Chickens

Meet our girls Carla, Geri and Margo. They are Bovan Goldline (Rhode Island Red cross Light Sussex). We got them in May 2008 and they have settled in really well and are now very much part of the family. I never thought of chickens as having personalities of their own, just thought that they would pretty much do their own thing and not really bother with us humans but that couldn't be further from the truth. They each have their own indiviual personalities and they are all quite different.

They are very socialable, very friendly and love human contact. They love being around people and when they hear you coming down the garden they run to greet you!! Trying to dig over the plots has become an impossible task when they are out in the garden, because every time you turn over the soil to do a bit of weeding you are surrounded by three little faces looking down at the soil to see what scrummy worms you have uncovered for them!!

Carla is the mischievous one, she loves to get into everything. When she first arrived she was the friendliest and bravest of the three. Meeting our dog Harvey for the first time didn't faze her at all, think he was more scared of her!! She is definitely the most inquisitive one of the girls. And is the first one to hear you coming, and is waiting ready to greet you. She is ready to jump out the pen, given half the chance and we have to be aware of her when we open the door because she is like grease lightning, jumping on the door frame to get out. She loves to be out in the garden, and is normally somewhere she isn't supposed to be. Carla's probably the greediest of the bunch too, she's always after her belly. The first thing she looks for when you get in the pen is to see if you have bought her any tasty morsels to eat. She will even steal potatoes from out of Harvey's mouth if he is eating one on the grass when shes out. When it's time for her to go back in the run after being out in the garden, she is the hardest one to catch and will have you running all over the garden after her. She is always the first one to bed and the last one to get up!!

Geri, we think is probably the second in command of the house. She pretty much keeps herself to herself, where as the other two tend to be together or close by to each other. She is always on guard and will make an alarm call to warn of danger, a different tone than usual if she hears an unfamiliar sound. When you open the door to the pen she also tries to jump out, if not the first one to the door she is definitley not far behind Carla and sometimes they will jump out together!! She's not too bothered about Harvey but if he gets in her way, she has been known to jump on his back and then hop off without a second glance!! Geri is always the first up in a morning and will make straight for her food, the same routine she does evey morning without fail. She is probably the least socialable of the three, preferring to do her own thing. Geri is the last of the girls to go to bed and sometimes when we have gone down to lock them up for the night, she has been known to still be up way past her bedtime!! She usually sits on the perch next to Carla, who is always next to the window I might add.

Margo is the friendliest of the three without a doubt and the boss!! She will follow you everywhere. When we are out in the garden, she is always right next to us looking to see what we are doing. She loves nothing more than standing over you while you are digging, to see what worms you have uncovered for her!! She is really quite comical, how she runs up the garden after us. Wherever we are, she's usually not far behind!! When she gets up in a morning, she normally heads straight for behind the house. The same routine she does every morning. She is probably the one who lays the most eggs out of the girls and more often than not lays one every day. When you go in to collect the eggs, she will jump on the ladders to get a

better view, she never likes to miss a thing!! For some reason she hasn't mastered getting out the pen when the doors open, so she struts up and down waiting for someone to pick her up. Margo is usually the second one to bed.

New Additions

We decided to get another two chickens to add to our brood. The time we chose Amber Lee. They are a lovely champagne colour.

Pearl is quiet and laid back with a very friendly nature and is always ready to greet you when you come down to the pen. She had a tough time intergrating to start with as she got picked on a lot, but now has settled in really well. She is an active part of the family and now gives as good as she gets. She has found her place on the roost and made herself at home with the big girls, sitting along side them on the perch next to Margo at night. Pearl loves her spaghetti and will run like the clappers if anyone tries to steal it from her.

Vala is probably the cheekiest of the group and nine times out of ten is upto mischief. We think she is the youngest of the two new arrivals. We had a bit of trouble with her to start with, she kept plucking feathers out of Pearl and moved on to the rest of the girls but they soon sorted her out. Now she has settled down she has got out of that habit. Vala doesn't sleep on the perch with the others yet, she prefers to sleep in the back of the house in the nesting box by herself. She loves to have a dust bath in an afternoon and more often than not you will find her in the middle of the group covered top to bottom in dirt.

More Chickens!!

