Carol's Chickens

A couple of days before Marmite started laying again, after her broody spell, I found a soft shelled egg in the chicken shed one morning.

At the time I put it down to Spangle even though she had never laid a soft shelled egg before. The reason I thought it must be Spangle’s egg was that Smoke and Salmon laid later that day and I thought that Marmite wasn’t yet laying.

After this Marmite looked poorly before laying an egg a few days later. The egg was fine and Marmite seemed to be dropping feathers in a partial moult so I put it down to that.

Marmite then laid three, normal shelled, eggs without a problem before looking really poorly again. This time Marmite looked poorly for a day and a half before she settled in a nest box. She bounced back after laying but I got a shock when I saw what she had laid.

It was at this point that I realised the soft shelled egg in the chicken shed a few days before Marmite’s good egg must have been Marmite’s first egg after her broody spell. I have never seen anything like this before though.

If you look at the first photo it seems to have calcium blobs on the outside but it’s as if the calcium hasn’t formed in the correct way. It is also shaped as if it is half an egg. Even when the girls’ first eggs were really tiny they were round and had yolk in but this one had just white.

Five days later both Marmite and Smoke were in the nest box together. This was just as Smoke was going broody as she always lays one last egg at the start of being broody. This was the first time Marmite was in the nest box since the weird egg.

When I checked the nest box while Smoke was still in it there were two soft shelled eggs.

The egg on the right must be Smoke’s egg as it is the white colour of her eggs and it has a yolk. The egg on the left must be Marmite’s egg as it is darker in colour, it as a few blood spots on it and it has no yolk.

This was the last egg Smoke laid before being committed to being broody again. Smoke has never laid a soft shelled egg before but this time round she had laid six eggs in a row then missed a day then laid three in a row the last one being this one. I wonder if she has been laying too many eggs in quick succession. Six days in a row is a lot even for Smoke.

Marmite must have an egg laying problem and yet has always laid okay in the past. The next day Marmite went on to lay a normal egg but it did have some little blood streaks on the shell. We have now eaten it for breakfast and it was a normal egg with yolk.

I hope this is just a glitch with Marmite. It is all very odd. Their diet has remained the same and Salmon, who in the past has been prone to laying the odd soft shelled egg, has been laying good shelled eggs and laying more frequently.

We have never had two soft shelled eggs together before. I hope that things return to normal now. At least Smoke will now take a break from egg laying so hopefully that will help her get back to normal.

Smoke has laid ten eggs in two weeks and has now gone broody again. That means both our best layers are broody together. Smoke is a serial broody and last summer she also laid for two weeks at a time and then went broody.

While I was looking in on the two broody girls Spangle and Salmon decided they must look in too.

I may have another go at breaking them out of this as it will greatly reduce our number of eggs having both our best layers broody together. Sigh!

Both Smoke first and then Marmite started laying again, a week ago, after they came out of their broody spell. A few days ago Flame went broody.

I hoped like Smoke and Marmite that if I tried to break Flame out of it straight away it might be relatively easy. Not so! I have been locking Flame out of the nest boxes for the last three days and she now sits on top of the nest box instead.

I have decided to leave her to it. There is no point in having her sit on top of the nest box instead of more comfortably inside it. It is a pain as she is by far the best, bigger girl, layer but we will just have to manage without her eggs for a while.

While I was taking these photos of Flame, Speckles jumped on my back. My husband was standing at the chicken run gate watching so I handed the camera to him to take a photo.

Speckles has always had this habit of jumping on me. When I clean up the run, Speckles follows me, chatting to me and waiting for the chance to jump on me. When I am on their patio area if I bend slightly to look in a nest box Speckles jumps straight on to my back.

Speckles is now my only girl to do this and I think that of all the girls Speckles is the most attached to me. It is quite endearing.

I bought two jigsaws from the charity shop before the lock-down. I had been saving them until after my husband had finished the car as I felt that would be when we would need something to occupy us.

This jigsaw had 1500 pieces which was larger than our recent jigsaws. It wouldn’t fit the cardboard sheet we did the last ones on but we felt that as we won’t have visitors it could stay on the dining room table leaving just enough space for us to sit opposite each other at mealtimes.

It depicts Queen Mary’s doll house and it was a great one to do as there is so much fine detail. The border was difficult as it was repetitive but once that was in place and I had got all the writing in place we began to make good progress with it.

This jigsaw was very addictive and satisfying to do. It took us about a week to do and we really enjoyed it.

Before the lock-down my husband bought the materials that he needed to sand down the wood on our vintage car and varnish it. The relentlessly wet winter had taken it’s toll on the wood.

In the summer my husband sanded down the wood and varnished it and it was looking good but after a wet winter it had deteriorated to a worse condition than before he had done the work on it.

We have decided that we can’t keep a car with wood without a garage so my husband wanted to get it back to looking it’s best again with a view to selling it once things get back to anything like normal.

First my husband put an awning over the car to protect it while working on it. He screwed the legs of the awning into the concrete underneath the gravel on our drive so that it would stay secure. We have decided to leave the awning in place to offer a bit of protection for the car as we no longer need to load our vans for catering.

My husband had more time to work on the car this time round so he sanded it down further than before and took more time making a better job of it.

We are really pleased with the result. My husband wasn’t sure that he would be able to get it back as it looked so bad.

We intend to eventually sell the car and one of the vans and then buy another car. The vintage car is much more saleable now. It is a shame but my husband doesn’t want to have to do this every six months/year but what a fabulous job he has done.

