Carol's Chickens

We have had a spell of frost and freezing temperatures along with the rest of the country. I wasn’t expecting to wake up to snow this morning though. It hadn’t been forecast for us and it took us by surprise.

The chicken run is a bit dark. Apart from the seramas this is the flock’s first experience of snow.

I have been emptying the chicken’s water at the end of each day and filling it in the morning as it easier than defrosting it. Over the last few days I have had to defrost it half way through the day as our daytime temperatures have barely got above freezing.

I will be glad when this cold spell is over and I am sure the girls will too.

From when we first had Diamond, she came to us in August, she had quite a hooked beak. We always thought it looked a bit like an eagle’s beak. Recently though we have felt sure that it has grown longer. I have just looked back through photos of her and have realised that it has definitely grown longer.

I have just been researching this and it says that it is a deformity. It’s medically referred to as mandibular prognathism or commonly parrot beak. The top part of the beak grows longer than it should.

It says that if the bird is struggling to eat then it will need trimming with nail clippers and filing smooth. But once this has been done it will need to be done periodically throughout the rest of it’s lifetime.

Diamond has really turned out to be a special needs chicken. First she had gape worm then we had to modify a perch especially for her and now she has a deformed beak.

I have been watching her eat and she has a little more trouble picking up sunflower hearts but manages some and drops some. She has no trouble pecking at apple and eats greens easily. She manages pellets easily. She manages the water with no trouble. She preens okay and she poops plenty.

I am a bit nervous of clipping her beak and having to do it on a regular basis. It says you must not go too far as you don’t want to cause it to bleed. A little at a time is the best way to proceed.

I am going to keep a close eye on the situation. If she manages as well as she does now and it gets no worse it may be better to leave her be. If it gets even longer and really hampers her eating and preening then we may well have to try clipping it.

This is a problem we haven’t come up against before now. It seems that are always new problems to be encountered. I will keep a close watch on her and report back as and when but I am coming round to the fact that we may have to clip. The saving grace is that the tip is thin.

Last year I did the end of year egg count in January because Smoke and Shadow laid throughout December. Sadly we lost them both this spring. Snowflake stopped laying at the end of November and Sugar had stopped laying at the end of October so we have no girls laying now and I don’t expect any eggs until spring.

It’s been a sad year for losses with Shadow, Smoke, Spot, Flame and Saffron all departing. Only the three seramas remain from last year. New comers are Storm, Gold and Snowflake in February. We then got Dot in May and Diamond in August.

Last year Flame laid 77 eggs and this year in five months she laid 49. Flame stopped laying at the end of June and we lost her in September.

Last year Salmon laid 47 eggs and this year hasn’t laid at all.

Last year Spangle laid 31 eggs and this year laid 5 in April and May.

I think that at five years old Salmon and Spangle have probably reached the end of their egg laying days. I am not sorry if this means that they remain healthy and they are now the oldest seramas I have had.

Last year Sugar laid 57 and this year laid 53. She has been the most consistent due to her monthly broody spells. She averages 8 eggs per month.

Storm laid 55 eggs in three months as her breed has a short season. She laid in May, June and July.

Gold laid 86 eggs and stopped laying at the end of August.

Snowflake laid 137 eggs and is way ahead as our best layer.

Dot laid 20 eggs over a five month period while moulting in between. She is in her second year.

Saffron laid 17 eggs in one month before we lost her.

Diamond hasn’t started laying yet. I have read that when her breed matures late in the year they usually start laying the following spring plus she had gape worm when she came to us which took a while to get rid of.

Last year we had a total of 449 eggs. This year we have had a total of 442 eggs.

I have just been researching Diamond’s breed and it says that they don’t go broody and lay well. They lay pale brown eggs that are a good size for bantam hens. I am looking forward to seeing how she lays and am hopeful that she will take over from Flame with some bigger eggs.

I am really hoping that the flock will remain settled now and that we can keep these girls healthy and happy and won’t be needing to add more girls for a good while. Even with very few serama eggs we have enough girls to keep us in plenty of eggs next year and I am grateful for all the eggs that they lay.

I thought it would be good to give the girls some fish as a bit of extra protein on a frosty morning. It will help with those last feathers coming in and they love a bit of fish.

I think I can safely say the girls enjoyed their fish. It didn’t last long.

Sadly we have lost Saffron after only three months with us. She was such a beautiful colour and a good egg layer during her last month with us. I haven’t got a huge amount of photos of her but I have picked out the best ones. I wish now that I had taken more photos recently.

Her time with us was all too short but she won’t be forgotten.

Saffron hadn’t laid for three days. When she wasn’t out in the run this morning I checked the nest boxes. She wasn’t there so I checked the chicken shed. Saffron was laying in the middle of the shed floor and was cold.

I checked her over and there was no sign of anything obviously wrong but her comb was a muddy colour. She had appeared to be fine yesterday and at bedtime. We have had Saffron for three months and she was eight months old. She had been laying for a month and had laid seventeen eggs.

After worrying about Diamond from the start and bringing her back from the brink of losing her I hadn’t had a moments worry about Saffron. This is such a shock.

We buried Saffron in the chicken’s strip and added a plant on top and a wooden marker as usual. Sadly Saffron is now the ninth chicken in the chicken’s strip.