We have now built a bigger pen and have two houses for them to live in. We added more to the flock and mixed in a few more breeds. We bought another 2 Amber Lee from the same place in Oxfordshire where we bought Margo, Carla, Geri, Pearl and Vala from and we bought 8 from thechickengarden.com in Staffordshire, 4 Black Star (black and gold in colour), 2 Sussex Star (white feathers with black markings on their collars and tails) and 2 Gold Link (brown with black tail and black wing tips). We've built them some climbing frames and added a few more high perches which they love to sit on while preening themselves.

Felicity is probably one of the most friendly and lovable of the bunch. She's been through a lot in the short time we've had her, she's been pecked by the others and we've had to seperate her from the rest but now she's turned a corner and gets along with them all just fine. She loves spagettii and especially cheese and will dive in first and run off with her share!!

Minnie hence the name is the smallest one of the bunch, but what she lacks in size she makes up for in attitude. If there is any trouble you can bet your bottom dollar that Minnie was the one that started it, she takes the hit and run approach which means that all you see is a crazy bit of cammotion with Minnie running like the wind away from all the action!!

Daphne is very sociable and has settled in really well. She has silky soft black feathers and lovely gold flecks around her neck. She gets along with everyone. She loves to be out in the garden looking for worms. She is one of the last ones to go to bed at night and is usually found roosting on the climbing frame, she would stay out all night if we would let her.

Victoria is a bit of a loner and she's usually found pacing up and down the fence away from the others when we come to let them out. She's very friendly and one of her best mates to roost with on the perch at night is Jessica. She loves to be out roaming in the garden digging up whatever nice treats she can find.

Beauty is always up to mischief, she is one of the main culprits in feather plucking!! She gets bored easily so needs to get out in the garden as much as possible, that seems to stop her feather plucking habits. She loves spagettii and cheese. She has weadled her way into the heirachy and seems to get along famously with Margo, Geri and Carla.

Flame has settled in well and is always one of the first to the door to see you. She is very friendly and has a lovely soft and silky plummage. She has really nice markings, hence the name flame!! She also likes to perch high at night and you can usually find her their rather than going to bed!!

Lavern is very cautious and timid and is usually the last one that jumps out the pen to go in the garden but once she's out she's a devil to get back in!! Shirl is her best mate and the two of them are practically inseperable, where you find one you normally find the other.

Shirl aka Houdini is usually looking for escape routes when shes out in the garden, over the fence or in bushes she keeps us on our toes!! She is totally the opposite to Lavern. She is one of the first out of the pen into the garden. She bombs it up the path hell for leather and is usually found right at the top on the patio. She is normally one of the last to get back in from the garden. Shirl and Lavern have both got lovely thick silky feathers.

Jessica is Jessica no other one is like her. She never goes to bed at night, we have to put her to bed otherwise she would stay out all night!! She was named after Jessica Tandy. She has got an orangy gold plummage round her neck just like Miss Tandy's hair colour!! She loves to be in the garden and her favourite hobby is running around the garden trying to catch flies which looks very funny, likes she's lost the plot!!

Stephanie is pretty quiet and keeps herself to herself. She's not much trouble, just does her own thing. Stephanie is unlike Jessica because she likes to go to bed as soon as it gets dusk, she's not one for staying out past her bedtime!!

New Chickens

Ida has white markings above her eyes that look like

eyebrows, hence the name Ida. She was really quite timid

when she first came but has settled in well and is really quite

friendly. She is very nosey and enjoys a bit of fuss.

Merlina has lovely markings, she looks like she is wearing a

coat of armour, so gets her name from Merlin, King Arthurs

wizard. She is very vocal!! You can usually hear her

before you see her she is always squarking about something. At

night she refuses to go to bed and you can find her sitting on

the roof of the house, she wakes the neighbours with her

protests when we pick her up to put her to bed!!

Delilah is affectinately know as D and is probably the friendliest

and bravest of the four. She loves to be with you, she is

very sociable and enjoys being picked up. Shes gets along with

everyone but sometimes Minnie likes to chase her just to keep

her on her toes.

Lucy-Lou is the most timid of the four, although she is starting

to get a lot more friendly now. It's easy to tell when she is

scared, she will raise the feathers on the back of her neck!!

