A summary of 2014 in our chicken run

As the year draws to a close I thought I would take a look back at the past year with our girls. It has been a year of drama and changes within the flock.

At the beginning of January last year we had three big girls, Pepper and Dotty (domoniques), Bluebell (chalkhill blue) and two little girls Honey and Amber (bantam vorwerks)

January

The feather plucking continued. It was heartbreaking seeing the girls go through their moult and growing back their feathers only to have them plucked out again. I had hoped that they would keep their feathers after the moult but knew from the previous year that it was unlikely and yet felt so disappointed and upset when it continued. This to me has been the worse ever problem with the flock and was spoiling my enjoyment of them.

The big girls were plucking the little girls heads and necks and also plucking each others heads, necks and bottoms. Bluebell also bullied the little girls.

February

All the girls started laying again after their moult. The next problem also continued with Amber laying soft shelled eggs again and struggling to lay them. The feather pulling and Amber’s problem laying, were both long standing problems, that I had tried to solve and failed.

March

I decided to add two more bantam girls to the flock in the hope that the balance between big girls and little girls would be better and may improve the problems amongst the flock.

April

I added two new bantams to the flock. Topaz a gold laced wyndotte and Sparkle a silver laced wyndotte. They were in the separate part of the run where they can all see each other but not get to each other.

From the first day Bluebell was a problem. She shouted non stop and Bluebell and Topaz pecked each others combs through the wire and both drew blood.

My good friend Jackie came to visit and I told her about the problems I was having and that I thought I may have made a terrible mistake as Bluebell may never except more little girls into the flock. Jackie said that Bluebell had always been her favourite and I was so fed up that I said that if she wanted her she could have her.

To my amazement she said that this may work for both of us and went home to run it by her husband. The next day I took Bluebell to Jackie and she started the integration process into her flock. Bluebell was re-named Blossom as Jackie already had a Bluebell.

Bluebell/Blossom settled really well into Jackie’s flock and Blossomed (hence her new name) while my flock settled with Topaz and Sparkle quickly joining the main flock and Topaz immediately establishing herself as new top girl.

May

The feather plucking continued with Sparkle having her bottom plucked bare. Topaz being top girl and formidable with it escaped the plucking apart from an occasional snatched feather. We decided to extend the run to try to resolve the problem.

There was another drama as I shut the gate one day and caught Honey’s eye (I hadn’t realised that she had put her head through the back of the gate) causing her eye to partially shut. I was horrified and we installed a child gate inside the main gate so that this sort of accident could never happen again. Luckily Honey bounced back and her eye healed really quickly.

June

I made the difficult decision to re-home Pepper and Dotty. Everything we tried didn’t stop the feather plucking. With the run extended we tried separating Pepper and Dotty during the day but they weren’t happy and Pepper constantly complained loudly every day. At bedtime she resumed plucking Amber and they also continued to pluck each other.

We re-homed Pepper and Dotty to a friend’s farm where they could free range with a large flock. We have visited them through out the year and they settled happily into their new flock and with more space they stopped plucking and regrew their feathers. It was the right decision for them and for my flock.

We then decided that with the extra space we had room to add more new girls.

We added two bantam game birds, Toffee and Emerald and they settled into the flock within a few days. This was our quickest ever integration.

We decided we had room for eight bantams so organised collecting two brown leghorns at the end of the month when the leghorns reached six weeks of age.

Another drama followed with Amber and Honey having a pecking order fight and Amber came off worse with a peck to her face causing it to swell up. Honey moved up the pecking order and it took a couple of months before Amber’s face gradually returned to normal.

At the end of the month we added Peaches and Barley and my flock of eight bantams was complete.

July

For the first time in two and a half years of chicken keeping we found worms shortly followed by red mite.

Honey had laid a soft shelled egg for the first time ever when I spotted a worm in her poop. I promptly set about worming the girls and found a few more worms then no more. At least that problem was easily solved unlike the red mite which proved more tricky.

I borrowed a plastic dog kennel from my friend Jackie (as a temporary coop for the girls) and we took our coop to bits and treated it repeatedly over the next month.

August

After returning from one night away for my eldest son’s wedding we found that Topaz had gone broody. She was an angry broody and I would move her from the nest box once a day to feed and poop while she fluffed herself up, shouted and growled and pecked at anyone who got near her.

September

After three weeks of being broody Topaz suddenly snapped out of it and a week later started to moult heavily.

Peaches and Barley developed a game of jumping on my back at any opportunity.

Emerald started gaping causing me to think she may have gape worm. I wormed the girls again. I noticed she wasn’t eating properly and was hand feeding her. I got some antibiotics from the vet and treated her with it while continuing to hand feed her and build her strength back up.

In hindsight I don’t think it was gape worm as it is rare and I never saw any worms. I think as she was moulting she may have swallowed a feather and scratched her throat. I continued to make sure she was eating and over the next couple of months she gradually returned to normal.

October

Peaches and Barley’s combs flopped in opposite directions meaning I could tell them apart at a glance.

We realised that rats were getting in the run and after securing any possible gaps and tightening the roof wire we discovered that they had chewed a hole through the fence behind the coop. Next door has decking up against the fence which makes a perfect home for rats. We blocked it and put down poison under our water barrel where nothing else can reach and we got rid of them.

I also found a very small patch of red mite in the coop (not again!) and started checking at first light and dusk each day and squashing any I found. This went on until December when I finally got rid of them completely after three months of my tedious, twice daily, routine.

November

Barley and Peaches started laying at six months of age.

We discovered another hole in the fence next to the coop. We blocked the hole only to find that overnight it had been extended. This time we needed to do something more permanent. We pinned chicken wire to the fence then nailed some thick planks to the fence in front of the wire. For good measure I stuffed chicken wire behind the planks to fill any gaps. We put out poison again and this time we haven’t seen any further sign of rats.

December

All the girls (except Peaches and Barley who are only in their first winter) have moulted and now are all fully feathered. It has been extra special to me this year to see them all with pristine feathers after the feather plucking problem.

Re-homing was the right decision as I now have a beautiful flock of eight bantam girls, all with lovely feathers and all getting along in harmony. I am so pleased with how my flock has developed and after a year, which was quite a journey for my flock, I look forward to a new year with a harmonious and happy flock.

It is so lovely when I go out to the run and find them all happily together. I thought I would end with some photos I took of them on Christmas Day.

From both of us and from our flock I would like to wish everyone a really Happy New Year.