Carol's Chickens

Yesterday we took a trip to Whitehouse Farm. This is where we get our disposables and is also is where we have rehomed some of our girls in the past.

We rehomed Peaches and Barley at the farm last spring, one and a half years ago. We have visited them in between and I went along yesterday to see if they were still around.

Moira, the farmer, wasn’t around so I just wandered through the orchard where the chickens hang out. I know that she is happy for me to visit them when we are collecting disposables.

I soon spotted Peaches but there was no sign of Barley. As the two were inseparable I can only conclude that sadly she may have been taken by a fox. I know that Moira has a problem with foxes being quite bold even during the daytime.

There was also no sign of Claude, the huge cockerel, that had been resident for many years but he may well have passed to old age. Without seeing Moira I can only speculate so perhaps shouldn’t make too many guesses.

I spotted a new set up of an enclosed run and large coup and went to investigate. It was a breeding pen for silkies. I know Moira likes to take on new projects. There was one cockerel, possibly a replacement for Claude and three adult hens. There was another smaller hen which I would consider was at the “teenage” stage and there were seven chicks.

There was another empty smaller run and coup nearby so I would assume the mother and chicks had been in there until the chicks were big enough to integrate with the other silkies. They were all getting along happily.

Peaches hangs out with a friend

I am only able to identify Peaches because her comb flops to the left and Barley’s comb flopped to the right. She is moulting and the pair of them always looked very shabby when they were moulting and their combs would be very reduced in size.

Silkies and their chicks

The chicks are in the food dish

A selection of hens

A moulting Peaches

A few bantams in the mix

It was sad that Barley was no longer there but good to see that Peaches was still around. A free range life is always with it’s risks but I feel leghorns need a free range life and I would never consider having them again in my contained set up.

They are zippy birds and being contained made them bullying and caused them to pluck the other flock members. I know rehoming them was the right thing to do because they were in a more suitable environment for them and my flock has flourished without the bullying.

Integrations have been so much easier since Peaches and Barley left the flock and I now have a happy flock. I was pleased to see Peaches again.

I love the late summer colour our sedums bring to the garden but ours would always fall open leaving a bare centre.

In spring my husband had the idea of giving them some support. We found what he was looking for at our local garden centre and we bought two. We later realised that we really needed three and will get one more next spring but having two out of three gives me the chance to demonstrate the beauty of the plant support.

One of our sedums in April

It’s in the centre of the photo behind the hyacinth with the support just above it.

Another sedum

At the time I was photographing the spring bulbs but you can see the sedum next to them with the plant support in place ready for it to grow up through it.

The sedum from the first photograph growing through the plant support

The sedum that we missed putting in a plant support

It has flopped open leaving bare stems in the middle.

The sedum from the second photo now supported

The plant support is now invisible but the sedum has stayed together and the look is much improved. It now remains looking beautiful. Sometimes something very simple can be very effective.

The five amigos definitely like high up places.

The amigos discover the top of the large shelter in front of the high nest box

They also discover the highest perch

These little girls are very flighty and love to be high up.

We got these girls three months after the silky girls so I am guessing that they are about three months old. We have had them three weeks now. I think our silky girls are about six months old.

I used to think that Jasmine may be younger than Sienna as she was smaller but they are both getting red faces at the same time so I now think that they are probably the same age.

I no longer think that Jasmine is smaller but now think that Sienna is bigger. She is the largest silky girl we have had. As well as not breeding to colour seramas also don’t breed to size and a chick can end up bigger or smaller than the parent bird as well as different in colour.

Sienna and Jasmine are getting red faces and combs

Silky girls are slower to mature than straight feathered girls. Most hens start to lay about six months but all my past silky girls have started to lay between seven and eight months.

I wonder if these two girls will start laying before winter. Last year the seramas stopped laying in December and started laying again in March. It is said that seramas can lay all year round but I think that is only if they are kept indoors during the winter. I think a lot is dependent on the weather.

I think when kept outside they stop laying during the coldest months. I have no problem with that as I think it is good for them to take a break. It will be interesting to see if the silky girls start laying this year or next year.

I am writing this post in hindsight because we thought there was a problem with Dandelion and then it passed but I hadn’t got round to writing about it.

Last Tuesday I could see that Dandelion didn’t look happy. She had the look that she used to have when she was about to lay a soft shelled egg.

