Carol's Chickens

For the last couple of days when I have gone to stroke Speckles she has dropped into a squat. She is definitely getting ready to lay. Today she sat in the nest box nearest the chicken shed and was piling pine shavings on to her back.

I really thought she was going to produce her first egg of the year but she later came out with out laying an egg. Even an older girl sometimes needs a bit of practice.

Speckles in the nest box

Speckles is putting shavings on her back

Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

This morning when I went in to the girls Salmon was back to her usual perky self and enthusiastically joined in with the morning sunflower seeds.

I went into the chicken shed and there was a soft shelled egg under Salmon’s roost spot. I think she had laid it from the perch and it had broken on landing.

Salmon’s soft shelled egg

It had had shavings scratched over it. The shell was really soft which was why she had had such a problem passing it. I really hope that the next one will be okay and that it won’t be a continuing problem. Only time will tell but for now the crisis has passed.

Edit

Later in the day Jasmine got her egg laid too. Flame also laid and then Spangle. Apart from Ebony, who is laying every other day at the moment and she laid yesterday, that is all the current laying girls. Smoke and Marmite are still on their broody break.

I am pleased that both girls laid today and Jasmine is also back to her usual self too. Jasmine’s egg looks normal but I am expecting the shell to be thin.

We seem to be beset with egg laying problems. Smoke, Marmite and Spangle have been laying with no problems. Jasmine has struggled and her eggs have thin shells which I know is what is giving her a bit of a problem.

Salmon has taken ages to get going with one egg in January and one egg in February. Over the last week she has been practising. She would sit in the nest box for about half an hour and then give up.

Today she didn’t look happy. This is now such a familiar posture to me that I know it is a sign of struggling to lay an egg probably because of a thin shell.

Salmon is not a happy girl

I hate to see them like this but there is nothing I can do to help her. I hope that over the next day or so she gets her egg laid and bounces back.

When I gave out the bedtime corn Salmon wasn’t at all interested which is a sign of how uncomfortable she must be. To make matters worse by this time Jasmine wasn’t looking very happy either. I hope they soon get their eggs laid and get back to normal.

I think Speckles is getting reading to start laying again. I have noticed that her comb is getting bigger and redder almost day by day. She is also more vocal.

Speckles also has habits that seem to change with her times of egg laying. She becomes very motherly to Dandelion and Cinnamon when she isn’t laying but that disappears when she is laying. She is also different with me. She loves to jump on my back at every opportunity during her egg laying and coming into lay but doesn’t bother much in the winter.

The other change in her behaviour is that jumps on the gate when I go in to give out the morning seeds and evening corn. She likes to jump on the gate and then to my shoulder. She has just started doing this again. It is odd that this a habit during egg laying as if egg laying sparks a change in her.

Emerald used to like to jump to the gate with Speckles but I think Ebony and Flame are too heavy for such larks.

Speckles comb and wattles are getting bigger and redder

She has her usual little group of feathers sticking up on her head. This is Speckles signature.

I have her full attention

I call her name to get her to look at me. Speckles always pays me lots of attention so she is easy to photograph. She is very much my girl.

Face on

Face on you can see how big her wattles are.

Last year Speckles laid her first egg on the fifth of March so the timing is about right for her. She is a very poor layer though so having her back in lay doesn’t make a huge difference but she does lay enormous eggs.

Speckles laid three eggs in March and three in April last year. She then laid four in May then took a break and laid another two in August. Twelve eggs in a year has got to be some sort of a record for a breed that is supposed to be a good layer. Only Topaz has ever proved a worse layer.

I thought that Speckles had a bit of a problem last year so I am hopeful that she may do better this year. During the time that she took a break, June and July, she was drinking loads of water and doing runny poops. She became obsessed with drinking drips of rain water from the weld mesh and the extra water was probably causing the runny poops.

I think that when we then had hot and dry weather it sparked a change in her behaviour and that in turn led to laying a couple more eggs.

It doesn’t matter to me how many eggs she lays as long as she stays healthy. Speckles is such a unique character.

One of Speckles more annoying traits is wanting to sleep outside in the summer. It’s frustrating because it leads Ebony and Flame to follow her whereas I don’t think they would do this if she didn’t. During the unusual warm and sunny weather recently, Speckles on two occasions, settled on the branch perch that is the other side of the hatch at dusk.

