Carol's Chickens

Yesterday I suspected that Red was getting ready to lay again. Red was in the grit and oyster shell and she always does this the day before starting to lay again. I wonder how she knows.

Yesterday Snow laid and continued to stay in the corner of the chicken shed where she lays her eggs. At bedtime she settled in the corner of the chicken shed. I lifted her to the perch and she dropped down again several times. I knew Snow was broody. I perched her again when the pop hole closed and she stayed there.

Today Red settled in a nest box and Snow settled in the corner of the chicken shed.

When I later returned Red was out and Snow was in the nest box Red had been in. I lifted her out and there was Red’s egg.

As usual it’s one in and one out. Snow has gone broody after laying eleven eggs in sixteen days. Red has come back into lay after a break of ten days.

Meanwhile Gold is moulting heavily so she won’t be laying again this year. Once again we have only one girl laying. Every egg this year is a bonus.

All three game girls are moulting but Storm is behind Mango and Cloud who are growing their feathers back in. Storm has always moulted slowly in the past and has never looked much different.

This year Storm has moulted much quicker and has looked tattier then she ever has before. It’s the first time Storm has noticeably lost her tail.

It is funny seeing her like this but she will soon be back to normal.

Three days after Gold went broody Red went broody too. Red had laid eight eggs in thirteen days which is the exact same amount she laid last time before she went broody. So once again we are down to only one girl laying, that being Snow.

I have been keeping the nest boxes closed until Snow wants to lay. Once I open them Red and Gold occupy both boxes and Snow always chooses Red to share a nest box with.

In other news it has now been three weeks that Mango and Cloud have been going in the chicken shed at bedtime. I thought it had been long enough to uncover the nest boxes and see what they would do at bedtime.

After our evening meal I went up to check on the girls. All the girls were already perched in the chicken shed except Mango and Cloud who were on top of the nest boxes! I couldn’t believe it after all this time.

I lifted them down and recovered the nest boxes. Mango and Cloud instantly went in the chicken shed and perched.

I decided that we would need a more permanent cover for the nest boxes. We came up with the idea of stapling a piece of thick tarpaulin that we had in the shed to the marine ply behind the nest boxes. I then rolled it around a piece of broom handle from the shed and let it drop over the front edge of the nest boxes. I can then lift it up to access the nest boxes.

I used to worry when the girls jumped on the nest boxes that they might hurt their feet on the ramps when jumping down so this will stop that happening too. It will also stop the top of the nest boxes getting pooped on.

We then added a hook to the marine ply so that I can hook the cover up when I open the nest boxes. This leaves me two hands free for lifting out broody girls.

Hopefully this means girls sitting on the nest boxes will now be a thing of the past. It will be interesting to see what Mango and Cloud make of it tonight. Hopefully they will just ignore it.

Edit

After our evening meal we checked on the girls. They were all in the chicken shed and perched, hurrah!

This morning I gave the girls a yogurt treat.

Cloud’s feet are looking much better. I am one week into the three weeks of scaly mite treatment and Cloud has stopped pecking at her feet.

In other news Gold has gone broody. She had laid thirteen eggs in eighteen days. We had just the one three egg day on the day that Snow came back into lay and three days of three girls laying before it has dropped back to the usual two girls laying.

I have had an e-mail from “Chickens To Your Door” saying that they are delivering four days earlier than my original date. They are now delivering on 12th August so only three weeks to go, hurrah!

I have felt that Snow has been getting ready to lay over the last few days. It’s just over a month since she last laid. This morning she finally got her egg laid.

Snow’s egg is on the left, Gold’s egg is in the middle and Red’s egg is on the right. This is the first three egg day we have had in quite a while.

Cloud is looking better today. The spray must be working as she has stopped pecking at her legs and looks more her normal self today.

In future if I ever see what looks like a wound on any of the girls legs or feet I will now assume it’s scaly mite. As it happens I couldn’t have treated Cloud any quicker as I had to let her wound heal over before spraying her with the scaly mite spray.

I haven’t needed to separate Mango and Cloud today as Gold is no longer taking any notice of Cloud and Cloud is eating and drinking as normal. Happily things seem to be getting better.

On the third morning since first seeing the wound on Cloud’s foot I was really disappointed to see that she had picked a new wound on her foot. This is very much like Autumn last year.

The frustrating thing is that I can’t spray scaly mite spray on a wound but she probably won’t stop pecking off scales until the spray starts working so it’s a vicious circle. I sprayed the wound with the healing spray. I then decided to put a big blob of vaseline over the wound and spray again with the scaly mite spray. I then sprayed again with the purple spray and put Cloud in the crate for the sprays to dry. While in the crate Cloud refuses to eat or drink.

As soon as I put Cloud back on the chickens’ patio Gold took a peck at her leg again. I put Cloud back in the crate and sprayed on a bit more purple spray. The purple spray isn’t quite covering the redness of the wound.

