Carol's Chickens

I have been feeling that the new girls were ready to integrate with the main flock but we had family staying for the weekend so I decided to leave it until they had left so that I could spend time keeping an eye on the flock.

I intend to try to get the new girls to go in the chicken shed at bedtime so I moved their coop back to it’s usual nest box position on the patio area.

I added a few more feeding stations with chick crumb and water dishes. The problem was that the new girls were now imprinted on their part of the run and I couldn’t get them to move from there.

The new girls stayed in the area they were used to

I tried herding them to the other part of the run but they would just run straight back to their part. I decided to remove the feeding station and close off this part of the run so that it was like it had been before but with the new girls on the other side of the gate.

The new girls are in the dryer top part of the run

Jasmine was the only one to chase the new girls from the food. As usual it is the bottom girl who wants to assert herself and move up the pecking order.

I put a feeding station either side of the wire as Jasmine couldn’t be in both places at once and added one more dish of chick crumb by the little shelter. I thought this might encourage them to use the shelter.

While in their part of the run the new girls had found all of the perches so I am hopeful that they will perch in the chicken shed at bedtime. I think that once they have spent a night in the chicken shed they will become more used to the top part of the run.

I will open up their part of the run tomorrow but with no feeding station in there. It will give them more places to get away but will hopefully get them used to the rest of the run where the food and water is.

I will report back tomorrow on how it goes at bedtime.

Before we got the new girls we put new tarpaulin over the triangular part of the run. The heat wave summer had caused the tarpaulin to go brittle and crack and then one windy day chunks of it blew away. It had been hot and dry for three months so we weren’t too worried.

I would like to put something more permanent here but it is such an awkward shape. Suddenly the weather changed and the rain came. One day it rained heavily for hours and that part of the run became very wet. I knew we needed to sort this out before I could think of getting new girls.

We found a much thicker, stronger, tarpaulin and re did it. We are hoping that it will last longer and shouldn’t need doing again for a few years.

Yesterday I also bought another “small animal house” as a third nest box. I think in the future with three bigger girls laying we will need three nest boxes.

Speckles stopped laying after she had re started and had laid a further four eggs. She had never laid so late in the year before. As soon as she stopped laying she started moulting again quite heavily.

Speckles is moulting quite heavily

It looks like this under her roost spot every morning at the moment and also around the run and in her dust holes. Sometimes the feathers waft from her as she moves.

Speckles checks out the top of the new nest box

It is a bit orange but I am sure it will soon tone down.

Dandelion tries out the new nest box

Dandelion laid her egg in here today so it seems that the new nest box has passed inspection.

Cinnamon is laying again

After Cinnamon’s three weeks broody she had one further week back to normal and then resumed laying with her first two eggs two days running. She has now settled back into laying every other day.

Ebony continues to lay most days

Flame is still manic

For a week Flame has been rushing about like this looking for eggs. She patrols the patio at speed and checks every corner of the shed and watches over any girl that is laying. The weird thing is, that while she is doing this, she is also still laying most days. We seem to have experienced all the different types of broody girls and this has been a new one for us.

I continue to remove the eggs immediately and once the girls have laid I close the nest boxes to limit her to the shed. I had expected her to give up by now but I am now wondering, if like Cinnamon, she is going to keep this up for three weeks.

Sienna and Jasmine are always together

The silkie girls are never apart and do everything in perfect unison.

I had hoped the new girls would find their own way into the little coop last night but like the night before they were still outside at dusk and chirping loudly. I managed to direct them towards the coop though, instead of picking them up, so that’s a move in the right direction.

I am hoping that maybe tonight they will get the hang of it.

A heap of chicks

They still like to hang out very close together. I have been grinding up growers pellets with my pestle and mortar  but found that they were eating the powder and leaving any whole pellets behind so I decided to buy some chick crumb.

I think these girls would be easy to integrate as both flocks have taken no notice of each other but I need to keep them separate until they are eating pellets. What I may try doing is letting the girls mix for periods of time, while I watch them, so that the new girls get used to the layout of the rest of the run.

It might be possible that if I put several dishes of chick crumb around the run maybe they would just eat that for now. It would be good to start integrating soon and once the bigger girls stop laying I could just feed all the girls growers pellets.

I will play it by ear a bit and see how it goes but at the moment I am happy with the progress. It will be interesting to see what happens at bedtime tonight.

Our current breeder had told me that she often has bigger girls to sell by September. I had been waiting to get some events behind us before calling her. The wedding we catered for, a funeral, a weekend away and then a weekend afternoon tea.

Now I was ready to call her but she beat me to it with a text saying that she had saved me a black serama and a blue one as they were colours that I had said I would love to have. I knew she worked during the week so asked if we could go over at the weekend but she replied that she had Wednesday and Thursday off.

