Carol's Chickens

Cloud has gone broody after laying nineteen eggs in a month. Mango has laid twelve eggs in three weeks, she started laying a week later than Cloud. The day that Gold came back into lay was the day that Cloud went broody so it’s one in and one out.

I lift Cloud from her corner in the shed and put her in the run. She stays just where I put her until I move her along.

I am hoping that like Storm, Cloud, won’t be committed to being broody and I can soon break her out of it. I am closing the nest boxes and chicken shed once the laying girls have laid. Cloud settles in her corner of the shed at bedtime but I lift her to the perch and she stays there.

Cloud and Mango still haven’t got the hang of going in at bedtime. I can’t understand it because they go into the chicken shed to lay their eggs and now Cloud goes in there to sit while broody and yet they won’t go in at bedtime. If I put them through the pop hole they bounce straight back out. They were settling on top of the nest box nearest the shed. I blocked that off to them and they just hung around the patio area.

It doesn’t make any difference if I go out before the pop hole closes or after. When I then hold the shed door open for them they go in. I have also tried leaving the shed door open but they will only go in when I am there with them. We have never had girls take as long as this to get the hang of it and I am at a loss as to what else I can do. I had hoped with Cloud going in to sit at bedtime that Mango would follow her but she doesn’t.

I am mixing Autumn with the flock every day and she is getting braver. I change the dishes for growers pellets while Autumn is with the flock. I have now seen her eat from one of the dishes while the rest of the flock are elsewhere in the run. She needs three more weeks on growers to bring her up to the recommended eighteen weeks.

If Autumn gets brave enough to eat while with the flock I will put her with them and give the whole flock growers. I just want to be sure that she is able to eat properly. Today I put chopped tomato on the patio area to see if she would be bold enough to join the flock.

These are my first group photos of all eight girls. Autumn is on the edge of the group but she is getting braver. I am very happy with the progress and think they will all be together soon.

It will be interesting to see if Autumn gets the hang of going in the chicken shed at bedtime. At the moment she still settles in the corner nearest the patio area and I put her in her little coup each night. She may be more likely to go in when she is with the other girls. It would be good if she could teach Mango and Cloud but I won’t hold my breath.

I am really looking forward to having the whole flock together.

Over the last few days the flock have managed to get into Autumn’s half of the run. After many years of poop picking the soil level in the run has dropped and the flock managed to dig under the dividing wire. Two days running I checked on the girls to find the flock on Autumn’s side.

While this has been great to give them time together and there was no bullying it meant that Autumn wasn’t able to get to the food dishes. She doesn’t yet have the confidence to compete with the flock for food.

I have now fortified the bottom of the dividing wire with planks of wood. Once back on her own side Autumn went straight to the food dish. I would love to speed up integration but until Autumn is confident enough to eat while with the flock she will have to stay separate.

Today I gave the girls the whole run together. After half an hour I returned Autumn to her side of the run and once again she went straight to the food.

Gold has been dropping those fluffy grey, under, feathers and also some long tail feathers. Her short broody spell seemed to kick off this partial moult and she hasn’t been laying eggs. After two weeks break gold laid an egg today. I wasn’t sure if she would start laying again while dropping feathers and this is why I think this is just a partial moult at the moment.

Storm has also been dropping a few tail feathers and she hasn’t laid for the last ten days.

I can see that Autumn wants to go to the food dish and she isn’t being chased away but she just can’t pluck up the courage to get closer than this.

I removed Autumn’s small dish of pellets because the rest of the girls were flicking them out. Autumn did manage to pick up a few of the stray pellets without the girls noticing.

Coming in together has really bonded these two girls. They are inseparable.

Once Autumn was back on her side she went straight to the food and water. She is only three and half months old so I think she needs to be older before she will be confident enough to compete for food and I don’t want to do anything that will set her back. This means I must be patient and keep doing what I am doing, giving the girls some time together, but keeping Autumn in her half of the run for most of the time.

Yesterday and again today I gave Autumn some time with the rest of the flock. It went really well. I had found that putting another girl in with Autumn didn’t really work.

