Carol's Chickens

Yesterday we finally got round to blocking up the pop hole in the old shed. We have decided to leave it until next year to decide what to do with the old shed.

The old pop hole is properly blocked up

Smoke has laid eight eggs in ten days and has now gone broody again. We seem to permanently have one or two broodies on the go.

Ebony laid another egg in the wooden shelter, that’s two days running. I have no idea why she has started laying there when we have three perfectly good nest boxes.

Marmite’s purple patch has faded to mauve but the good news is that she has pins.

Marmite has pins on her head

Feathers are coming in

It will be so good to see Marmite feathered again. I think the purple spray has been a success.

This morning Flame settled in a nest box after a bit of twirling around and I knew that she was getting ready to lay. I think that the broody spell set Ebony and Flame into an early moult and now the hot weather has halted their moult and kick started them laying again.

When I next checked on Flame, Smoke was settled in the nest box with her, and when I checked a bit later Flame had laid and Smoke was sitting on her egg. I think Smoke is about to go broody again.

Smoke and Flame in the nest box together

Flame has laid

Flame’s, large, white, egg is on the left. Next is Ebony’s, then Smoke’s and Jasmine’s egg is on the right. I was correct with identifying Ebony’s egg yesterday as you can see that Flame’s egg is larger and paler.

I have never had this happen before but I am happy that we will be getting some more eggs for a while.

Eggs are sporadic at the moment. In the last week Jasmine has laid two, Cinnamon has laid two, Salmon has laid three and Smoke has laid five. Vanilla, Marmite and Spangle haven’t laid any eggs in the last week.

Then much to my surprise, while poop picking the run yesterday, I found a big sized egg in the wooden shelter. Speckles and Flame lay white eggs and Ebony lays beige eggs. The egg was beige so it must be Ebony’s egg and yet Ebony of the three girls has been moulting the heaviest.

I have never had a girl lay while moulting before. I don’t really count seramas as they moult a bit at a time but I have never had a girl lay an egg while having a proper moult. I wonder if this why Ebony has been shouting so much as they are often more vocal when about to start laying.

Eggs on an egg ramp

Ebony’s egg on the left, Smoke’s egg is in the middle and Cinnamon’s egg is on the right. I used these as a comparison because Smoke’s (and Vanilla’s) eggs are the biggest serama eggs and Cinnamon’s eggs are similar in size to all the other seramas.

Eggs on the egg stand

Ebony’s egg is on the left, Smoke’s egg is in the middle and Cinnamon’s egg is on the right.

Ebony today

Ebony doesn’t look like a girl who could lay an egg. I have stopped picking up feathers though so they are no longer dropping. I also noticed a nest sized dip in the corner of the wooden shelter the day before and also in one of the nest boxes.

Both Ebony and Flame checked out the nest boxes when I put them in their new positions after we finished the new shed two weeks ago. I took the photos below but then didn’t use them at the time.

Ebony in an nest box

Flame in a nest box

The other weird bit of behaviour is that over the last few days when Jasmine, Salmon and Cinnamon have laid Flame has been sitting on their eggs. I would see one of the little girls in the nest box and when the shout would go out and they were back in the run I would look for their egg and find Flame sitting on it.

I haven’t come across a moulting girl doing this before either. She isn’t broody because she isn’t sitting once I remove the egg but she just seems to want to sit on the eggs as they are laid.

These two girls are throwing up some very strange behaviour.

This is Ebony’s first moult with us. She looks very tatty and her face is a mass of pins and carotene. It has changed how her face looks and it’s not a pretty face.

Ebony’s face is all pins

Not a pretty face

It’s also done the same for her personality. She is behaving like a thug. She chases all the little girls (except Cinnamon who remains above her in status despite being below the little girls) and she is quite brutal with them. If they get in her way she will hang on to their neck feathers while they squeal and sometimes I am able to break it up and sometimes feathers are pulled from them as they escape.

