Carol's Chickens

Today Mango and Cloud were the helpers of the dust bath rather than dust bathing themselves. They love to help with dust bathing and do this together too.

Autumn once again sat in the nest box for about half an hour and then came out shouting as if she had laid an egg. There was no egg though. This is the same behaviour as last year after February first so I am now convinced that she probably won’t lay again.

A hen is hatched with all the eggs she will ever lay and these eggs develop within her ovaries. They have all the eggs they will ever produce stored as ova within their ovaries.

If a hen is a sporadic layer she may lay her quota of eggs over a longer period of time. If a hen is a prolific layer she may lay all her eggs over a shorter period of time. A hen may slow right down when older and then suddenly lay an odd egg in later life.

If a hen is stressed or unwell she will stop laying but once she is well again she will resume laying.

I wonder if Autumn only had forty five eggs when hatched and is now finished. We will never know until such a time as she lays again or doesn’t lay again.

Autumn’s instincts are obviously telling her that she should be laying. Eggs are not stuck or backing up though or she would be very unwell. This makes me think that the eggs may have run out but she doesn’t know that.

Snow’s eggs are so tiny that we have two each at a time. They have lovely orange yolks. We had these for breakfast today.

They were delicious!

When I lifted Mango to put her in the chicken shed last night she too squatted. Mango and Cloud’s combs are red too. I think all three game girls will start laying soon and we will have lot’s more lovely little eggs.

Yesterday Autumn settled in the nest box again. Once again she was in there for about an hour and then came out without laying an egg.

I am now thinking that this isn’t a practice and maybe she isn’t going to start laying after all. Last year she started laying in October and continued to lay up until her last egg on the first of February. This is about when some girls start to lay and I would have expected her to continue laying. She had laid forty five eggs.

Not only that but Autumn didn’t resume laying through the summer. But after she had laid her last egg on first of February Autumn continued to sit in the nest box every other day as if she expected to lay. I had wondered if she would start laying again this spring but she is now following the same pattern of sitting in the nest box but not actually laying.

I wonder if she is one of those girls who don’t lay many eggs and she has already come to the end of her laying period. In the past Topaz who was a bantam gold laced wyandotte only laid eight eggs. If Autumn continues to sit in the nest box without laying then I think it’s likely that she may not lay any more.

The odd thing is that she obviously thinks that she should be laying and goes through the motions. Only time will tell.

Red, Snow and Gold continue to lay every other day and sometimes two days in a row meaning that some days we are getting three eggs a day. Storm continues to be very vocal and I think she will be next to lay.

Mango and Cloud are still the most bonded and together, chooks we have ever had. They do absolutely everything together and yesterday were dust bathing together.

I have now finished treating Sugar’s legs and feet and she has bounced back once more. I am hoping that like Autumn, Sugar will be okay now.

So for now everything is good in the chicken run, touch wood! Even if Autumn doesn’t lay there will be plenty of eggs once the other girls start laying so all is well.

It’s been a race to see which girl would be next to lay their first egg of the year. Gold has been squatting for a while and very vocal. Storm has also been very vocal. Then yesterday Autumn also squatted and she had been looking in the nest boxes for a few days.

Yesterday Autumn settled in the nest box and I felt sure she was going to lay. Later she was out in the run and no egg. Sometimes the girls have a bit of a practice before they start laying. I felt sure that Autumn would probably lay soon.

Today it was Gold’s turn. Gold kept going in the nest box and scratching around but not settling down.

I checked back a bit later and Gold was settled in the nest box.

I then realised Gold had laid as she started moving her egg around.

I arranged the eggs in size order with Red’s egg on the right, Gold’s egg in the middle and snow’s egg on the left. Well done Gold!

I don’t think it will be long before we have a few more girls laying. It is so good to have plenty of eggs again and I think I can now stop buying eggs.

Edit

Later in the day both Red and Snow were in the nest box and both laid an egg despite the fact that they had both laid the day before. This gave us our first, three egg day, of the year.

This morning I gave the girls some fish.

Snow laid six eggs in two weeks and then stopped. She hasn’t laid for just over a week now. Hopefully she will start again when the other girls get started.

Red has increased her laying to every other day. She has now laid like clockwork every other day for the last three weeks so she seems to have hit her stride now. Gold squatted in front of me yesterday so I think she will start laying soon.

Sugar is doing okay so we are hopeful she will continue that way into the summer. They are such a lovely happy flock.

We have been having a battle with Sugar’s feet. First we noticed that Sugar was limping. When I inspected her feet I realised her toe nails had got so long and curled around that a nail was pressing against her ankle. I clipped her nails and have checked her regularly since then and now regularly clip her nails.

After clipping Sugar’s nails her limp disappeared so we thought all was well. Some time after that Sugar was limping again. I checked her feet and couldn’t see anything wrong. As her limp continued I kept checking and realised that cracks were appearing on her toes.

