Carol's Chickens

In all our years of chicken keeping we have never had to buy eggs in the summer before. We have only one girl laying which is the first time during summer. Snow is our only girl laying and she lays the tiniest eggs. She lays four eggs a week and we need to eat them two at a time so she is providing enough for one breakfast a week.

We usually have eggs for our weekend breakfasts and one weekday breakfast. Having lost our lovely Dot we have not only lost a lovely girl but also lost our best egg layer. She never went broody and she laid quite big eggs so we could eat them just one at a time.

Had we not have got new girls this spring we would have no eggs at all.

Red has yet to start laying. Autumn should be laying but stopped on the first of February. Mango and Cloud are moulting and probably won’t lay again this year. Sugar, Gold and Storm have all been broody and should start again in a couple of weeks time.

I thought Storm may have come to the end of her season but realised she had gone broody. It’s more difficult to tell with Storm because she isn’t a committed broody which is a good thing. She spends half her time in the nest box and half her time in the run when broody whereas the other girls want to spend all their time in the nest box when broody. She also gives up after two or three days.

I have always said that eggs are a bonus but I must admit that with a flock of eight girls I would never have thought that we would have only one girl laying.

I am hoping that next year will be better because we should have Autumn and Red laying during the summer. That remains to be seen though.

In no particular order as once again I am going to put them on in the order that I took them.

Snow is so different from Snowflake before her. She is prettier, quieter and friendlier. She also lays tiny eggs compared to Snowflake’s rather large eggs which were probably her downfall. I am so glad I decided to give a chabo another go as Snow is a lovely girl.

Gold looks like this every summer. It is as if she has an explosion of under feathers at the base of her tail but other than that she looks really good.

I have to have two photos of Sugar. When she is up and about she looks the picture of health but she still spends ninety percent of her day just sitting like the first photo. I had to wait for my chance to catch Sugar on the move. But she has been like this for two years now so whatever her problem is she is managing to live to with it. She is now getting her eggs laid easily too and with good shells.

Red is still looking some way off laying yet. Her comb is still small compared to Autumn’s but her face is red. Red is six months old now but she seems to be maturing slowly.

Autumn continues to sit in the nest box each day but without laying. She laid from October until the first of February and hasn’t laid since. We do seem to get the anomaly’s.

Storm continues to lay despite losing a few feathers including some tail feathers. She is looking pretty much back to normal now though.

Mango and Cloud continue to do everything together and that includes molting together. They are full of pins so they will soon look beautiful again.

Both Gold and Sugar are now through their broody spell and at the moment Snow and Storm are our only egg layers.

Gold and Sugar usually start laying again after a two week break and sometime over the next month or two Red should start laying. As I always say eggs are a bonus and as long as the girls stay healthy I am happy.

Sugar is now the only girl in our flock that isn’t a pipinchick girl. So I thought I would just mention that I have added pipinchick to the links on my side bar should any one wish to have a look.

Just over a week ago I did a post about a five egg day. I said that we had six girls laying as Cloud had laid the day before. What I didn’t realise was that we had five girls laying because that egg the day before from Cloud was her last one. She has joined Mango in molting. I doubt we will be getting any more eggs from either of these two this year.

Then we lost our lovely Dot and on the same day Gold went broody. She had laid eight eggs in two weeks. So we were now down to three girls laying.

Then two days later Sugar went broody. She had laid six eggs in eight days. Her last three eggs were laid three days running which is always a sign that she’s about to go broody. So we are now down to two girls laying. Just Storm and Snow. How quickly it all changes.

At least with only two girls laying it is easy to keep everything closed once they have laid. I am lifting Gold and Sugar out in between but I will start Sugar in the broody cage over night for a couple of nights because otherwise she is unbreakable.

The funny thing is how strong chickens’ instincts are for the potential of chicks. The two remaining laying girls choose to their egg next to the broody as they know the broody will then sit on their egg. What they don’t know of course is that without a cockerel it is futile.

I just hope Storm and Snow don’t go broody or we won’t have any egg layers. We could do with Red getting started but her comb doesn’t look anything like Autumn’s comb yet. She doesn’t look ready to start laying any time soon.

Oh well, whatever will be, will be.

Two days ago we lost our beautiful Dot. She was unique with her beautiful comb and her dark eyes and her lovely character. She came in as bottom girl but grew in confidence and worked her way up the pecking order. She also had a lovely melodic voice which was quite unlike the other girls.

She had some funny ways. She would often stand in a corner looking out as if on guard. She was our best egg layer and never went broody. She liked to lay her eggs with another girl so if she wanted to lay and there was already a girl in a nest box she would choose that one. We often found her egg next to another girls’ egg.

