Carol's Chickens

Ebony is getting ready to lay again and has been practising over recent days. Smoke doesn’t need to practise. When Smoke is ready to start laying she just settles in a nest box and gets the job done. It’s a month since Smoke last laid.

Today Ebony and Smoke both wanted the same, favourite, nest box at exactly the same time. There was shouting. Smoke settled in the favourite nest box, next to the store cabinet.

Ebony went into the same nest box and Smoke left. Smoke settled in the nest box next door and all went calm and quiet. A bit later I heard the egg shout from Smoke and both girls were out in the run. I checked the nest boxes.

No egg in Ebony’s nest box so it was a false alarm but in Smoke’s nest box there was her egg.

Smoke’s egg is on the right and Shadow’s first egg is on the left for size comparison. Smoke’s first egg is always a bit smaller than usual and her next egg will be a bit bigger than this one. Smoke’s eggs are always almost round.

It looks like the egg season has begun. It will be lovely to have our own eggs again but I expect more nest box dramas to come!

When Shadow started to squat for me a few days ago I knew that she was getting ready to start laying. Yesterday Shadow was very vocal and was going in and out of the nest boxes.

Shadow went in the nest box by the gate in the afternoon and she was very vocal. She then went quiet and settled down. It was quite late in the afternoon.

At dusk I went to check and all the girls were in the chicken shed. I checked Shadow’s nest box and there was her first egg. It was a typical first egg, small and with a blood streak on the shell.

What a clever girl to get her first egg laid in the right place.

For size comparison I put a fifty pence piece to the left of Shadow’s egg and a shop bought, medium sized, egg on the right.

Well done Shadow! What a clever girl.

I have never posted so infrequently but there really hasn’t been much to post about recently and the weather has been awful.

It seems to swing between being really wet or really cold. We have had weeks of rain and now a week of freezing temperatures is forecast. I will be going out first thing every morning with water for the girls.

Despite the awful weather I think Shadow is getting ready to start laying soon. Her voice has changed and she is very vocal at the moment. Both Sugar and Shadow have been scratching and pecking in the nest boxes and they both have red faces and combs.

I have been hovering my hand over their backs to see if they will squat which is always a sign that they are getting near to starting to lay. Neither girls were squatting until a few days ago when Shadow started to squat for me.

I have been trying to get a photo but keep missing it. I hold the camera in one hand and touch Shadow’s back with the other then click. Each time the squat is so brief that by the time I have clicked Shadow has raised up again and then bounces out of the way.

Shadow and Sugar are fine for me to get close to them and take close up photos but Shadow doesn’t appreciate me touching her.

I think that Shadow may be just a bit older than Sugar as her voice is more mature. When we first had these two Sugar was always the first into everything and Shadow would follow her everywhere.

These days they are more independent. They have little spats between the two of them. They run at each other with chests out. Then just recently at bedtime I first noticed that they weren’t always perched together and then noticed that shadow would give Sugar a peck at times during the bedtime line up.

There is no doubt that Shadow has become the top girl of these two. The pecking order always has to be established but it is surprising when such a tight little pair begin to do this. They still spend a lot of time together but they are happy to be apart too. Our youngest girls are growing up.

I have talked recently of how sometimes the flock seems to divide into two parts of bigger girls together and little girls together. There are other times when the flock are very definitely all together.

The weather has recently made the flock stick very closely together. First there was the snow which when it settled on the chicken run roof it made the run quite dark.

The entire flock formed a very close bunch in front of the large wooden shelter. This spot had the most light as the light came through the weld mesh at the side of the hatch. The girls didn’t move far from this spot.

On the second day, with the snow still settled, there was blue sky and sunshine. The entire flock perched on the branch perch above the ladder where it gets the sun at this time of the year.

After three days of the snow being settled it disappeared after a night of rain. It has rained every day since. This morning while I was cleaning the chicken shed it bucketed with rain. This is quite noisy on the chicken shed roof.

I looked to see where the girls were and the entire flock were inside the large wooden shelter or standing just in front of it. I didn’t have my camera with me though. The three bigger girls were perched inside the shelter. The little girls were either perched in the shelter or standing just inside and a couple of them were standing in front of the shelter.

It always amuses me to see the flock go to the shelter when it rains because the run is roofed and it is dry at the top end of the run. I think it is the sound of the rain on the roof that sends them in to the shelter when it rains heavily.

What is endearing though is that in any kind of odd weather the girls form a very close unit. At these times they are very much one flock.

