Carol's Chickens

As fast as some of the broodies come out of it some more start. Our current seramas are more prone to broodiness than our past seramas.

Two nights ago Flame perched at the back of the chicken shed. A little later Vanilla perched under Flame’s wing. I moved Vanilla to the amigos’ perch and she stayed put so I left Flame in the chicken shed overnight.

Last night Flame perched at the back of the chicken shed again but this time Vanilla perched with the amigos. Hurrah! After three weeks of this silly behaviour Flame and Vanilla are back to normal. Vanilla also laid a normal sized egg today.

At precisely the same time Smoke and Marmite have gone broody. There is quite a difference between these girls though. It is two months since Marmite last went broody and in that time she has laid twenty eight eggs. Smoke has laid eight eggs in eight days and gone broody again. Smoke has the record for laying the most eggs in a row but the shortest time before going broody again.

It’s such a shame because Smoke was our best layer but it seems that no sooner she started laying she is broody again. I have decided to lift the broody girls just once in the morning and once in the afternoon and then shut the nest boxes at bedtime so that they perch up for the night. I think that I just have to accept that I have a few serial broodies and lifting them less often will be less stressful for them.

Broody Marmite

Broody Smoke

Two broodies

We seem destined to have two broodies at a time but after the Flame and Vanilla behaviour I am actually relieved to be back in the realms of “normal” broody behaviour. I can also lift these two girls easily with no pecking and they use the nest boxes rather than the shed so it is easier all round.

I am just going to go with the flow!

I added the tiny egg to the frying pan with our breakfast eggs on Saturday morning. I took a photo but unfortunately I didn’t give the camera time to focus and it came out blurred. Because of that I didn’t use the photo but David asked in the comments if the egg had a yolk in it so I decided to show the photo. You have to excuse it being blurred.

The tiny egg in the pan with four normal serama eggs

The egg had quite a dark yolk. This is a terrible photo but it does show the size of the yolk.

We have taken out the pallet, board walk, paths on our allotment plot and replaced them with turf. The pallets became very slippery when wet and also needed lifting to weed underneath them. The turf is so much nicer to walk on.

My husband spotted a simple push lawn mower for twenty pounds in our local D.I.Y. store so he bought it for mowing the turf and the grass around our plot. He also fixed a bracket to the post in the foreground to store the hose pipe.

The allotment has a turf path running through the middle

I suggested that perhaps we should lay another turf where the soil is trodden down as this is the path from the water butt to the centre path.

The hose draped around the plot is going to be our irrigation system. We fill the water butt from the communal tap and then the hose is attached to the tap on the butt with holes in the hose, so that it will self water, or at least that is the plan.

We have had complaints about the orange netting (from a house overlooking the allotment) and are planning to lower it to just above the raised beds using the wood from the pallets as supports. This is a work in progress.

All the netted area is now turfed

We also fill this butt and use watering cans to water the raised beds. The lawn mower is parked across the plot from this water butt.

Turf around the raised beds

The raised beds

The pockets around the raised beds have had wild flower seeds sprinkled in them.

We will leave the strawberry bed uncovered so that the bees can pollinate the strawberry flowers.

There have been some honey beehives set up in a sheltered part of the allotments.

The back of the beehives

The yellow warning sign says that the bees are active and warns that you may get stung.

The front of the beehives

The bees are unlikely to sting if you don’t get in their way. We were advised not to block their flight path. They were very active but didn’t bother us. Notice the bee on the right entering the hive.

We are enjoying the process of the plot evolving and are pleased with how neat and tidy it is looking. It has also been nice to chat to other people working on their plots.

It will be fun when we start to get some produce but at the moment it quite satisfying seeing it evolve.

It seems that Vanilla had completely regressed to being a chick. A weird thing happened yesterday. I saw Vanilla checking out the nest boxes in the morning. I wondered if she was getting ready to lay again. It has been three weeks since she last laid. After briefly going broody she started behaving like a chick to Flame.

I know that after being broody the girls take a break before laying again but I wondered if it would be the same after regressing to being a chick.

It was a very busy morning with egg laying. Jasmine laid first thing and then Cinnamon laid soon after. Salmon and Smoke shared a nest box and laid their eggs side by side. Marmite settled in the nest box and she always takes ages.

Spangle hasn’t laid for twelve days. I am not sure why Spangle isn’t laying which is a bit worrying but she looks fine. I had to go out and when I returned Marmite was out in the run. I checked the nest box and her egg was there alongside a tiny egg like the “first eggs” most of the seramas have laid.