She likes the high perches in the pen and can usually be

found sitting there when its time for dinner to arrive!!

Our latest editions

Brandi is very timid and is the last one to mingle fully with the

rest. If anyone starts to chase her while we are in the pen with

them she will fly on our shoulders!! She knows where she is

the safest!! She is getting better and will peck about on the

floor but as soon as anyone chases her she will fly on the roof

of the house or to the nearest high branch for safety.

Shes usually not far from Tabbath, her best mate. They are

normally cuddled up together somewhere. She is really friendly and likes a cuddle sometimes.

Tabbatha is the braver of the last two new arrivals. She is

starting to find her feet within the group. She is getting quite

brave and comes out with the rest of them in the new pen

now. Sometimes she gets picked on by Ida who is still trying to

establish her place. But she is very good at out running her!!

Latest Arrivals

Claudia is settling in well but is the more timid of the four. She is

very skittish and still a bit unsure. She normally keeps herself to

herself and is usually found milling around quietly on her own. She

is very nervous but is slowly coming out of her shell. Claudia is

very fast on her feet if she feels threatened by anyone she

will bomb past them like grease lightning, and she comes out of

the coop on a morning like she's been jet propelled!! She is very

swift on her feet!!

Lily is the bravest or maddest of the newbies. On the first day

she arrived she made herself at home by perching on the top

perch at bedtime!! She has soon settled in, probably because

she is so bold!! You can usually find her hanging around with

Sophia, although sometimes you see the two of them having a

tiff, trying to sort out which one of the two is boss!! She's not

so high up as she first thought when she arrived and has

now been demoted to the lower perch in the house but she is

not scared to assert herself if needs be. She is the friendliest of the four and will always come

running to greet you, head down, like a bat out of hell!! She is mad!!

Sophia is lovely, she is pretty friendly and has settled in well.

She normally hangs around with Lily but can also be found with

Claudia, Sylvia and Tabbatha. She is not quite as friendly as

Lily but she is getting braver. She will run up the pen when she

hears you coming, shes's always pleased to see you.

Sylvia has beatiful markings, she is black with a lot of silver

flecks, she looks like an eagle!! She has settled in well and

likes to mill around doing her own thing. She is probably one of

of the first to go to bed, and she likes to sit in her favourite

place in the house, at the end of a perch, against the side of

the coop, before the others come to bed!!

Chicken Blog

We are enjoying keeping chickens very much and found it to be much more fun than we first thought it would be. We are still learning as we go along.

Beauty and Daphne are still plucking feathers, and we are finding it hard to discourage them from doing it. Beauty is the worst, she's constantly pulling out feathers while they are having dust baths and Daphne, we think is mainly pulling her own out. We've tried stockholm tar and spray but that hasn't worked with them. So now we are letting them free range all day in the garden, hopfully that will keep them busy and allow for the rest of them to grow back their feathers because at the momemt that is difficult, with those pair pulling them out!! We think it is also affecting the colour of the eggs, most of the shells are white. It would be nice to see them with their full feathers instead of bald bums!!

We have extended their pen by another 15ft x 9ft and they love it, they are still out in the garden most of the day too and that seems to have stopped their boredom. We have been keeping our eye on Daphne and Beauty and are keeping them in the pen when it is bath time.

It's been about 3 weeks now, since they have had the run of the garden, and they love it. Their feathers don't look any worse and we can see bum fluff slowly appearing. The eggs are getting their proper colour back and not so white, after we gave them Shell Max in their water just for a couple of weeks. We get more brown than white shells now. Daphne and Beauty are allowed out at bath time, they are not quite as obsessed with feather plucking, although they still have a go sometimes but not constantly.

Shirl is our resident Houdini, she's been upto her old tricks again, trying to get into places she's not allowed, for instance our veg plots!! We have had to put up some netting to stop her getting into the Onions. She's very clever at foiling our attempts to stop her, it never takes her very long to figure out new ways to get in but hopefully we've stopped her for good this time.

We've stopped Shirl getting into the Onions, now shes getting into the Beetroot and Carrots!! We've put up some more netting but it only takes her a day max, to figure out how to get in. Our last resort is to clip her wings.