A couple of days ago I tried putting Salmon in with Autumn. It wasn’t long before Salmon was chasing Autumn so I took her out again. I then tried putting Gold in with Autumn because they often dust bath together with one girl on either side of the wire.

Gold didn’t bother Autumn at all but she did hog the food dish and Autumn didn’t have the confidence to go to the food. I decided that there isn’t really anything to be gained by putting a girl in with Autumn. I don’t want her to be unable to eat in peace and she has the flocks’ company from the other side of the wire.

The next step was to give Autumn time with the flock. I let her out of her side of the run but kept it closed to the flock. This makes it easier to get her back in when I think she has had enough.

Both yesterday and today it went really well. Most of the flock didn’t take any notice of Autumn. It was just Storm and Dot that chased her a bit. Storm used to chase Dot so I wasn’t surprised she chased Autumn too. Dot had been bottom girl until the new girls arrived so I wasn’t surprised that Dot also chased her. Dot had to let her know that she is now below Dot in the pecking order.

There wasn’t anything nasty though and Autumn was able to get out of their way.

I think Autumn would soon settle in with the flock. It’s a shame that she needs to be on grower pellets for at least another month.

I have been researching mixing girls of different ages. It’s important for the younger ones to have grower pellets because they can’t process the calcium in layer pellets and it can build up around their kidneys and cause lasting damage and shorten their life.

It says that if you have to mix different ages (if you haven’t space to separate them) then you should put the whole flock on the food the youngest member needs. If the laying girls are on growers they can top up their calcium from oyster shell, which we have in a hopper, on offer all the time.

With this in mind if I find it is becoming difficult to keep Autumn separate for another month I will put the whole flock on growers until Autumn is old enough for layers. It’s never been a problem when their are several girls together on growers but it is hard to see Autumn on her own and she makes it obvious that she wants to come out and join the flock.

I will play it by ear and make a decision when I feel the time is right. I don’t want to do anything that sets her back by her not being able to get to the food easily. I may start increasing her time with the flock and then put her back in her part of the run to eat and drink in peace. This was what I did with Mango and Cloud and that worked well.

I am very happy with how things are progressing.

As Autumn needs to be on her grower pellets for the next month I felt it was time to give her a bigger space. Now that she has settled in properly the time seemed right to give her more space to explore.

I closed the bottom end of the run by the ladders. I closed the dividing gate. I heaped the soil up against the dividing wire to stop the girls getting under then I opened up the hatch.

At this point I decided to move the main flocks’ extra food dish to a different place as I felt it was a distraction for Autumn. I felt it would make Autumn want to get to the dish.

Autumn soon got used to the extra space and easily found her way back and forth from the new space to her feeding station in her original part of the run. She enjoyed having a good dig in her new part of the run followed by a dust bath.

I thought this was a good comparison of Storm with the new game girls.

I will leave Autumn to get used to having her bigger space today. Tomorrow I might try putting Salmon in with Autumn for some company. If Salmon gives Autumn a hard time I will remove her again. I don’t know how they will get on together but think it’s worth a try. The bigger space should help.

It is as always a work in progress but so far so good.

What a difference a week makes. Autumn is now really settled. She is eating, drinking and pooping. She is dust bathing and preening. She runs to the treats and can now easily eat spinach leaves. She is comfortable around me and I can easily pick her up at bedtime and she is happy with the camera. She now goes straight to the food dish when I let her out in the morning instead straight past it.

Autumn doesn’t go in to the little coop at bedtime but settles in the corner of the run nearest to the flock. She doesn’t protest when I lift her and put her in though. We can see that she would love to get out and join the other girls but she needs to stay on growers pellets for at least a month.

During that time I will let her spend time with the flock to start the integration process. I want to get to a point where she will easily join the flock when she can be moved on to layers pellets.

In other news both Sugar and Gold are through their broody spell which makes things much easier with the nest boxes and the laying girls.

Mango and Cloud haven’t yet got the hang of going into the chicken shed at bedtime on their own. They hang around by the pop hole after the other girls have gone in. I have tried directing them in but they keep coming back out.

