Carol's Chickens

Yesterday Speckles laid an egg after exactly three weeks break. Her poop seems less sloppy recently. I hope that laying an egg is a sign that whatever was going on with her is getting better.

Speckles lays an egg

The egg on the right is Emerald’s and the egg to the left of it is Speckle’s larger and paler egg. I couldn’t resist adding Cinnamon’s egg at the back on the left and Dandelion’s tiny egg in front of it.

Speckles has been driving us mad with her shouting/screaming in the afternoon when Emerald goes in to lay her egg. She has done this every other day for the last three weeks.

Yesterday while Speckles laid her egg Emerald watched from the ramp of the nest box. About an hour later Emerald went in to lay her egg. For the first time in three weeks Speckles didn’t shout.

Has she had a light bulb moment and realised that as she herself has just laid an egg, Emerald has gone in to lay an egg and not disappeared? It certainly does seem like that.

We are hoping that Speckles will continue to lay and will stop shouting every time Emerald goes in to lay. Chickens are more complicated than we sometimes might imagine!

When the chicks get too big for the hamster cage they will have one of the nest boxes (actually called small animal houses) as their coop just we have always used before for this purpose. The draw back with this is not having a perch and so the chicks having to sit amongst the night time poop.

I have tried to come up with ideas for a temporary perch before but nothing was really successful. As the chicks are going to be in there for a longer period than previously, probably four months, I feel it’s more important to try to come up with some sort of perch. Also from the way they spend time on the platform in the hamster cage I feel that they want to perch and it would also help them with the eventual transition to the chicken shed.

Yesterday I looked for something that would be free standing to add to the nest box, when needed for new girls, but that could be easily removed when it reverts back to being a nest box again.

I first tried the pet shop but found nothing suitable. I then tried the pound shop which is next door to the pet shop. I found myself in the gardening bit and picked up a herb trough. I thought it could be repurposed and at a pound it didn’t much matter if it didn’t work.

I thought the chicks could perch on the edge of it but it would be better to have a perch that they could grip all round. I thought a thick bamboo stick would be the right size and I could attach it with wire to the herb box through the gaps either end of the trough.

I set about this and was quite pleased with the result. This could sit in the nest box/temporary coop and be removed when no longer needed but kept for the future when needed again.

I plan to half fill the trough with pine shavings for easy poop picking. We also plan to screw it to the floor of the little coop nest box so that it can’t tip up. We will use just one screw in the centre to hold it place and I will keep the screw driver in my chicken store cabinet so that I can remove it at any time.

My movable perch system

The perch in situ

I got Freckles to try it out

I used Freckles to demonstrate as she is the easiest girl to pick up. In the photo Freckles was just leaving as I had to plonk her on the perch and then grab my camera. I wasn’t quick enough to catch her on the middle perch.

It will sit lower than this as I had just plonked it on top of the shavings but when properly installed I will clear the shavings and place it on the floor of the little coop then fluff the shavings around it.

I think this will work. Time will tell!

I know that I have done similar posts to this in the past but it still greatly amuses me how the little girls lay such different sized eggs. Cinnamon who is the smallest of the little girls lays the biggest serama egg and Dandelion who is the biggest of the little girls lays the tiniest serama egg.

A selection of eggs

On the left for comparison is a medium sized, shop bought, egg. Next is Emerald’s reasonable sized egg and next is Cinnamon’s egg. On the right is Dandelion’s tiny egg.

On the good side, Dandelion should never experience a prolapse. Her little eggs me smile every time.

We have now had the chicks for a week and I think they have almost doubled in size already. I needed to clean out the hamster cage. I poop pick every day and clean the water bottle and food dish but I want to change the shavings and thoroughly clean the cage once a week.

I decided to do this in the morning while the chicks were in the bathroom. I moved the chicks to the cat box while I cleaned their cage. My mum had asked me to try to show a comparison of their size so I decided to take a photo of Blue in my hand.

I would say that a week ago if I held my hand out flat, palm up, I would have been able to sit all three side by side in my hand.

