Carol's Chickens

Our garden is looking lovely. The rose that climbs over the arches looks amazing. It is a little later than usual this year because of the cold, wet, start to the year. Now it hot and dry but the garden is holding up well.

I originally planted this strip with dandelions for the girls. I soon learned that although dandelions flourish where you don’t want them they are incredibly difficult to grow when you do want them. No matter how many dandelions I planted in this strip they never lasted. I gave up and gradually planted bits and pieces pinched from the rest of the garden. It now looks beautiful.

I am perplexed about what is going on with Sugar. She spends a lot of time sitting on the ground in the run. In between she does all the usual things that chickens do. She runs to the treats, she eats, drinks and poops and she dust baths and she perches at bedtime.

Since Sugar has been doing this she also sits on the chickens’ patio before bedtime. All our seramas have been last in at bedtime. Now we are down to two Sugar and then Salmon are always last in. Salmon has been last in for many years.

The other three girls go in and Salmon potters around and Sugar sits on the edge of the patio. I have never seen any of the girls do this apart from when they are broody and I lift them from a nest box and put them on the patio and they take a while to move off.

This has become the end of the day habit.

I have researched hens spending a lot of time sitting and there doesn’t seem very much in the way of answers. I have looked on the reddit forum and other chicken keepers have posed this problem so it’s not that uncommon. One took her girl to the vet and the vet could find nothing externally wrong and said that she could only conclude that it was something internal.

One possibility that was surmised was that it could be a reproduction problem. Given that Sugar recently laid three tiny eggs I think that could be a possibility.

The main thing is that she isn’t going down hill fast, it isn’t contagious and there isn’t anything I can do. It will be interesting to see if she lays normally next time or does the same again. If she does the same again we will know that it is something to do with her reproduction system.

As long as she is happy we will just wait and see what happens.

I have felt that Gold was ready to go broody for about a week. As she heads towards going broody she gradually spends longer and longer in the nest box but keeps laying yet another egg. Then she spends most of the day in the nest box without laying and I know she is broody.

Storm is quite different and just suddenly goes broody. She does the typical tail up stance and growl and just stops laying straight away.

Gold has laid twenty two eggs in five weeks since her last broody spell. Storm has laid sixteen eggs in four weeks since her last broody spell. This leaves us with only Dot laying. Luckily both these girls are easy to break out of it. I simply close the nest boxes when Dot has laid and leave them closed at bedtime so that Gold and Storm will perch in the chicken shed.

As Gold had only laid her last egg yesterday I opened a nest box for her today just in case she had one more egg to lay. Gold went straight in closely followed by Storm. Dot usually lays in the chicken shed but because these two girls were in the nest box together she wanted to join them.

At this point I had to go out for a couple of hours. When I got back Gold and Storm were sitting on Dot’s egg. Now I knew that Gold wasn’t going to lay another egg so I lifted both girls out and closed the nest boxes.

It usually only takes about three days for Gold and Storm to give up being broody as they are not very committed and it helps that they perch at bedtime. It then usually takes about two weeks for them to start laying again. So for now it’s all up to Dot to keep us going.

Yesterday I gave the girls some mash so that I could get a couple of group photos.

I washed both Salmon and Sugar’s bottoms on Monday. I bought them into the bathroom one at a time and stood them in a washing up bowl. I cleaned them and dried them and they now both have clean fluffy bottoms. They have stayed that way since.

Salmon has bounced back to normal with no more sitting in the run so I don’t know what was the problem with her but for now it seems to have passed.

Sugar laid her three mini eggs over seven days and then went broody. It had been six weeks since she had previously laid her first seven eggs of the year. This time I decided that the best thing for her was to break her out of it straight away. I put her in the broody crate overnight and closed the nest boxes in between the girls laying during the day while moving sugar to the broody crate while they laid. With only Dot, Gold and Storm laying it hasn’t been difficult to do this.

After three nights in the broody crate sugar is over it. She is still sitting in the run a lot of the time but in between seems normal and is speedy to the treats. Only time will tell how she goes on. It’s usually a couple of weeks before she starts laying again so we will just have to wait and see what she lays next time.

