Carol's Chickens

Sadly we have only had Rusty for a year. She certainly left her mark though. She was the funniest, feistiest, of characters. She was top serama or top banana as we called her and was always at the front of the flock. She was the first out of the chicken shed in the mornings and the first to the treats.

If we offered dandelion leaves through the weld mesh, from the dandelion strip, Rusty would push the others out of the way and if I held them out to Apricot who would always go to the ladder rungs Rusty would jump into the air to get them.

I have put together some photos as a tribute to her. Looking through the photos also made me realise what a close pair Rusty and Freckles were. They came into the flock together at the beginning of October last year and I am sure that Freckles will miss her little flock mate.

Rusty and Freckles

Beaks together

Rusty and Freckles with chests together

Rusty stretches her neck towards the scary peas

Rusty puffed up with broodiness

Rusty having a dust bath

Rusty and Freckles march together with Rusty looking like a little toy duckling

Rusty looking up at me

Rusty always had this way of looking up at me. Sometimes she would twist her head and her eyes would lock on to me. She did this more than any of the other girls. She always liked to make eye contact. I will miss that intense look on her face.

Rusty will be very much missed, she enriched our flock and often made us laugh.  She was such a little bundle of fun.

I have been writing this post as I go along so the title has now sadly changed from “Rusty prolapsed again” to it’s current title.

The afternoon before yesterday Rusty was in the nest box for a long time. I was worried about her prolapsing again but I knew that she had to get her egg laid. I felt helpless because I couldn’t help her lay her egg or stop her laying her egg.

Not long before bedtime she was out of the nest box. She had laid her egg and sure enough she had prolapsed again. She has been laying for two weeks now and this was her fifth egg. It was normal in size.

Rusty has a mucky bottom and a prolapse

Rusty looking unworried by her prolapse

I picked her up and gently wiped the poop from her bottom. I decided as it was almost bedtime that the best thing to do was to let her rest overnight which I hoped would mean she wouldn’t be pushing at it and bath her in the morning.

I hoped that I could soak her, clean her and push it back in with honey like last time.

Rusty giving me the evil eye as I bath her

I managed to get her clean and I tried to gently push the prolapse back in but very quickly realised this wasn’t going to work. The prolapse was beginning to swell and I decided that I needed to get Rusty to the vet.

I got her clean but the prolapse looked worse

My local vet had no appointments but once again their sister vet, twenty minutes from me, could see her. This time I was prepared for her to have to spend the day there and I took a water dish and a dish with sunflower hearts and a little chopped melon. I had read that light food is better than pellets as it discourages laying. I also took the honey with me.

The vet was really lovely. He said that he would give her an anti inflammatory injection to reduce the swelling. He would soak her and after a couple of hours when the swelling had reduced he would push the prolapse back in.  He said he agreed with the good properties of honey and to leave it with him. He said he would call me later.

The vet called later and said that the prolapse was back in but he wanted to keep her to make sure that it stayed in and that I should call back at four o’clock to see how she was doing.

When I called back another vet said that the first vet had pushed the prolapse in twice and she, herself, had pushed it in a third time but now Rusty had pushed it out yet again. She said that she thought Rusty needed a stitch to help keep it in place. This would mean an anesthetic so that it wasn’t painful for her. She said she thought it was worth a try if I wanted them them to go ahead. I agreed for them to go ahead.

She said that they were open until seven o’clock and they would call me later. I knew I had to start preparing myself for there not being a happy outcome for Rusty but I wasn’t prepared to give up without trying.

The vet that morning had said it was worth trying to put it back again but if it kept on happening I may have to consider having her put to sleep. There may be something internal that isn’t quite right about her egg laying and she may now have a weakness there. I said that I had already realised that was a possibility but wanted to give her another chance. We agreed between the vet, myself and my husband that if she prolapsed a third time we would have to have her put to sleep.

The vet felt there was a good chance that this procedure could work and that is was worth a try. I called the vet at quarter past six as I hadn’t heard from them and she said that she had just finished as she had an emergency in between. She said Rusty was rallying well and I could come and get her.

The vet said to keep Rusty indoors for a couple of hours to keep an eye on her. She said to bring her back in on Monday for her to check her. Rusty looked like she was okay.

Rusty back from the vets

After a couple of hours I took her out to the chicken shed and placed her on the perch next to Freckles. I checked on her ten minutes later and she was still perched as she normally would so I felt it was okay to leave her. I felt it would be better to leave her perched than keeping her indoors so that she wouldn’t be sitting in poop.

I went out first thing this morning and felt my first twinge of alarm to find that Rusty wasn’t out in the run. I looked in the chicken shed and Rusty was sitting with her wings spread out. I knew this wasn’t a good sign at all.