I can only think that Vanilla has laid as if it’s her first egg again. This is the most serama eggs we have ever had in one day with only one girl not laying so this egg could only be from Vanilla or Spangle and as Spangle isn’t laying and hasn’t looked in a nest box today but Vanilla was looking in the nest box I think that it must be Vanilla’s egg.

Yesterday’s eggs with the tiny egg on the right

I think this must be Vanilla’s egg

It seems that Vanilla had so firmly regressed to being a chick that she has laid a “first” tiny egg again. That’s the only explanation I can think of. We seem to be having weird behaviour from our girls. It will be interesting to see if Vanilla lays again soon. Hopefully this will mean she has grown up again!

Last night I checked on the girls at half past seven. They were all out in the run except for Flame. I looked in the chicken shed and Flame was sitting in the middle of the floor spread out as wide as she could make herself. So it seems that it is Flame now continuing with this, waiting for Vanilla to come to her.

I put Flame in the crate and when I checked the girls at dusk Vanilla was perched up with the rest of the amigos. I will continue to separate Flame at bedtime until she starts perching again.

The night before last Flame was in the dog crate and when I checked on the girls after dark I was pleased to find that Vanilla had perched up at bedtime. This lulled me into a false sense of security. I decided to leave Flame with the flock last night.

I checked on the girls at dusk and was disappointed to see Flame sat on the chicken shed floor with Vanilla underneath her. Only Vanilla’s tail was sticking out. I lifted Flame and put her in the dog crate again and lifted Vanilla to the perch with the amigos where she stayed put.

This time I will stick to the regime and put Flame in the crate at night for a while longer. I should have trusted my instincts and kept up the regime but I thought that they may have been out of this by now. This isn’t happening during the day and I suppose I have to be thankful that it’s now just at night.

The girls’ turf is now completely brown but they love sitting on it especially when the sun is on it. It’s become a communal carpet.

The girls love sitting on the turf

This is now the favourite spot to chill and preen. The four missing girls are all squabbling over the nest boxes. It’s a tough life in the chicken run!

It was such a good day yesterday with Flame back with the flock and Flame and Vanilla staying apart that I thought we had cracked it. I was gutted when I opened the pop hole at bedtime and Flame went straight in and sat down with Vanilla immediately forcing herself underneath Flame and Flame accepting her.

But as it was said in the comments it was progress so I just to have amend the plan. Tonight at bedtime I will put Flame in the dog crate before opening the pop hole. It is no hardship to Flame to spend the night in the crate as she would spend it on the chicken shed floor anyway. It is really easy to put Flame in the crate and she is calm and settled once in there.

It is much easier and less stressful having the flock together during the day and only separating Flame at night. I will do this for a couple of nights and then try again or continue until Vanilla starts perching at bedtime.  This has to work sooner or later.

Flame

I can never understand the mentality of broodies. Flame has shown no sign of being broody during the day. She spends the day out in the run doing all the normal chicken things. So why does she switch back at bedtime!

I wonder if she thinks that her “chick” no longer needs her during the day but still needs to be kept warm at night. Who knows what goes on in their little pea brains!

In other news Jasmine looked like she was getting ready to lay again. She has only had a break of eleven days but then again last time she only took a break of seven days. Jasmine couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get in the pop hole as she likes to lay her eggs in the chicken shed just inside the pop hole.

However Jasmine did go and look at a nest box so she knows that they are there and she has laid in a nest box in the past before she took to the habit of laying in the shed. Therefore I decided to leave it to her to work out that she would need to use a nest box.

Jasmine looks for the pop hole

Jasmine checks out a nest box

Jasmine checks out the pop hole again

I returned a short time later and Jasmine was settled in a nest box. What a clever girl she is.

Jasmine settled in a nest box

I went back to check and Jasmine came out of the nest box shouting. I checked and there was no egg. This isn’t unusual for these girls. Spangle, Marmite and Salmon often sit in a nest box and come out without laying. It seems to be a serama thing and Jasmine may need some practise.

Jasmine returned to the nest box and this time she laid a very, small, round egg. Well done Jasmine.

What was very odd though is that I checked the next nest box and there was Flame with some pine shavings on her back.