The day the girls all perched together in the sun I took a photo from outside of the run in case they jumped down once I went through the gate. I kept this photo because it shows Flame who was at the back and not easy to spot in my photos from inside the run.

It warms my heart to see the girls together like this.

Yesterday it snowed from nine o’clock in the morning until twelve o’clock lunch time. The flakes were the biggest we have ever seen and the snow was the sort that sticks together and settles quickly. It was quite dark in the chicken run.

Over night the snow froze and this morning it was crunchy. Today we have blue sky and sunshine so I took two photos of the same views.

We are being ultra careful as it is thawing and freezing and although it looks beautiful it is treacherous. When I go up to the chickens I walk on the crunchy snow.

I have had to take the chickens some water first thing in the mornings as it freezes overnight. We are not used to this. The sun today is most welcome though.

Although our flock of nine girls get on together very well and are often all together there are also times when they are a flock of two parts.

Sometimes the three bigger girls will be perched together while the smaller girls are hanging out together elsewhere.

This perch is Flame’s favourite perch and very often if she is missing from the flock I will find her here but at other times Ebony and Speckles will keep her company.

This perch recently rotted at the ends and fell down. Because it is the very favourite perch we rescued it. My lovely husband cut the ends off and nailed it back in place. Despite being a bit shorter it still remains the favourite perch so it was worth saving.

I love to see the bigger girls hanging out together.

There isn’t a lot going on in the chicken run at the moment. It’s an in between time of year. Shadow and Sugar are showing an interest in the nest boxes.

They like to spend time on the ramps pecking at the pine shavings and some times scratching the shavings out of the nest box but I don’t think they are actually ready to start laying yet.

However it does mean that they will know where to go when they are ready to start laying. I don’t anticipate any problem with them laying in the right place.

Yesterday was very cold and I decided to give the girls some warm mash as a treat.

It didn’t take long for the mash to disappear.

In other news Ebony laid two eggs at the end of December and another two at the start of January but hasn’t laid since. Her last egg was the soft shelled egg eleven days ago.

Smoke has now gone broody so that’s the end of egg laying for the moment. Smoke has been laying for a month and has laid seventeen eggs which is pretty good for her between broody spells.

So after having unexpected eggs in December and January there will now be a lull and I don’t expect any more eggs until February. You never know though as these girls are often able to surprise me. I will be reporting back when we get our next egg.

Both Smoke and Ebony have been laying since half way through December. This is normal for Smoke but unusually early for Ebony. Ebony is usually the earliest to start laying other than Smoke though.

Ebony started laying half way through January last year and Flame and the rest of the little girls started laying in February.

This morning I found a soft shelled egg from Ebony, in the chicken shed, underneath her roost spot. This is her first ever soft shelled egg. I know that this is due to the girls being on growers pellets which don’t have the calcium of the layers pellets.

The chicks are now seven months old and have red faces and combs. I think they are now old enough to safely progress to layers pellets which will be better for the whole flock as they come back into lay. I have decided to change the dishes over to layers pellets at the end of today.

I was already intending to give the girls a fish treat today. I decided to scramble Ebony’s egg with a little olive oil and water and mix it in with the fish. The girls may as well benefit from this extra treat.

The flock rushed to the treat with just Sugar and Shadow hanging back a bit. Sugar is definitely the braver of the chicks and was the first of these two to go to the treat. Once the main flock had started to move away Shadow got her turn.

Unfortunately I will have to waste the remaining growers pellets that I have but it is never easy to time the right amount and it’s a small cost in the scheme of things.

I think this is the right move for the health of the flock and I feel sure that there will be more egg laying happening soon. One thing is certain and that is that the girls enjoyed their extra treat.

It’s been a very cold start to the year. Even so if there is a patch of sun the girls will find it and they love a dust bath together.

Speckles was dust bathing nearby, in front of the little girls, in the first photo. Smoke is often not part of the little girls’ group. Smoke is the only aggressive girl among the little girls and they often keep out of her way. Smoke doesn’t seem to mind being a bit of a loner though.

In the same way Ebony is the only aggressive girl of the bigger girls. Flame and Speckles don’t seem to mind though and Smoke isn’t bothered by Ebony either. They seem to recognise each other as the most fierce.

Because of this Smoke is top girl of the little girls. However Ebony is number two of the bigger girls as Speckles maintains her top girl position because she is the eldest and has been part of the flock for the longest time. Speckles manages to maintain top position without aggression.

It is all part of life as a chicken though and the little girls don’t seem bothered by it. The pecking order must be maintained.

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.