Carol's Chickens

Ebony laid her last egg on the last day of November which I thought was quite amazing. I thought that was the end of eggs for this year and resorted to buying shop eggs.

To my surprise Smoke started laying again. It was two weeks after she had stopped being broody and she has now laid two eggs in the last three days. I have just looked back at last year and Smoke laid throughout December.

Shop bought eggs on the right and Smoke’s eggs on the left

Well done Smoke. In other news Salmon is much improved with only the occasional hint of a wheeze now. Anyone less tuned in to the girls wouldn’t notice it at all. I am pleased to say that all the girls look great.

John Gray of the blog “Going Gently” has put out another competition. The last one I took part in was the postcard competition. This time he has a Christmas card competition. It started at the end of November and will be judged on Christmas Eve.

He is looking for the most original and says the more bizarre and different the better. The winner will be picked on Christmas Eve and the prize will be a robust donation to a charity in the winner’s name.

John works in a hospice and and his only day off over the Christmas period is Christmas Eve so he wants to make it fun.

The card I have adapted was a card that I saw when looking for a birthday card recently. John loves his dogs so this card appealed to me and I thought that I could adapt it to change it into a Christmas card. I am not going for bizarre but rather for the dog theme that fits in with John’s love of dogs.

Sadly John lost his elderly black scottie dog and elderly welsh terrier during the last year but has recently adopted a young bulldog that was in need of a home. He has a youngish welsh terrier and an elderly bulldog too plus a black cat.

For this reason I decided to stick a black scottie dog on the inside of the card which I  already had in my Christmas tin of cards and labels.

Inside the card

The outside of the card before I adapted it

The card is now a Christmas card

I have to say I am actually quite pleased with this. I realised that we don’t have any felt pens or anything suitable to colour with so I used some red and green paper that was part of a leaflet that came through the door and my white printing paper for the trim and bobble on the hat. I only had one chance at the hat as that was the biggest bit of red paper on the leaflet.

I don’t care about winning I just wanted to take part and I thought that John would appreciate a dog themed card. I posted my card this morning and I am feeling pleased that I made the effort.

I am a bit late with this post as yesterday we had a problem and our e-mail went down for the day and I couldn’t log into my blog either. My eldest son who is my I.T. guy managed to get it fixed last night but my last couple of blog posts have disappeared.

Before I start my party post I will just say for anyone who missed the last couple of posts that they were about the improvement in Salmon after another course of tylan. Her wheeze has gradually improved and is now barely noticeable at all and she seems really well so I am now much more hopeful that she will be okay.

Sunday was earlier than usual for our Christmas party but it was the date that the most people could make and we agreed to have it in the afternoon starting between twelve and half twelve.

We have a Christmas get together every year for our group of up to twenty friends some of which we don’t have the chance to see often as they live a distance away. Usually we have a meal in a pub but often we find it expensive for not very good food and it is difficult to get round and talk to everyone and we always seem to be the last ones waiting in the car park for a taxi.

A couple of times in the past we have done the catering, as it is what we do, and another couple have hosted the party at their house as they have more space than us. However this year we offered to cater it and host it at our house. Our house has plenty of rooms but the rooms are small so we knew it would be cosy but we felt it was possible.

Another couple organised the drinks and we added up the food costs and the drink costs and divided the costs equally between each of the couples. It worked out at less than half the cost of going out and we had the advantage of not needing a taxi.

We ended up with eighteen of us and we wanted to seat everyone for a cold fork buffet. We knew we could squeeze eight around our dining table as we have done so for family Christmas dinners. We borrowed a fold up table which was similar in size from my eldest son to go in the sitting room which also seated eight. This left another two so we put our small patio table and two garden chairs in a corner of the dining room.

We had enough seats with the addition of two stools we have and spare chairs we have in the loft. We knew it would be cosy but decided that it would also be fun.

We have the advantage of having our work kitchen a few steps from our back door so we set up the food and drinks out there to save space indoors. We also set up a tea and coffee making corner using one of the small water boilers that we use for our afternoon teas. We also have the advantage of having plenty of crockery and cutlery and glass ware because of our catering business and we used our vintage crockery for main and side plates.

Our dining table for eight

A garden table for two in a corner of the dining room

An extra table for two fits in a corner

Another table for eight in the sitting room

There are no glasses on the table as we put them outside with the food and drinks so that everyone could take a glass of whatever they wanted on arrival and bring it to the table when we were ready to eat.

We chatted for about an hour with our drinks before everyone helped themselves to food. We moved around between courses so that we could chat to everyone. After we had eaten we removed the table from the sitting room and the patio table so that there was more room to sit more casually and carry on chatting.

