Carol's Chickens

Ebony went broody three days ago. Marmite has been broody for three weeks and Smoke has been broody for four weeks. I think Smoke is beginning to come out of it as she is staying out for longer when I get her out for a break.

Having three broody girls is clogging up the nest boxes when the other girls want to lay their egg, even with Marmite and Smoke, sharing a nest box. Yesterday Ebony was in one nest box while Marmite and Smoke were sharing the nest box next door. Jasmine and Spangle both wanted to lay their egg but these two girls won’t share.

Jasmine and Spangle were doing a lot of shouting as they both wanted the third nest box. Jasmine finally took possession of it.

Spangle settled on top of the nest box next to the store cabinet. When I have moved the nest boxes out to sweep behind them I have twice found a broken egg behind this nest box. I think this is due to Spangle laying there and the egg rolls down the back of the nest box. Spangle likes to be higher up to lay her egg and in the past had laid an egg on top of the store cabinet. I have left it blocked up ever since.

I decided to try to resolve this issue yesterday by giving Spangle a crisp box as a temporary nest box. I put it on top of the nest box and Spangle happily settled in to it.

Broody Ebony

Broody Marmite and Smoke

Jasmine in the third nest box

Crisp box nest box

Spangle in the crisp box

I realised when I took this photo that there wasn’t enough height for Spangles tail. Spangle has the biggest tail of the little girls. I have used a crisp box successfully in the past but now realise that I must have turned it sideways to give more height.

Spangle looked so settled that I didn’t have the heart to move her. She only lays an egg once a week or once every two weeks and has false alarms in between so I was certain that she wouldn’t lay anyway.

True to form Spangle came out of the crisp box giving the egg shout but when I checked there was no egg. I am used to this with Spangle. Jasmine laid the only egg of the day. I put the crisp box in the shed for next time it is needed.

We collected Vanilla along with the other four amigos last August.

Vanilla in February this year

Having only had Vanilla for a year, what she will be most remembered for, was her relationship with Flame. Twice this year Vanilla played the part of chick to Flame. It happened when they both went broody at the same time. The first time was in April this year. I took these photos when I had closed the nest boxes to try to break them out of this behaviour.

Vanilla posing as a needy chick in front of Flame

Vanilla pushes herself underneath Flame

Mother and chick behaviour

I didn’t think this would be likely to happen again but in August this year it did. We were also experiencing a heat wave and I had poured water over the patio area to cool it down. Again I had closed the nest boxes to try to break this behaviour which wasn’t ideal in a heat wave.

Flame and Vanilla do this again

Vanilla and Flame together in the shed

At bedtime this was how I found them. I had never come across this behaviour before and it was even more surprising that it happened twice.

I found this behaviour frustrating at the time but now that I look back at the photographs I can see that they looked very cute together.

Vanilla may have only been with us for a year but this is what she will always be remembered for. She had a very unique relationship with Flame. Vanilla had a good year with us. She was our best serama egg layer.

This morning when I went out to the chooks Vanilla was missing as well as the two broody girls. I assumed that she would be laying an early egg. I checked the nest boxes for the broodies and then checked the chicken shed.

Vanilla was dead in front of her roost spot. We have only had Vanilla for a year just like Apricot last year. She is our fourth girl to go at home and we buried her in the chickens’ strip next to the other girls.

I realised that the chickens’ strip had got rather overgrown

I have cleared the strip and we buried Vanilla here

I have planted some fox glove seedlings over her

My husband made a fourth cross for Vanilla.

Tomorrow I will do a tribute to Vanilla when I have collected together some photographs of her. It is so sad to lose these little girls after such a short time but I console myself with knowing that she had a good year with us.

The two broody girls continue even though it’s now been two and a half weeks for Marmite and three and a half weeks for Smoke. When Ebony wants to lay her egg the broody girls share the nest box next door.

This morning Flame also wanted to lay her egg. Despite the third nest box being empty Flame decided to share with Ebony.

The two bigger girls share a nest box

The two broody girls share a nest box

Four girls share two nest boxes

The third nest box is empty but it is quite cute to see the girls sharing.

The leek seed heads on our veg plot have been dramatic all summer. They have now come to their end so my husband decided to cut them down and put them in our enamel jug in the kitchen and see what they do.

I arranged them and took a photo but the corner of the kitchen was a bit dark so I photographed them on the table by the back door to show them off properly.

A jug of leek seed heads

In the kitchen

A bit later my husband visited the allotment and bought me back some wild flowers.

Another jug of wild flowers from the allotment

And some poppies

The poppies are so fragile that I put them in a separate little vase. The flowers are so pretty and provide such a lovely splash of colour.

We have a thriving, breeding, colony of slow worms in our garden. This summer we have seen them in all different sizes. We have seen small ones, medium ones and really big, fully grown ones.

This morning I opened the back door and there was a tiny, baby, slow worm.

Baby slow worm

I took a photograph and then slid it onto a piece of paper and moved it to a flower bed. I thought it was a bit vulnerable out in the open. It is a joy to see these little critters every summer.