I will be doing a tribute to Saffron later today. Sadly I don’t have that many photos to look through. The chicken run seems quiet today.

About three days ago Sugar dropped her last remaining long tail feather. Underneath she has a short tail. I have been meaning to take a photograph and have only just got round to it. Sugar’s tail has grown already.

Sugar’s tail is about half the length it will soon become. She is the last girl to come through the moult. Sugar, along with her flock mates, will be fully feathered for the winter.

Diamond is clearly happy with her new found ability to get up high. From the first day that she found she could get up on top of the wooden shelter she has been up there every day.

Diamond also went from the bottom rung of the ladders in the run to the second rung and then to the third rung. Then today when I checked on the girls Diamond was on the high branch perch above the ladder. This is the highest I have ever seen her and is in fact one of the highest spots in the run.

I had watched Diamond’s progress up the ladder and then on to the perch to a spot in the sun. I wasn’t sure if she could get down again as she was up there a long time. Later I checked and she was back down again.

Sugar is the last girl to moult. Her last broody spell seemed to have triggered a moult rather than starting to lay again. She looks rather shabby with lots of loose feathers and only one remaining tail feather.

The moult seems to have gone on for such a long time this year. Seramas usually moult a bit at a time but I think Sugar is different because of her regular bouts of going broody. She has long pins already showing under her short tail feathers so should feather up again soon.

We continue to get eggs from both Snowflake and Saffron. I don’t expect Sugar to lay again this year. Sugar stopped laying at the end of September last year compared to the end of October this year so she has done well. She just needs to get her feathers back in for winter.

I can’t believe it’s two weeks since I last posted, I have got very lax lately. There again there isn’t much news from the chicken run which in itself is never a bad thing.

Saffron has now been laying for two weeks. She usually lays every other day, occasionally laying two days running. She has now laid eight eggs. Her first two eggs had blood streaks on but they have been clean ever since then. They have remained small considering her size.

Snowflake didn’t stay broody for long. Luckily she never commits to it and she resumed laying a week ago and also lays every other day but occasionally two days running. She has laid five eggs since starting again.

Considering how much bigger Saffron is than Snowflake it’s surprising that her eggs are smaller.

I broke Sugar out of her broody spell with two nights in the broody crate, two weeks ago, while the temperatures were still warm. That was enough to get her over it and I think she is getting ready to lay again. She has had a look in the nest box and is more vocal. So we may soon have three girls laying which would be good even though Sugar is limited to her maximum of eight eggs.

Yesterday I gave the girls some mash for a treat and also to get an up to date group photo.

Snowflake had had a partial moult and grown in new tail feathers. Recently she had a second partial moult and has now grown in new wing feathers. Snowflake is now looking pristine. Gold has also had a partial moult and grown her feathers back in and looks pristine.

Dot seems to keep moulting bit by bit. After recently dropping head feathers and getting pins through she has now dropped most of her tail feathers. Dot seems to be taking longer to get through the moult.

For the last three days Diamond has found a new trick. We have found her on top of the wooden shelter. This has been a surprise because I didn’t think she was able to get up so high. I haven’t yet caught her going up but assume she jumps to the metal table and steps across.

I was so surprised to find Diamond up here. I am waiting to catch her getting up and down. As she has been here three days in a run I assume that she is quite pleased with her new accomplishment.

That is all the latest news from the chicken run. Eggs are gratefully received and it’s good to have less feathers to pick up each day.

Saffron laid her first egg today. What a clever girl! I really wasn’t expecting her to lay until spring although first year girls can lay through their first winter. Saffron was five months when she came to us. We have had Diamond and Saffron two months now so Saffron is seven months and they usually start about six months which is why I thought she may not lay this year.

I have had seramas start laying at seven months but the bigger girls tend to be a bit earlier. Diamond is nine months and not laying but I am putting that down to her having had gape worm.

Sugar went broody four days ago and then Snowflake also went broody two days ago so we had no girls laying. Saffron went in a nest box yesterday and briefly had a peck at the shavings so I had been wondering if she was getting ready to lay.

Today Sugar was in one nest box and Snowflake in the one next to it. Saffron wanted to go in but kept trying first one nest box then the other. I decided to make it easier for Saffron by putting Sugar and Snowflake together in one nest box and leaving the one next door free for her.

Things never go according to plan though and Saffron now decided that she would like to join the broody girls.

At this point I changed tactics and lifted the two broody girls out of the nest box and settled them both in the one next to it.

I didn’t lift the lid as I didn’t want to disturb Saffron now that she was in her own nest box. Saffron was being very vocal. She sounded rather like a duck.

When I went back to check Saffron was out in the run and there was her first egg in the nest box. It was smaller than I expected but they will probably get bigger in time. It had the tell tale streaks of blood that first eggs often have and it was quite long in shape.

Saffron’s egg is on the left, Snowflake’s egg is in the middle and Sugar’s egg is on the right. These were Snowflake’s and Sugar’s last eggs before going broody. Saffron has timed her start of egg laying well as for now she will be our only egg layer.

It will be interesting to see when her next egg is and how good an egg layer she will be. Well done Saffron!