Dot was really friendly and easy to pick up. She liked her food and at bedtime would often be lop sided because her crop would be huge. She had the biggest crop of any of our girls. She was such a lovely girl and will be very much missed.

Dot was four years old and came to us when she was a year old. She laid an egg on her first day with us.

Goodbye my lovely girl. Dot is very much missed.

I am heart broken to have lost Dot today. She went very quickly.

Yesterday Dot seemed absolutely fine. This morning when we went out to the girls we knew something was very wrong with Dot. She was sitting in front of the chickens’ patio and looking very poorly. Already her comb had gone pale.

Dot usually lays every other day and hadn’t laid for three days but I didn’t worry because every now and again she misses two or three days. Unlike the rest of the girls Dot has never gone broody so I always felt she needed a short break now and then.

I picked Dot up and checked her vent. She had some yellow egg yolk around her vent. I feared the worst, that an egg must have broken inside her. I didn’t know if this had happened this morning or a day or two ago as with Salmon. I was unsure what to do and left her a little while to see if she could pass it.

I checked back again and there was egg dripping from her vent. I thought this may have meant that it had just happened this morning so I decided to bath her and see if once her vent was relaxed she could expel the egg.

I have never had any luck with bathing a girl to help with an egg stuck or broken but as all the chicken forums suggest this I felt I must try. It seemed the only thing I could do.

I bathed her up to just above her vent in warm water while supporting her and she appeared to doze. I couldn’t see any shell which was the worrying thing. I dried her on my lap with the towel as best I could then I dripped a few drops of sugar water in her beak in the hope of giving her some strength.

I then made her comfortable on the towel.

I checked back on her ten minutes later and she was gone. I knew as soon as I walked into the bathroom because she was facing the other way. I have seen before the last flap before they go. I picked her up and checked her and she was gone.

I just don’t understand why this should happen to Dot as she has always been our best egg layer and never had a problem. Her last eggs we had for breakfast yesterday and they had good shells.

We buried Dot in the chickens’ strip. We dug out some plants, wrapped Dot in tray papers and buried her then put the plants back over her and marked her spot.

Dot’s sibling, Spot, died of suspected heart failure without ever laying an egg. I am wondering if Dot had a weak heart too. Dot was four years old. We have had girls go suddenly over night and then Speckles suddenly on her way into the chicken shed one night. But both Spot and Dot are the only two girls that had a problem and then went so quickly so it makes me wonder.

Dot had laid 75 eggs in four and a half months – March to July. She laid more eggs every month than any of the other girls in our flock.

Dot was beautiful and had a lovely character and was a favourite of mine from the day she came to us. She will be very much missed.

I will do a tribute to Dot over the next day or two when I have gone through my photos. At the moment I feel a bit shell shocked at how quickly she has gone.

We have had a fledgling blackbird in the garden for a while. It spends a lot of time around the strawberries and raspberries. It lets us get quite close to it and I have been dropping any squashed or damaged fruit in front of it. We have also seen it help itself to fruit from the plants too.

Yesterday it was sunning itself on the path between the strawberries and raspberries. It so reminded me of the chickens sunning themselves.

I went inside for my camera. I started clicking while gradually moving closer to it. I got within a couple of feet before it flitted away.

It has been lovely having this bird get so close to us. We don’t mind it taking a few of our fruits. There have been plenty enough to share.

For the first time this year we have six out of nine girls laying and out of those six, five laid today giving us our first, five egg day, this year.

Sugar came back into lay today after a two week break and laid a normal egg. Storm came back into lay yesterday after a three week break and laid again today. Gold came back into lay a week ago. Cloud was the only one of the six who didn’t lay today but she did lay yesterday. Snow is laying well and Dot has always been a good layer.

From left to right we have Dot’s egg then Gold’s egg then Storm’s egg then Sugar’s egg then Snow’s egg arranged in size order from largest to smallest.

The non layers are Mango who is molting quite heavily, Red who hasn’t started yet and Autumn who laid through the winter then stopped.

Well done girls! Our eggs have been given a boost today and very lovely they all are.

The girls have been mixed together for nearly a week now. It has gone really well and they have settled together with no more spats. There is just the occasional bit of chasing but nothing aggressive.

Unfortunately at bedtime Red and Snow have continued to settle on top of the nest box. I now have four girls to put in each night and all my efforts to guide the new girls in haven’t worked.

Sugar has come through her broody spell after a few nights in the broody crate. Sugar still spends the majority of her time sitting in the run but when she is up and about she looks perfectly normal.

