Carol's Chickens

At the same time that Sugar came back into lay Flame went broody. We seem to constantly have five out of eight girls laying!

This does make it easy to pick Flame up for her eye drops but then she is easy to pick up anyway.

We are so lucky that Flame is a docile and placid girl. We have had angry broody seramas in the past who would peck me. As Flame is our biggest and heaviest girl it is so good that she isn’t an angry broody and I can pick her up easily without ever worrying about her pecking.

I am lifting her out for a break several times a day plus twice a day for her eye drops. It makes it a little harder to see what is going on with her but every time I have opened the chicken shed door her eyes have been open.

Flame has her right eye open so that’s good.

Storm likes to sit next to Flame when she lays her egg and she also often perches next to Flame at bedtime.

When I next checked Storm was out and Flame was sitting on Storm’s little egg. Despite their difference in size and age these two are often together.

I will keep going with the eye drops until I am absolutely sure that Flame is no longer closing her right eye. I want to be sure she is really over this before I stop and she is so good at letting us handle her. She is a sweet girl.

Before I update on chicken progress I just have to put out one photo of the next rose.

This rose was already here when we moved in fifteen years ago but was hidden behind shrubs. Since we gave it room it has spread and it flowers from now until the first frosts.

I thought it would be good to get a group photo while the girls had their greens this morning. They are such a pretty flock.

Flame had seemed completely back to normal since her first eye drops at the vet on Thursday and we were thinking we might stop giving them to her.

Then today for the first time since her vet visit she had her right eye closed this afternoon so we have decided to carry on with them. I have just checked on her again and her eye is open but we will keep going for longer and keep watching her closely.

In other news Sugar laid an egg yesterday for the first time since her latest broody spell and as usual for her it was two weeks after I broke her out of her broodiness.

Spangle only laid five eggs this year before she stopped and had a partial moult. It’s now six weeks since she last laid.

Salmon hasn’t started to lay this year but she looks really amazing with a lovely red face and comb. I am quite happy to have her never lay again as long as she stays healthy.

Dot laid four eggs each one four days apart and then stopped and hasn’t laid for two weeks now. She has been moulting too. I think perhaps because she matured at the end of last year she has started an early moult and may resume laying when she stops dropping feathers.

Flame, Gold, Snowflake and Storm are all laying well. With Sugar back in lay we now have five out of eight girls laying and yesterday had a five egg day.

We have now had enough eggs to give some to our neighbours on either side of us and still plenty for us to have them as often as we want. Well done girls!

On Wednesday I thought that there was a slight improvement with Flame. On Thursday she seemed worse. She spent most of the first half of the day with her eyes closed and her head under her wing.

I decided that it was time to take Flame to the vet. I got an appointment for three o’clock.

When it was time to put Flame in the cat box she was enjoying a lovely dust bath with her right eye closed. I tried rattling the sunflower seeds and calling her but she was enjoying her dust bath so much that she ignored me.

I had to lift Flame out of her dust bath. She didn’t shake herself so I stood her on the chicken’s patio and tried my best to pat some of the dust off her. It doesn’t work nearly as well as a chicken shake but it couldn’t be helped as it was time to go.

The lovely vet put some drops in Flame’s eye so that she would be able to see if there was any cut or scratch. She couldn’t see anything. She lifted her eye lid and couldn’t see anything there either.

The vet gave me some eye drops for Flame, Isathal, which is an ointment rather than liquid. The drops have a bit of pain killer in them too. The vet applied the first dose to Flame’s eye while I held Flame steady. They need to be applied twice a day morning and evening but I could give Flame a second dose later that evening.

The vet asked me to call on Saturday with a progress report.

As soon as Flame was back in the run she continued her dust bath. After that she was pottering around the run and her eye was open. Flame looked as if she was feeling better already.

I couldn’t believe how much better Flame looked after just her first eye drops. Her eye is obviously now feeling more comfortable. I kind of wish I had gone sooner but I am just glad that I went when I did. Hopefully Flame is now on the mend.

For the last few days Flame was spending the days with her eyes closed. She was sitting with her head under her wing which is unusual for her and her eyes closed or she was sitting or even standing with her eyes closed.

It looked as if she just couldn’t keep her eyes open. I thought at first that she was just really feeling her age and then I started to think maybe she was getting to the end of her life.

But she looks great and has a red comb. She laid an egg both yesterday and the day before. She had a dust bath yesterday but even then had her eyes closed.

She also had her eyes closed when she was in the corner of the shed laying her egg.