I had to put her in the chicken shed once the pop hole had closed. Once the weather turned more normal for the time of year Speckles went back to going in the chicken shed at bedtime. This reminded me that she will no doubt resume this behaviour in the summer. Oh well! No matter what I want they will always do what they want. This has been a habit I have been unable to change.

No doubt I will be putting the big girls to bed each night all summer once more. I doubt Speckles will ever change.

The menfolk in our group have all been doing some work on the allotment. My husband, R, has been digging in the afternoons. T and D have been putting together raised beds from pallets and putting in posts to attach a net fence to for keeping the deer out.

T has bought raspberry canes and T and D have planted them and we have bought potatoes to start chitting.

Allotment with row of raspberry canes

The canes are small so difficult to see but there is a row which will be against the back fence.

All dug over and two raised beds in place

The two metal poles in between the raised beds will be for a gate. The duck boards stacked between the poles will provide a walk way.

A third raised bed and some wood to make a bench

There will be four raised beds with the next two in front of the existing two. In the background is the pile of weeds that R has dug out and the council will move it to the big heap with a digger/tractor.

A huge heap of compost has been delivered

The compost has been delivered for everyone to help themselves to.

Chitting potatoes

As my contribution I emptied the bags of potatoes on to paper lined trays and have put them in the front bedroom to finish chitting. I say finish as some have already started.

We have two trays of Red Fir Apple and four trays of Maris Peer.

We will take some of each potato for our own veg plot too. They were on offer as cheaper for two bags at a time and usually we need very little for our veg plot but the allotment plot is large so we bought the biggest amount we have ever bought. There is a total of two hundred potatoes.

It is all coming together very nicely. R is going to an allotment meeting at the pub tonight. It is a great project for us all and the menfolk are already dreaming of summer barbeques at the allotment.

I have been having more and more of a problem with Ebony’s exuberance and excitement recently. When I give out the morning sunflower hearts and the bedtime corn she pecks my legs. I find myself trying to back away from her or turn my back on her but when I did this she recently pecked the back of my leg.

When I take in a dish of mash she jumps up at me and nearly knocks the dish from my hand before I can set it down.

Ebony also sometimes tries to go out of the gate as I am coming in. The other day I put out my leg to keep her in and she jumped over it. I ended up picking her up and putting her back in. She isn’t  making a bid for escape but just wants to peck at the shavings that have blown out through the gate. I could understand it if there was grass outside the gate but it’s just a patio area and she is just pecking at shavings which are plentiful inside the gate!

The main problem though is the pecking of my legs. I know it’s not malicious and is just over excitement but none the less it is not good and it was making it difficult for me to get in the chicken run. This is a problem I have never encountered before during my time keeping chickens.

I wanted a solution that would protect my legs but not spoil my relationship with Ebony. I don’t want to punish her in any way or put her off me but I want to try to stop this habit. My husband suggest shin pads!

I decided that I needed something to hold in front of my legs. I came up with the idea of using the a frying pan splatter screen. I found one in the discount store for the pricely sum of one pound and seventy pence. I decided to hang it besides the gate and just take it in with me holding it in front of my lower legs.

My new piece of equipment

I thought that Ebony would probably peck the screen instead of my legs but instead she hangs back at about two feet from me. I then lay the screen on the patio and take the corn from the storage cabinet and scatter it.

It works like a dream and makes it easy for me to go in now without being molested! I am hopeful that it may train Ebony to stop pecking my legs. I will try without the screen after about a week and see what she does.

Such a simple thing has made such a difference. Another problem solved until the girls manage to find a new problem for me!

My husband has been popping up to the allotment most afternoons to do a bit more digging. At the weekend a couple that were tending to their plot gave him a sprout stalk.

I harvested the smaller sprouts from the top of the stalk for dinner yesterday and decided to give the rest of the stalk to the girls today.

Ebony is first to inspect the sprout stalk

Spangle is next to investigate

Speckles takes a look

Marmite joins in

By the end of the day the girls had pecked about half way through the sprouts. I will leave the stalk in the run for a couple of days to keep them occupied. It makes a change from their usual spring greens.