Yesterday Sugar once more spent about an hour in the nest box. She came out having laid her third tiny egg. I now have to revise my earlier thinking and have come to the conclusion that the mystery egg in the run must have belonged to Dot. It seems very unlikely now that Sugar has laid three tiny eggs that she would have laid a large one in between.

In other news I will be getting new girls from pipinchick in a couple of weeks time. I was going to keep it as a surprise when they arrived but as Sophie and myself having been discussing pipinchick and possible breeds in the comments of my last post I decided to reveal this now.

I started looking at pipinchicks web site two weeks ago and I started a conversation with them first by e-mail and then later by phone.

The web site has a section for all the breeds they can have and then another section for all the breeds currently in stock. From the breeds not yet in stock I chose bantams French copper maran and splash maran. The copper maran looks like a smaller version of Star and the splash maran is white with blue/grey splashes. I would like three girls to make the most of the delivery charge so looked at bantam wyndottes too. I liked the gold pencilled and the white laced. Being laced it is white but with a hint of lavender/grey.

During our first conservation it transpired that the marans won’t be available this year and wyndottes wouldn’t be ready for a couple more months. I ticked the box to be notified when the wyndottes became available. I felt disappointed but couldn’t resist continuing to look in on the web site every day.

I had often said that it was a shame they only did one colour of the modern game because Storm is a firm favourite for me and I would love some more modern game in different colours.

Then on Wednesday I looked in again and my heart leapt. There were two new colours of modern game and only a few in stock. There was one gold/salmon modern game and four silver/salmon modern game. I knew that I needed to jump on it fast. No more e-mail, it was time to call.

I had a good chat with Suzanna. I said that I would like to order the two colours of modern game but would like a third girl and was hoping for a wyndotte too. She said that they had no white ones hatched this year as yet but had some gold pencilled wyndottes that she thought were almost ready.

Suzanna said to go ahead and buy the two modern game and in the mean time she would ask her partner how soon the wyndotte would be ready and if it was in a couple of weeks they could hold the modern game and I could have the three together.

Suzanna e-mailed on Thursday, which was my birthday, to say that the gold pencilled wyndotte would be ready in about two weeks time. I had paid for the two modern game so she sent me an invoice for the wyndotte and I paid for that too. I told her it was my birthday and it was the best birthday present. She has pencilled me in for a delivery on Tuesday 13th June. Below are the photos from the web site.

I am so excited. The reason for the wait is that pipinchick don’t like to let their girls go too young. They prefer for them to be three and a half months old. In two weeks time the modern game will be three and a half months old but the wyndotte will only be two and a half months old.

Suzanna was willing to make an exception for me so that I could have three girls together. We discussed that they would need to be on growers pellets and I explained that I am happy to keep them in the separated part of the run and of course on growers pellets. I said that this was what I did last year.

I am so looking forward to getting these new girls and I think that they will fit in with the flock perfectly.

Yesterday Sugar sat in the nest box for about an hour. I hoped that she might lay a normal egg this time. She came out of the nest box and I checked. She had laid another tiny egg that was possibly even smaller than the last one.

I held off writing a post until today to see if it would be followed by a large egg. Sugar sat in the nest box for two hours this morning but came out without laying.

It has a little calcium bubble on the top of the shell and the shell was hard to break once more.

Sugar’s feathers seem a bit ruffled and she has a mucky bottom. She also spends a lot of time sitting on the ground although she has spells of looking normal in between.

I know that all is not right with Sugar. I have never had this before though so there is nothing to do but wait and see how she progresses.

I am also a bit worried about Salmon. Salmon has been very vocal lately and I dread that she may come back into lay. Like Sugar she looks fine some of the time but also has a mucky bottom. Some of the time she too sits and seems to be breathing heavily.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost these two girls this year. I am not happy with how they are both looking. Salmon has had a good run being our eldest serama yet but I know that her time may be running out. I also know that whatever is going on with Sugar she is not quite right.

The other girls are looking fine and all three laid today.

I am trying to stay positive but I am also trying to be realistic and prepare myself for the worst. If I lose Salmon and Sugar in the near future that will be the end of my serama journey. I have loved these little girls but they seem so fragile and I have lost so many that it has also been heartbreaking.

Going forward I will try to bring in hardier breeds. After recent additions I have decided that I am happier with small bantam breeds but I need to go for more robust breeds in future. I don’t want the constant worry of seramas despite loving each and every one of them that we have had.

