Carol's Chickens

Since Smoke started laying after her last broody spell she has laid ten eggs in twelve days and then gone broody again. She seems to be going broody sooner than ever.

I am so fed up of the constant broodiness that this time I decided to try to break her out of it straight away before it really got hold of her. Seems that this is easier said than done.

I have been keeping the nest boxes closed and opening one when I can tell that a girl needs to lay. I tried to make a one way system so that the laying girl could leave the nest box after laying but Smoke couldn’t get in. I don’t really want to shut a girl in the nest box.

Not very sophisticated but I propped the lid, from the tub that holds the sunflower hearts, against the ramp of the nest box. This was yesterday.

Today when Ebony was in the nest box I decided to leave it open. Ebony and Smoke are the two most aggressive girls and I didn’t think that Ebony would tolerate Smoke with her or that Smoke would be brave enough to go in with her.

While broody, Smoke always puffs herself up like this, when she is near Ebony.

I can only try to keep Smoke out because I am home all the time at the moment. At last we are having some lovely sunny weather so I am spending my time in the garden and can keep an eye on the girls.

A little later I heard Ebony shouting and when I checked she had laid her egg and Smoke was sitting on it. I removed the egg and lifted Smoke from the nest box and closed it once more.

I am not sure this is going to work as it is already Smoke’s third day of being broody but I will continue for another couple of days and hope for the best.

We now have a broody free flock and it’s lovely. It only took two days of closing the nest boxes but leaving the chicken shed open for the egg laying girls. Salmon showed no interest in the shed and she continued to perch at dusk.

After two days I opened the nest boxes and Salmon had lost interest in them. It is so lovely to go up and see the entire flock together in the run.

I have given the girls a fish treat last week and again yesterday to give them a protein boost. Sugar is back to eating normally and the colour of her comb is better.

All of the girls are laying apart from Sugar and Salmon. I would expect Salmon to take at least a week’s break and Sugar probably up to six weeks break. The longer they remain broody the longer the break before laying again.

I am really enjoying this spell of all the girls together until the next broody spell and egg production is up again which is an added bonus.

Yesterday I left the nest boxes open and Sugar took no notice of them so in the evening I left her with the flock. When I checked at dusk I was really pleased to see that Sugar was perched with her flock mates.

After three nights in the broody crate Sugar has come out of this at last. Sugar is now eating normally again and I think her comb has a bit more colour to it.

Just as Sugar has come out of this it looked as if Salmon was going broody. Salmon has never gone broody before. I couldn’t believe that as soon as one girl is out of it the next girl is into it.

Just as I was opening up the nest boxes again I decided to close them up once more. Having just researched broodiness I had been reminded that the quicker you try to stop them the faster the process will be.

I just felt that I couldn’t cope with another broody so soon and while Salmon was sitting in the nest box Flame was sitting on top of her. I really don’t want this behaviour again. After salmon had sat in the nest box for several hours without laying I decided to take her out and close up the nest boxes. Flame had already laid her egg.

I have to say that Salmon is a beautiful girl. Salmon was in angry mode and ran at any nearby little girl and chased them away. She paced around clucking away with the typical broody sound all afternoon.

I waited until dusk to see if Salmon would perch or sit in the corner of the shed. I was very pleased when I checked and both Sugar and Salmon were perched.

I left the nest boxes closed and waited to see if Salmon would be sitting in the corner of the chicken shed in the morning. Salmon was out in the run. Unlike Sugar Salmon only wants the nest boxes and not the chicken shed.

This makes the process easier. It means the shed can stay open for any of the girls that want to lay and Salmon will be kept out of the nest boxes. Salmon already seems to be returning to normal so I am hopeful that speedy intervention has nipped it in the bud.

Phew! It would be great to be free of broody girls for a while and it’s so nice to go up and see the whole flock out in the run. I hope this means Salmon is back to normal and tomorrow I will try the nest boxes open again while keeping an eye on her.

Sugar has now been broody for more than six weeks. I am starting to worry about her. Her comb has gone from red to a pale, slightly grey, colour. To look at her comb she looks like an unwell chicken.

Sugar isn’t eating anything but a few seeds. She has stopped doing the large broody poops that broody girls do. Sugar is losing condition. It is time to try to break her out of this.

As usual I have done a google search. I thought I already knew all there is to know about this but it never hurts to look again. I put “six weeks broody” in the search and it said that is too long to leave a broody girl. They will lose condition and possibly become too underweight. It said that it is kinder to break them than to let them lose condition with no reward of chicks at the end of it.