Flame is also eating, drinking, going to the grit and having the treats.

Then when she was face on to us we realised that she had one eye open and one eye shut. It wasn’t that she couldn’t keep her eyes open it was that she had a problem with one eye. It is her right eye which had been facing us most of the time. She had her right eye closed and the other eye open.

When Flame did open her right eye I couldn’t see anything wrong with it but it was obviously really bothering her.

I googled the problem but just kept finding questions such as is it weeping and is it cloudy and nothing helpful to do for it. When Flame does open her right eye I can’t see anything wrong with it. I can only conclude that she must have scratched it.

This has been three days now. I don’t think there is anything we can do to help her. I think we have to wait and see what happens.

I really hope that it will get better on it’s own in time. It is obviously making Flame feel out of sorts as she has had her head under her wing and sometimes she has perched in the chicken shed.

Flame is always the first to go in at the end of the day but is going in earlier than usual. I really hopes this gets better soon. I feel so sorry for her and so helpless.

My eldest son and daughter in law have boys of five and two. On Thursday 9th June at 7.07 in the morning their daughter arrived, three weeks early, weighing six pounds and nine ounces. Mother and baby are well and the boys are super excited about their new sister’s arrival.

This is wonderful happy news and we can’t wait to meet her.

Every year at this time our climbing rose looks spectacular.

I know I photograph this rose every year but I can’t help it. It is so beautiful.

Sugar has now been broody for two weeks. Because I know that she will easily carry on for a month or more I have decided that it is time to break her out of it.

With five girls laying it is clogging up a nest box having Sugar in one all of the time and I don’t want her to lose condition.

Smoke who was also a serial broody used to allow me to perch her in the chicken shed overnight and I think that may be why she would come out of it after two weeks.

Sugar refuses to perch at night. She will go floppy and just drop from the perch making no attempt to hold on. When in the broody crate she will perch at night possibly because she doesn’t like to sit on the paper lining the tray rather than shavings.

This means she always comes out of it after two nights in the broody crate. Yesterday afternoon I put Sugar in the broody crate with a dish of water and a dish of mash.

I got Sugar out before bedtime for exercise and some sunflower hearts. Sugar wasn’t at all interested and went straight to the closed nest boxes and tried to find a way in. I put her back in the crate.

At bedtime Sugar was on the perch when I closed the shed. This morning when I opened up she was still on the perch which is a good sign.

I closed the nest boxes and the chicken shed and returned Sugar to the run. Sugar had food and water and then a long dust bath which good to see. Sugar then hung out with the flock and I wondered if she had come through this super quick.

I knew the only way to tell was to open up the nest boxes. Sugar instantly made a bee line for the nest box and was straight back in. I returned her to the crate.

I will get her out a couple of times today and leave her in there overnight for a second night. I hope that will do the trick. Tomorrow we will see.

We now have quite an age range in our flock. Flame is six years old and is showing her age. She is laying an average of three eggs a week and looks amazing but she spends a lot of time sitting. She doesn’t rush to the treats but will have them if she is already nearby.

Spangle and Salmon are four years old and are appearing to feel their age. Our bigger breeds such as Toffee, Emerald and Speckles have reached eight years old which seems to be the average old age for the bigger bantam breeds.

We have never yet had a serama beyond four years old so these two are our eldest yet. I know that Sophie has a serama of six years old but I am wondering if the girls from our breeder are old at four.

I say this because I feel that there is the possibility that we won’t have Spangle and Salmon beyond this summer. I would like to be proved wrong but I am facing up to the possibility.

The reason being that Spangle behaves exactly the same as Flame as if she is an older girl. Spangle spends a lot of time sitting and dozing. She also doesn’t run to the treats but will have them if she is nearby. Spangle hasn’t laid an egg for three weeks and her face and comb are pale.

Salmon looks amazing. She has a lovely red face and comb but she hasn’t started laying this year. Having had problems laying in the past it is easy to think that not laying is a good thing but the fact is that chickens don’t stop laying unless they are elderly or there is something adrift. After the situation with Spot I worry that the same could happen to Salmon.

Salmon is more active than Spangle but she also doesn’t run to the treats and only has them if she is nearby. These are all the things that worry me about Spangle and Salmon and I am prepared that I could lose them at any time and any time they are still with us is a bonus.

Sugar is two years old and is robust and healthy looking. I think that although she is a serial broody like Smoke was she doesn’t lay nearly as many eggs so has a good chance at a longer life. Sugar lays an average of eight eggs then goes broody. She has now been broody for a week. She has improved though in as much as when I lift her out for a break she now always goes for a dust bath whereas she often used to go straight back in.