The weather has been amazing for February and it feels like spring but of course that could all change in March. I am hoping not though because I am enjoying the higher than usual temperatures and the sunshine and the garden is bursting out all over.

Miniature daffs

Crocus

The underside of the snowdrops

primula

Crocus in the sun

It a bit of sunshine makes you feel good.

I wasn’t expecting another, five egg day, so soon. It was a week ago that we had our first, five egg, day and a few days later Marmite went broody but a few days after that Flame started laying.

Yesterday we had our second, five egg day, and today it’s looking like Smoke is going broody again. It seems that just as one girl starts laying another girl stops and visa versa. Smoke has only been laying again for two weeks and has laid nine eggs in that time.

Marmite was only broody for about three days in the end. She was settling in the nest box at bedtime so after two nights of this I closed the nest boxes before bedtime. She spent some time looking for a way in to the nest boxes but eventually settled on her bedtime perch in the chicken shed.

The next night I closed the nest boxes before bedtime and she didn’t even look at them and settled on her bedtime perch. In the morning she came out and stayed out and that was the end of that.

Our second, five egg day, of the year

On the left is Jasmine’s egg, then Spangle’s egg, then Smoke’s egg then Flame’s enormous egg and then on the right is Ebony’s egg.

Yesterday’s eggs on the stand

Smoke looks broody again

Meanwhile Salmon was being very vocal and looking in the nest boxes. Flame was also wanting to lay and giving her mournful cry.

Salmon kept going in the same nest box as Smoke. She briefly tried the next nest box along but kept returning to the one Smoke was in.

Flame in the meantime was going between the chicken shed and the nest boxes and eventually she piled in with Smoke and Salmon. It’s the same old story. No matter how many nest boxes there are they all want the same one. At one point Spangle also had her head in the same nest box that Smoke, Salmon and Flame were in but I didn’t manage to get a photo of that.

Salmon wants the same nest box as Smoke

Salmon tries out the next nest box along

Salmon decides she prefers the same nest box as Smoke

Flame would also like the same nest box

When I next went to check on them it was all change. Flame and Smoke were now in the middle nest box and Salmon was in the nest box next to the storage cabinet.

Flame and Smoke have moved to the middle nest box

Salmon has now moved to the nest box next to the storage cabinet

I checked back a few minutes later and Flame was now out. I lifted Smoke and Flame’s egg was underneath her. I lifted Smoke out of the nest box to take a break. Salmon was now settled in the next nest box.

I went back to see how she was getting along and Smoke had now found Salmon and was settled next to her. Smoke was obviously following the girls waiting for their eggs.

Smoke has now joined Salmon

Soon after there was a bit of shouting from Salmon and she was now out of the nest box. I checked and it was a false alarm again and no egg. She seems to need an awful lot of practice!

Smoke meanwhile had settled back in the middle nest box. After checking that there was no egg under her I decided to leave her to it.

Spangle went on to lay her egg in the nest box closest to the chicken shed which is her favourite nest box and when I went back in to give them the bedtime corn I lifted Smoke out again.

I then closed the nest boxes. I have decided to continue closing the nest boxes at the end of the day when we have a broody. This way they won’t settle in the nest box at bedtime and it may also help to dissuade them quicker.

When I checked on them at dusk Smoke was settled in the corner by the pop hole and under the amigos bedtime perch. I lifted her and put her on the perch and there was her egg. After an entire day in the nest boxes she had laid at the end of the day. Last time she was broody she laid a few more eggs so I might have known really.

Never a dull moment in the chicken run!

I have just made and posted another card to John. I knew he had currently and in the past had several welsh terriers. I know that he has an aged bulldog and a black cat. I knew he had sadly lost an aged welsh terrier recently.

What I hadn’t realised until a recent post of his was that he also has a black scottie dog. I felt really bad that on my postcard to him of his animals and scotch eggs I had missed out one of his dogs.

I decided to put it right by making another card without the scotch eggs but including scottie dogs. I e-mailed and explained that I felt bad for missing one of his dogs off of my earlier card. I said that this card had nothing to do with the competition as all my cards had arrived before the deadline but this one was just for him to keep and put on his office wall with the others. I said that I just wanted him to have one that included all of his dogs.

A final card to John

John said on a recent post that it is lovely that he is still receiving some postcards so I hope that he will like this one.