Storm is now molting as well as Mango. Mango looks tatty but although I am picking up loads of Storm’s feathers from the chicken shed and run she still looks really good. She does have only a few tail feathers left though.

I don’t know if the moult means that’s the end of eggs this year from Mango and Storm or if they come through it quickly maybe they will come back into lay. We can never tell how short the game girls’ season will be.

I thought gold was coming back into lay after her two week break as for a couple of days she had a sit in the nest box. There was no egg though and today she hasn’t bothered sitting. She looks like she does every summer with a bit of an explosion of fluffy under feathers just before her tail.

We currently have Dot, Cloud and Snow laying. Snow has now sussed out all of the nest boxes and the chicken shed and mostly lays in the nest box by the gate as the other girls don’t bother her there.

Autumn still has a sit in the nest box every day but doesn’t lay which is most odd.

Before the portraits of the girls I couldn’t resist this photo of Dot, Storm and Mango sunbathing together. I have put the portrait photos on in the order that I took them.

Cloud has the most amazing red comb and big for her small size.

And there are all my beautiful girls. Even with a bit of molting going on I think they are a stunning flock.

Yesterday I left the girls together all day and it seemed fairly calm. I decided it’s time to get them properly together. We have had the new girls seven weeks now so this has been a very slow integration.

I unblocked the corner by the chickens’ patio. I hoped at bedtime this would help the new girls to follow the other girls in to the chicken shed. It didn’t work!

At bedtime the main flock were in the shed and Mango and Cloud were on top of the nest box waiting for me to put them in as usual. Red and Snow were in their usual bedtime position between their little coop and the corner of the patio even though they were sitting next to an open gap instead of it being blocked off.

I picked them up one at a time and perched them in the chicken shed. This morning the girls were all out together without any agro.

I decided to put the run completely back to normal apart from the extra feeding stations. I opened up the wire netting at the bottom of the run. I propped the gate open. I put the little coup/nest box back in it’s position on the patio area. I hope without it in their part of the run they might be more inclined to follow the other girls in but I am not holding my breath.

Red and Snow are still sticking together and not really mixing but at least it’s a start.

Where Snow goes Red follows. The last hurdle now is training them to go in at bedtime. I really hope they get the hang of it and I don’t end up having four girls to put in each night. I am sure that if one of them goes in the other will follow. Snow is the most likely to catch on first.

For now though I am happy that we have made progress at last.

In other news Sugar has now gone broody after laying only six eggs. The tiny egg followed by five normal eggs. I will put her in the broody crate for a couple of nights to break her out of it. Gold stopped being broody a couple of days ago.

We are now back to our usual three layers, this time Dot, Cloud and Snow.

I have been giving the girls some time together each day. For a while it seemed to be going well with them all getting along. Dot and Autumn do some chasing but no fighting. Snow is more inclined to stand up for herself than Red. Dot and Snow went face to face and both froze and stared each other out. Snow refused to look away first.

But then a couple of days running there was a spat. Again it was Sugar and Snow. The next time Storm joined in so both Sugar and Storm were having a go at Snow. I can’t bear to see that happening and separated them again.

After that it was calm again but what seemed to happen was the girls would switch to each others side then when the novelty wore off they both returned to their own side. The only difference is that the gates were open but it seemed a bit pointless as they still weren’t mixing.

Today I decided to leave the gates closed but switch the girls to the opposite sides. I thought it might help the new girls to find the chickens’ patio. I feel once they are familiar with the patio area it will be a good time to mix them.

I knew that Snow was due to lay her egg and thought it would be a good time for her to find the other nest boxes. So far she had laid two eggs in her nest box and two eggs in the corner where they settle at bedtime.

I put some spinach on the patio to encourage them.

After this Red didn’t go back to the patio area but Snow wanted to lay her egg and started looking in the nest boxes. For ages she was in the nest box then back in the run then trying to get back in to her corner then on top of the nest box and so on, on repeat. I felt that at least she knew where the nest box was so I decided to let her sort it out.

I felt this was already a step forward. When I checked back a bit later Snow was back in the run with Red and her egg was in the nest box. This is her fifth egg. I was really pleased as I feel this is a break through.

So far Snow lays two days in a row then misses a day then two days in a row again.

I was really pleased with today’s progress and feel that when they are mixed, if Snow needs to lay her egg, she will know where the nest boxes are. I have also put a couple of feeding stations out in the run. This means the new girls have got used to where they are so when they are mixed there will places to eat and drink without having to compete with the other girls.

I usually do this until I feel the new girls are confident enough to eat alongside the main flock. I think we are getting very close to mixing them completely now. I just need to be brave enough to make the move. I sometimes feel it is harder on me than it is on the new girls.