I said we would go over Wednesday afternoon and that I would like to choose a few more girls if she could spare them.

I was excited to see that she had a variety to choose from and asked if I could have five. They were all straight feathered as the silky girls she had were the same colour as Sienna and Jasmine and the few frizzle girls were already spoken for.

I am happy with straight feathered girls as it’s the variety of colour that appeals to me the most. I said I would take the two she had saved for me which she had been hiding so that no one else would see them and want them and then I chose three more from her other stock.

I separated off the bottom part of the run rather than the usual corner as the corner has the high nest box which the game girls use. I set up a feeding station and little coop/nest box plus a water bottle.

The new girls stayed very close together. I tried to show them the water bottle and the food dish but they weren’t interested. My husband suggested putting Sienna and Jasmine in with them to show them the food and water. This didn’t actually work but was good as there was no hassle between them. The silkie girls took no notice of the new girls. There is probably a certain safety in numbers but this was a good start.

Five new girls

Staying close together

I am sticking with my theme of descriptive names and have called them, Marmite, Smoke, Salmon, Vanilla and Spangle. Closer photos with their names further on.

The silkie girls join the new girls

Sienna and Jasmine take no notice of the new girls

By bedtime the new girls didn’t know where to go and were sounding distressed. I picked them up one by one and put them in the coop.

Bedtime

This morning I was awake early so I opened their coop and left them to come out in their own time. They have gained confidence today and explored their part of the run. This morning all the new girls were at the water bottle which I was relieved to see.

I ground up some growers pellets for them to make it more like chick crumb. I was pleased to see that they soon found the food dish and the water dish. I think they will probably find their own way into the coop tonight now that they know where to go.

In the food dish

Marmite

Vanilla

Smoke

Salmon in the middle

Spangle

I think they have settled in really well and I hope to integrate them quite quickly.

Our courgettes have been rather small during the heatwave and drought we experienced in June and July. August has bought rain in downpours and suddenly the courgettes are producing again.

On Sunday I harvested courgettes big and small.

Sunday’s courgette harvest

Not bad for one picking. I roasted the large one for our Sunday dinner topped with a little cheese sauce. The rest I cooked and put in the freezer.

Some I cooked and topped with cheese sauce and some I cooked with garlic and sun dried tomato puree. I have got quite good at finding different ways to use courgette. It looks like there will be many more to come yet.

Flame has now spent three days looking in every corner of the shed, on and off, all day. I wonder how long it will take her to accept that there are no eggs to sit on.

The day before yesterday Dandelion laid her tiny egg in the patio nest box. I swear broody girls have a sixth sense because when I checked Flame was in the patio nest box. She has never been interested in this nest box before apart from the day that she threw all the shavings out of the chicken shed and both nest boxes. I shooed her out and there was Dandelion’s egg. She must be desperate to sit on such a tiny egg.

Today Dandelion sat in the patio nest box again but this time she didn’t lay as sometimes happens. She has the odd false alarm. Flame had been checking the corners of the shed once more but had also been keeping an eye on Dandelion in the patio nest box.

When Flame was missing again I checked the patio nest box and to my surprise she had just laid her egg there. I wonder if she was checking for Dandelion’s egg and was caught a bit short to lay her own egg. Flame had laid before Ebony the day before but Ebony didn’t lay until after Flame this time. The day before it had been first thing in the morning in the chicken shed and I had expected that to be her last for now. My other broody girls do sometimes lay one or two more eggs at this time.

Next it was Ebony’s turn to lay her egg and the sixth sense kicked in again. Flame stood on guard waiting for Ebony to lay her egg.

Flame spent another morning looking for eggs in the chicken shed

Flame spots the potential for a possible egg to sit on

Flame watches over Ebony as she is about to lay her egg

When I next checked Flame was sat on Ebony’s egg. I shooed her out once more and removed the egg. I closed both nest boxes as all three laying girls had now laid and that at least restricts Flame to just checking the corners of the chicken shed.

I really hope Flame soon gets the message that there are no eggs to sit on. The difference here though is that at least she isn’t sitting with no eggs. I keep thinking that she must surely give this up soon.

Flame is broody, or actually not quite, she wants to be broody. All day yesterday she was manically running up and down the patio area and in out of the shed. She was no longer digging or flicking out the shavings or going to the other nest boxes.

Flame did this for the entire day and didn’t lay an egg. This morning I found her egg under her roost spot. There was no deep hole dug out or any shavings scratched out of the shed. It appears as if her mania the day before stopped her laying and she had just dropped her egg first thing in the morning.

Ebony went on to lay her egg in her usual nest box a little later this morning. Neither girls had laid the day before.

