Carol's Chickens

I have fallen a bit behind with blogging but there hasn’t really been much to tell. Popcorn looked really scruffy for a while and was dropping feathers but she now looks pretty much back to normal.

Maple seemed to have a pretty full moult for a first year girl. She had very ragged tail feathers which have dropped and she had new tail feathers come in under them. She didn’t really look much different until suddenly the back of her neck is white with pin feathers. She never had a bare neck so the pins must have been there once the neck feathers dropped away.

In other news, much to my surprise, Red took a week’s break from egg laying and then started again. She has now laid seven eggs in two weeks. This is a month later than last year. This is a bonus, well done Red!

I worm the girls in March and September so it’s that time of year again. First an update on the egg situation. We currently have no girls laying.

Maple stopped laying twelve days ago and started to moult. Popcorn has continued to lightly moult. This is quite unusual for first year girls. I wonder if they will both lay again when they finish moulting. Popcorn stopped laying a month ago.

Red stopped laying four days ago after laying five eggs since her previous break. The funny thing is she stopped laying last year on 10th September and this year on 12th September so very much at the same time.

I started worming yesterday. As always I mix the flubenvet into four little dishes of mash for seven consecutive days. It’s Popcorn and Maples’s first worming with us as we got them in April after I had already wormed the flock. They are happily joining in with the mash and by the end of the day the mash has all gone.

No worms found so far so hopefully they are worm free anyway but it’s always good to do this anyway.

Yesterday Red went to the oyster shell. She always goes to the oyster shell the day before she lays an egg. I then realised how red her face and comb are and that she was more vocal than usual. She had also stopped dropping feathers about a week ago. I thought she was getting ready to lay again.

I was right, Red laid an egg today!

Looking back at last year Red stopped laying after the first week of September so she may not lay for long or she may perhaps lay a bit longer because she has had a break. She has had a break of three weeks. Well done Red! It’s great to have another girl laying for however long it will be.

A few days ago Red started moulting so that means she won’t be laying again this year. Popcorn came out of her broodiness after just a few days and she is moulting a bit. It’s a partial moult for Popcorn and it means she has grown new feathers where she was plucked so it has improved her looks. Maple is our only egg layer at the moment.

Red is exploding feathers wherever she goes and yet strangely she doesn’t look any different yet. There were feathers in the chicken shed this morning and I picked up loads of feathers yesterday afternoon and this morning it looks the same again. Red’s feathers are all around the run.

At least the girls are not all moulting at once or I would struggle to keep up with picking up feathers. Also perhaps they will get it all over before winter.

A few days ago Popcorn went broody. She had laid fifteen eggs in twenty six days since her last, also first, broody spell. We now have only Maple laying eggs. I have kept all the nest boxes closed and as soon as Maple has laid her egg in the chicken shed I close that too.

While broody, Popcorn sits in the corner of the chicken shed and when I open up for bedtime she returns to the corner. Once the pop hole closes I lift Popcorn to the perch where she then stays.

She prowls around the shed trying to find a way in before giving up. I hope she will soon come through her broody spell. Red has now come out of being broody. It remains to be seen if she starts moulting or starts laying again. Last time Popcorn took a two week break before starting to lay again so hopefully it won’t be too long before she is laying again.

Red has gone broody after laying seven eggs in fifteen days. Snow stopped laying ten days ago and has now started moulting dramatically. Yesterday at lunch time when I cleaned up the run I picked up a huge amount of feathers from Snow including a lot of long ones which I think are mostly wing feathers and perhaps a few tail feathers.

This will mean Snow won’t come back in to lay this year which is two months earlier than last year. Snow laid 85 eggs last year. This year she has laid 45. This is a big difference but chickens can lay half as many eggs each year as the year before.

If Red starts moulting when she comes out of being broody that will mean we will just have the two newest girls laying. Hopefully though Maple and Popcorn will continue laying through the winter as it’s their first year.

Having lost two of the newer girls this year I am hoping to get two more girls in the spring.

