Carol's Chickens

This year I have had to wait until the very last day to do my end of year egg totals as Smoke and Ebony have been laying through the end of December.

Smoke and Ebony are so in sync at the moment that they have taken to sharing the favourite nest box and yesterday after laying they shared a dust bath together. It seems to have bonded them for the moment.

Smoke has kept the little white patch on her head. I think this may be a permanent feature.

I record my eggs on some vintage sheets that I first got from Terry’s blog when she kept chickens. I print a new sheet ahead of time each year.

My eldest son and I.T. expert laughs at my paper records. I find them invaluable though. I make notes on the sheets of new girls’ arrivals and ages and girls lost, of first eggs laid and soft shells or weird eggs and of vet visits or treatments. It is a great tool to quickly look back at for information and I love comparing the amount of eggs laid by each girl each year. I use the girls’ initial to record their egg.

So here are this years totals and a comparison with last year.

Speckles laid just the 1 egg this year which is 5 less than last year. She is our oldest girl and I didn’t really expect her to lay at all this year and don’t expect her to lay again but you never know with these girls.

Ebony laid 115 which is 38 less than last year.

Flame laid 138 which is 24 more than last year.

Smoke laid 117 which is 1 less than last year.

Spangle laid 59 which is 8 less than last year.

Salmon laid 71 which is 11 more than last year.

Marmite laid 63 which is 54 less than last year.

Shadow and Sugar are about 6 months old and haven’t started laying yet.

This years total eggs is 564.

What we would expect is that each girl will lay a bit less each year. What is surprising is that a few girls have laid more.

I think the reason Flame has laid more is that she only went broody once this year as opposed to several times the year before. Flame also continued to lay for 2 months longer than last year.

Smoke is a regular good layer but also a regular broody and it’s amazing how close her total is to last year.

Salmon was laying some soft shelled eggs last year and this year she has laid good shelled eggs so I think that is why she has laid more this year. It’s almost as if whatever problem Salmon had last year has fixed itself which is really good news.

Marmite has been the opposite. Marmite laid good shells last year but this year has laid soft shells all year. I think this is why, fortunately for her, she has laid much less this year.

I find it odd that Marmite has developed this problem as mostly it seems that the girls that lay soft shells do so from the start. I feel really sad for Marmite and it so good that she isn’t laying for now but I worry how she will be next year.

I would be happy for Marmite to stop laying altogether but as we know from experience this doesn’t happen. We can only hope for the best for her next year.

All that remains is for us to wish my readers a Happy New Year and to hope that next year will be a better year for everyone.

Today is two days after the Boxing Day eggs. There were no eggs yesterday. This morning Smoke settled in the favourite nest box. A while later I heard her shouting and knew that she had laid her egg. Smoke was shouting her head off.

When I checked the favourite nest box I found Ebony in there. I realised that Smoke was still shouting because Ebony was sitting on Smoke’s egg. This always happens if any girl sits on another girl’s egg. I lifted Ebony and retrieved Smoke’s egg.

When I next checked the run Ebony was back out and there was Ebony’s egg in the nest box. It was a bit bigger than her previous egg which was what I expected.

From the right is Smoke’s boxing Day egg then today’s egg. Next is Ebony’s Boxing Day egg and on the right Ebony’s egg laid today.

Ebony’s egg today is fatter and paler than her first December egg. It seems as if Ebony is going to continue to lay. We have only ever had eggs in December from first year girls and from Smoke so this is very unusual.

I have no idea why Ebony is laying in December but all eggs are very welcome. These girls are often able to surprise us!

Smoke has now laid four eggs this December so far. On boxing Day Smoke settled in her favourite nest box next to the chicken shed.

Ebony started shouting and while having had this behaviour through the summer, when several girls wanted the same nest box at the same time, I couldn’t understand why she should be shouting now.

The next time I checked on them Ebony was in the nest box between Smoke’s nest box and the store cabinet. Ebony was putting pine shavings on her back. I realised that she had been shouting because she wanted the favourite nest box which Smoke was already in but I couldn’t understand why she wanted a nest box in December.