I have made my plan. I will close the nest boxes and the chicken shed in between girls needing to lay. When any of the girls need to lay I will put Sugar in the dog crate in the shed. I will also leave her in there over night.

I have taken up David’s idea of putting a perch in the crate. When I tried Sugar in the crate before she was flapping around and I was worried she would hurt herself. This time she has actually been using the perch.

The weird thing is that she has reverted to her previous behaviour. It seems that when the nest boxes are open she will sit in them all the time but when the nest boxes are closed she just wants to jump on me as soon as I open the gate. I have never come across this behaviour before. I have never had such a crazy girl before. I wonder why I have the craziest chicken!

I have to do a mix of closing the nest boxes and using the crate because Sugar refuses to eat anything while in the crate. I have put in the crate mash and sunflower hearts and apple and spinach and water and she refuses to touch anything.

Like when Salmon was poorly Sugar will only eat some treats when I put her on top of a nest box and drop treats in front of her. I got her to have some sunflower hearts and some bits of apple and spinach. She wouldn’t touch the mash. She wouldn’t take water in the crate but did have water when back in the run.

I am back to the thinking that it doesn’t matter what she eats as long as she eats something. When Smoke is broody she always eats when I take her out of the nest box but Sugar doesn’t unless I treat her like I did Salmon and hand feed her. I have read of committed broodies starving themselves and I can’t let that happen.

I will keep going with this for as long as it takes. I have to break her out of this because this is definitely not good for her health.

I was pleased to see that she perched in the crate like this at bedtime whereas in the chicken shed I couldn’t get her to perch. She would go floppy and drop down even when it was dark. This feels like a step forward already and will be better for her and more likely to break the pattern.

I will report back with how we progress. I am feeling a bit more optimistic now that I have started with a new regime.

Over this last year of lock-downs I have done so many jigsaw puzzles. More than I have ever done before. I have become quite addicted to them, especially during bad weather, when we can’t get outside much.

With so much practice I have become very good at them. The only ones I gave up on were two I blogged about before. They were very soft focus and I couldn’t get going on them. I learned never to choose a puzzle with a blurred picture again.

My mum and me post each other puzzles. Sometimes Mum sends me some that are too hard for her or that she couldn’t finish because she struggles with her eye sight. I have managed to finish even the really difficult ones. I have become expert at recognising very fine detail. Dots on brickwork and leaves and twigs on trees, blades of grass and hints of clouds in skies.

Recently I discovered a local, monthly, jigsaw and paperback library. It is on the first Wednesday of the month and reopened this month. It is run by volunteers. They take donations of puzzles and books and charge just fifty pence per item which is an amazing bargain.

I donated five jigsaws and four books and bought two jigsaws and two books. I found it really difficult to choose the jigsaws. I have got so used to being given them and although I thought I would know what sort to choose I was a bit overwhelmed by having such a huge choice.

I like a 1000 piece puzzle as anything smaller I do too quickly. I chose one that was 1500 pieces as I thought that would give me a challenge. I can finish a 1000 piece in three days. This one took me a week. That was with me spending quite a lot of time on it as it has rained almost every day.

Once I had completed the outside I separated my pieces into the main picture and the background. I put the tray of background pieces aside and just worked on the picture which had a basket of fruit as the centre piece.

I got on well with the main part of the picture and found it challenging but enjoyable. Then I had just the background left to do. Another lesson learned is not to pick a puzzle with too much plain background. There was no detail at all in the background and it was also slightly fuzzy.

I have completed smaller plain backgrounds by the shape of the pieces but this was a daunting, huge, chunk of background. I was in a dilemma. Could I face the tedium of completing it or could I face giving up after completing so much of it. I decided to keep trying over the next few days and see how I got on.

Once I got started on the background I knew that I couldn’t let it beat me. I like to have a picture to follow and recognise detail but the picture was no help at all. I had to put away the picture and carry on purely by the shape of the pieces.

I arrange all the pieces on trays in rows of the pieces the same shape. With a small part like this I try every piece in each space but there were far too many pieces to do this. I had to study the shapes and match them. It was slow progress but I knew it would get easier when there were less pieces to try.

For the first time in ages my husband was able to join in. Because of his sight problem he hasn’t been able to do puzzles with me recently but he was able to join in with this because it wasn’t about seeing any detail but purely recognising shape and a lot of trial and error.