We then realised that Flame was for looking eggs. She was running into the shed and looking in each of the corners. We now think that all the digging out shavings was nest building and she is now looking for eggs to sit on.

The difference between these game girls and my other girls is that they have been used as broodies by their breeder. They have been used to sitting on a clutch of eggs and then hatching them.

Cinnamon has never had an egg to sit on and was responding to her instinct and hormones. She wanted to perch in the shed and wasn’t deterred by the fact that not only were there no eggs to sit on but the perch wouldn’t make a suitable place to sit anyway. I am tempted to say “bird of little brain” despite how much I love her.

Flame on the other hand has sat on a clutch of eggs. She knows that she needs to find some eggs to sit on. She is making a mournful little sound while looking in all four corners of the shed. It seems almost cruel not let her have eggs to sit on but we don’t want to encourage broody behaviour.

I hope that after a few days she will give up and probably stop laying too. She will then get over it and settle down. At least we know what her problem is now.

Flame – are you looking at me!

Is my egg here?

Or is it here?

Is it here?

Is it in this corner?

I feel happier now that we know what is going on with her and it will hopefully soon pass. Chickens! There is always something.

This is totally in hind sight as things often are. It wasn’t until after our recent water problem that we suddenly noticed something about the plants growing against our neighbour’s fence.

It’s been an exceptionally hot and dry summer with a few plants suffering as you would expect.

Our honeysuckle after a heat wave summer

It’s looking a bit brown and some leaves have turned yellow and dropped off but it will come back next year.

In the other direction everything is lush and green

How did we not notice the contrast of these plants which are looking their best ever. We now think that they may have had their own irrigation system from the leak which may have been trickling away long before we became aware of it.

Here is our unfixed stop cock on our unspoilt patio, hurrah!

The guy managed to get this flat again and it looks much the same as it ever did with our patio remaining intact. We are so happy with this result.

Our “home serve” guy turned up this morning and he was amazing. He didn’t want to disturb our bricks on our patio if at all possible. He managed to get his hand in to the stop cock and with the help of a torch and eventually my tweezers he got all the bits out through the narrow space.

He put the new tap on and it still didn’t work. He said he had never come across this before and he was rather perplexed.

He then listened to the water running at the stop cock at the end of our neighbour’s drive and said that it was much louder there. He then did what three water board men hadn’t done and lifted the drain cover on our neighbour’s drive. The water was running through the open pipe like a river.

Running water in the open pipe inside the drain

It’s difficult to see but the red colour at the back is the pipe and the white shine is the running water. This showed that the water was running from outside our neighbour’s house towards the road.

The guy then prodded the soil on their side of the fence and water immediately bubbled up and ran down their side of the fence.

Water coming up from our neighbour’s side of the fence

Water running down our neighbour’s side of the fence

At this point the guy said that he would need to lift our neighbour’s flag to get to the t junction which was where he was sure the leak was but he would need their permission. We had taken their phone number that morning so we called them. Once he had their permission he set about lifting the flag which had been fitted by “dot and dab” so was easy to lift.

At this point I had to go and deliver my lunches. When I returned at lunch time it was fixed. The neighbour’s slab was back down and didn’t look any different to before.

The pipe

This was the section of pipe that the guy cut out.

The offending hole in the pipe

This was the hole that had caused all the trouble. We were so relieved that the problem had been fixed without causing any damage.

The guy said that there was no point in damaging our patio to fix our stop cock as we can use the one at the end of our neighbour’s drive if we ever need to turn off the water. It turns the water off to all four houses. Ours may never have worked so he said to just leave it be.

We were so lucky to have had a guy that really cared about causing as little damage as possible. He said it is always best to look at the drain first and we feel a bit cross that the water board didn’t do this.

We are just so happy to have it all resolved and no damage is really an added bonus.

We are quite sure that Flame is deranged. When I decided to add two more game girls I was influenced by the fact that Toffee and Emerald were gentle, quiet, girls. I thought that was how game girls were and to be honest I hoped to have another Toffee and Emerald.

Ebony and Flame couldn’t be more different. They are loud and shouty and Flame seems demented. They have blended into the rest of the flock perfectly and the flock get on really well and there is no bullying. You would think that they had always been together. It was our easiest integration and they sit together in harmony.

It’s just their egg laying habits that are causing mayhem. When Ebony is in the nest box Flame shouts and when Flame is in the nest box Ebony shouts and boy is it loud. They are the loudest girls we have ever had.

Ebony has adjusted to the high nest box. She goes in and settles and then lays her egg and comes out again just like any normal chicken and just as you would expect.

Flame is a different matter. She will manically run from the chicken shed to both nest boxes. She digs and digs and throws all the shavings out of all three places. It wouldn’t be so bad if she just did this for a while before she laid her egg but she sometimes does it for an entire day!