Ebony’s moult has made her an angry thug. When I go in with treats she spends the first few minutes chasing the little girls away and she will rush at me too in impatience. I have gone back to using the leg protector as I think she would peck my legs. She is also very vocal with spells of shouting for no apparent reason.

I will be glad when Ebony is through this.

I love the garden at this time of year. There is so much colour and I love the way one thing grows through another which is the result of time and the garden maturing.

On the other hand some things get too big and we have to do some cutting down and cutting back but having no gaps keeps the weeds out and any moisture in.

The chimney pot is giving a splash of colour

A pretty hedge has developed up by the chicken run

I love the way that the planting now hides the fence

The lavender and lilies grow through each other

The flowers on the leeks are now nearly all open

Rambling rose

The standard rose is now huge

Himalayan honeysuckle

I love sitting in the garden in the lovely sunny weather we are now having. I am soaking up the sun and the colour.

I thought a fish treat would give the girls a bit of extra protein to help with their moult. I divided the fish between four small dishes.

A fish treat

The fish rapidly disappeared

I was amazed how quickly the fish got devoured. I think I can safely say the girls enjoyed this treat.

I am really pleased with the new chicken shed. It is so much quicker and easier to clean up in the new shed and all the girls have got used to where to go now.

There was just one last thing that was still needed. When our automatic door opener wouldn’t work on the new shed I ordered a new one which was delivered the following day. There were several to choose from which all looked the same but were all different prices so I chose the cheapest one.

When I opened it and looked at the instructions I realised that it didn’t have a light sensor. I was kicking myself at not having read all the small print properly. It was cheaper because it only had a timer. A sensor is really important to me because it means the door opens at dawn and closes at dusk all year round whereas with a timer the time would need altering every month.

I sent it back and ordered another one with a sensor but this one said that it would be a week for delivery. In the end it came in five days. In the meantime I had left the pop hole open as it was very warm so wasn’t a problem.

The new one arrived on Sunday and we fitted it and it worked, hurrah.

New automatic door opener

I kept popping out to see what time it would close and it closed at ten o’clock. This is half an hour later than our last one but it’s because it’s nearer the run and therefore lighter.

In the morning I heard Speckles shouting at six o’clock (probably a cat in the garden) so there was no need go out and check it. I imagine it will be opening at about five o’clock in the morning. I am sure the girls are happy to be out as early as possible.

An automatic door closer is very important to me as I don’t want to go out at five o’clock in the morning and it also means we can be away overnight if we want to. This was the last thing to complete the new shed and I am very happy with it.

On Saturday we had one very hot day, for us in England, anyway. On Saturday it was 35 degrees C which is 95 degrees F. This was 10 degrees warmer (25 degrees C – 75 degrees F) than the day before and the day after.

I feel very sorry for France who are gripped by a heatwave with temperatures up to 45 degrees C – 113 degrees F. We only had one day so it’s not classed as a heat wave. However it was enough for the bigger girls to be feeling it.

The little girls are fine with the heat as they originate from a hot country (Malaysia) and they were sun bathing in the middle of the day. Speckles was panting with an open beak, Flame was standing in the shade with her wings held out and Ebony was sitting on the wooden shelter in the shade of the hypericum.

I decided to cool the girls down with some frozen peas and sweetcorn in dishes of water. This cools the girls by not only eating the cold peas and sweetcorn (they don’t stay frozen for long) but also taking on board some of the cold water.

The girls enjoyed the treat and they looked cooler afterwards. I soon noticed that Ebony was methodically picking out all of the sweetcorn. By the time the girls had had enough for the moment there were only peas left. As the afternoon went on the peas gradually went too but the sweetcorn was definitely more popular.

Frozen peas and sweetcorn

It started out as a fifty fifty mix but the sweetcorn soon disappeared.

Ebony is picking out the sweetcorn

The girls really seemed to enjoy this and they did look more comfortable afterwards.

We have several girls moulting at the moment which seems very early. Smoke and Ebony started off with feathers drifting around the run and carotene patches on their heads.