When the pop hole has closed I hold the door open for them and they both go in. I then lift them to the perch. It’s not ideal but I’m not worried because new girls always get the hang of it eventually and these two are so easy to handle that it’s not difficult.

I am very pleased with how it is all going so far and look forward to eventually having the flock integrated.

Yesterday the breeder was back from her break and I rang her for advice. I feel much better now we have had a chat.

She said that Autumn had been through so much change after being put in a box and travelling to me and then being put in a new environment. She said that the fact she is still active, upright and moving around means that she is fine. If she wasn’t eating and drinking at all she would be looking very poorly by now.

She said that by trying to help her I have probably overwhelmed her and have been giving her even more change to deal with. She told me to put her back in her corner of the run where she can see the other girls as she is used to being surrounded by lots of chickens. She said she is used to water and pellets in a dish so stick with that and don’t confuse her with lots of alternatives.

I said that the only thing I have seen Autumn eat freely is chopped spinach. She said that’s fine just put chopped spinach on top of her pellets and if she picks it off the top that’s fine and she will go back to the pellets when she is hungry.

I said my main concern was that there is so little poop from her. She said in hot weather, as we have been having, they sometimes have a loss of appetite but she has never seen a chick starve themselves to death. She said I need to be more hands off and stop worrying. She asked me to call back later to give her a progress report but I couldn’t get through so will try again today.

I have done as she asked and Autumn did take the chopped spinach from the top of the pellets but later in the day I saw her pecking at the pellets. I am still not seeing her go to the water. There is still very little poop and it’s dry but Autumn is active and looks happy so I will try to stop worrying.

In other news I am now going to break Sugar out of her broody spell. Gold has also gone broody but she won’t stick with it for long. Sugar though, will stick with it for a very long time if I don’t break her out of it. Sugar has been broody for a week but up until now I was concentrating on Autumn.

I put Sugar in the broody crate last night and will continue as usual to return her to the run in between the other girls laying, when the nest boxes can be closed. I will put her in the broody crate while the girls are laying and overnight.

The free standing perch that I usually keep in the crate is in Autumn’s little coop. I found that she liked the perch and as she is going to be in the little coop for a while I thought it was a good idea for her to have a perch in there. It fits at an angle, like this makeshift perch for Sugar, who will only be in here for a few nights.

And in more other news I have resolved the camera issue. I finally did what I should have done before buying it and called my eldest son and I.T. guy, Steve, for advice. I didn’t call before buying it because I didn’t want to bother him and thought I should be able to sort it out myself. He said in future call him first.

He said the camera I bought is totally not fit for purpose and he will help me return it. He took the code on my old camera and ordered me the up to date equivalent to arrive the next day. It is very similar to use as the old camera and is a breeze compared to the one I recently bought. All today’s photos are taken with the new camera.

So to finish off this post I thought I would take a few up to date photos of Mango and Cloud.

They were together in this corner because they had taken the chunk of apple here to peck at away from the other girls. These two girls were a breeze to integrate into the flock and are doing really well.

Yesterday afternoon when the nest boxes were clogged up with Sugar and Gold these two laid their eggs at the same time in opposite corners of the chicken shed. Well done girls!

Autumn came to us on Thursday morning. I kept a close watch on her and started worrying that she wasn’t going to the food or water. I knew she wasn’t having any when I wasn’t watching her because there was no poop in her part of the run.

As the day went on I was most concerned about her not having any water. I had put in a water bottle as well as a dish of water and had scattered some pellets on the ground in case that was what she was used to.

I decided to give Autumn water to her beak from a syringe. I gave her to my husband to hold while I put drips of water in the side of her beak while letting her swallow in between. When I have done this before the girl has taken the water readily but she didn’t seem to want to take any and it was a slow process.

I put Autumn in the little coop at bedtime and hoped that in the morning she would go to the food and water. She didn’t. There was just one small bit of poop in her coop. I put lots of dishes all around her space so that she couldn’t miss them, some with pellets, some with mash and some with water.