Blue in my hand for size comparison

Sarah, the breeder, said that they could escape through the grill of the cat box when we collected them. I don’t think they could now. The grill happens to be laying in the bath. I put the cat box in the bath while I cleaned the hamster cage from the bidet filled with hot, soapy, water.

I think the chicks were quite glad to get back to their hamster cage. I don’t think it will be long before they outgrow the cage but I am hoping that by then Blue will get the feathers in on her bottom, which is bare at the moment, all bar some pins.

Blue is definitely developing a bit slower than the silkie girls. They do seem to be growing before our very eyes though. They remain utterly adorable.

The mixture of sun and rain has made the garden so lush. We have also taken out a lot of pulmonaria and replaced it with more interesting plants which has injected a bit of variety and colour.

The garden is looking amazing

Everything is lush

In the distance you can just a little white figure which is Freckles watching me from the branch perch.

The chicks are doing really well. Usually when we have new girls there are lots of posts with photos of them discovering their new surroundings. With the chicks being in a hamster cage there isn’t any of this to show as yet.

They are already developing their characters though. At first it looked as if Blue was going to be top of this trio as she was first into everything, food, water, bedroom quarters, scratching and digging. But this has now changed with the silkie girls growing faster than her. Lemon has now become top of this trio and is also the biggest of the three. Lemon has done a little chest bumping with both the other girls.

The chicks have quickly got used to the plastic cup coming into their cage to fill up the food dish and are not at all bothered by it and don’t move out of the way but they really don’t like my white, disposable gloved, hand, coming in to poop pick. I don’t blame them as in a small space such as the hamster cage my hand is a bit in their face but what surprised me was that Lemon pecked my gloved finger on several occasions. She is feisty.

We are really pleased with the chicks progress and they are adorable to watch. They cheep all the time and eat and poop at quite a rate. They peck at everything including the floor and the sides of the cage.

They continue to go to the bedroom quarters between eight and nine o’clock depending on how light or dark the day is (I leave the curtain open at the bathroom window for them) but we can still hear them cheeping from in there and when we turn on the bathroom light a little face will appear at the window but they never come back out until morning.

What clever little girls they are.

The chicks are visibly growing before our very eyes. They can jump up and down on the hamster cage platform with ease now. The two silkies are faster growing than the frizzle who is noticeably smaller than them at the moment. Lemon is the biggest of the three. They are always busy, chirping constantly and eating all day long.

The chicks are growing fast

Lemon, Jasmine and Blue

They like to stay close together

They are never far apart and do everything in unison. They are a very cute threesome.

Today Cinnamon has started taking notice of the chicks. She has been pacing up and down the wire desperate to find a way in.

Cinnamon is eyeing up the chicks

It’s typical that it’s our smallest girl that wants to get at them. Cinnamon was the same when she was on their side of the wire looking out at the bigger girls. For a tiny girl she has always been a feisty one.

Emerald continues to want to lay her egg with a little girl. Today it was Cinnamon’s turn. She has now laid her egg next to each of the three little girls. Cinnamon chose a corner of the chicken shed instead of a nest box and Emerald followed her. It seems as though Emerald likes company when she is laying her egg.

Emerald got her egg laid first. She is pretty quick at egg laying and shortly after Cinnamon laid hers.

Emerald and Cinnamon in the shed together

They look so cute together

The chicks seem to spend most of their time in the food dish. Blue remains the one to dig the most. They stay pretty tight together.

The chicks are a day older

Jasmine in the middle is rather crowded by Lemon and Blue

Jasmine has a yellow stripe down the middle of her breast

This photo isn’t great because she wasn’t still and so it is slightly blurred but it’s difficult to get a shot of her breast so I kept it in to explain the naming. Blue and Lemon both have lemon colour on their heads. Jasmine has a slightly darker yellow colour (like the colour of jasmine hence the name) and has a stripe of this same yellow colour down the middle of her breast. Blue has some dark blue colour in with the black.

They will grow into their colours as they get bigger and it will be easier to tell the difference between Lemon and Jasmine. I have always liked using colour, descriptive, names.