Our garden is full of bees. We have something in flower nearly every month of the year so there is always something to attract the bees. At the moment it is the sedums that are busy with bees.

It is difficult to get a photo that shows how many bees because they are so small and so busy but there are dozens of bees on each sedum.

Bees on the sedum

There are four bees in this shot.

Close up of the bees

I love to see the bees busy in the garden.

Our friends and allotment sharers (who live opposite us) have been on holiday for two weeks. For the first week they went abroad and then a day back home and then off to the lake district in their camper van.

We were in charge of watering their pot plants although the first week we saved them from drowning and the second week we watered them.

They invited us over for a drink with them on their day home before setting off again. They gave us a sweet little gift of a bottle stopper.

A holiday gift, it’s so pretty

On the day they got back the second time my husband collected some more wild flowers in his water bottle and took them over to them to welcome them home. My flowers are still going strong so my husband will pick some more for me when they begin to fade.

More allotment wild flowers

My husband is rather good at making these little wild flower arrangements.

I haven’t been blogging so much recently for two reasons. For one there hasn’t been much happening in chicken world which is no bad thing and for another I have been learning to sell on e-bay.

We have been in catering for a life time and are now slowing down towards retirement and are just about part time at the moment. This means we have an awful lot of catering equipment that we no longer need.

My eldest son who is my I.T. guy has been teaching me how to sell on e-bay. I have now listed my first twelve items and have already sold four. I am really pleased with how it is going.

Back to chickens. Vanilla went broody but I broke her out of it in just two days. This meant she soon got back to laying again, just one week, after she went broody. She has laid three eggs over the last five days.

With Smoke and Marmite it is a different story. They are determined to stay broody. Marmite has been broody for the last two weeks and Smoke has been broody for the last three weeks.

Still broody

Marmite is a sweet and docile broody while Smoke is an angry broody. You can see the gentle look in Marmite’s eye and the anger in Smoke’s eyes.

Sometimes I put them in the same nest box to free up the other nest boxes when several girls want to lay at once and sometimes, as on this occasion, they choose the same nest box. They will often choose the same nest box if Ebony wants the one next door as she has no time for broodies sharing her nest box.

When I lift them out for a break Marmite will sit where ever I have put her and eventually will move off for a dust bath. Smoke on the other hand will puff herself up and hold her wings at full stretch and if any of the other little girls cross her path she will angrily chase them away.

It takes three weeks for a hen’s eggs to hatch so Smoke should be coming out of this by now but she is showing no signs of giving up. I wonder if she is challenging Ebony with her record of four weeks broody. Sigh!

Speckles is our oldest girl and we can tell that she is feeling her age. We have had her five years and she was at least two years old when we had her because she was moulting and had lost her tail. Chickens don’t moult completely in their first year but do from their second year on so she was at least two years old already.

Speckles when we first had her

This was a few months after we got her when her tail had grown back.

Speckles

It’s a slightly unfair comparison because Speckles tail isn’t quite it’s complete length after her moult, the first photo was taken in September, but the way she stands is different. Her age shows in her eyes and she has more white feathers on her head. These days Speckles spends much more time sitting on the ground or perching.

Speckles and Cinnamon are inseparable. Cinnamon at nearly three years old is our oldest serama. Whenever Speckles is sitting or perching Cinnamon will keep her company.

These two are always together

They are never far apart

If Cinnamon isn’t sitting with Speckles she will  be pottering about around her.

Speckles spends a lot of time sitting or perching

Speckles age shows in her eyes

The other thing that has changed with Speckles ageing is that she is much more easily spooked these days. When we first had Speckles she was the most nervous chicken we had ever had. She moved up the ranks from bottom girl to top girl as other girls left the flock.

Recently Speckles often gives out the alarm call. The flock have always done this if there was a cat in the garden but Speckles has done this a lot this summer. When spending time with the girls I have come to realise that Speckles now shouts the alarm if a squirrel runs over the top of the run. They have never been bothered by squirrels before. She will also shout the alarm at a bird near by or at a bird call.

One day, recently, I was sweeping the patio with most of the flock milling around me. Speckles was out in the run, past the hatch, having a dust bath. Suddenly Speckles shrieked loudly and ran at speed from her dust bath to the patio area. She seems to suddenly get spooked and I could see no reason for this.

It seems that with age Speckles has reverted to being nervy like she was as a youngster. Toffee and Emerald lived to a good age and slowed down with age but didn’t get nervous like this. While talking to my mum recently she said that her most nervous dog as a puppy reverted to being nervous when she was old so I am now thinking that that is what is going on here.

Speckles seems well in her self though and there isn’t much I can do to make her less anxious. It is heartwarming to see the close bond between Speckles and Cinnamon especially as the rest of the flock don’t have close friendships like some of the past girls have had.

It is also a good feeling to get some of the girls to a good age. Sadly the little girls haven’t reached the sort of age that the bigger girls have but I hope that some of these little girls will get to a better age as it’s always heartbreaking to lose them too soon.  I also hope that we have Speckles for longer yet even if she does spook herself over nothing at all.