Flame in the nest box with pine shavings on her back

This would signal that Flame is getting ready to lay again. Perhaps she had stopped being broody but had got lulled into thinking that she had a chick in Vanilla. It is all very odd.

I checked back later and Flame was still in the nest box. I lifted her and found that she was sat on a serama egg which I think belonged to Salmon as she had been in the nest box earlier. I put Flame into the run and she ran off and started scratching about. I really have no idea what is going on with her.

Flame stayed out for the rest of the day so I think she may be coming back into lay and also needs a bit of practice.

I will put Flame in the crate overnight and put her back in the run in the morning. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with our crazy Flock. I am  much happier with this progress than the previous situation with Flame and Vanilla glued together all day. I can much better cope with just a night time separation and feel more confident now that we will soon move past this and back to normality.

Yesterday each time I went up to the chickens Vanilla was out in the run with the rest of the flock until I went through the gate when she would then run to the closed pop hole.

Today when I have gone out to the girls Vanilla has stayed with the flock and hasn’t taken any notice of the closed pop hole.

After lunch I decided to get Flame out for some exercise. I followed my instinct and decided to leave Vanilla in the run too and see what happened. Flame ran straight into the run for a dust bath and Ebony bounded over to her, had a good look at her and then joined in with the dust bath. Ebony looked so pleased to see Flame that it was rather touching.

Then came the moment when Vanilla realised that Flame was back. We watched with bated breath. Vanilla went over and started trying to climb on Flame’s back like before. Flame angrily pecked her away. Vanilla retreated then gradually crept over again. Vanilla tried to climb over Flame again and Flame pecked her away. This time Vanilla moved away and kept her distance.

Hurrah! It seems that Flame has had enough of this relationship and all it took was for Flame to show Vanilla that she wasn’t wanted. I think we may have cracked it.

Flame and Ebony spent a long time enjoying their dust bath while Vanilla joined the rest of the flock on the patio where I had put Flame’s dish of mash.

When they had finished dust bathing Flame went to the turf and pecked at the grass. There was one moment when Flame went and looked at the pop hole and I thought that maybe this wasn’t completely over after all.

The next minute Flame was back out in the run and Vanilla stayed away from her. At one point the three bigger girls were sat together on the turf as if it was a carpet. They looked completely relaxed together but I didn’t manage to get a photo.

This morning Vanilla was mixing with the other girls

Ebony was pleased to see Flame and they immediately started a dust bath together

Vanilla has been pecked away by Flame

This was the moment when Vanilla came in for a second go at joining Flame and was pecked away again.

A great dust bath

Vanilla is with the rest of the flock while Flame and Ebony dust bath

Flame is pecking at the turf which is looking rather brown now

Flame has a look at the blocked pop hole

This was the only time that Flame had a look at the pop hole and then she spent the rest of the afternoon in the run with the rest of the flock. It was so lovely to see the whole flock out in the run together and Vanilla keeping her distance from Flame. It all looked so lovely and normal!

I decided that I would open the pop hole in the evening and see what happens. I am quite hopeful that things will be back to normal. If so we are done with this. If Flame and Vanilla are together again I will put Flame back in the crate overnight.

I feel that it will be okay though as flame has now shown Vanilla that she isn’t playing this game any more. I will report back to tomorrow on how this evening goes. Once again, fingers crossed.

I have decided that I need to completely separate Flame and Vanilla to try to break their behaviour. I have been putting, each of them in turn, in the chicken shed and letting them out together a few times a day.

This means that while Vanilla is in the shed Flame will just sit on the patio outside the pop hole and when Flame is in the shed Vanilla spends all her time trying to get in. As soon as they are together they spend their time with Vanilla sitting underneath Flame. Neither of the girls are doing any of the normal chicken things and it is getting us nowhere.

I have decided to put Flame in the dog crate in the garden shed and leave Vanilla blocked out of the chicken shed.

As Sophie said in the comments you are meant to put the broody on the wire and prop the crate up on bricks to let the air circulate underneath and cool the broody. I have always disliked the idea of the girl being sat or stood on the wire. I have decided to line the metal tray with paper and put in a dish of mash and a dish of water. The mash makes less mess as pellets tend to get flicked around. The shed is cool anyway and even if at worst it doesn’t break Flame’s broodiness I hope that it will at least break Vanilla’s behaviour.

I prefer the girls to perch at night but last night, after dark, I lifted Vanilla to the amigos perch and Flame to her perch at the back of the shed. Every time I closed the door I would hear Flame drop back down to the floor of the shed. After the fourth time I had to leave her to it. Because of this I am going to leave Flame in the crate overnight in the shed which I will close and lock.