I was certain that Autumn was pining as she was on her own. I put Sugar in with her to see if that would help. Sugar went straight to the water bottle as if she remembered it from the past. Sugar then started to chase Autumn so I took her out again.

Later I decided to try putting Mango in as she was also a newer girl. That didn’t work either. Mango had a few pecks of mash then started ruff raising at Autumn. She started to get a bit more agressive towards Autumn so I took her out too.

Later as Autumn was pacing the wire and looking like she wanted to get out, in desperation, I decided to let her out and see what happened. That was awful. All the girls attacked her and luckily she ran round to the hatch on her part of the run and I was able to let her back in.

During this time we had given Autumn water to her beak twice more and she seemed to be taking it better. She still hadn’t gone to food or water herself and there was still no poop.

I tried ringing the breeder for advice but it was on answer phone. I then sent her an e-mail explaining the problem. I got an automatic reply saying they were closed for a week and any problems should be taken to a local vet.

My husband suggested that we set Autumn up in the dog crate so that she was away from the distraction of the other girls. I put her in with a dish of mash, a dish of pellets and a dish of water plus some scattered pellets.

I then googled the problem. I found suggestions to feed by syringe egg yolk, runny honey and mash with plenty of water to make it liquid. I made up the mixture and because of the egg yolk decided to keep it in the fridge in between giving it to Autumn.

Twice we gave Autumn this mixture to her beak and she seemed to be taking it a bit better. I decided to leave her in the crate overnight and keep her there until she starts eating herself. It makes it much easier to pick her up and less stressful for her than chasing her round her part of the run.

At bedtime my husband suggested that I try her on the perch and to my surprise she seemed quite happy to perch.

This is really stressful and I am afraid that if we can’t get her eating and drinking we will lose her. I am going to try putting mash in her beak next as well as giving her her mixture. It was another google suggestion.

I went out early this morning and was pleased to see that there was some poop under Autumn’s perch. I will keep up the regime of hand feeding her and if she doesn’t start eating by herself soon I will contact the vet.

Update

We syringed the mixture to Autumn’s beak again this morning. A bit later my husband saw her drinking from the water dish so I decided to return her to the run. A little later I checked and she had found the water bottle. After that she was going to the water bottle all day. She was eating the pellets I had sprinkled around although not from the dish and she was pecking at the apple.

I was so happy that we had turned a corner. Autumn also looks much better in herself. She now looks happier and at home.

While researching what to do to help her it said that a sign of a hen being dehydrated, ironically, is refusal to drink water. I now think she probably got dehydrated on her journey to us and that was why she wouldn’t eat or drink. During delivery they have water melon to keep them hydrated but when I gave her melon she wouldn’t peck at it. Maybe being a bit younger she wasn’t having any melon.

Once we had got water and liquid into her it seemed to kick start her taking the water herself. I am just so happy that we have managed to turn this around.

This morning our third new girl was delivered. She is a gold pencilled wyandotte and is three months old. I have called her Autumn.

She will have to stay separate from the flock for at least a month as she needs to be on growers pellets and the laying girls need to be on layers pellets.

Mango laid her first egg this morning and Cloud has laid six eggs so far. Storm laid her first egg yesterday after her broody break of a couple of weeks. Sugar went broody yesterday after laying six eggs in eleven days.

This could be good timing because I could put Sugar in with Autumn to keep her company. Sugar won’t now lay again for about a month so could share growers. It would mean I wouldn’t have to close the nest boxes to keep her out which would be difficult with five girls now laying and it would also be difficult having her taking up one of the nest boxes. Also as she sits in the run such a lot of the time she probably wouldn’t hassle Autumn.

However I will leave Autumn on her own for a few days until she settles in and knows where the little coop is and gains confidence with the food and water dishes. It is just an idea and I will play it by ear for a bit.

During one of the recent hot days I decided to give the girls some frozen melon to help them cool down. Dot is the only girl that struggles a bit with the heat and will have her beak open while panting. The rest of the girls haven’t seemed bothered but they all enjoy a bit of frozen fruit.