I am planning to leave Sugar a couple of weeks and then try to break her from her broody spell as I don’t want her to go on and on as she is prone to doing.

Dot is just over a year old. Dot laid an egg on her first full day with us and then didn’t lay for the next five days. I started to worry and kept thinking that surely we couldn’t be that unlucky to have the same thing happen as with Spot. Yesterday she laid an egg and I felt relieved!

Gold, Snowflake and Storm are seven months old. Storm has laid six eggs in a row before taking a day off and laying again. Snowflake is averaging four eggs a week. Gold was averaging five eggs a week but has taken a four day break.

During Gold’s break from laying I have wondered if she was broody. She will spend hours in the nest box but then not lay. She reacts with the angry look of a broody when I check on her but when I lift her out she stays out for the rest of the day. She will then return to the nest box the following day and repeat the process. I think maybe she is just expecting to lay. Snowflake had similar behaviour when she had a short break.

The flock is such a lovely mix of girls and it is so lovely having no aggressive girls in the flock. I am trying to be realistic though and am thinking of Spangle and Salmon as older girls so that it won’t be a shock if we lose them. We will just make the most of them while we have them.

Yesterday was our first, five egg day, of the year. It was also Dot’s first whole day with us and she laid her first egg with us.

Sugar is now broody again after laying eight eggs in eleven days, her last one being laid yesterday. This is the exact same number that she laid last time she went broody. This many eggs must represent a clutch for Sugar and therefore time to sit again.

Dot has fitted into the flock beautifully. She had soon explored the run and she has been dust bathing with the flock and finding her way in at bedtime where she perches in the middle of the flock with no fuss at all.

Dot wanted to lay her egg right at the busy time when all the nest boxes were occupied. Sugar was laying her last egg in one nest box and has remained in the nest box ever since, apart from when I lift her out, for breaks. Gold was trying to lay her egg in the next nest box. Snowflake was trying to lay her egg in the third nest box and Storm nipped in and laid her egg next to Sugar. Storm has no objection to sharing a nest box with any of the girls.

Dot tried sharing with Sugar and then with Snowflake but was clearly not happy about sharing. I willed Gold and Snowflake to get their eggs laid so that Dot could have a nest box as she was running back and forth and beginning to look stressed.

At last both girls got their eggs laid and Dot was able to settle in a vacant nest box. She must have been desperate because she very quickly laid her egg. It is surprising large considering how small Dot is.

From the left is Dot’s large white egg followed by Gold’s egg. In the middle is Storm’s tiny egg followed by Sugar’s egg and then Snowflake’s egg on the right.

Having Dot lay an egg is a relief to me because that means she is healthy. Dot is such a lovely addition to the flock and I am super happy with her.

I missed Spot in our flock so much and I started wondering if the breeder would be able to spare me another hamburg. I called her a few days ago and told her about Spot.

I asked if she could spare another hamburg and she said that she was sure she could find me one. She said she would check and get back to me. A few days later she said I could have one and we agreed that we would collect her Friday afternoon.

I immediately named this girl Dot. She is one of last year’s girls so is the same age that Spot was, just over a year. She is smaller than Spot and has a smaller comb.

The breeder said she has been finding eggs but if she doesn’t lay then I could switch her for another as she has one more. This is just in case there is the same problem with her but I said I thought it would be very unlucky to happen to another.

I put Dot straight in the run and she mixed easily with the rest of the girls and had soon explored the entire run. She went in both shelters and on top of them. She had a drink of water and some food. She went inside two of the nest boxes and the chicken shed.

Dot doesn’t seem as nervous of me as Spot was at first and I managed to take some photos quite easily. Dot isn’t much bigger than the seramas.

All the girls eventually had a token peck at her, the sort that doesn’t really connect. They were just showing her that she is bottom girl at the moment but there was nothing nasty and Dot took it in her stride.

I expected the next hurdle to be learning where to go at bedtime. It usually takes three or four nights for a new girl to get the hang of it.

To my amazement I checked on the girls just before dusk to see how they were getting on and half the girls were still out but no sign of Dot. I checked the chicken shed and there was Dot perched between Storm and Snowflake.

I checked back a little later when the pop hole had closed. All the girls were perched on the back perch and Dot was still perched in the same position as good as gold. what a clever girl!

We have never had a new girl find their own way in on the very first night before. I think Dot is going to fit in just perfectly. I am so happy with our latest flock member.