I feel that Flame needs complete separation for this to work. Once a day I will shut Vanilla in a nest box and put Flame in the run to get some exercise while leaving the chicken shed open so that Flame can see that Vanilla isn’t in there but for this first day I am going to leave Flame here all day.

I have no idea if this will work or how long it will take but I feel that I need to do something.

Flame in the dog crate

Flame has some mash

Flame settles down in the crate

Flame has been very calm in the crate. She has eaten some mash and has been sitting preening.

In other news Smoke started laying again yesterday after her broody break of two weeks. Today She wanted to lay in the nest box that Ebony was in despite two other empty nest boxes. Ebony shouted at her and then relented and let her share the nest box.

Smoke and Ebony share a nest box

Smoke and Ebony laid their eggs side by side. It is so good to have our best serama egg layer laying again.

I will post again tomorrow with news of how this is progressing. Fingers crossed.

I am getting absolutely nowhere with trying to break this behaviour.

Flame with her baby

It would be adorably cute if Vanilla was a baby but as she isn’t it is very irritating. I have been putting Vanilla in the shed for an hour and blocking Flame out. Flame just sits on the patio outside the pop hole.

As soon as I let Vanilla out again they do this. At one point Flame did go and have a dust bath with the rest of the girls so I took Vanilla out and put her with them in the hope that she would dust bath too. All she did was sit on Flame’s back causing Flame to cut short her dust bath and return to sitting by the pop hole with Vanilla underneath her.

I really don’t know what to do to break this behaviour and I am fed up with it.

Vanilla has so completely regressed into chick behaviour that it is proving very difficult to break. Today I have tried a change of tactic. I decided that it would be better to shut Flame out of the chicken shed to try to break her of being broody. I am leaving vanilla in the shed but getting her out at regular intervals to eat, drink and exercise.

This is less stressful for Vanilla because yesterday she spent all her time pacing the patio and trying to get in to the shed. This way she just calmly settles down in the corner of the shed.

Shutting both Flame and Vanilla out of the shed doesn’t work as they spend their entire time with Vanilla sitting underneath Flame. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned out the chicken shed and the three nest boxes. I emptied them and hoovered every surface and then refilled them with fresh pine shavings and swept the patio area and cleaned the food and water dishes.

This took more than an hour and as the girls don’t like to get near the hoover it kept them away from the patio area but Flame and Vanilla spent the entire time with Vanilla sitting underneath  Flame either in the run or on one of the wooden blocks.

This morning I got them both out for a break and blocked the chicken shed to stop them going straight back in. Once they had had some food and water Flame sat just outside the pop hole. Vanilla immediately started her chick behaviour. She will jump up and peck at the back of Flame’s neck for attention. She will climb all over Flame and sit on top of her. Flame is remarkably tolerant. Eventually Vanilla will force herself beneath Flame.

Vanilla tries to get on Flame’s back

Vanilla sits on Flame’s back

Vanilla on top of Flame

Vanilla tries to find a way underneath Flame

Vanilla forces her way underneath Flame

I am amazed how tolerant Flame is with Vanilla. Richard, the farmer, keeps these bantam game birds as broodies for his bantam gold and silver wyndottes. He comes from a farming family background and breeds the traditional way of putting eggs under the broodies to let them hatch and rear the chicks whereas my serama breeder puts the eggs in an incubator and rears the chicks with heat pads.

Richard says that these game girls make excellent broodies and really good mothers. I must have struck lucky with Toffee and Emerald because they never went broody while we had them. Flame is just proving to be everything Richard said that his broody girls are.

Quite why Vanilla has taken on the role of chick is a mystery. Vanilla was much later starting to lay than the other girls. Smoke and Marmite started laying in December and all the other girls (not counting Sienna) started laying in January. Vanilla started laying in March and laid twenty four eggs in six weeks before going broody. It was shortly after that that Flame went broody and started sitting with her. Then a few days later I realised that Flame was sitting on Vanilla, or as I now realise, Vanilla was sitting underneath Flame.

I think it may be a long process to break this behaviour. At first it seemed interesting and even quite cute but now it’s become irritating. It’s more difficult to cope with than just having broodies. I wonder how long it will be before Vanilla grows up again and starts egg laying again.

I guess only time will tell.