Marmite has always had a little bare patch on the back of her head where the feathers have never grown in. It was slightly smaller than a five pence piece and can just be seen here. Her collar (necklace) feathers look loose.

Broody Marmite with a tiny bald patch

Smoke with carotene patches on her head

Ebony also has carotene on her head

The next thing was piles of Ebony’s feathers all around the run and under her roost spot. I am picking up loads of her feathers every day and as she moves the feathers waft down from her.

Ebony looks really tatty

Ebony is a mass of loose feathers

Ebony went from the first photo to the two above within a couple of days. I was holding a dandelion leaf above her to get this shot.

Then it started to look like Marmite was being plucked. This is something that I absolutely dread. We kept a close eye on the girls and it was a while before we saw it happening. When I was taking broody Marmite out of the run for a break Vanilla was pulling feathers from around her bald patch.

I think that with her black feathers and white skin it was such a contrast on her bald patch that it was attracting attention and adding to that the fact that in her broody state she was just siting in a trance. I was pretty upset about this as plucking is something I really dread.

Marmite is now bald on the back of her neck

From then on I sat Marmite on the log when I lifted her out of the nest box so that she is out of harms way until she is up and running and I also ordered some purple spray. The purple spray is antiseptic but more importantly it covers the white so it’s not so attractive to attention.

Next I started to see some of Speckles feathers in the run. She has lost feathers where her back meets her tail and I saw some feathers waft from her as she moved.

Speckles has just started to moult

Marmite with the purple spray

The purple spray covers the white patch nicely. It will also help me to see if it is continuing or has has stopped. I really hope this is just a blip and will quickly pass. Marmite has now come out of her broody spell after ten days.

Marmite in a dust bath

The bare patch is now nicely disguised and as you can see larger feathers are dropping into the run too.

Next I started seeing a few of Flame’s feathers in the run. I think that because Ebony didn’t moult last winter and has just been broody for a full four weeks this has kicked off her moult. Speckles started moulting last year in August after her second spate of laying a few more eggs. I expected her to lay six eggs this year which she has so maybe that has kick started her moult.

Flame was very late moulting last year and started in December which I thought was unusually late. Flame was only broody for a week so I am surprised that she would start moulting this early but she has already lost most of her tail feathers.

Flame is missing tail feathers

Seramas are supposed to moult a little all year round so nothing surprises me with them. I wasn’t expecting to be picking up so many feathers in June though. Toffee and Emerald used to moult in July but they had a very short laying season whereas Ebony laid all winter, last year, leading me to think she was a first year bird and Flame laid until the end of November and moulted in December leading me to think that she was a second year bird.

It will be interesting to see how the year progresses and how next year will compare. In one respect it does seem more sensible to moult in the summer rather than in the winter.  It is early for the egg supply of the bigger girls to come to a halt although it is what I was used to with my previous game girls.

It will be interesting to see if this is the end of eggs this year from Ebony and Flame or if they get through the moult and lay a few more. Only time will tell.

Update

This morning Flame has lost the rest of her tail feathers.

This morning Flame has lost the rest of her tail feathers

Oh well, all three bigger girls are definitely moulting.

Today I saw an unusual looking moth on the patio outside the chicken run gate. I took a couple of photos and then googled it.

Moth

Leopard moth

It is a leopard moth. It has a wingspan of 35 – 60 mm. It is nocturnal but adults can be found resting conspicuously in the daytime. The larva feed on the wood of deciduous trees. It is common in Southern England. Adults fly in June and July.

Well all of the above facts fit perfectly apart from the fact that I couldn’t know what the larva feed on.

The caterpillar is hairy and black with red stripes. We have seen these in the garden and I think I have done a post before and then looked up the moth but hadn’t seen the moth itself before so this time it’s the other way round.

I guess they have always been around our garden but it’s just a case of luck to see one out during the day.

We certainly have a lot of wildlife in our garden. I think it’s because we have a good variety of plants and also woodland behind us. I love seeing all the different creatures.