We have had to clip Shirl's wings but she can still fly reasonably high but it has stopped her getting into the veg. We've had to clip Lavern's also but the rest of them are not so mischievious, which is a good thing!!

It's coming up to seven weeks since they have had free range of the garden all day and we can see new tufts and feathers appearing on them all. They are starting to look a lot better and we haven't seen much plucking, only on the odd occassion. Daphne and Victoria look the worst, they have still got a way to go before they start to look like proper chickens again but we can see little tufts appearing now.

Minnie has gone broody again, we noticed it a couple of days ago, so we have her seperated in the mornings while they are all laying, to stop her sitting in the nesting box all day. In the afternoons she's out with the rest but we have to keep checking to make sure she's not just sitting around all day. She's been out a lot more today but noticed her comb has been bleeding a little, not sure if she's caught it on something or Jess has been picking on her, we are keeping a close eye on her.

Minnie is doing fine now after about a week and a half she snapped out of her broodiness and back to her scatty self which is good. We have bought a new shed for them and have been converting it into a chicken coup, put in some high perches as they seem to prefer them and some nesting boxes a lot more than the other house had so as they don't have to que up to lay!! Its taken us a couple of days to do the new house but its been worth it, they all seem to like it. They have only been in it since sunday (11th July 2010) so only a few days. The first night when we went down to lock them in, we were expecting them to all be perched outside but to our amazment they were all on the perches with one exception, Minnie she was in one of the nesting boxes but they all looked pretty content. They all seem a lot happier altogether now they come and go as they please and are not couped up all day in their pen, we can actually see a vast improvement in their feathers, Jess and Steph have got lots growing back Victoria had quite a few missing, shes looking a lot better and Daphne who was the baldest even has some coming back too, can't wait to seem them feathered up properly!!

Carla's not very well today, when she got up this morning she wasn't milling around like the others just standing about, not moving much at all. I've been keeping an eye on her all day but she doesn't seem to be eating or drinking and she's usually always stuffing her face!! When I picked her up she was sick. Think maybe she has got something stuck in her crop or somethings not digested properly. Gave her some cod liver oil to try and grease her up a little. Been out tonight and bought some live yogurt see if that will help. Fingers crossed she will be ok, will keep you posted.

Went down to see how Carla was last night, Ian picked her up and she was sick again, quite a bit and a bit of food came out. This morning when we opened up the door she came out with the others and started to scratch around like normal. Ian picked her up and felt her crop and it had gone down completly, few, that was a relief!! I've been watching her today and she looks like she's back to her normal self.

It's been over a week now, and Carla is doing fine now. Daphne has had a spurt on with her feathers, she has got lots growing back down her back. We think she may have stopped laying because of how fast they are growing, you can see a difference in them every day. The rest of the chickens feathers are coming back, but not as fast as hers.

Victoria didn't want to get out of bed this morning, was very reluctant to get off her perch and noticed that one of her eyes was shut and she wasn't opening it. Eventually she did come out but she was not her usual self, just standing about not doing very much at all. She's usually the one that finds all the tasty slugs and normally has the rest of them chasing her after her with it dangling from her beak!! Not sure whats the matter with her, have to see how she goes, she's not eating but she is still drinking.

This morning Victoria is back to her usual self, she came right out the house and scratching about with the rest of them and shes keeping her eye open now. Don't know what was the matter with her, maybe it was something she ate her a 24 hour bug, but shes better now thats the main thing!!

We've had a sad day today, Carla passed away this afternoon. She seemed to be doing fine, we thought she was back to her normal self but the last week she hadn't been as active as usual. We think she might have been older than we thought, we've had her two and a half years and she was laying eggs as soon as we got her. Really sad, she was one of our favourites and she was the friendliest, always ready for a cuddle. We'll miss her.

It's been a few weeks since we lost Carla and we've been talking about getting some new ones. We want to to make up the number of chickens back to 15, which we originally started with. This time we are going to have Bluebells, they are grey and black in colour.