I thought this indicated that she had scaly mite again so I treated her with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks again. This was about the time that I had finished treating Autumn. Sugar’s limp disappeared and I thought we were okay again.

It is very difficult to tell if Sugar has scaly mite because her scales are already raised from the first time and scaly mite are microscopic so can’t be seen. Also she had never pulled off her scales like Autumn so until she was limping there was no way of knowing.

Like Autumn Sugar improved while I was spraying her legs and feet so I had to conclude it was scaly mite causing her to limp. But also like Autumn soon after I stopped treating her she started limping again so I treated her again. Recently Sugar started limping again.

I am now treating her for the fourth time and once again she has improved. It took four treatments to clear Autumn so I am hoping that this fourth treatment will clear Sugar.

As always I have researched this endlessly. I have asked why the treatment hasn’t worked and it says (as I thought) that only one mite or egg left behind will start the whole process over again. By reading other people’s experiences it seems that sometimes it can be cleared with one treatment but sometimes it can be very very difficult to clear. I can only keep going and hope that like with Autumn I can clear Sugar of this with continued spraying.

At the moment Sugar appears well but I am mid way of this current round of spraying. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Snow has settled into laying every other day. Red is a bit more erratic with her laying and often misses a few days. Autumn’s face and comb have now turned red. Gold also has a very red face and comb and has looked in the nest boxes a few times.

I think there will more girls laying soon which will be lovely.

Yesterday Snow laid her second egg this year, two days after her first one. It was long and torpedo shaped. We have always said that there is no mistaking Snow’s eggs because they have a very distinct shape.

Red laid today, also two days after her last egg. Red has spells of laying every other day and then she slows down again. She may continue to lay every other day when we get into spring.

Last year Snow laid every other day most of the time and sometimes two days running in between so she probably will again once she gets into her stride. She was a good layer last year.

It is lovely having our own eggs again and I am sure there will be more girls laying soon.

After checking out the nest boxes for the last couple of days today Snow settled in the nest box.

When I next checked on Snow she was back out in the run. I checked the nest box and there was her egg.

On the left is Snow’s egg laid today, in the middle is Red’s egg laid yesterday and on the right is a medium shop bought egg for size comparison.

Well done Snow! That is early in the year to start back laying. It will be great to have a few more eggs at this time of year.

For the last couple of days Snow has been investigating the nest boxes. I think she may be getting ready to start laying. We usually have the first girls come back into lay half way through February and the rest in March. This would be quite early but it’s Snow’s first winter/spring with us so I have no comparison.

Red on the other hand had taken a nine day break from laying. I was just beginning to think that Like Autumn maybe she had stopped laying when she settled in the nest box today. I was pleased that she laid an egg today as this is a good sign that she will continue to lay.

Snow sits for a minute and then comes out again. She has done this several times in two nest boxes. I think she is familiarising herself with the nest boxes before she is ready to start laying.

In other news Sugar has looked much perkier since the end of the frosty weather.

Sugar has been a little more active, on her feet a little more. She has been dust bathing and running to the treats with more enthusiasm. She is such a resilient little girl and constantly surprises us with her ability to bounce back. I think Sugar will be happier when better weather comes along as will most of us.

It will be good if Snow does start laying soon as a few more eggs would be lovely. Storm usually start in February so it shouldn’t be long before we are getting more eggs again.

After mentioning worrying about Sugar’s quality of life, today she was dust bathing with Snow. It’s the first time I have seen her dust bathing for ages. I think the recent cold weather was having an effect on her. It was heart warming to see her dust bathing.

Sugar is on the left. Sugar and Snow are often together, they often perch on the ladder together and seem to have formed a little alliance. It’s funny because they also look quite similar.

Again this shows how improved Autumn’s legs and feet are although she has the palest comb I think I have ever seen. She seems fine though and I am so pleased to see her legs and feet back to normal. It will be interesting to compare her comb when it’s red again assuming she will start laying again in spring.

It’s lovely seeing the girls dust bathing. Dust bathing girls are happy girls.

I haven’t blogged much recently because at this time of the year there isn’t much happening or much to say so I decided to pop out and take some portrait photos of the girls, the first portraits of the year. I just clicked each girl in quick succession to get a snapshot of how they are at the moment.

Autumn has the palest comb of all the girls. Although she is standing on one leg this photo shows her leg and foot looking completely normal again. Since picking her up all the time to treat her legs and feet she doesn’t like me to come closer than this with the camera.

Sugar still spends ninety percent of her time sitting. In winter her two spots are the ladder or the perch in the shelter. I still worry about her quality of life but we will see how she goes on in spring.

Once again Red was in the nest box getting her egg laid. Red doesn’t like the camera anyway so I thought I would just take her photo in the nest box.

Since the really cold weather recently Red has dropped from laying every other day to every fifth day. I hope as we get into spring she will start laying more often again.

All the girls are looking good and Sugar is the only one we worry about at the moment. She is resilient and keeps going but we always worry about her quality of life when she spends so much of her time sitting or perching.