The new girls are not yet confident enough to join the flock but they will have some when the main flock have moved away.

This is the first photo on here from my new camera. I know that I have made a mistake with this camera. It takes a second to focus by which time the girls have moved and this is the first usable photo I have managed among loads. My old camera was instant. Also the shape, instead of more or less square, is rectangular which means it’s fine for a shot like this but if I want to photograph just one girl she will be in the middle of a lot of empty background.

From a week of practising I have only managed to get this one photo that I am satisfied with and have managed to upload successfully. I am not happy with the camera situation but haven’t yet resolved what to do about it in the long term.

In other news the new girls have settled in really well. The last two evenings they made it to the chickens’ patio at bedtime so are going in the right direction. The night before last Mango actually went in to the chicken shed on her own but Cloud refused to follow and in the end Mango came back out again.

I then put them both in and Mango made it up to the perch. I could see that Cloud wanted to jump to the perch but I think it had got too dark so I picked her up and placed her next to Mango.

Last night we were out until just before the pop hole closed. Again the girls were just outside the chicken shed. I managed to direct Mango through the pop hole just as it was closing. It was a bit dark and stormy which had caused the pop hole to close fifteen minutes earlier than usual which had caught them out.

I directed Cloud back to the chicken shed and held the door open for her and was pleased that she then went in. I then perched both girls. They are not far off getting the hang of it and I am sure that it won’t be long.

The other thing that they need to get used to, or for the moment Cloud needs to get used to, is laying her egg in the nest box.

Cloud has now laid four eggs. On the first day they were in their separate part of the run and she only had the nest box there to lay her egg in which she did. The second day I had mixed them but could see that she wanted to get back to “her” nest box so I put them back in their part of the run and Cloud went straight in and laid.

Cloud then missed a day. The next day the flock were mixed and I could tell Cloud wanted to lay as she was very vocal and was running around looking for somewhere to lay. I again closed her and Mango in their part of the run. This time though Cloud didn’t want the nest box and continued to look for somewhere else to lay. The next minute she was in the egg laying position over the water dish!

I picked her up and closed her in the nest box just as she laid. Yesterday Cloud was due to lay again but we were out for the day having a Father’s Day get together and dinner with family. I decided that Cloud would just have to work it out herself.

When we returned home Cloud’s egg was beside the bigger water dish out in the run. What had started off so well seems to have regressed. Oh well, I am sure Cloud will sort it out eventually.

Sugar is still not right but there has been an improvement in her egg laying. She is still sitting in the run for more than half of the time but looks normal in between. I know when her next egg is due because she has a very humped back posture. Today she laid her second egg with a good shell.

I was going to leave the new girls with the flock all day today but then I worried that they were not getting enough food and water so I ended up putting them back in their own space for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the afternoon. This gives them a chance to eat and drink in peace. I have also set up several feeding stations around the run.

I am really struggling with the new camera. It takes a second or two to focus which is fine for most photos but doesn’t work for chickens. By the time it clicks the chooks have moved. I will continue to practice but at the moment am using my old camera at the end of the day when the light levels are low and it still works. This has rather limited my photos of integrating.

At the end of the day yesterday I tried to to direct the new girls in to the chicken shed. Once Cloud was in and perched she stayed there but not so Mango. She kept popping back out and I had to wait until the pop hole had closed and then pick her up and perch her next to Cloud.

I checked on them at six o’clock this morning and all was calm.

I managed to direct Cloud through the pop hole but she kept coming back out again. Mango meanwhile had ran down to the bottom of the run. I realised this wasn’t going to be easy. I decided to try again just before the pop hole was due to close.

I left it until about five minutes before the pop hole was due to close. I directed both new girls in and then with my hand blocked them from coming out for a few minutes until the pop hole closed.

I then opened the door and lifted both girls to the perch. A bit of a work in progress I think. I’m not sure how long it will take for them to get the hang of it but I been here many times before and they always get the hang of it in the end. It’s early days yet so not bad progress. I happy that it’s going in the right direction.