It was a great success and everyone had a great time us included. Some of our guests bought us gifts of wine, chocolate or plants/flowers for hosting and preparing the food so I have photographed the plants/flowers as they add a touch of Christmas to the house.

A lovely bouquet of flowers

A Christmas hyacinth

A poinsettia

We have since had e-mails from everyone thanking us and saying how much everyone enjoyed it. We did have a moment before guests arrived when we suddenly realised that the responsibility was on us whether it went well rather than us just rocking up to a pub and feeling free to complain a bit when the food was pretty rubbish.

We needn’t have worried and everyone said the food was top notch and that it was really good of us to host it and prepare the food and wash up afterwards. We think we may be doing this again in future years.

On our part we are grateful that our guests are willing to travel some distance and to organise taxis home whereas we are able to stay at home so it worked out well for all of us. We gave our guests some food to take home and we had left overs for dinner the next day saving us having to cook so everyone was happy. It was a great success and a really fun day.

This morning there was a hard frost and a thin layer of ice on the chickens water.

The garden this morning

Very frosty

The cabin roof is white behind the frozen rose

Salmon and Spangle have formed a close friendship recently. I think that friendships form more within a smaller flock. These two are always together recently and at bedtime they are always side by side in the corner of the chicken shed next to the bigger girls.

Salmon and Spangle dust bathing together

Speckles watches over them

Speckles and her girls

Speckles has taken on the role of mother hen to the little girls and more especially these two since the other two have been broody. I used to read some opinions that it could be difficult to mix different sized birds together but that has not been my experience.

I thought that Ebony and Flame would be company for Speckles after we lost Emerald but Speckles actually prefers to hang out with the little girls. Very often Ebony and Flame will be perched together above the ladder and Speckles will be at the centre of the little girls. Speckles seems to relish her mother hen status with these little girls.

Today I started with tylan in the water and mash made with tylan water again. I will do this for five days to see if it has any effect on Salmon. As you can see above she is still happily dust bathing but she still sounds terrible with her wheezing.

While she looks happy and active she sounds like Darth Vader. When I see her looking so lovely and so well it makes it so hard to think that we may lose her this winter because she still sounds so terrible. I would love to have her stop wheezing but sadly I doubt that is going to happen and I know that she has a very uncertain future.

At the same time I don’t want to give up on her and although I doubt this five days of tylan will make any difference I feel I have nothing to lose by giving it a go. At the moment I feel that I must keep trying to keep her well. We have lost so many little girls this year that I really dread the thought of losing another one.  I know we will all be willing Salmon on.

Today I gave the girls some yogurt as a treat. Marmite and Smoke are still broody so I lifted them out of the nest boxes and put them on the patio before bringing the yogurt dishes in and putting them on the patio too. It’s a great way of getting some photos of all the girls together.

The girls have some yogurt

They love yogurt

Since Marmite and Smoke have been broody I have noticed that Salmon and Spangle hang out together and Marmite and Smoke stay together when I lift them out of the nest boxes. You can see this in the photo above.

They splash the yogurt around

I am keeping an eye on Salmon’s crop to make sure she is eating properly and as you can see in the photo above she has a full crop, a curved lopsided bulge, on her right side.

Salmon has some days of sounding worse and some days of sounding slightly better. She is still lively and always runs to the treats.

I am thinking of giving another five days ( only ) of tylan to see if this time it would clear the wheezing. I feel that there is nothing to lose. Marmite and Smoke won’t get much as they are broody but that doesn’t matter as they are the healthiest two seramas.

It would be so good if Salmon could get clear of the wheezing before winter really sets in. I think that it’s worth a try.

I gave the girls tylan in the water for a full three weeks and Salmon was still wheezing at the end of this. It’s now been a week and a half since I stopped the tylan and Salmon seems no better but no worse.

I worry about the fact that she is still wheezing and I can tell where she is when she is nearby by the sound of her. But she appears fine in every other way. She is doing all the usual chicken things. She runs to the treats, she is eating well, she is pecking and scratching and she is dust bathing. Today I took a couple of photos of her dust bathing.

Salmon having a dust bath

Dust bathing contortions

There is plenty of space but the girls seem to like to dust bath up against the wire. You can see several dust bath holes. I always think it must be rather cold dust bathing at this of year but it doesn’t seem to put them off.

I don’t know what to do about Salmon. I haven’t had this happen before. In the past the girls either got better after tylan or rapidly reached a point where I knew there was no coming back. I have read that untreated myco won’t go away and the bird will die. Yet Salmon looks and behaves like a healthy girl but with a wheeze.