The chicks seem to be happy in their new home. Integration will be “fun” but we are a long time away from that yet so I am just going to enjoy this easy bit when they are contained in a small environment.

I have researched far and wide trying to find another serama breeder. I talked to the secretary of the serama club and she has been looking for me but nothing came of that. I tried the breeder that Sophie got her girls from but sadly due to ill health she has given up chickens. I tried all the poultry shows with no luck. I asked on the “Down The Lane” chicken forum but with no luck.

Then David (thank you David) sent me an advert from the preloved site. I called the lady and she said that she only had chicks and a long waiting list for them but that I was welcome to come and look. She is an hour away from us and works during the week so we arranged to go yesterday.

Stupidly in the excitement I forgot to ask her name so will call her “lovely chicken lady” of Parkside Poultry in Aldershot. She breeds serama, pekins and quail. She was really helpful and her many birds were kept in lovely clean conditions. We were very impressed with her all round.

She has such a good reputation that as fast as she hatches and grows the birds to two months so that she can sex them they fly out of her place to the people on her waiting list so she isn’t able to get her birds older than that.

I knew that the only way I could have some was to take them at two months and she only had a few girls left at that age. Every bird I pointed out was a boy and in the end it was a matter of asking which were girls and taking what she had. I ended up with three girls, two silkie feathered and a frizzle feathered.

The reason I would have preferred older girls is because the integration process is quicker. With young birds they need to be started on chick crumb and progress on to growers pellets whereas the current flock are on layers pellets. This means that they will have to stay separated until they are about six months and at point of lay. So instead a few weeks it will be four months before they can start mixing.

The other problem is their tiny size. I had taken the cat box to collect them and was rather alarmed when lovely chicken lady said that they could possibly escape through the grill on the front of the cat box. I had to hold the grill against myself and block it in the van for the journey home.

I had intended to put them in the dog crate with a nest box as a coop but realised that their small size meant they would be able to squeeze through the bars. I needed to go to the pet shop for chick crumb so I looked for something more suitable for them and came back with a hamster cage which at a cost of twenty pounds wasn’t too bad and will come in useful if I have chicks in the future.

The chicks had been cheeping all the way home and the first thing I did when we got home was to set up a water bottle in the cat box and a dish of chick crumb. The three chicks immediately piled into the food dish and went quiet. We realised that they were hungry.

All three chicks in the food dish in the cat box

We put together the hamster cage which came with it’s own water bottle and a tiny  food dish plus a hamster’s wheel which of course we left out and I put in a layer of pine shavings. I put water in the tiny dish so that the chicks have a choice of water.

The chicks immediately found the water bottle, the chick crumb and the feeding quarters. They also started digging and dust bathing in the shavings. They seemed completely at home in the hamster cage and I felt much happier knowing they were in a safe environment until they get a bit bigger.

Three little chicks

The black/blue one is the frizzle and is first to find everything. She is already looking like top girl of this trio.

Our three new girls

They are so cute

I have never had such tiny girls

I have had six week old girls before (Peaches and Barley) but they were bantams and so never as tiny as these girls. The lovely chicken lady said it’s no different though and they will soon grow. She had a trio that were four months old that were reserved, with a deposit paid, and they were much bigger so we could see that they will soon grow.

I separated the smallest corner of the run that I use as my starter part for new girls and put the hamster cage in that part. This part stays in shade, the shaft of sunlight you can see in front of it soon moves away.

I will be taking the chicks inside at night to our bathroom, or at any time we get bad weather, until they outgrow the hamster cage.

In position in the separated part of the run in front of the shelter

The chicks are hiding in the sleeping quarters in this photo.

The flock didn’t take any notice of the new girls. I think because they are in another cage they are not attracting more than an occasional glance at this stage.

I was surprised that when I went to check on them before bedtime the chicks had almost emptied the food dish. I refilled it to the brim. They eat a lot more than I had imagined but that’s a good sign that all is well.

I chased Emerald and Speckles into the chicken shed at half past eight and the chicks were still in the food dish. I went back at nine o’clock and the chicks were in their sleeping quarters. What clever chicks!