Flame is a prolific layer with her best record, since being with us, being twelve days before taking just one day off so her egg laying antics are quite a pain. Like all girls that lay every day she lays an hour or two later each day as it takes about twenty six hours for a hen to produce and lay an egg.

Recently she laid her egg at four in the afternoon so I knew that her next egg would be due at about six o’clock. She started her manic behaviour at ten o’clock in the morning. She spent the entire day running from the shed to the nest boxes and throwing all the shavings out.

In the meantime Ebony needed to lay her egg so she went in the high nest box while Flame was in the shed. This caused Flame to shout her head off when she realised. Eventually Ebony laid her egg and Flame continued for the rest of the day with this behaviour until finally laying her egg in the high nest box at six o’clock as I had predicted. From then on she was calm and normal again.

The chicken shed

The patio nest box

The high nest box

And there is the manic Flame! I feel like this behaviour must be stressful for Flame too and I just don’t know why she is doing this. I can’t work out what she doesn’t like about any of the nest box choices. I have given up putting the shavings back in until the end of the day because it had become a never ending job.

Some days she is worse than others by which I mean that some days she does it for longer periods of time than other days. I just hope that they take their end of year break soon. I never thought I would find myself hoping they would stop laying.

I hope that after a winter break she will have forgotten whatever it was that she thought she needed before and will just accept the nest boxes we have. I intend to put the high nest box back in it’s usual position on the patio over winter and I hope in spring the game girls will find the nest boxes and accept them.

This is a problem that I could never have imagined would arise. I had hoped that over time Flame would settle down but she seems to have got worse with time. I can only hope that things will calm down over winter and that in spring these two will be used to our set up.

Once again I have had a break from blogging and while, as I’ve said before, I don’t like to get too personal here but we have sadly just lost a third family member in four months and our lives have been in a bit of turmoil of late.

Added to that we got back from a weekend away at a friend’s sixtieth birthday get together to the sound of running water in our kitchen. The next morning our neighbours who are joined to us (Edwardian semi detached) came round to say that they could hear running water in their kitchen and it was even louder than ours.

We could find no evidence of water any where and turning off both houses internal stop cocks made no difference. We then tried to turn off our external stop cock which is on our patio outside the kitchen and found that it didn’t work.

Outside stop cock

It’s the black square on the left of the patio.

Open

We could only undo three screws as the other one wouldn’t turn at all. We were able to pry it up like this. It has a little water in it and a little movement of the water.

We called out “home serve” who we have insurance with but they sent a plumber who couldn’t deal with anything that is outside.

Our neighbours in the meantime had called out the water board. They came the next day and identified a stop cock at the end of our neighbours property on the other side and this turned off the water to all four houses (two Edwardian semis). He then turned the water back on and listened to our outside stop cock. He said the leak appeared to be close to this as far as could tell.

It turns out that one water supply goes to all four houses and the pipes are buried deep underground. In the meantime all four houses have had kitchen extensions built over the original pipework, long before our time, I might add.

We have “home serve” coming out again on Friday and they will attempt to dig out our outside stop cock and replace it with a working one. They will then turn it off and see what happens. The water board felt that the leak must be close to our outside stop cock.

If it is the direction of our house they may need to dig up our kitchen floor. If it is in the direction of next door they will have to dig up our boundary and their path.

The whole thing has been very stressful but now that we have established that water isn’t coming into the houses we feel a bit happier although we do wonder where all the water is going. It has been running since Sunday evening.

We have been getting our heads round the possibility of our patio being ruined at best and our kitchen floor being ruined at worst but we will just to have to have them redone if necessary. The insurance will cover making good whatever they disrupt but not matching the surroundings. They will contribute and we will have to make up the difference but we are now resigned to this.

With the many phone calls and visits to neighbours and various water people visiting us there hasn’t been any time for blogging.

In case anyone hasn’t seem the comments, when we got back at four o’clock on Sunday Cinnamon was out in the run and has been ever since. After three weeks she is over her broody spell. The girls were all fine and the three bigger girls had slept outside once more as was evident from the poop under the high branch perch.

I removed the plastic square from behind the perch on the other side of the hatch and threw it away. There were two eggs from Ebony and Flame in the high nest box and one from Dandelion in the patio nest box. We ate those the next morning for breakfast as they had been out of the fridge but not in high temperatures.

The double holly hock that I photographed in an earlier post is now over but another stem has shot up since we have been away with single blooms. This all came from one pot so we have two for the price of one.

Hollyhock

Echinacea

We planted this earlier in the year and it is giving a bright splash of colour. It was so small that I didn’t really expect it to flower this year.

I will update on the water situation when I know more and will be back to chicken news quite soon.