I was thinking of taking her to the vet this week but last time she got very stressed and I am reluctant to put her through that if there is nothing that can be done for her. I think that I will ring the vet and see if I can get a phone call appointment and ask her advice.

That is my new vet of course. I know exactly what my old vet would tell me and I don’t want to have Salmon put to sleep while she still has quality of life. My new vet said that it is all about quality of life and an unhappy bird doesn’t dust bath.

In other news both Marmite and Smoke are broody. I lift them from the nest box three times a day to give them a break and I lift them again at bedtime and put them on the perch in the chicken shed. Marmite has now been broody for two weeks and Smoke has been broody for one week.

Two broody girls together

I said to my husband that they are crazy going broody at this time of the year. He said maybe not as they are sitting cosy in a nest box all day instead of being out in the run in the cold! At least they have each other to keep warm.

Oh well, they will decide when they have had enough, I guess. Ebony is still laying the odd egg but has slowed right down so I think eggs are about to stop altogether any time now. I don’t imagine that Marmite and Smoke will lay again this year either. Time to start buying eggs again which are never as good as our lovely eggs.

I have never had a girl who has changed in appearance as much as Spangle. When we first got her last August she reminded me of a turnstone. She had blocks of brown feathers on her back and brown tail feathers.

As she went through her partial baby moult she lost some of the brown feathers on her back and only had a few remaining brown tail feathers. This year after her first proper moult she has lost nearly all of her brown feathers and now has an all white tail. I think she has become more beautiful with this transformation. She no longer bares any resemblance to a turnstone.

Spangle on the right when we first got the amigos in August 2018

Spangle on the right of the photo

Spangle in the foreground

Perching in November 2018

Spangle checks out the new chicken shed in June 2019

Spangle has one remaining brown tail feather in September 2019

Spangle today –  November 2019

Spangle’s right side

Spangle’s left side

Spangle’s back

Spangle is like a cygnet turning into a swan. She has become a beautiful, mostly white feathered, girl. She has a lovely nature to match. She is a gentle and friendly girl and the easiest to photograph because she doesn’t mind how close I get to her and she doesn’t flinch when I photograph her.

I only have to bob down on the patio area and Spangle runs to me. She is easy to stroke and to pick up. Spangle is a lovely character and a beautiful girl.

Monday was day twenty one of tylan in the water. I am so disappointed that Salmon is still wheezing after three weeks of tylan. I can’t go on using it beyond three weeks and I feel if it hasn’t cleared up the wheezing now then it’s never going to.

I have to prepare myself that we may lose Salmon this winter. At the moment apart from the wheezing she looks absolutely fine so we will just have to wait and see how it goes with her.

Salmon on Monday

Marmite is still broody and I am lifting her from the nest box at the end of each day and placing her on the bedtime perch.

Broody Marmite

Ebony and Smoke are still laying so we are getting enough eggs for the weekend breakfasts. I keep thinking the eggs will stop at any time so any eggs we get are a bonus.

Smoke today

Speckles continues to look well despite her age. Spangle still squeaks and sneezes but otherwise seems fine.

Spangle today

Salmon today

Spangle close up

Salmon

I will just have to hope for the best with getting these little girls through the winter.

I have had the feeling, over the last few days, that Marmite was about to go broody. She has laid fifteen eggs in twenty five days which is pretty good going. The last few days she has spent longer in the nest box and started making the clucking sound.

Last night at bedtime when I checked on the girls the automatic door was just closing and Marmite was in the nest box. I lifted her to the bedtime perch.

This morning Smoke wanted to lay her egg in the same nest box that Marmite was occupying so she decided to share.

Smoke and Marmite share a nest box

Notice the difference in their tails. Smokes has the normal, together, tail and Marmite has the, fanned out, broody tail. As soon as Smoke had laid her egg Marmite promptly sat on it and shouted loudly when I removed it.

Being broody in November is ridiculous!

As the girls are still growing their new feathers I thought a protein treat of fish would be good for them.

A fish treat for the girls

The girls enjoy their treat

A group shot of the flock

It’s easier to get a group shot now there are only seven girls. The girls have been having tylan in the water for two and a half weeks now. I am going to keep them on it for three weeks as Salmon still has a slight wheeze although it has improved.

It concerns me that it is taking so long for Salmon to stop wheezing altogether and I worry that I may still lose her yet. Apart from the wheeze she looks normal and is active, doing all the usual chicken things and eating well.

I dread the thought of losing any more girls but there is nothing else I can do for them. I just have to hope that Salmon can shake this off. I am keeping everything crossed.