet a little more. She has been dust bathing and running to the treats with more enthusiasm. She is such a resilient little girl and constantly surprises us with her ability to bounce back. I think Sugar will be happier when better weather comes along as will most of us.

It will be good if Snow does start laying soon as a few more eggs would be lovely. Storm usually start in February so it shouldn’t be long before we are getting more eggs again.

After mentioning worrying about Sugar’s quality of life, today she was dust bathing with Snow. It’s the first time I have seen her dust bathing for ages. I think the recent cold weather was having an effect on her. It was heart warming to see her dust bathing.

Sugar is on the left. Sugar and Snow are often together, they often perch on the ladder together and seem to have formed a little alliance. It’s funny because they also look quite similar.

Again this shows how improved Autumn’s legs and feet are although she has the palest comb I think I have ever seen. She seems fine though and I am so pleased to see her legs and feet back to normal. It will be interesting to compare her comb when it’s red again assuming she will start laying again in spring.

It’s lovely seeing the girls dust bathing. Dust bathing girls are happy girls.

I haven’t blogged much recently because at this time of the year there isn’t much happening or much to say so I decided to pop out and take some portrait photos of the girls, the first portraits of the year. I just clicked each girl in quick succession to get a snapshot of how they are at the moment.

Autumn has the palest comb of all the girls. Although she is standing on one leg this photo shows her leg and foot looking completely normal again. Since picking her up all the time to treat her legs and feet she doesn’t like me to come closer than this with the camera.

Sugar still spends ninety percent of her time sitting. In winter her two spots are the ladder or the perch in the shelter. I still worry about her quality of life but we will see how she goes on in spring.

Once again Red was in the nest box getting her egg laid. Red doesn’t like the camera anyway so I thought I would just take her photo in the nest box.

Since the really cold weather recently Red has dropped from laying every other day to every fifth day. I hope as we get into spring she will start laying more often again.

All the girls are looking good and Sugar is the only one we worry about at the moment. She is resilient and keeps going but we always worry about her quality of life when she spends so much of her time sitting or perching.

When the weather is awful as it has been recently the girls spend a lot of their time in the shelter. It’s Sugar’s favourite place during winter and the rest of the girls tend to gather around her. Mango and Cloud’s favourite spot is standing on the shelf in the shelter.

Red joins them occasionally but Red is the busiest girl of the flock and is never still for long. Today the whole flock were together in the shelter including Red but when I returned with my camera Red was out and about again.

Red always has muddy feet because she will venture out into the wet parts of the run. While most of the girls stick to the dry areas Red always covers the entire run. It’s difficult to get a good photo of Red because she is always on the move.

Later today Red was in the nest box giving me a chance to get a better photograph of her.

Storm is the nosiest girl of the flock and she will always check on Red in the nest box.

Red has now been laying every other day like clockwork for the last two weeks. It is lovely to have one reliable egg layer at last. She will keep us going until the start of springtime eggs.

I have had to do this right at the end of the year this year as Red is still laying. Sadly we lost Salmon and Dot this year. We lost Salmon on 22nd February when she couldn’t lay her first egg after two years of not laying. We lost Dot on 17th July after laying prolifically for five months.

I will first show how many months each girl has laid before their total eggs laid.

Salmon – 0 months – 0 eggs.

Dot – 5 months – 75 eggs.

Autumn – 1 month – 8 eggs.

Gold – 6 months – 62 eggs.

Storm – 7 months – 68 eggs.

Sugar – 5 months – 38 eggs.

Mango – 4 months – 29 eggs.

Cloud – 5 months – 41 eggs.

Snow – 4 months – 46 eggs.

Red – 2 months – 19 eggs.

Total eggs for this year is 386.

Some of the lower egg totals are because of broodiness. Autumn and Red have low totals due to the short time they laid. With the days very gradually lengthening Red has started laying more frequently and is now laying every other day. It will be interesting to see how Autumn and Red do next year.

Storm is a much better layer than Mango and Cloud but that is due to the broodiness of Mango and Cloud. Sugar’s total also reflects her broodiness.

Snow didn’t start laying until half way through June so she will probably lay a lot more next year.

All eggs are very much appreciated.

And I wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

It’s become a Christmas tradition for the girls to have a fish treat on Christmas morning. We had smoked salmon omelette for breakfast and they had sardines in olive oil.

They look very happy enjoying their fish. They also have their daily spinach. Autumn is now fully feathered. Red is still laying on average every five days and has laid a Christmas day egg today! Autumn laid on Christmas day last year and Red this year so that is quite special.

Happy Christmas everyone, we hope you are all enjoying your day.