Carol's Chickens

As is tradition in this household the girls have a Christmas Day treat of fish.

And as an extra bonus Autumn laid a Christmas Day egg this morning. Thank you Autumn!

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

We have had awful weather lately with lots of rain most days and it’s a while since I have seen more than one girl at a time have a dust bath. It’s Autumn that has been dust bathing the most. She likes the small space between the wooden blocks and the chicken’s patio.

Then one day last week we had a sunny afternoon. All eight girls were dust bathing at the same time and for quite a long time too. I took some photos to do this post but then got busy and didn’t get round to it so I thought I would do it now.

It was difficult to get a good photo of all eight of them together as three of them were on the other side of the wire so this was the best I could do.

Dust bathing is often a communal thing but usually one or two girls are wandering around “helping”. They will peck at the dust on the girls and scratch around them. This is often Salmon and Storm and then they will dust bath as the first girls start to leave.

So seeing all eight girls at the same time was heart warming. They must have spent nearly an hour dust bathing and they looked so happy.

Since Autumn had her short break in egg laying she has laid another four eggs. I now think she will continue to lay but perhaps not quite as regular as before. It’s enough to give us one or two breakfasts a week. Any eggs are a welcome bonus!

Autumn laid fourteen eggs in October and fourteen eggs in November. I thought that she may lay through the winter but then she stopped laying. Autumn would sit in her corner of the chicken shed for a while and then come out without laying. It was as if she thought she should be laying.

I thought Autumn was finished and then today she laid an egg after a week’s break. It may be her last egg this year though as Mango did the same at the end of her laying. Mango also laid an egg after a week’s break and then no more so it may be the same for Autumn. Time will tell.

Also today for the first time Mango jumped on my back when I was cleaning the chicken run. she always follows me around and has often looked like she wanted to jump on me but couldn’t quite manage it. Today I was bending over close to the chicken’s patio and she jumped on me from there.

There isn’t much to report at this time of year. The girls have short days and are not so active in the winter. I am sure that like us they will be happier when the days get longer and warmer again.

Edit

Autumn laid another egg two days after her last one. Perhaps she was just taking a break and will continue to lay over winter after all. Well done Autumn!

I decided to give the girls another fish treat as Dot is going through a really tough moult this year. Sugar’s tail feathers are now at almost the usual length which actually looks quite cute. All the other girls are through the moult.

Dot’s moult seems to be going on forever this year. The dropping feathers have slowed but I am still picking up quite a few from the chicken shed every morning. Dot looks a bit scruffy and her comb has now gone very pale. She looks very sorry for herself. I thought she could do with a bit of a boost.

I will be so glad when Dot is properly through her moult. She does have her tail feathers back in but is still full of pins especially on her head.

Autumn continues to lay every other day like clockwork and occasionally two days running. She always lays in the same corner of the chicken shed and is very quick at getting her egg laid. Autumn, unlike most of the girls, doesn’t give the egg shout after she has laid. She just casually strolls out of the chicken shed. I don’t know if she will always stay as quiet as this.

Autumn is a very quiet girl. We have only heard her join in with the girls shouting occasionally when there is a cat in the garden and even then it’s only been a few times and sounds a bit of a strangled shout. She chats to me all the time when I am in the run but she has a very quiet and subtle chatty voice. It is one of her many charms that she is a quiet girl.

A few days ago I gave the girls a yogurt treat which they absolutely love.

I love to see the girls with their yogurt beaks. They scrape their beaks against the patio to clean them afterwards. The dishes end up so clean that you would think they were able to lick them. I just love seeing the girls enjoying a treat.

This morning Sugar’s last two tail feathers were under her roost spot in the chicken shed. Overnight she has lost her tail. Oddly enough Dot’s last remaining tail feather is still hanging on.

Sugar looks quite sweet with her short tail. It will soon grow back to it’s usual length. Apart from Autumn all the girls’ combs have now turned their pale winter colour.

Autumn’s comb is bright red and she has gone from laying every other day to laying two days running some of the time. Autumn is keeping us going with those bonus winter eggs.

It will be good to see the rest of the girls through the moult. It seems to have dragged on this year.

Dot has continued to drop feathers wherever she goes and to leave a heap under her roost spot overnight. A few days ago she was down to her last tail feather. I was going to do a before and after but a few days later that ragged lone tail feather is still hanging on.

Dot looks so sad during the moult. She spends time in the shelter and when I give out the sunflower hearts she waits the other side of the wire from the rest of the girls for hers. The girls always seem to lose confidence when having a heavy moult.

I am still picking up piles of Dot’s feathers from the chicken shed each morning. It’s a wonder she isn’t bare by now. I’ll be glad to see Dot through with the moult as I am sure so will she.

Both Dot and Sugar are moulting quite heavily. Both girls last laid about two weeks ago and then started dropping feathers with abundance. First it was Dot followed a few days later by Sugar. I have never seen Sugar drop so many feathers at once as usually seramas moult a bit at a time.

