I thought it would be fun to give the girls a yogurt treat and try to get our first group photos of all ten girls.
Since the weather has cooled Diamond has been sitting less often. It’s only when sitting that her breathing is laboured so now that she is sitting less she is looking better and making the squeak/hiccup sound less frequently. I am now more optimistic that we may have her for some time.
The day after Snowflake went broody Sugar also went broody. I felt a bit cheated as Sugar had only laid six eggs this time instead of her usual eight eggs and once again we had two broodies together. Sugar had laid her six eggs in nine days which must be her record before going broody again. This left only Gold and Dot laying and once again I had to buy some eggs.
Dot laid every sixth day when she first came to us in May. After three eggs she moulted and stopped laying for three months. Since she has started laying again her laying has improved. She laid her second egg on the fourth day after the first. She then laid two days running and then laid her next egg on the third day after her last.
It seems that Dot is hitting her stride now. She also lays big eggs. When Snowflake and Gold first started laying Snowflake’s eggs were bigger than Gold’s eggs. Since then Snowflake’s eggs have remained the same size while Gold’s eggs have got bigger. Dot’s eggs are even bigger.
Gold’s egg is on the left with Dot’s egg in the middle and a medium shop bought egg on the right for a size comparison.
Snowflake isn’t a committed broody. Snowflake perches in the chicken shed overnight which is what I think makes her less committed. Sugar will not perch when she is broody. After five days Snowflake gave up being broody.
At this point I decided to break Sugar of her broody spell because I know that otherwise she will just stay broody indefinitely. Last night I put her in the broody crate. It only takes two or three nights to break her.
Once Sugar is through her broody spell I plan on worming the girls again. I usually do this in September and the two new girls haven’t been wormed yet so it seems a good idea to do this now. I gave the girls dishes of mash this morning to get the new girls used to it as I find that flubenvet powder in mash is the easiest way to worm the girls.
The new girls now recognise the little white dishes as treats and soon got stuck into the mash so I think this will work well. That is all the news from the chicken run for now.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Nice photos, Carol – and great to know that Diamond has improved. She does look huge compared to most of your flock, but she is beautiful. Pleased that Dot is now laying, although a bit erratic!
I am happy with the improvement in Diamond. She is a big girl but luckily she isn’t aggressive and so just fits in happily with the rest of the girls. Dot is erratic with her laying compared to the other girls who have a regular pattern but I am happy that she laying. She is such a lovely girl.
She does look huge but as David said beautiful. xx
I don’t think I would have chosen her if I had known what size she was. It’s deceiving from just photos on the internet. But she is so sweet. She isn’t aggressive like Ebony was so her size isn’t a problem to the flock and she is pretty. xx
Nice happy picture of the girls having their treats. Lovely eggs.
They love their treats and I love their eggs.