I am so glad that I didn’t let it beat me but I will try to choose more carefully in future. The actual picture really appealed to me so I overlooked the big background space. It would have been more fun with something else in the background but it was a challenge.

I am happy that I completed it.

Recently Smoke hasn’t been so committed to staying broody. Smoke still goes broody as often but this time and last time she has come out of it after one week exactly.

I have been lifting both the broody girls out of the nest boxes every time I go to check on the girls and I close the nest boxes at the end of the day. Smoke has been perching in the chicken shed at bedtime but Sugar refuses to perch.

At the end of the day I have been lifting both broody girls out of the nest boxes and closing them then I give out some sunflower hearts. Sugar has a few sunflower hearts then runs straight into the chicken shed.

The longest Sugar stays out is to have a dust bath. Sugar now knows the nest boxes will be closed at the end of the day and she speeds her way into the chicken shed. If I try to perch her at dusk she will just keep dropping down again. It has now been six weeks which would be enough time to hatch eggs twice over.

This afternoon I wanted to take some photos of all the flock now that Smoke is staying out in the run. I lifted Sugar from the nest box and placed her out in the run. I then put a dish of chopped tomato on the patio area to see if I could get a photo of all the girls.

Sugar made her way to the patio area and I waited to see if she would go to the dish of tomato. She didn’t but she did stop briefly to peck at a piece of apple on her way back into the nest box.

We are beginning to wonder if Sugar is going to stay like this forever. Smoke has now been broody twice and out of it again in the time that Sugar has remained broody and she is showing no sign of coming out of it.

This is such a strange situation. I wonder how long Sugar is going to continue like this. I hope she isn’t going to stay like this all summer.

Sugar has now been broody for five weeks and shows no sign of coming out of it. Yesterday Smoke went broody again. Smoke has laid ten eggs in fourteen days before going broody again.

Smoke and Sugar went broody together five weeks ago. In the time that Sugar has been broody Smoke has been broody, come out of it and taken a weeks break, laid again and gone broody again. This is driving me crazy!

Sugar is so determined. I take her out of the nest box every time I go in to the run and yet she is showing no signs of loosening at all. I took a photo of the two broodies in the nest box and then lifted them out to the patio. I only had time to take one quick snap before Sugar headed straight back in again.

It’s bad enough that Smoke is a serial broody and only ever lays for two weeks at a time but Sugar staying broody for so long is even worse, especially as she is so young and only ever laid fourteen eggs since she started laying. Shadow has laid forty five eggs so far.

With all the other girls laying there is nothing I can do about this but wait it out. It is so frustrating.

Yesterday Salmon was looking in the nest boxes and I felt sure that she was getting ready to lay again. Flame had also been looking in the nest boxes for a couple of days and laid her first egg since going broody yesterday and her second one today.

It had been three weeks since Flame last laid and it had also been three weeks since Salmon last laid. I felt a bit nervous about Salmon coming back into lay.

Today Salmon went in the nest box a couple of times and came out again. A little later Salmon settled in the nest box.

I waited with baited breath. A little later I heard the egg shout. I went to check and Salmon was vigorously scratching in the run which was a good sign.

I checked the nest box and there was her, smaller than usual egg, with her signature blob of poop next to it.

Shadow’s egg is on the left, Salmon’s egg is in the middle and Smoke’s egg is on the right.

I am so relieved that Salmon has got her egg laid without a problem. I am also glad she has started again with a small egg.

I am hoping that her recent problem was just a blip and that she will be okay in the future. Only time will tell but for now I am so happy to see this.

Yesterday four girls were dust bathing in the sun in a row. I managed to take one photo and then before I could get closer the battery died. I do wish my camera gave me some warning when the battery is low.

Salmon is looking great. It is two weeks since she last laid and I am rather apprehensive of what will happen when she starts laying again. It is also two weeks since Flame last laid and she has been looking in the nest boxes over the last couple of days so I know that she is getting ready to lay again.

Sugar is still broody after three and a half weeks. She was a month later laying than Shadow and then she only laid for two weeks. Eleven eggs then broody which is the quickest of any of our girls.

It takes three weeks to hatch an egg so usually even if you leave a girl to be broody they start to come out of it after three weeks.

I lift her out every time I go in the chicken run. I put her in the run and she just sits like this. I give her a little shove or several and she will run off and have a dust bath at speed then straight back in the nest box or sometimes she will just turn round and go back in.

For one and a half weeks we were getting one egg a day and I was closing the nest boxes and just letting in the laying girl each day. That was when Sugar spent her whole time jumping on me.