Sugar is leaving little heaps of feathers where ever she has been sitting and under her roost spot in the chicken shed she has been leaving a pile of feathers. At first they were small feathers and then this morning there were lots of long tail and wing feathers. Oddly enough Sugar doesn’t look bad though. She is a bit straggly but doesn’t look as if she is losing piles of feathers. Her new feathers must be coming in underneath.

Mango stopped laying half way through October and then a week later laid one last egg and then stopped again. Autumn has laid as regular as clockwork every other day through out October and has now laid fourteen eggs. They are gradually increasing in size.

I thought a fish treat for the girls would give them a little extra protein to help with the moult.

All the girls are looking good considering how much moulting is going on. Dot and Sugar are the last two girls to moult so that will get it all over with before winter and Autumn is holding the fort on the egg laying front.

I have for now given up trying to get Mango and Cloud to go in the chicken shed by themselves. For three nights Cloud went in the chicken shed while the nest box was covered but Mango was obviously stressed at being out on her own and unable to sit on top of the nest box.

There was a huge amount of sloppy poop all over the chickens’ patio area. It made more clearing up for me but more to the point it showed me that Mango was stressed. I went back to leaving the nest boxes uncovered and Mango and Cloud resumed sitting on top and the poop went back to just a few normal poops. This meant it was quick for me to clean up and to put Mango and Cloud in.

I know that it is Mango that is the problem. Cloud wants to go in but is torn by wanting to stay with Mango. I had back up of this a few nights ago.

Mango went into the nest box late in the day to lay her egg. It was half past five and the pop hole had been closing at half past six. When I went up at dusk Mango had laid her egg and was out on her own but Cloud was perched in the chicken shed. Cloud must have gone in while Mango was out of sight in the nest box.

This is really frustrating but I am all out of ideas so for now I will continue to put Mango and Cloud in each night. I keep hoping when it gets colder maybe they will start going in but I am getting to the point of wondering if it’s ever going to happen.

In other news Sugar went broody after laying seven eggs in two and a half weeks. She has just had two nights in the broody crate in the shed and is now through it. As I had hoped she isn’t quite as committed at this time of year. I hope this will be the end of her egg laying for this year.

Dot last laid a week ago and is dropping long feathers so I think she is finished for this year. That leaves both Autumn and Mango laying every other day.

The day before yesterday it rained most of the day. I find it amusing that although the run is roofed the older girls like to spend time in the shelter when it’s raining. But it is times like this that we have a flock of two halves. All the older girls were in the shelter together but the three newer girls were pottering about in the run. I have never seen them in the shelter as yet.

Yesterday it rained so hard late afternoon that at half past five when I was giving out the bedtime sunflower hearts the pop hole closed and caught us all out. I had to open the chicken shed door and guide them all in. At least Mango and Cloud went in at the same time as the rest of the flock. I shall give them the bedtime sunflower hearts at the earlier time of five o’clock.

It will be a work in progress to see if Mango and Cloud ever go in by themselves but for now I will continue to do what I am doing.

We have had a bit of an up swing with the egg laying and were surprised today with a four egg day. Dot laid first then Autumn then Sugar and Mango.

Autumn has now laid four eggs and they are always in the same corner of the chicken shed. Autumn is a girl of habit. She always perches in the same spot next to Dot on the side perch in the chicken shed and she always lays her egg in the same corner.

Sugar laid her third egg two days after the one with blood on it. This time it was almost perfect with only a tiny bit of crazing on the shell. She then laid her fourth egg today which is three days later and this egg was perfect.

Sugar didn’t looked uncomfortable before laying this egg which is probably because the shell was normal. She seems to have improved for now which is really good news.

Sugar’s egg is on the left then Mango’s egg is next then next is Autumn’s egg which is a slightly darker colour and then Dot’s egg is on the right and always has some slight speckling on it.

I thought it would be good to get a photo of all the girls to go with the egg photo so I sprinkled a few sunflower hearts on the patio and quickly snapped a photo. What amused me is as soon as I had done this Autumn and Mango went to the water and suddenly there were then five girls at the water. They are such flock creatures!

They do make me smile.

In other news I have been trying to get Mango and Cloud to go in the chicken shed at bedtime. They were settling on top of the nest boxes so for the last week I have draped a tarpaulin over the nest boxes to try to encourage them to go in the chicken shed. I open the nest boxes and hang the plastic sheet down over the boxes so there is no where to perch.

At first they would just be waiting on the patio for me to put them in. As soon as I opened the chicken shed door they would come to the door for me to put them on the perch. I tried leaving the door open but it made no difference and they were still waiting for me to put them in.

Then for the last three nights Cloud has gone in and perched. Mango has still been on the patio waiting for me. I am hoping that eventually Mango will follow Cloud in. It’s always been Mango that wants to stay out and I have felt that Cloud has been torn between going in and staying with Mango.

I hope that as it starts to get colder Mango will follow Cloud. I feel that Cloud going in is progress so I will continue to cover the nest boxes until they both go in. We have never had girls take this long to start going in themselves but I am hopeful that we will get there eventually.