Edit

This morning there were as many feathers in the run from Snow again and she had lost her tail feathers. Her new shorter tail feathers were underneath.

Snow has gone broody after laying nine eggs in two weeks. She usually lays eight and this is the second time she has laid nine so a slight improvement for her.

At the same time Maple came back into lay after a break of nine days. We now have Red, Popcorn and Maple laying so it’s stayed at three girls laying.

Today was hot so I gave the girls some mash topped with frozen peas. It’s a good way to get some group photos but as the girls are constantly moving from one dish to another there is one girl blurred in each photo.

Once the peas are gone the girls drink the cold water on top of the mash before it eventually gets absorbed by the pellets making a wet mash. I like to think it cools the girls and gets them to take on more water. By the end of the day all the mash disappears.

Red has now come back into lay after a break of one month which was longer than usual for her. Maple seems to be taking a break and hasn’t laid for a week now. I often say that I think non broody girls just need to take a short break sometimes.

Cloud came through being broody after a few days and has now started moulting. She is dropping feathers as she moves but doesn’t look much different apart from a slightly ragged tail. The interesting thing is that her comb is now pale like Mango’s is.

Cloud’s comb isn’t quite as pale as Mango’s but it’s not the lovely bright red it was when she was laying. She does have a taller comb than Mango so it always looks a bit more impressive.

At least now Red is back in lay we still have three girls laying so that’s a bonus. All is calm in the chicken run.

I have been without a laptop for two weeks. It’s probably the longest time since we first had a laptop. Luckily we have no need of it for business anymore as we are now retired but what I have missed most is being able to blog.

So for a catch up. Cloud has gone broody after laying nine eggs in fifteen days. She had continued to lay for longer than I expected so has done really well. Snow is back in lay after a break of three weeks. She had been dropping a few feathers so I wasn’t sure if she was going to lay again. Popcorn is back in lay after a break of twelve days. Red is no longer broody but not back in lay yet and has also been dropping a few feathers. Maple is still laying. So we now have three girls laying, Snow, Popcorn and Maple.

Gold is moulting and is scruffy and has only a few tail feathers left. Storm is moulting but although I am finding her black feathers she doesn’t look any different. Mango had started to moult and had pins coming through but she seems to have stopped again for now and looks fine. Popcorn had a partial baby moult and I was finding some of her feathers in the run. It has actually improved her look as she doesn’t look so noticeably plucked now. This is good as I thought she would look like that until the end of next year.

This was the last photo I took before my laptop broke. With three nest boxes and four corners of the shed to choose from Cloud suddenly wanted to lay in the shelter. luckily she only did this for one day before reverting back to a nest box. The main reason I took this photo was that her comb is amazing for such a small girl.

All the rest of the photos I have taken today.

Popcorn still has a few grey under feathers showing but a lot less than she did have.

Maple and Popcorn are the most difficult to photograph as they are not as used to the camera as the rest of the flock and are still the most skittish girls. It hasn’t helped that I haven’t been taking photos recently either so I thought I would include this one where I managed to catch them while they were unaware.

The flock has been so much more chilled since Ginger went. I was upset at the feather pulling but hadn’t realised how much it was upsetting the girls with them constantly having to move away from her.

Luckily because most of the girls have had a bit of a start to moulting they are looking better. Gold is the only one in full moult and she always looks very scruffy while moulting. Popcorn still has some grey under feathers showing but she has grown in some new gold feathers so looks much better than she did.

I feel we are back to a happy flock again and I am glad to be back here.

I opened a nest box and the three broody girls piled in.

I have now solved this problem. Both Maple and Cloud have been laying their eggs in the nest box that’s out in the run. For some reason the broody girls don’t see that nest box as one to sit and brood in. Therefore I am now keeping the other nest boxes closed.

Maple and Cloud are the only two laying girls at the moment and I don’t expect Cloud to keep going much longer. Cloud stopped laying last year during the first week of July. I was very surprised that she has started laying again.

All eggs are a bonus at the moment.