This was how I found Rusty this morning

I tried to drip some sugar water into her beak from a syringe but she refused to open her beak. I put her in the cat box and bought her indoors. I was trying to decide if I should take her to the vet to be put to sleep or leave her to go at home. As the vet wasn’t yet open I left the cat box in the bathroom and stayed close to keep an eye on her.

Her eyes closed and although her breathing was shallow she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She looked comfortable so I just stayed beside her. I felt that she didn’t have long.

Rusty sleeping in the cat box

At half past nine I heard her flap and I instinctively knew that this was the end. I wanted to pick her up and hold her but it was so quick. She stretched out her wings then flopped on to her side. She was gone. I picked her up and cried over her.

At least it was quick and it was one last decision that I didn’t have to make.

I have been beating myself up ever since about whether I made the right decisions. What if I had just bought her home and tried to put her prolapse back myself like last time but I know that even if it had worked again it would most likely have happened again in the future. Should I have had her put to sleep instead of having anesthetic but the outcome would have been the same.

I said these things to the vet when I rang to let them know and to cancel Rusty’s appointment on Monday. The vet was lovely to me and said that she was so sorry and that I had done my best for Rusty and made the best decisions I could for her.

We wrapped Rusty in our tray paper and buried her in the chicken’s strip next to Amber. In six years of chicken keeping she is my second girl to die at home. I lifted the dandelions and my husband dug a very deep hole. We laid her to rest and I planted the dandelions over the top of her.

Rusty is buried next to Amber marked by the cross on the right

It felt as if Freckles was paying her respects to her best friend

I wonder how Freckles is going to be without her best friend. I don’t like to think of her sleeping alone on their perch so I will move her tonight to Dandelion and Apricot’s perch and see if I can get her used to sleeping on their perch.

We will miss Rusty so much. She was such a big character. My husband remarked that she always made us laugh. She was determined and feisty. I had never seen such a small girl show such anger in her eyes when things didn’t go her way. My husband affectionately called her the thug and we both called her top banana.

I will look out some photos and do a tribute post to her soon but for now I am going to leave this here because it has been so hard to write the second half of this post. I am trying to type with tears streaming and keep having to stop to blow my nose.

Goodbye little Rusty. We only had her a year but she filled that year with her character.

This is, without doubt, our best year ever for courgettes. Our two plants have produced a continued abundance of courgettes and the freezer is full of various courgette dishes while I am still devising ways of using fresh ones several times a week.

This is today’s harvest.

Today’s courgettes

The plants still have more courgettes coming.

The courgette plant is still producing

The other courgette plant

I would definitely go for the more compact plants again next year. As I suspected the self seeded courgette plant didn’t produce. There are plenty of flowers forming but the courgettes are very small, butternut squash shaped and rotting away while still tiny.

The self seeded plant with it’s tiny, rotting, courgettes

I think perhaps that because it has self seeded it has reverted back to an earlier type of plant. The plant is long and rambling and full of buds but I can tell that they won’t get beyond this stage.

It was an experiment to leave the plant in and see what it produced and as the veg plot is emptying it fills some space which helps to keep the cats off.

Once the two producing courgette plants are finished we will empty the plot, dig it over and then fill it with twigs for the winter to keep the cats off. For now the spent plants remain in place to keep it from being bare even though it is rather less than tidy.

It will be interesting to see how long the courgette plants keep producing. I will sort of miss them when they are over.

Yesterday I gave the girls the last two lettuces from the veg plot. The veg plot is finished now all except the two courgette plants which are still producing, albeit, smaller courgettes.

The last two lettuces from the veg plot

All the girls get stuck in except for Speckles

Speckles was too busy playing mother hen and making sure the little girls got their share first. She did join in later and by the end of the day there were just two stalks left. I think the girls have enjoyed our veg plot as much as we have.

The garden is beginning to look autumnal. The berries on the himalayan honeysuckle are lovely and shiny at this time of year.

Autumn colour in the garden

The sedums give a lovely splash of late colour.

Sedum close up

Splash of colour in the chicken’s strip

This aster gives the chicken’s strip a splash of colour. I love seeing the late colour in the garden.

I am gradually harvesting the leaves from the veg plot for the girls. I thought I would give them a mix of green and purple leaves and see if they had any preference.

Some green and purple leaves for the girls

What amused me is that the girls, in turn, seem to need to get a bit higher up before they descended on the leaves.

Freckles on the block

Apricot on the log

Dandelion on the log

Enjoying both colour leaves

When I returned a little later all the purple leaves were gone. I think they are softer so disappeared quicker. I gave the girls the last purple leaves from the veg plot.

