Carol's Chickens

I have mentioned before of our efforts to stop any damp coming in to the chicken shed. It’s not a problem at the moment of course while it is hot and dry but that is also the ideal time to try to do something about it.

My husband has been trying to come up with ideas to solve the problem. The problem is that the corner of the chicken shed is flanked by our back wall and next door’s fence and therefore gets no sun. When it rains the water sits there and it seems that the wood at the bottom of the chicken shed sucks up the water. This leaves a damp patch inside in that corner. As it is beneath the deep layer of shavings it’s not a problem to the girls but our worry is that the wood may rot and become a week spot.

My husband decided to paint the chicken shed with a product called – fence life plus. It offers five year protection. The wood colours were named medium and dark oak, I would say orange or chocolate brown, neither of which appealed to me. We decided to look at colours instead and I chose sage which was quite a subtle, pastel, colour.

My husband also drilled some more soak away holes in the concrete and decided to paint the concrete with garage floor paint. For this we chose a colour called slate. He hopes all these measures will help the water run off rather than sit there and soak up through the wood.

Starting to paint the chicken shed

Top board to test colour and then the side first.

Giving it a second coat

The chicken shed has now had four coats

The concrete is painted with garage floor paint

I will be fixing the weld mesh back to the bottom couple of feet of the shed for extra protection.

Now it’s a case of wait and see next time we have heavy rain if it works. Hopefully it’s got to help.

Sadly I had to make the decision to have Freckles put to sleep on Saturday. I had pulled a soft shelled egg from her vent and cleaned her up but she didn’t recover and I couldn’t let her suffer any longer.

I often think if anyone reads my history of chicken keeping it may be enough to put them off of chicken keeping and if anybody reads my history with seramas it would definitely put them off. I try so hard to give my girls the best life I can but I do believe that I have been unlucky with my breeders.

Before I do a tribute to Freckles I will just recap and it doesn’t make good reading.

My seramas

31/8/16 I bought home Caramel and Pebbles from my first breeder. They were her last two girls as she was giving up breeding them. 20/9/16 I had to have Caramel put to sleep as she had a really advanced case of mycoplasma and this had now brought this to my flock. We had her for three weeks.

17/12/16 I had to have Pebbles put to sleep for the same reason. We had her for four months.

I found another breeder and brought home Rusty and Freckles on 25/9/16.

From this breeder I brought home Cinnamon, Dandelion and Apricot on 25/2/17.

On 30/9/16 we lost Rusty at home after her second prolapse. We had her for a year.

On 9/4/18 we lost Apricot overnight just as she would have been coming in to lay. We had her for one year and one month.

On 30/6/18 I had to have Freckles put to sleep after constantly laying soft shelled eggs and getting one stuck partly inside her. We had her for one year and nine months which is our longest serama so far.

Dandelion has also had some soft shelled eggs and a slight prolapse but so far has bounced back. She laid her second, good shelled egg, today, after her prolapse.

Cinnamon is the only one not suffer this but right from when we first had her she has always almost turned herself inside out when she poops. We thought she would be the most likely to prolapse but we now think that it’s been her saving grace. We think that she has strengthened her muscles and that is why she is doing okay. My son said it’s a bit like pelvic floor exercises, he has a year old son which is why he would know this!

We have had Dandelion and Cinnamon for one year and four months. Dandelion is like the cat with nine lives and has had many moments when we thought we would lose her but she has managed to come back each time.

We have now found a third breeder and brought home three chicks, Blue, Sienna and Jasmine on 20/5/18. We have had them for five months. We hope these will prove to be healthy although we strongly suspect that Blue is a cockerel but that is a different story.

Freckles

Rusty and Freckles when we first got them

Rusty and Freckles as chicks

These two were inseparable and Freckles was top serama from the start and remained that way until she left us.

Freckles tail feathers are amazing

This was Freckles with her new tail feathers after her moult hence the pale comb.

Freckles squatting

Freckles would drop into a squat when I came up behind her or touched her back. She squatted more than any of the other girls and it made it really easy to pick her up.

Freckles looks amazing

Freckles when broody

Freckles when I lift her out of the nest box when broody

Freckles would go broody regularly and her tail would rise up over her back. I would take her from the nest box and she would sit for a while until I moved her on.

Freckles portrait

Freckles was a lovely looking girl. She will be sadly missed.

Friday

We just can’t seem to get away from egg laying problems with the girls we had from my last breeder. We lost Rusty to a second prolapse last September. We lost Apricot overnight this April just as she was coming back into lay.

Two weeks ago Dandelion prolapsed after laying two soft shelled eggs then one good shelled egg after her prolapse then took a break from laying. Freckles laid four soft shelled eggs then took a break of three weeks then laid a further three soft shelled eggs.