Gradually the non laying girls started up again and for the past week we have had two, three or four eggs a day so I can no longer close the nest boxes. This means Sugar has been staying in the nest box all the time except when I lift her for a break.

Sugar is showing no sign of coming out of this and we are wondering how long she is going to keep this up.

Apart from Flame who is looking like starting to lay again any day now there are only Sugar and Salmon not laying. It’s a pity Salmon can’t just stop laying for the rest of the summer but I know that she will start again soon.

I am just keeping everything crossed that Salmon will be able to lay okay and I am hoping that Sugar will give up being broody soon.

I am telling this story in hindsight because while this was going on and I had taken some photos the situation with Salmon happened and that took precedence.

The after effect of this story is still happening now though so I have decided to tell it now.

First Smoke went broody. Then Sugar went broody. Then Flame went broody. Flame has always preferred to lay her eggs in a nest box with another girl for company and she had been laying her eggs in the nest box with broody Sugar.

Broody Smoke would be in one nest box and broody Sugar and Flame would be together in the nest box next door. Having three broody girls at once was a bit of a pain and egg laying had dropped right off.

I decided to close the nest boxes and try to break them out of it. Smoke soon gave up. When I checked in on the girls I would find Sugar under Flame’s wing.

Sometimes Sugar would be pushing herself right underneath Flame and sometimes Flame would have her wing right over Sugar’s body. Flame would call Sugar to any titbits. Flame was mothering Sugar and Sugar had regressed back to being a chick.

Sounds familiar? I have been here before. This is exactly what happened with Flame and Vanilla in the past. It seems to be instigated by Flame. Flame wants so much to be a mum that it seems that when she is broody and finds herself next to a sitting little girl she mothers that little girl.

I can only think that this sparks a hormonal response in the little girl and she happily plays the role of a chick. I knew from past experience that I needed to break this as soon as possible or it could go on for a very long time.

I decided to put Flame in the dog crate, on the bench, in the garden shed like I had done before. I put in a dish of mash as it makes less mess and a dish of water and left the shed door open with a screen in front of it. At night I would close and lock the shed door.

I knew from past experience this wouldn’t take long and in fact it only took two days and two nights. I put Flame back in the run for a break and some exercise three times a day while I closed the nest box Sugar was in so that they couldn’t see each other.

Flame would either be eating the mash or just sitting while in the dog crate. If she wasn’t in there she would be just sitting in a nest box so it wasn’t a hardship for her. When I put her back in the run she would scratch and dust bath. Once finished she would go and sit on top of a closed nest box and that would be my signal to put her back in the crate again.

After two days Flame didn’t go and sit on the nest box after her dust bath. I tried shutting Sugar out of the nest box and waited to see what would happen. Flame took no notice of Sugar so after only two days of separation I had broken Flame out of this.

I tried keeping the nest boxes closed as I wanted to try to break Sugar out of this and as we were only getting one egg per day I would open a nest box when I could see that a girl wanted to lay.

The next and very odd thing that happened was that once Flame stopped mothering Sugar I think that Sugar transferred to me being mum. Every time I would walk through the gate Sugar would fly on to my back or sometimes my head.

No matter how many times I lifted Sugar back down she would instantly fly on to me again. I tried bending down and trying to tip her on to the nest box but she would just counter balance on me. If Sugar was on my head I could easily reach up and lift her down but when in the middle of my back she was difficult to reach.

I would slide my fingers under Sugar’s feet and lift her down that way. I tried taking a few photos but just aimed blindly and hoped for the best.

This has now been going on for two weeks and Sugar shows no sign of coming out of this yet. If I close the nest boxes she flies on to me all the time. I have got used to doing my chicken chores with Sugar on my back. If I open the nest boxes she goes straight in and sits.

My husband says Sugar is a crazy chicken which probably fits in with me being a crazy chicken woman. He did suggest I should perhaps try to block her but I haven’t the heart to. I have never come across this behaviour before.

This isn’t doing any harm apart from being slightly inconvenient at times so I will just wait to see if she eventually comes out of this.

In other news Smoke laid her first egg today after two weeks. Smoke was only one week broody and then another weeks break. It has been ten days since Flame last laid so I expect she will resume laying again soon. Ebony is back to laying every other day.

Salmon is now completely back to normal. I haven’t helped her today at all as I have seen her at the water and at the dishes of mash as well as having some spinach. We will just have to wait and see what happens when she is ready to lay again.

And that is all the latest news from our crazy chicken run.