Today (21st Aug 2010) we have been to get our 4 new chickens from the chicken garden, where we had our last 8 from. They are a lovely smokey grey and black colour. Their feathers are so soft, they feel like satin. We've got to take their photo's yet and put them on here but they are gorgeous. They are a bit scared at the moment and its taking us a while to catch them. Had us running all over the garden today!! When we finally caught them, they screetched the place down!! They are rearly noisy but they will calm down once we've handled them a few times. We are keeping them seperated from the rest for about a week in the daytime but tonight we waited for the others to go to be and then we put the new ones in the house with them. They didn't move much but the others didn't really bother with them. This is the bit I hate about getting new ones, the introduction, as they can be so vicious with them until they have accepted them. Thats why this time we had Bluebells, they are quite big. With a bit of luck they will be able to stand up for themselves.

We've had a really bad start to the week, a fox has had Lavern in the middle of the day while they were all out roaming the garden. I had just been in the garden feeding them and when I came down about 10 mins later she had gone. We are so upset. Then to top it all Daphne died the next day, she hadn't been looking well for a couple of days. She was starting to look lovely again with all her new feathers too. So in a week we have gained 4 chickens and lost 2. We don't feel comfortable for them to be out in the garden on their own now, so are re-arranging the garden so that they can be out in safety. We are going to fence in where they usually roam and make it safe so no foxes can get in.

It's been over a week now since we've had to keep the chickens in their pen most of the day but we are working on their new play area. We have dug up three plots (the beetroot and carrot, potato and courgette plots). We are making that area all under chicken mesh, running back to their pen. So they can come and go as they please like they are used to, except this time nothing should be able to get in to them and they will be safe. We've got the 8ft stumps in so far.

The new chickens, Merlina, Delilah, Lucy-Lou and Ida are getting along quite well, they are all in the run together now, after being penned off from the old ones for a week. They are getting on quite well, not much trouble at all, looks like it pays off to introduce them slowly.

Today (18th Sept 2010) we've bought another two chickens from the chicken garden. They are lovely brown colors, one is a cherry brown with black flecks we've named her Brandi and the other is a light brown with a paler chest, and looks like shes wearing a bid, we've called her Tabbatha. We have them seperated from the others but they all go to bed at night together. We've nearly finished the new run, just finishing off the roof at the moment, should be all finished in a couple of days.

We have finished off the new run at last, took some work but its now secure for them. We've put a couple of perches up, so they can sit and watch us on the patio. They have been in it for a couple of days and they look happier, better than being penned up all day.

They are having a great time in the new run, they come and go as they please and they race up when they hear us coming!!

It's lovely to see them all out playing, Shirl, Geri and Beauty love to forage in the trees. Geri is usually quite territorial over her favourite place but today she was sharing it!!

The new chickens have been with the rest now for about three weeks, they have been out in the new run today for the first time!! They usually stay in the back pen away from the rest, so was happy to see them out today. Won't be long before they are just one of the others. Merlina, Delilah, Lucy-Lou and Ida are all laying eggs now, they are a lovely plum colour. They settled in well, although Victoria usually likes to show them whose boss!!

Brandi and Tabbatha are getting on quite well with the others, although they are still not fully mixing. They usually come out in the new run early in the morning before the others come out. They seem to be taking a little longer to mingle than Merlina, Delilah, Lucy-Lou and Ida did.

Sad news today, Victoria passed away today she hadn't been well for a few days and had stopped eating. We are very sad to have lost her. So sad when anything happens to them, they are all part of the family.

Tabbatha one of the last new chickens we bought in September layed her very first egg today and it's a beautiful copper colour. Brandi hasn't started laying yet. We thought they should have started to lay earlier than this as today (16th Nov 2010) we will have had them for just over 8 weeks!!

The chickens are not too keen on this cold weather we are having at the moment. Not many are venturing out of the pen. Shirl has started to moult for the very first time. Not a good time to be losing all her feathers, it is freezing cold!! She is spending a lot of time in the house and on the perches in the run trying to keep warm!!

Most of them are staying in the pen while this snow is on the ground. At least there it is warmer on their feet because its not open to the elements, it has got a roof. Beauty is out the most in this snowy weather and Tabbatha was out today but like the others not for long!!

We have been busy this past month (Jan 2011) building them a climbing frame. They love it, and think it's the bee's knee's!! It keeps them entertained for most of the day, climbing on and off it. We hang food like, cabbages and broccolii from it, which keeps them busy for hours. They are much happier when they are doing something all day. They like to be kept busy. As you can see it also has a roof, so they can stay out in the run when it is raining if they want.