Dandelion doesn’t look happy

Her eyes were closing although her head is so deep in her ruffles that you can’t see her eyes.

On Wednesday the pine shavings were quite wet under her roost spot and I wasn’t sure if she had laid an egg without a shell. She had a slightly mucky bottom and didn’t look at all happy. I picked her up and cleaned her bottom and checked her over but I couldn’t see anything wrong with her.

I called the vet and made an appointment for that afternoon after I had delivered my lunches.

By the time I got back at lunch time Dandelion was in the nest box. I decided to cancel the vet as I felt that I needed to wait and see if she managed to get her egg laid and maybe would then feel better.

A bit later I checked on her again and she had just finished laying her egg. For Dandelion it was a whopper! It was twice the length that her eggs usually are. No wonder she hadn’t looked happy. She looked perfectly back to normal once her egg was laid.

We hadn’t got any of Dandelion’s tiny eggs left to photograph so I am using some past photos to show her eggs usual tiny size.

Speckles egg is in the middle then left of that is Cinnamon’s egg then far left is Dandelion’s tiny egg

Flame’s egg is on the left then Ebony’s egg and right of that is Cinnamon’s egg and furthest right is Dandelion’s tiny egg

Below is the recent egg that Dandelion struggled to lay.

Cinnamon’s egg is on the left and Dandelion’s is on the right

If it hadn’t been for the fact that I saw Dandelion lay that egg and then Cinnamon laid hers shortly after I would never have believed that that was Dandelion’s egg. Any other time I would have thought that was Cinnamon’s egg but they both laid that day and that was definitely Dandelion’s egg.

Two days later they both laid again.

The next eggs, two days later, Cinnamon’s egg on the left and Dandelion’s on the right

Dandelion’s egg is now smaller than the last one but still bigger than her previous tiny eggs. I am glad that her egg is smaller and hope that the large egg was just a blip as I don’t want her to suffer from laying larger eggs especially as she has had a slight prolapse in the past.

I think that as the egg was longer rather than bigger in width she managed to lay it without prolapsing. She seems fine now so I hope that her eggs return to normal size as I don’t want her to have problems laying in future. I don’t know why she laid such a large egg.

Dandelion is our chicken with nine lives. She has come back so many times from us nearly losing her. She used to lay soft shelled eggs in her first year and looked so poorly but she kept pulling through. She suffered from the myco all last winter but came through. She had a slight prolapse but was the only girl to bounce back from that. She seems to keep going despite set backs.

Every time I think we might lose her she comes back to fight another day. I am so relieved that we still have her and another crisis seems to have passed.

Long live Dandelion. The chicken with nine lives!

Last night when we checked on the girls after our evening meal several of the amigos were on the perch in their bedtime corner. Dandelion was also on this perch with them.

By the time I had gone back indoors for my camera only Smoke was still on the perch and she dropped down after I had taken the photo.

Dandelion and Smoke

I moved Dandelion to the other side with Cinnamon and the silky girls and decided to try to perch the amigos.

I got them all on to the perch and took a photo and then one by one they dropped back down and settled in a heap in the corner. They obviously know how to get on to the perch but don’t feel safe to spend the night there.

I don’t want to rush them as I feel it will be better for them to work it out for themselves when they are ready.

The amigos on the bedtime perch

I have been feeling a bit nervous about Vanilla. She has big feet, she has a red face and she has an unusual voice. She doesn’t twitter like the other amigos but honks like I imagine a baby goose would. However her comb is pale so I really hope that she is a she.

Although I wanted a black coloured serama and a blue one it was because I wanted to add variety and move away from the buff colours but Vanilla has become my favourite because I love the white with the honeycomb coloured spots. She is so pretty and I rather liked her deep and unusual voice too until I started to worry about having another boy.

I am probably over worrying after our experience with Blue but I will be happy when these girls get older and I can stop worrying about them being girls. I hope that she is just maturing and I keep telling myself that we would know by now if she was a boy. I am keeping everything crossed.

I worm the girls, the recommended, twice a year.  I do this in March and September. I find the easiest way is to add the flubenvet powder to mash. All my girls have always loved mash so it’s an easy way to make sure they all get some.

I have given mash a couple of times over the last week to establish if the five amigos like mash too. It turned out that they too love mash so I felt ready to start today for seven consecutive days.