Yesterday both Freckles and Dandelion looked very unhappy. Dandelion had been showing signs of coming back into lay. She had a practice in the nest box the day before but didn’t lay. I dreaded that it was too soon to lay again and that she may prolapse once more.

Freckles had laid a soft shelled egg five days ago. Three days ago I found the remainder of an egg in the chicken shed which I think was her second one. Yesterday I noticed that she had a mucky bottom so I decided to clean her up. While cleaning her I realised that she had a soft shelled egg stuck to her and partly still trapped in her vent which was prolapsing slightly.

I soaked her in a bowl of warm water and with disposable gloves I cleaned her with cotton wool pads. I then gently pulled the egg shell from her pulling the last bit of it from her vent. I cleaned her as best I could and pushed the prolapse back in.

Freckles later put herself to bed early. I picked her up to check her and she was mucky again with a slightly protruding vent once more. I brought her into our bathroom the same as I had with Dandelion. I cleaned her up and then pushed the prolapse in with a gloved finger and with some honey the same as I did with Dandelion. I put her back on her roost spot in the hope that if she didn’t poop overnight it would stay in.

By this morning Freckles and Dandelion were both looking very unhappy. They both refused the morning corn which is not a good sign. I checked Dandelion’s vent and it was red and swollen with a bit of muck underneath. As the day wore on Freckles looked more and more unhappy.

Freckles is not a happy girl

Dandelion’s vent is red and swollen

At this point I decided to ring the vet for advice. I am feeling very low about these two girls. I have nurtured them through a rough winter with both of them having mycoplasma and I treated the whole flock four times with tylan in the water over the winter. I felt very close to letting them go and am now wondering if perhaps I should have.

Myco can be treated with tylan but a prolapse is mechanical and prone to recurring. I wonder what quality of life these two have if they can’t lay eggs and are going to suffer every time. Seramas don’t take a winter break either which would give some time to heal. Last year they laid up until the end of December.

I explained the situation to the receptionist at the vets and said that I didn’t want to bring them in but just wanted to have a chat with the vet to seek advice. She said that she would ask the vet that saw Dandelion to call me but didn’t know when that would be.

I checked back on the girls and Dandelion was in the nest box. I held my breath and went to collect my camera. When I got back she was just laying her egg and I was pleased to see that it had a proper shell.

Dandelion lays an egg with a proper shell

Once again Dandelion has a reprieve. I know we are not out of the woods yet as Rusty laid a good egg after a four week break and then prolapsed on the next one. I am hopeful though as Dandelion’s prolapse wan’t as bad as Rusty’s. I checked Dandelion’s vent and it looks the same as the earlier photo of her. She looks happy again so for now I am breathing a sigh of relief.

It’s not so good for Freckles though as she has remained, looking like her earlier photo, all day. I decided to wait and see if she perked up with time. If not I worry about there being some egg inside her although I felt sure that I had got it all.

And then on to the other problem. I have been worrying for the last few weeks that Blue may be a cockerel. Blue has a red comb and wattles and big feet. I have scrutinised the photos of the the other girls when we first got them from my second history of the flock.

I know that silky feathered girls develop more slowly. I looked back at Rusty who had no comb while Freckles had a comb and it was fairly red although not as red as Blue’s. I looked at the three amigos and Apricot had no comb and Dandelion and especially Cinnamon had combs and Cinnamon’s was red. Cinnamon also has big feet.

I googled how to sex serama chicks and it said that between one and two months the boys have pink combs and the girls have yellow combs. It said that the boys start to crow as early as three to six weeks. We have had the chicks for five weeks and the breeder thought they were about two months when we took them. I have been listening and can only hear cheeping so have been telling myself Blue could still be a girl.

Blue looks more like a cockerel every day

I then e-mailed the link to my blog to the breeder we got them from to have a look at how well the integration is going.

She emailed me back – That frizzle has got to be a boy surely!!!

This struck horror in my heart. If anyone should know she should. I had been reassuring myself that they were still cheeping so I went in to have a listen.

I cornered them which sets them cheeping and hunkered down to watch them. I suddenly realised that all the cheeping was coming from the two silkies. Sienna and Jasmine’s beaks were opening with loud cheeping sounds. Blue’s beak was firmly closed and Blue was absolutely silent.

This has now convinced me Blue is a boy even though not crowing yet. I wonder if they were nearer one month rather then two when we got them putting Blue at two months now rather than three. I am gutted!

This is now a real problem. My neighbours would not be happy with a cockerel and I have always said that I would never have one. But now I have a dilemma.  Because I have had myco in my flock I cant’ take Blue back to the breeder. I am sick at heart and don’t know what I can do. Blue is also my favourite coloured chick not that has any bearing on it.

I have no idea what I will do. I am feeling sick at heart at the moment.

Saturday

Last night Freckles took herself to bed early. I picked her up and she had a mucky bottom again. I decided to bring her into the bathroom and clean her again thinking that if she didn’t poop over night she might stay clean.