You are on the wrong side of the wire Apricot!

Apricot was having a, dumb chicken, moment and could’t seem to work out why she couldn’t get to the purple leaves.

Apricot on the newest perch

She decided she, once more, had to go a bit higher to get the right amount of inspiration.

It wasn’t long before all the leaves disappeared. There are two more green lettuce in the veg plot for the girls and then we are all out of home grown leaves.

I am ripening the last of the tomatoes indoors and then all that is left on the veg plot is the courgettes. They have slowed right down but so far are still going and we still one had roasted with Sunday lunch.

On Sunday we saw another baby slow worm on the patio. It was lucky it didn’t get trodden on. We last saw a baby one on the path about a month ago. We always see the big ones in the undergrowth but the babies on the path or patio so we think perhaps they are warming up in the sun.

Baby slow worm

Showing the baby’s size

I thought I would give some facts about them in case anyone is interested to know more.

They are actually a legless lizard with the ability to shed their tail if they are seized. A new tail regenerates after a couple of weeks.

They hibernate in October and emerge from hibernation in March. They will mate annually or once every two years. The female gives birth to an average of eight live young between mid August and mid September. It takes between six and eight years for the slow worm to become fully grown. The female becomes sexually mature at between four and five years of age. This species is relatively long lived and one specimen has been known to live for fifty four years. That was in captivity but it is thought that they live to about thirty years in the wild.

That surprised me. I thought I knew a lot about slow worms, having been used to them in my gardens from childhood onwards, but I didn’t realise they could live for so long.

Their skin is shed at intervals throughout their life. They can grow up to fifty centimeters which is eighteen inches. That also surprised me because the biggest ones I have seen have been twelve inches.

They feed on slugs, snails, worms and any slow moving garden pests.

We definitely have a breeding colony in our garden because every summer we see them in all sizes from tiny babies to small, medium and large sized ones. I photographed one last year against this same ruler and it was long as the ruler which is twelve inches.

We saw a baby one a month ago and then another baby this weekend so baring in mind that they only breed once a year or once every two years our babies must come from different female slow worms. That fact, added to the amount of sightings and different sizes, suggests that we have quite a good number in our garden.

We are happy to have these creatures breeding and thriving in our garden,

There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that chickens are flock animals. I often see our girls together in a tight group and it always makes me smile. It’s not always easy to get a photo as when I go through the gate one or two of the girls will break away and come to see if I have any treats on offer.

Group huddle

A bit of snoozing together

I managed to get the shot because they were dozing. Rusty is missing as she was in the nest box laying her egg which was a shame but I still thought it too sweet to miss photographing.

We have two annual events which are big numbers. Afternoon tea on our vintage crockery for a hundred and sixty, for a school speech day, and jazz supper for a hundred and thirty. They don’t usually fall on the same week though. This year however the Jazz supper is a week earlier than usual so we had the afternoon tea on Thursday and the jazz supper on Saturday.

This makes for a lot of work in one week especially as we already had a full week of corporate lunches booked too. It has been non stop.

We have a hundred and sixty nine trios. The trios are only a part of the washing up. There are cakes stands, sandwich plates, tea pots and coffee pots, sugar bowls, milk jugs and all the silver ware. The trios are my department as they need sorting back into their sets and then storing in plastic boxes.

First I match them in their sets on our dining table. There are some large sets, some small sets and some single trios. I store them so that the sets are split between each box. Each box has twenty one different trios (and one box has twenty two) and I number the boxes from one to eight with my favourite ones in box one and working down to my least favourite in box eight.

This means we can pull out one box for a small function and as many boxes as we need to make up bigger functions. This annual function means we pull out all the boxes and do a stock take. This is our fourth year of doing this function.

Washing up and sorting the trios

What a lot of crockery! Throughout the year as we have some breakages we replace the pieces from local antique shops to keep the numbers about the same for this function. It is the largest function we do on our vintage crockery. It is fun collecting the pieces, slightly less fun washing it up though!

This time of year there are spider webs all over the garden. The ones I like the least are the ones that I break with my face when I go up to the chickens first thing in the morning. Not a pleasant feeling.

With the morning dew on the webs that are on the planting there is a sort of halloween look to the garden first thing in the morning.

The rosemary bush looks dressed for halloween

A slightly closer look

The sedum has a similar treatment

I love the contrast between the vibrant colour of the sedum and the layer of web. I am not a great fan of spiders but I accept their place in the garden and the fact that they eat flies has to be a good thing. I do, though, admire their webs although I would just prefer not to break them with my face first thing in the morning. It’s definitely that time of year again!