I am mixing fifty fifty growers and layers pellets as the best way to accommodate both the younger girls and the laying girls. I made the mash in four dishes, two smaller dishes for the patio area and two larger dishes for the food station half way down the run and at the bottom of the run.

This is because the three bigger girls mostly use the patio area but the larger group of smaller girls prefer the dishes in the run.

I then sprinkle one measuring spoon (which comes with the flubenvet) over the mash. It’s not an exact science but as my girls are so small they only need a little bit and as long as all the girls get some I am happy with that.

Flame is the first to the mash

She is soon joined by Ebony

Dandelion finds one of the dishes out in the run

Sienna and Jasmine join her

They are joined by Cinnamon

Vanilla is the first of the amigos to find the mash at the bottom of the run

She is soon joined by Spangle

The amigos emptied the dish at the bottom of the run and moved on to this one

I felt really pleased to have seen all twelve girls have some mash and am happy that this will ensure that they all get some worming powder.

By the afternoon all the dishes were empty so it was a successful first day.

The five amigos are so adventuress. They have now discovered all the perches in the run. The last perch to be discovered was the one above the hatch.

The five amigos find the perch over the hatch

They love finding new places to perch

Once one of them finds a new spot the rest follow. They are such a together little group.

The five amigos move up to the patio area as it gets near to bedtime. They also seem to like to get a bit higher up than floor level.

The five amigos on top of the little coop

Marmite and Spangle on the perch outside the chicken shed

Smoke is dust bathing in the shavings

Marmite perches and Vanilla is about to jump up

At this stage they do a lot of jumping up to the perch and then back down. They like to scratch in the shavings and Smoke was dust bathing. The silky girls and Blue also used to do this. I think it’s because at the breeders they were on shavings so learned to dust bath in shavings first.

They soon cottoned on to dust bathing in dirt in the run which is much more useful.

After the pop hole had closed I checked in again and the five amigos were settled in their corner. I think one evening they will suddenly get it, that they can stay on the perch, at bedtime.

Once again Ebony and Flame were in but Speckles was outside on her own. Tonight I will chase her down before the pop hole closes and see if I can get her to start going in with the other girls. I am surprised that she chooses to stay out on her own. What a daft girl she is!

It was a week yesterday that we started the five amigos going in to the chicken shed at bedtime and I thought that it was time to start encouraging them to perch at bedtime.

They beat me to it. When we checked on them after our evening meal they were just starting to head in. They were jumping up to the perch without any encouragement from me. All five of them jumped up several times and then down again as they hadn’t finished scratching in the shavings yet.

I took photos but as it was still a bit light I didn’t think I needed the flash. It turned out that I should have used the flash as the photos of them on the perch were out of focus as the light level was too low.

I will take more photos tonight using the flash but for now I will just put out the ones of them in the pop hole.

The five amigos getting ready to go in at bedtime

Marmite is last to go in

I was sure that this would mean that when I checked on them after the pop hole had closed they would be perched up. No, that didn’t happen! They were in their usual heap in the corner.

I tried moving them from the corner to the perch but by the time I had got number five on the perch the others had jumped back down. They started to sound distressed so I decided to leave them to settle in the corner again. They are obviously not quite ready yet.

I feel that as they obviously know the perch is there it will just be a matter of time before they roost there. I think that they need to do it in their time so I will leave them to it for now.

As for the bigger girls, to my surprise, Flame and Ebony had gone in but Speckles was perched outside on her own! I picked her up and put her in. I am surprised that she would want to be outside on her own but again I think it’s just a matter of time before she starts going in each night.

It’s a good sign that Flame and Ebony want to go in and I am sure once that Speckles realises that she will start to go in too.

So as usual it is evolving but I am happy that it is moving in the right direction. I am sure that all the girls will soon be perching in the chicken shed at bedtime.

The five amigos have formed their own little flock. They stick together. They have grown in confidence and no longer panic if one of them gets separated but they move around as if they are their own flock within the bigger flock.

The five amigos stay close together

They move together in a tight group

The top of the small shelter is a new favourite place

I don’t know what they find to peck at up here

They remind me of ducklings when they enter the water one after another. One of these five will fly up to the shelter then the second one is up then the third until one by one they are all up in quick succession.

When one jumps down they all pour down one after another. It’s the same when one goes to the water or the food bowl, they all go to the water or the food bowl. It is quite amusing to see them follow each other around the run.