At this moment the vet called me. I shut myself in the bathroom and put Freckles on the floor where she promptly pooped. I updated the vet and said that although that morning I had been ready to give up on them I now felt there was still a chance of improvement. Freckles seemed to rally a bit and jumped up on to the toilet seat (closed of course).

He said that as long as I was willing and able to clean them up and put any prolapse back in then I could continue to do that but the moment that I felt that their quality of life was compromised he would be happy to step in and put either one or both girls to sleep.

I felt a little more optimistic and was glad that I had discussed it with the vet. I returned Freckles to her roost spot.

This morning Dandelion looked brighter and joined in with the morning corn but Freckles looked worse and didn’t have any corn.

Freckles on Saturday

Freckles remained hunched with her eyes closed. I decided it was time to call the vet again. The same vet had a slot mid morning so I took Freckles to be put to sleep. I couldn’t let her suffer any longer. The vet said that I had done the right thing and had done my best for her.

He said that sometimes the shell making gland can go wrong for unknown reasons and then can’t get better again. Dandelion has a chance as her last two eggs have had good shells but Freckles eggs had all been soft shelled for some time now.

I know it was the right thing to do but I left the vet in tears and sat in my van and cried before I could drive home. I will do a little tribute to her soon but at the moment I am too upset to write any more.

As the song title goes, it may be a cliche, but it is very true this year.

Rambling rose

This really pretty rose was actually in this garden when we moved in eleven years. It was tiny back then and completely hidden by a shrub. We uncovered it and later planted the twisted willow tree next to it.

This rose now climbs right up into the twisted willow and cascades over the wall next door too. The neighbours are happy to have it, we have checked, and told them to cut back any of it that they don’t want.

Like the standard rose it also flowers until the first frosts in October/November so it remains pretty all summer.

Standard rose in full flower now.

The standard is now in full swing. We have recently realised that we have rather a lot of roses in this garden They seem to do very well here and are a good mix of different varieties. As I said in the title it’s a good year for the roses.

For the last few days I have been mixing the two flocks at the end of the day. I am amazed at how well it’s going. This must be the easiest integration yet. The main flock have taken very little notice of the chicks.

The two bigger girls have taken no notice of them at all. Freckles is top serama and can be quite aggressive at times with Dandelion and Cinnamon to keep them in their place and yet she has totally ignored the chicks. I guess she knows they are no threat to her position.

Dandelion and Cinnamon are joint bottom girls and the only ones to occasionally run at the chicks and the chicks just run away. It is always the bottom girls as they must show the new girls that they are below them in the pecking order.

I simply opened up the gates and waited to see what happened. The main flock entered the chicks’ part of the run and the chicks weren’t bothered at all.

All eight girls in shot and no panic

Eight girls are mooching around

The chicks followed Freckles to the end of the run and she ignored them

Freckles seemed determined that she would not even look at them.

All the girls ended up at the bottom of the run

Emerald takes no notice of the chicks

The chicks on the second rung of the ladder

The chicks have now discovered that they can get up on to the roof of their little coop and they have got up to the second and third rungs of the ladder.

I am really pleased with how well the integration is going. If it wasn’t for the two flocks having different food I think they would be ready to mix full time.

We have had the chicks for five weeks this weekend. I thought it would be fun to look back at how much they have grown in that time.

The chicks when we first got them

The chicks in the hamster cage

They have grown so quickly but they still cheap away with baby voices. They are also inseparable. It’s all for one and one for all! I am really happy with the progress.

Yesterday was exceptionally hot. It was 29 degrees C which is 85 degrees F. The girls were all sun bathing in turn until it got too hot for them.

Emerald sun bathing

Emerald is looking very shabby as she is moulting. As she has aged she has more and more white on her underneath feathers.

A ragged Emerald sitting with Freckles

Emerald is moulting much more quickly than Speckles. She does have pin feathers coming in though and perhaps it’s best to get it over and done with quickly.

Cinnamon has gone broody

Cinnamon last laid five days ago and it took me a while to realise that she had gone broody. She isn’t very committed and just sits in her corner a few times a day and at bedtime. It was when she raised her tail over her back as I lifted her that I realised she was broody.

I am now lifting her to the perch at bedtime and closing the chicken shed door during the day as none of the other girls are laying. I am back to buying eggs at the moment.

Dandelion has the most red face and comb

Dandelion also has a bit of a bare bottom where she pulled out her mucky feathers when she prolapsed. She does have pins growing back again though.

Please don’t be thinking of laying again!

Dandelion had a look in the nest box and then came out again. It has been two weeks since she last laid and prolapsed. I would really like her to take a longer break but there isn’t anything I can do about that. I have to just hope for the best.