I am sticking with my tradition of descriptive names and our new three amigos are Blue, Lemon and Jasmine. We now have two of each feather type which is a really nice balance. I am so thrilled with our new additions.

Emerald is laying every other day like clockwork at the moment. She is very happy to share a nest box with one of the little girls. Usually it is Dandelion but today it was Freckles.

They looked so sweet sat side by side that I went to get my camera. By the time I returned Emerald had just laid her egg so she was now stood up.

Emerald and Freckles in the nest box together

It looks as though Emerald is sat on Freckles but it’s just because Freckles has seen Emerald lay her egg and is instinctively trying to pull it towards herself. These little girls love to sit on an egg or eggs.

Emerald has just laid her egg

I reached under Emerald and removed her egg. Meanwhile Cinnamon and Dandelion were sunning themselves together.

Cinnamon and Dandelion in a patch of sun

There has been another odd thing going on around the egg laying. I talked to my mum about this recently but hadn’t got around to posting about it because I didn’t want to come across as humanising chickens and wanted to be sure I was pretty much correct with my assumption before saying anything.

There is something a bit odd going on with Speckles. As I have said before she has been doing sloppy poops for some time and hardly laying at all. She last laid an egg twelve days ago and that was the soft shelled egg that I posted about.

This is the first time she has laid a soft shelled egg and since then she has stopped laying altogether. I am not worried about not having eggs just a bit concerned that that means all is not completely well with her although she seems normal in every other way.

From that time she started shouting in the afternoons and I mean full on screeching/screaming. If I was indoors with the windows closed I could hear her.

There have been a lot of lovely sunny days and when sitting in the garden I started to worry about annoying the neighbours. It is as loud as a cockerel and is not something she has ever done before.

I tried distracting her, I tried telling her off and in desperation I tried squirting her with a water bottle. As soon as I moved away she started again. It was driving me to distraction.

As the week went on I suddenly realised that she was doing this whenever Emerald was in the nest box. We would have one quiet day and one day of this behaviour in time to Emerald laying every other day. I think she suddenly notices Emerald is missing and panics. As soon as Emerald has laid and is back out in the run all is calm again.

I think because Speckles isn’t laying herself she doesn’t think to go and look in the nest box. When Speckles was laying Emerald would always watch over her from the ramp and so she knew where she was. Speckles seems totally unaware that Emerald has gone in the nest box and will come to the bottom of the run and scream.

Today when this happened instead of trying to stop her I led her to the patio area and lifted the lid of the nest box to show her that Emerald and Freckles were in there and she immediately calmed and went quiet.

This has been happening since Speckles stopped laying twelve days ago. I will now try to lead her to the nest box whenever this happens while I am at home and maybe she will soon stop doing this.

Speckles and Emerald are such tight pair. They are still trying to sleep out at night too. I simply go and tell them to go in at about half past eight and watch over them as they make their way in.

Emerald always liked to perch out in the evenings after the other girls had gone in but when we had Peaches and Barley, Speckles would go in with them. As it neared dusk Emerald would jump down and join them. I think it’s because we no longer have Peaches and Barley that these two have become joined at the hip! This means that when Emerald perches outside Speckles of course joins her.

I think it’s that that has given Emerald the confidence to stay out. Now she has her partner in crime along side her they are happy to stay out. It’s heartwarming to see strong friendships in a flock but boy these two are so close that they are proving problematic. Never mind, I just have to deal with it. I suppose it is better than aggressive behaviour!

The garden is really lush at the moment after the recent rain followed by recent sun.

Corner bed outside the cabin

Veg plot

Lilac

Veg plot from the other direction

Another corner bed

Looking towards the chicken run

Path in front of the chicken run

Chicken’s strip has filled in

Looking back from the chicken run

Back towards the veg plot

Lilac and freesias

I bought some inexpensive freesias as I love the scent of them. They looked a bit sparse in the vase so I added some of the lilac from the garden.

The garden is looking amazing and is filled with promise of more to come. The rose over the arch, fence and cabin roof is a mass of bud and will soon look amazing. I will revisit it when it is in full flower.