I decided to close off the corner section of the run. I would need to do this in a month’s time for the new girls so it would be one job less to do later. I could then put Mango and Cloud in that section. It would be better than being in the crate and Cloud wouldn’t have to compete for food as well keeping her safe from being pecked.

I will put the girls together again before bedtime so that they go in the chicken shed together but keep them here during the day. I also closed off the bottom section of the run so that if I feel they need more space they can have half the run. At the moment I don’t think they need any bigger space than this as they are not moving around much.

I also cleaned out the chicken shed. I emptied it then hoovered it thoroughly. Then I sprayed every surface and every nook with disinfectant poultry housing spray. I blocked the pop hole and left it for the day to dry before putting in new pine shavings.

I really need Cloud to stop picking wounds so that I can be sure the scaly mite reaches every part of her legs and feet. As with Autumn she is her own worse enemy. Like Autumn it is also putting her off eating and I have only seen her eat a few sunflower hearts and a bit of chopped tomato. At least while she is in this section she has had water though.

I can only keep going with all three sprays and hope that I can get her through this.

This morning was day four and I really hoped for no new wounds. I picked Cloud up for a close inspection and was really pleased to see no new wounds, hurrah! Her legs and feet still looked nicely purple so there was no need to spray her with anything and tomorrow is the next scaly mite spray day, but I decided that while Cloud has no wounds I would give her an extra scaly mite spray today. I am going belts and braces with this.

Gold was taking no interest in Cloud so I decided to open up the separated section and leave the flock together. At least now I can close off a section at any time I need to. I am now feeling hopeful that I can get her through this.

Yesterday afternoon it seemed that Cloud had injured her foot. Earlier she had looked fine but then next time we checked on them we noticed her limping and she had what looked like a cut on her foot. I sprayed her with the healing aid and skin repair spray that I already had.

I put her in the crate with food and water and googled what to do for an injured foot. It recommended vetericyn an antimicrobial wound care spray. I ordered this straight away on Amazon for delivery next day.

I couldn’t imagine how cloud had got this injury. I looked all round the run and could see nothing that might have caused this.

Cloud was stressed in the crate and had her beak open so I gave her some water to the side of her beak with a dropper and then put her back on the patio area of the chicken run with some mash to encourage her to eat.

I was horrified that Gold pecked at her wound. We were lucky with Autumn that none of the girls pecked her but Gold has lately started pecking my legs so this seems to be her new thing. Mango and Cloud settled in the shelter out of Gold’s way and I ordered some purple spray from Amazon also being delivered the next day. This is skin cleansing and disguises the redness/blood to deter pecking.

Before bedtime I decided to put both Mango and Cloud in the crate so that Cloud wouldn’t be so stressed as she was on her own. I then moved them both to the perch in the chicken shed half an hour before the pop hole closed. I added more pine shavings to give a softer landing when jumping down in the morning.

The next morning I was horrified to see that cloud had another bloody patch on her other foot. I realised at this point that it wasn’t an injury. It must be self inflicted which means it must be scaly mite and yet there aren’t any raised scales.

My heart sank. This would mean treating all the girls with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks and deep cleaning the chicken shed.

I started with the scaly mite spray right away. I sprayed Mango and Cloud and left them in the crate while I sprayed each of the rest of the girls. I put vaseline over Cloud’s wounds before spraying with scaly mite as I didn’t want to spray on to an open wound. At this point the new sprays arrived.

I sprayed Cloud with the vetericyn and then I sprayed her with the purple spray. I then returned Mango and Cloud to the run.

I am so frustrated to be back here again. The only thing that I can think is that I got Autumn through this so I will get Cloud through this and at least I have caught it early. I will use the scaly mite spray every three days on all of the girls and in between I will spray Cloud with the wound care spray and the purple spray.

I left Mango and Cloud in the run and they perched in the chicken shed at bedtime. Before the pop hole closed I sprayed Cloud again with the wound spray followed by the purple spray. I have a ridiculous amount of sprays in the chicken storage cabinet!

Tomorrow I will empty the chicken shed and disinfect before putting in fresh shavings. I will do everything I can to get rid of this. It is horrible to be back here again but I will throw everything at it once more to get rid of this again.

Both Storm and Cloud are moulting so that will be the end of their season for eggs. I feel sorry for Cloud moulting on top of this problem. Moulting has come early this year. On the other hand Snow was looking in the nest boxes this morning so I think she is about to start laying again. It’s exactly a month since she last laid.

Red came through her broody spell in a week. Storm had now been broody for three and a half weeks and Snow for just coming up to three weeks. This is Storm’s third year laying and she has never been broody for more than four days before. Snow is usually also only broody for about four or five days.