Cinnamon is sun bathing

Speckles is sun bathing

Emerald is snoozing in the shade

Emerald is really showing her age these days. She spends a lot of the day snoozing. A little later Emerald was panting with her beak open. I felt she was struggling with the heat. My husband reminded me that I used to give the girls frozen peas when it was really hot.

If you put the peas in a dish with a little water it really helps cool the girls as they take ice cold water with the peas and it stops the peas from drying out in the heat.

Emerald leads the way with the frozen peas

This helped cool the girls down

Emerald was the first to get stuck into the peas and eventually all the girls had some. The girls instantly looked much cooler.

I put a tapas dish with a few peas in for the chicks. They couldn’t quite summon up enough courage to try them. Blue is the bravest and she would stand perfectly still with her neck stretched out towards them. You could almost read her wondering if they were killer peas. Would they explode? Would they jump out of the dish and bite her? She decided that they were too dangerous to try. Sigh!

I decided to try integrating the chicks but as it was so hot I waited until five o’clock when the run is in shade and the heat has gone from the day. I am going to leave that for my next post. Watch this space!

The standard rose that I was gifted on my fiftieth birthday has grown to an enormous size. I am not sure that standards are meant to get to this size. The beauty of this rose is that it flowers through to the first frosts usually in October or beginning of November.

My birthday standard rose

The rose and shrub almost hide the fence

Before we had new fence here, last year, we used to let this rose go wild as a screen between ourselves and the neighbours. Now that there is a good fence in place we have tamed this rose. I love the way the shrub has grown up to meet it and the fence has almost disappeared. I also love the two tones of pink together.

Lavender grows through the variegated lilies

Sometimes by happy accident plants will grow through each other quite happily. I love this lavender growing through the lilies.

We love to see the garden full so that there is no bare soil and little space for weeds to come through. It makes the garden not only look natural but keeps it low maintenance.

We are very pleased with how the garden is at the moment.

I have managed to identify the moth I saw in the chicken run recently.

Interesting moth

I googled it and it is a scarlet tiger moth. They are seen in June and July in Southern Britain. They fly in sunshine and are active during the day and night. All these things fit perfectly.

I also looked up their caterpillars and they are black and yellow. We recognised them from the garden so further proof.

I also spotted two more mullein moth caterpillars.

The caterpillars have completely stripped the verbascum

They have annihilated our vebascum. We cut it down with the caterpillars attached and put it over our back fence onto the strip of woodland.

Note to Jenny. I always reply to every comment. I went back to my last post about these caterpillars to remind myself which moth they turn into and saw that my reply to you didn’t appear.

You are right that it is good to get a correct identification and it was the spot pattern that was the clue in the end. Sorry to hear that your most of your chicks may be boys but it’s good that you have homes for them.

It will probably turn out that I replied on the wrong post but never mind. As this is my blog I don’t mind talking directly on a post sometimes.

It’s definitely the time of year for wild life. We have spotted a little mouse in the garden quite frequently and have spotted the slow worms all grown up now. It is fun spotting new things and trying to identify them even if they are not always good for the garden as in the case of the caterpillars!

Yesterday I decided to switch the girls to opposite sides of the run. I separate the three sections then bribe the main flock into the bottom half of the chicks section with some sunflower seeds having closed the hatch. Then I opened the gate and herded the chicks to the other side then close the gate and open the hatch.

I put another water bottle on the chicks side plus their water dish and chick crumb dish. I left a water dish plus the water bottle on the other side and added the girls usual pellet dish.

The main flock were happy to have a different dust bath area and the metal table and wooden shelter to sit on plus the other perches. The chicks hung around the food and water dish at first but as the afternoon wore on they explored the bottom of the run. They perched on the log and the bottom rung of the ladder.

The girls looking at each other from the opposite sides of the run

The chicks are on the other side of the gate

The chicks venture on to the patio area

The chicks find the log

At the end of the day I used the same system to switch them back again and both lots seemed happy to be back on their own side once more. The main flock take no notice of the chicks and visa versa. I am hoping that this integration should be easy as both sides are used to each other and their has been no interest through the wire at all.

I think we will soon be ready for the next stage but I want the chicks to be familiar with the entire run before mixing them. So far it’s been going really smoothly.

I went out at about ten o’clock last night and put the chicks on the perch.

I put the chicks on the perch late evening

By morning only Sienna (in the middle) was still on the perch

I closed the lid quickly to see if they would stay put. I then opened it a little to take a peak and Sienna was still on the perch but the other two had moved back down in the box.

I waited a few minutes and took another peek. Sienna was still on the perch. I wondered if she would still be there in the morning.

I went out just after five o’clock this morning and instead of opening the ramp to the chicks coop I lifted the lid a little and had a peek. Sienna was still on the perch.

Hurrah! It’s a start. I hope that the others will follow her. I will try again tonight. I feel like we are getting somewhere a bit at a time.