The days are getting longer, its dusk just after 5pm which is great, means that spring is not far away. The chickens are out playing longer too. Shirl is usually the last one to go in when its starting to get dusk and she's always the first out into the run in a morning!! She loves to roam!! Minnie, Steph and now Vala have started to moult. Shirl looks lovely, soft and fluffy now she has got all her new feathers, shes also got wings again!! Now she can get back into mischief!!

Whoo hoo the clocks go forward this weekend (March 27th 2011) the days get longer which is good for the chicks, they can stay up later. Shirls had a bit of a mishap this week, in her haste to get the goodies at dinner time she's managed to bump her eye. It had swollen up and looked really bad, she could hardly see out of it. The next day it went black around her eye, looked like she was the hard chicken of the bunch, one not to be messed with!! hehe. The good news is, its back to normal now with no ill effects and she can see perfectly well, phew!!

We need to get a bit of a roof on some of the new run, so they can stay out when its raining as they stay in the back pen if its wet and get bored which is no good because they start to pull feathers for fun!! There are a couple with a few feathers missing at the moment. It's raining today but most of them are out in it, they look like drowned rats, poor things!! They've got so many climbing frames in there now it looks like a childs playground!! hehe but it keeps them happy, so its the least we can do. We have seen Mr Fox on the prowl this past week in the allotments the bottom of the garden, so we always have to be vigilant when they are in the garden with us, because he's about at all hours of the day, not just at dusk.

This past week Delilah has been standing around a lot, very lethargic. We think she may be egg bound. We have been sittting her in a warm bath to see if that will help. We did manage to remove a soft egg shell. She is seperated from the rest, but she hasn't eaten anything for a couple of days.

We have been syringe feeding her, to try and keep her strength up, she looks a little brighter. Today she has eaten a little bit of rice and a little bit of cat food on her own and she looks a bit more alert. Moving around a little but still very slow but at least shes eating and drinking!! Still seperated from the others, see how she is tomorrow.

Delilah is still not very good, shes up and down every day at the moment. Sometimes she will eat a little sometimes she won't have anything, so we have to keep feeding her a little bit of food and water to keep her strength up.

Today D is a bit more mobile and is back in with the rest, she was actually standing waiting for me at dinnertime with the rest of them, although standing a little way back so as not to get crushed in the crowd!! She ate a little bit of rice. She looks a tiny bit better.

Delilah has eaten quite a bit today, shes had a bit of sweetcorn and found herself a worm and pecked at the grass a little and been drinking water. She is up and down, so not getting too excited just yet, see how she is tomorrow.

On monday there was still not much improvement in Delilah. Gave her some antibiotics in the afternoon, as she still wasn't eating on her own. A vast improvement today tuesday, she has been moving about all day and has been eating. She has had half dozen sweetcorn and a small handful of raisins!! Not really seen her drink.

Last night D actually sat on the perch to go to sleep last night in the coop. She has been eating all day but needs to put on some weight. The rest are still picking on her. Today when I went down to feed them, D was out in the pen milling around with the others!! Put her back in on her own, just incase they set about her but she looks a lot better!! Fingers crossed!!

Delilah is still eating, not sure how much she is drinking, not seen her drinking much. The rest of them are not being quite so mean to her, Minnie, Tabatha, Brandi and Geri are the main culprits the others don't really bother her. She finished the last of her anitbiotics today.

Delilah seemed to be doing well, we thought she was going to be ok but a couple of weeks ago all of a sudden she seemed to go downhill and stopped eating and drinking, sadly she didn't make it, we are very upset at losing her after all she has been through.

The chickens now have a new Delux portable nesting box (3rd July), that we can leave outside in the run or move around if need be. They are a nosey bunch, when we put it down, they all swarmed around it, standing on it and looking inside checking it out. Shirl was straight in it and Geri perched on top!! Opened it up today (5th July) to find three eggs inside, they must like it. They should like it, it's got lots of room inside, easier for them to turn around and make themselves comfy!!

Had a shock tonight, when Ian went down to lock up the chicks, Brandi had passed away. He thought she was asleep at first. She had been running around like normal all day, as crazy as normal. Never expected that, another sad day.