Meanwhile Smoke had laid her egg. Smoke and Speckles looked in the nest box that Ebony was in as if to say that they wondered what on earth she was doing in there.

Next time I checked back Ebony was back out in the run and when I checked the nest box she had laid an egg. I was amazed that Ebony has laid an egg in December which was totally unexpected.

Smoke’s egg is on the right, Ebony’s egg is in the middle and a medium shop bought egg is on the left for size comparison. Ebony’s egg is smaller than her usual eggs but first eggs after a break are often a bit smaller.

Ebony stopped laying at the end of October whereas last year she stopped laying at the end of November. Ebony started laying half way through January this year.

Flame in comparison stopped laying half way through September last year but this year continued laying three quarters of the way through November and started laying in February this year.

It is very odd getting an egg in December though. I wonder if it will be a one off or if Ebony will lay some more. Only time will tell and I will report back here.

I planned to give the girls yogurt as their Christmas treat but they got a bit of an early treat this morning. I was giving them their morning sunflower hearts when I knocked the plastic carton that I decant the corn into. The lid flew off and corn tipped into the bottom of the store cabinet and also onto the chickens’ patio.

I decided to leave the store cabinet doors open and let the girls clear up for me. So they started their day off with extra corn. I then gave them some allotment chard for their daily greens. We are still digging up clumps of chard each week for the chooks.

Mid morning I took in their Christmas yogurt treat in four little dishes. The main flock are used to little white dishes meaning a treat coming in but the chicks were too busy with the chard to notice even though there was very little left on the chard. Notice the chicks in the background of the first photos with the yogurt.

The chicks are always last to the treats but once the rest of the girls have moved away the chicks always get their turn. I think we have very happy chooks.

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas under these current difficult circumstances and hope for a better New Year for everyone.

This morning Smoke was very vocal and was looking in the nest boxes. She soon settled in her favourite nest box next to the chicken shed.

When I next checked on her she was back out and had laid an egg.

I checked back on last year and she laid nine eggs last December. Smoke is the only one of the little girls that lays all year round. Well done Smoke!

For about a week I was finding Flame’s feathers in the chicken shed each morning but she didn’t actually look very different from usual. Now I have stopped finding feathers and she suddenly looks quite tatty.

It won’t be long before she is back to normal as she has lots of pins.

Smoke was only broody for a week before she gave up. I think the colder weather made her give up quite quickly. I then started finding Smoke’s feathers in the chicken shed each morning. It only lasted a couple of days and she doesn’t look any different to usual.

I think we may have had a break through with the bedtime routine. The three bigger girls go in at dusk but the little girls have been getting shut out when the automatic door closes. They then call out for me to go and put them in.

Yesterday my lovely husband had a hospital appointment for his eyes in the afternoon and as I drive him home we knew we wouldn’t be back until after dark. We decided that I would prop the main door of the chicken shed open enough for the girls to go in and hope that they would get themselves in.

To my surprise when we got back and I checked on the girls they were all in. Result! I simply had to close the door. I am now going to leave the main door open a bit each night and won’t go and check on them until after dark.

We are hoping that this will retrain them to go in by themselves. Once they have been going in for about a week I will try leaving the door closed and see if they still manage to get in. I hope this will break the habit of them relying on me to put them in.

It also means I only have to close the door instead of getting them all perched and removing Sugar from my head several times! Time will tell if this works and I will report back at a later date with the results.

Shadow and Sugar were about three months old when we got them at the end of the first week in September so they are about six months old now.

They now have their in between voices. They are no longer cheeping but haven’t got their grown up voices yet either. They started with a honky type of sound which has now altered into a sort of strangled sound. They have had this sound for quite a while now.

This process reminds of when boys voices break. In the chicken world the boys start crowing quite early but the girls voices can take a long time to transition. Shadow and Sugar’s sound is so distinct that we can recognise them by it and I can tell it’s them when they are in the the chicken shed at bedtime after the automatic door has closed.

Their faces and combs are getting more red. They have also started pecking and scratching at the pine shavings in the nest boxes and often throw the shavings out of the box.

I am guessing that they will probably start laying early next year.

Both girls have had their baby, partial, moult. Shadow now has less grey than she did to start with and Sugar has developed very fine brown marks. They are both beautiful girls.