Smoke has reminded me of Cinnamon lately in that she has taken to digging. I think it may be because I had dug the run over a few days ago, while it was dry, but after a long wet spell.

This means that the soil is perfect for digging as it isn’t wet but is still damp underneath. Smoke has two favourite spots for digging and she digs really deep holes.

At midday I cleaned up the run and filled in her holes. After lunch when I checked on the girls Smoke was digging her hole back again.

This seems to be Smoke’s thing at the moment. It is quite amusing to see.

Yesterday I defrosted some frozen spinach and mixed it in two dishes of mash. The girls loved it. I wasn’t sure how they would take to it but they picked the spinach out of the mash and wolfed it down.

By the afternoon all the spinach and all the mash had gone. I think that’s a success. This is great as I have stocked up the freezer with frozen spinach and this means the girls can continue to have their daily greens.

I am really pleased that the girls like the spinach. This morning I decided to try it without the mash. I just put the defrosted spinach on their patio area. The girls were happy with eating it like this so that is what I will do from now on.

One problem solved quite easily. It’s great to be able to give the girls their daily greens.

On Sunday I gave the girls the last of their spinach. I had stocked up with my chicken supplies but there was no point buying more than one bag of spinach as it doesn’t keep for more than a week at most and just goes slimy.

It is a treat not an essential but I think that greens are good for the girls and greens keep the eggs a lovely rich colour.

I have bought some frozen spinach which I thought that I could mix with their mash. I don’t know how well it will go down with the girls but if they don’t like it we can always use it ourselves.

Yesterday I decided instead of the spinach I would give them some yogurt that I have been saving for when the spinach runs out.

It wasn’t long before the dishes were empty. I think I can safely say the girls enjoyed their yogurt treat.

We are very lucky to have good neighbours. Our newest neighbours next door to us moved in in December and they are a lovely couple of a similar age to us and a refreshing change from the previous neighbours we had.

Before the lock-down our friends opposite ordered three boxes of veg plants for the three of us sharing an allotment plot. They said that the three of us could use them on our garden plots or on the allotment, whichever we felt, most beneficial.

At the beginning of this week the boxes were delivered and our friends opposite left ours at the end of their drive for us to collect ( we have been keeping in touch by phone or text ). We collected our box and left a box of crisps in it’s place.

We had the box of crisps for our corporate lunches which are no longer needed and with two boys in their household we felt that they would be of more use to them.

The wood on our vintage car had suffered terribly over the very wet winter. My husband decided to sand down the wood and varnish it to bring it back up to condition again. He gathered all that he needed before the lock-down and the project gives him something to do.

I have been taking photos of the progress and will do a post on it when it’s finished. Our new neighbour is a part time painter and decorator and when my husband was running short of sandpaper he left some on our drive. We in turn left them a couple of tomato plants on their drive.

We have all exchanged numbers and said that we should call each other if we need anything. It is good to have supportive neighbours.

The missing spaces are where we have given our next door neighbours some tomato plants.

In the box are broccoli, red cabbage, sweetcorn, tomatoes – red, yellow, regular and tumblers, Courgettes – green and yellow and chilli peppers.

We are intending to sell the car when things return to anything near normal as we feel it needs to be kept in a garage and we don’t want to be doing the wood every six months/year.

We also plan on selling one of the vans and eventually buying a car instead.

We have had a think about our business while we are on an enforced retirement period and have decided that we will not be starting back with the corporate lunches. We will just continue with private functions and afternoon teas. This will mean we will no longer be committed and can choose which functions we want to do.

If we don’t want to do a function we can always say that we are busy and we can accept some functions when we need a boost. This will put us more in control and will make it easier to retire completely if and when we wish to.

I think a lot of people will be rethinking their lifestyles during these difficult times. We are keeping in contact with family and friends and trying to stay positive and above all we are all in this together.

We have been getting an average of between two and four eggs a day from the girls. Yesterday was unusual as none of the girls laid which was the first time that has happened in over a month.

That meant that all of the laying girls wanted to lay today and all at the same time! Smoke had been very vocal for the last couple of days and I knew she was ready to start laying again. It has been a week since she came out of broodiness which is the usual length of time before she starts laying again.

Smoke settled in her favourite nest box by the chicken shed. Flame settled in her favourite nest box next to the store cabinet. Ebony settled in her favourite nest box by the gate which is also Salmon’s favourite nest box.

Salmon stood on the ramp to the nest box that Ebony was in and made a mournful sound. Every time she got the courage to go up the ramp and try to sit in front of Ebony, Ebony would peck her away. Most of the girls will share a nest box but not Ebony!

Salmon tried several times to get in with Ebony but each time received a swift peck. I tried putting Salmon in with either Flame or Smoke but she bounced straight back out again. After a while Salmon settled in a corner of the chicken shed instead.

After hearing a whole load of shouting from the girls I went to check and found that Ebony, Flame and Smoke had all laid. I checked the chicken shed and Salmon was just in the process of laying and was being watched over by Spangle.

I am amazed that all the girls can lay in sync like this. I took a few photos of Salmon and Spangle and a minute later Salmon had laid. Another four egg day. It is good to have Smoke, our best layer, back in lay again.

Spangle is always the easiest girl to photograph because she gives me her full attention.

Another bit of good news is that Salmon has finally stopped wheezing. Over the last week or so I had noticed that she was wheezing much less. Over the last few days I noticed that she had stopped altogether but didn’t want to say anything too soon in case she started again.

I haven’t heard her wheeze at all for the last few days. It has taken since the summer for this stop and I had thought that maybe it was permanent. I am so pleased about this. This bodes well for her future. Well done girls!