I think it’s partly the warm summer but I think it’s mostly these two girls being broody together. They are keeping each other in the zone and this is despite the nest boxes being closed most of the time. I sometimes feel that Sugar’s broody spirit is manifested onto these two girls.

I thought that when we lost Sugar I wouldn’t need to use the broody crate again but I do need to because they cannot stay broody any longer.

I decided to put Storm in the broody crate over night. It only ever took a couple of nights with Sugar and I thought I would start with Storm as she has been broody the longest then move on to Snow next.

In the morning Storm had eaten the mash and pooped all over the crate.

I decided to put Snow in the crate the next night. Snow is more broody than Storm and really just splitting the pair up is probably the most important thing. I put Snow on the perch and she stayed there.

The next morning Storm was out in the run for the first time in a very long time. I think just one night may have been enough for her.

Snow was still on the perch just as I had left her and hadn’t touched the mash and there was just one poop behind the perch.

I returned Snow to the run and she was still making the broody boc boc sound. I knew she would need another night in the broody crate but I felt we were getting somewhere now.

Gold has continued to lay her eggs in the shelter and I have left her to it as it means I can keep the nest boxes closed. Each time Gold lays her egg Cloud is straight into the shelter to sit on it. Cloud is broody after laying nine eggs in two weeks.

In the shed we keep old bedding to use as sheets to protect the floor when we are decorating. I have now hung an old duvet over the front of the shelter like a curtain and secured it with a couple of logs on top. This means that as soon as Gold has laid I can remove Cloud and drop the curtain but lift the curtain when Gold is due to lay.

It’s six days since Cloud last laid. By keeping her out of the shelter I hope to stop her broody spell quickly as the only sign that she is broody is her not laying and her sitting on Gold’s eggs.

Last night I gave Snow a third night in the broody crate just to make sure that she was through being broody. I think she is at last and last night was the fifth evening that Mango and Cloud went in on their own. I really think we are finally there with these two. They now go in with the rest of the flock.

I also think that Red will come back into lay soon as she was at the grit and oyster shell yesterday. It would be great to have her eggs again.

All in all I am very pleased with the progress and it is so good to have all the girls going in before we get our new girls.

Edit

This afternoon I could tell Red wanted to lay. It’s been two weeks since she last laid. I opened both nest boxes and the chicken shed. Red soon settled in the nest box to lay her egg.

The really good thing was that neither Storm or Snow took any notice. They are definitely through their broody spell now.

Hurrah on both counts, breaking the broodies and Red laying again. Back to some slightly bigger eggs too.

During the recent hot spell I have been leaving the chicken shed door ajar until I go in to lock up after the pop hole has closed. I did this for four evenings. During this time Mango and Cloud have been going in through the door and perching.

Before this I had been going up as the pop hole closed and would hold the shed door open and Mango and Cloud would go through the door and perch. It was good that they were going in themselves but I wouldn’t want to leave the door open on a more permanent basis especially in winter.

I now remember that this happened on a previous year. Two evenings ago as it was cooler I left the chicken shed door closed. I wondered if Mango and Cloud would still go in with the door now closed. I checked on them about an hour before the pop hole was due to close and was amazed to find them both in and perched.

I returned once the pop hole had closed and Mango and Cloud were still perched in the chicken shed. I now wondered if this was a one off or if they would go in the next night.

Last night I again checked on the girls an hour before the pop hole was due to close. Mango and Cloud were in the chicken shed and perched.

When the pop hole had closed I checked again and Mango and Cloud were still perched. I think we may have finally got there. They have twice, in the past, gone in for four days and then stopped so we need to get past the four day mark but I am hopeful that this time we have done it.

I will be keeping the top of the nest boxes blocked for a couple of weeks as I don’t want them to revert to sitting on top of them at bedtime which will be the next hurdle to overcome. But for now it’s looking good and I think we may have finally succeeded in getting these two to go in at bedtime.

Much to my surprise Gold started laying again yesterday. She has stopped moulting so maybe she is laying again as she only had a partial moult. It was over two weeks since she last laid.

The nest boxes were closed as I wasn’t expecting any eggs because Cloud had already laid. Gold laid her egg in the shelter. I left the nest boxes closed again today as I didn’t expect Gold to lay two days running but she laid in the shelter again today. Well done Gold for coming up with an alternative to the nest boxes.

Despite me keeping the nest boxes closed Storm has now been broody for three weeks, Snow for two weeks and Red for one week. They have never been committed to being broody before but they seem to encourage each other.

The broody girls perch at night and I am keeping the nest boxes closed and yet still they remain broody. I have kept the top of the nest boxes blocked off too but they sit together in the run or on the patio. If I open a nest box they are there straight away.

As it takes three weeks to hatch eggs I keep thinking Storm should come out of it any day now but at the moment she continues. It’s good to have two girls laying again for now though.