Our flock is small and harmonious. All five girls are quite different, very pretty and have lovely natures. They get on so well together that they will share one small dish of mash.

I love the flower formation as they all eat together. Because of the bobbing heads I only managed two photos without at least one girl being blurred. The photo above is my favourite photo.

Salmon had moved out a bit on this one but it was the only other clear photo. They are such a lovely little flock.

Yesterday morning, the day after Sugar’s tiny egg, there was an egg in the run. It was right at the bottom end of the run. It was white and bigger than Gold and Storm’s egg. It was almost the size of Dot’s egg but Dot’s eggs are a slightly beige colour.

I think that it is Sugar’s egg. I think she has had a blip in her egg production and instead of producing two normal sized eggs she has produced a tiny egg and a large egg.

I waited before writing this post because I thought that if all the laying girls laid as well that would be proof that it was Sugar’s egg. Later in the day Gold laid and then Storm laid. I was really hoping that Dot would lay too but unfortunately she didn’t which means I can’t say with complete certainty but I am still convinced and it would explain why Sugar has been struggling to lay.

Also it seems odd that it was laid out in the run which is something that Dot has never done. I think it may have caught Sugar by surprise and later she went to the nest box and sat for a short spell before leaving.

Dot always lays a slightly bigger egg (the egg on the right) after a day’s break. She then lays two or three days in a row producing a slightly smaller egg. Her eggs are always a slightly beige colour whereas all the other girls lay white eggs.

These three eggs were all laid yesterday so the mystery egg could only belong to either Sugar or Dot and looking at the first egg photo it really doesn’t look like Dot’s egg.

We lost Shadow last spring due to her getting a large egg stuck and Sugar and Shadow came in together. They were from the same batch of chicks so a larger egg from Sugar is a possibility.

Only time will tell if Sugar now goes on to lay normally which I am hoping will be the case. Whatever will be will be and there isn’t anything I can do about it so I am going to try to stop worrying and enjoy the girls.

Over eight days Sugar has sat in a nest box, every other day, four times. Each time she sat for about an hour and then she came out without laying. Today is day nine and Sugar sat in the nest box for two hours. She then came out having laid the tiniest egg that I have ever seen.

The shell was really hard to break and the yolk was tiny and red. We have had some first, serama eggs, before that were tiny but they were about twice the size of this one.

I am hoping that Sugar might get back to normal now. This has been one of the weirdest things yet. I am glad that she has laid something though as it’s more positive than having a problem getting an egg out. It’s as if she has had to start all over again. Only time will tell how Sugar progresses in the future but I am just happy that for now she has laid something.

Sugar last laid on the eighth April, five weeks ago. She laid her first seven eggs of the year and then went broody. I broke her out of her broody spell just over two weeks ago. Ever since then Sugar has spent a lot of time just sitting on the ground.

In between sitting Sugar seems normal and scratches, dust baths, preens, eats and drinks and runs to the treats. It’s just that after seeing Star spending all her time sitting this makes me worried. I put it down to Star’s bad ankle but should have known that chickens are not sensible enough to rest a bad ankle.

It is about now that Sugar usually starts laying again. Three times, every other day, Sugar has sat in a nest box for about an hour and then left without laying.

Sometimes Sugar has been sitting like this which made me think she could have an egg stuck. I have picked her up and inspected her but can’t see anything wrong. I took this photo before her first session in a nest box. She has since returned to the nest box every other day and yesterday came out shouting. I thought that may have meant she had finally got an egg laid but there was nothing there again.

Since her third time of sitting in the nest box Sugar perked up. Today I thought she seemed back to normal but have just checked on her and she is now sitting again. I really have no idea what is going on with her. If she had an egg stuck she would have deteriorated by now. I know from past experience that they go down hill very quickly when they have an egg problem.

In other news Storm came out of her broody spell and laid again on the same day that Gold went broody which was a week ago. Storm had a twelve day break and then started laying again. We seem to be doomed to only having two girls laying at any one time. Dot has been our only steadfast layer and often lays two or three days in a row.

I feel that something is not right with Sugar. She has always come back into lay easily before. It’s all very odd. I guess only time will tell.