They are also so friendly. They are the easiest girls to get close up photos of and they like to jump on me. Sugar especially likes to jump on me.

Sugar is often still out at bedtime after the automatic door has closed. She likes to jump on to my back which makes it difficult for me to reach her to put her on the perch so I now hold my arm out and she jumps to my arm.

Sometimes after I have perched her in the chicken shed she will launch herself from the perch to me and often lands on my head. I swear she would prefer to perch on my head than on the perch with the other girls.

This has become a bit of an evening ritual. It’s not ideal but I don’t seem to be able to stop her. Sugar waits for me to go out at dusk each evening and she calls for me as I go up the path to the run. She then launches herself at me and sometimes I have to put her back on the perch a few times and then quickly close the door.

At least she is easy to reach when she is on my head. I have actually become quite used to having a chicken on my head, there is never a dull moment with these girls! At least these girls are little and light and it is quite endearing in it’s funny way.

Sugar and Shadow are pretty quick to catch on to anything new these days so I thought I would see how they get on with fish for the first time. I had already put some allotment chard in the run which they were busy pecking at.

I put four little white dishes, with fish, on the girls’ patio. The flock know that white dishes mean a treat so they all came running apart from Sugar and Shadow. They were so busy pecking at the chard that they took no notice.

I took the opportunity to take a close up of Sugar and Shadow as they don’t mind the camera at all.

I then rattled the corn to get their attention and they came to investigate.

The next time I checked on them all the fish was gone. I think the girls enjoyed their treat.

I keep thinking all the girls have done with moulting but then another girl starts. Like Ebony, Flame, had had a partial moult after going broody in the summer.

It seems that this means they moult in two halves. For the last couple of mornings I have been finding heaps of feathers under Flame’s roost spot in the chicken shed.

I am also picking up loads of feathers from the run each day and when Flame shook herself feathers wafted down from her. The odd thing is that Flame doesn’t really look any different.

It will be interesting to see if she stays looking this good. Smoke on the other hand looks a bit different at the moment. She has a patch of white feathers on her head.

I have lifted her up for a close inspection and these are soft, downy, white feathers on her head. I am not sure if they are under feathers and maybe the dark ones are yet to come through or if she will keep this white patch on her head. Only time will tell.

It’s interesting how some of the girls’ feathers change after moulting. I will keep an eye on Smoke’s head feathers and report back here at a later date.

My friend Jackie sent me a colourful balloon jigsaw. It is a mirror image jigsaw which I have never come across before.

I started to put the outside, straight, edges together. I realised that the rounded surface of the pieces was the right way up and the flat surface of the pieces was the underside. The image is on both sides of the pieces. As I got a section together and compared it to the picture on the box I realised that the right way up was the mirror image of the picture on the box.

I decided that my brain wasn’t able to cope with a mirror image and at this point I flipped over the edges that I had completed. The image was now the same as the picture on the box. I completed the edge and turned all the pieces to the flat side up on my tray.

This may be considered cheating but the box does say that it is two puzzles in one so I figured you could choose which one you want to do.

I like puzzles to have an image on the box to follow. I enjoy becoming familiar with the picture so that sometimes I can pick up a piece and I know where it will fit or I can look at a gap and find a piece of that colour and shape.

Once I had realised that I could follow the picture on the box by using the smooth pieces I found the puzzle really fun to do because it is so colourful. Because the puzzle is small and I found it addictive I started it one day and completed it the next.

I guess that once you have completed it like this you could then break it up and try it again using the mirror image. I don’t feel that I would enjoy completing the mirror imagine so I cheated and flipped the puzzle over. It holds together really well making it easy to flip over.

I actually liked the picture with the flat side up. It makes such a smooth jigsaw and the pieces fit together really nicely this way. It photographs better this way too.

At the moment my mum, Jackie and myself are sharing our jigsaws. This makes the jigsaws excellent value and helps us all during this time of lock-down so I will be posting this jigsaw on to my mum.

Mum can use this post as an explanation of how to choose which image to do. I know that my mum will prefer to do the jigsaw this way because we are very alike in the jigsaws that we like to do.