We are in the process of making the chicks a new coop (7th Aug 2011), a better and bigger one, we are thinking about getting another couple of chicks. The new coop is 7ft high so as they can have higher perches this time and a bit more space for them to stretch out in. Hopefully they will love it. We have knocked down the old shed we used to store their food in and now we have just started to erect the new one. So far we have one side up, only another three to go!!

Whoo hoo the coop is finished!! Today (21st Aug) we have four new arrivals!! Had a couple the same as Shirl (Sussex Star) and a couple of new ones, Silver Sussex, they are black with silver markings, and are gorgeous!! Will put their pics up soon!!

The new girls are getting on quite well with the rest. It's been a couple of weeks now (7th Sept) and they are mingling pretty well, they seem like a brave lot!! Today they have ventured half way up the pen towards the garden, thats the furthest they have been so far but it hasn't taken them very long at all to settle in. We have named the Sussex Star Lily and Sophia and the Silver Sussex Sylvia and Claudia. They are all getting pretty friendly now and come out to greet us when they hear us coming down the path. They are all getting used to the new house, although at the moment Tabbatha still won't go to bed and will perch on the bars outside. Sometimes Merlina won't go to be either and ocassionally Beauty is sitting with them also. Have no idea why Tabbatha never goes to bed!! Lily, Sophia and Sylvia have made themselves at home and can be found on the top perch!! We might have to make a ladder for some of them to go up, not sure if the top perch may be too high for Vala and some of the others because they seem a little unsure about getting up there at the moment.

Sad day today Geri passed away, she was the last one left of the very first three chickens we had. She had seen a few changes since she arrived here with Margo and Carla. We will miss her very much, she was very friendly and the matriarch of the group, our old lady!!

Everyone is getting on quite well with each, the newbies have settled in really well. They are all going to bed in the new house now, but they are still finding it hard to get on the new perches, may have to do another couple of perches a little bit lower down so as they can get up a bit easier.

For the last week Minnies eye has swollen round the eyelid, not sure what it is. Guessing she could have bumped it or its a bite, there is a very tiny white dot on the corner of her eyelid. Think it must be quite itchy as she keeps rubbing it on her feathers. Not really sure what to put on it, we are bathing it in warm water every day. Read that applying a warm teabag to the infected area can help, so giving that a shot, which is very difficult with a fidgity chicken!! Shes eating and drinking as normal, just distancing herself from the others when they all pile in for food, they are a mad lot!!

It's coming up to two weeks, since we noticed Minnies eye had swollen up. This morning (3rd Oct) looks a lot better, still a little bit of swelling above her eye but looks much better and she is keeping it open more. Still not completely better but getting there. Shes eating and drinking as normal and still chasing the Ida, Lucy Lou and Merlina, so she must feel ok in herself. Hopefully it will clear up altogether soon with no ill effects. Made them another couple of perches for the coop to help them get up easier, that seems to have worked, half of them were up on the perches by themselves last night, thats nice to see. They seem to be settling into the new house now, they are all finding their place, Shirl and Vala are always on top perch!!

We've been down on eggs for a few weeks due to most of the gang moulting, Tabbatha started everyone off, now they all seem to be going through it. Tabbatha has a lovely set of feathers now and most of them have the majority of their feathers back. Ida, Merlina, Lucy and Flame are in the middle of their moult at the moment, just see their spiky feathers poking through. Jessica and Steph have just got their tail feathers to come back, so they will soon be back to full fluffyness!! Don't think Shirl and Minnie have moulted but theres still time.

Now we are half way through November, the egg count is getting back up there, we are having around 5 or 6 a day sometimes 8 if we are very lucky, must be because most of them have finished moulting or are not far off finishing. They are used to the new house now, figured out why they are not all sitting on the perches at night, because its too dark and they can't see them to fly up!! We hung a light up in the house last night when it started to get dusk, left them for an hour and when we went back down to lock them up they were all sitting on the perches no problem!! Think we might put them a window in next year, once the bad weathers out the way, although its been pretty mild so far.

Now the New Years here (Jan 4th 2011) it won't be long before spring is here. The Chicks are doing well, they are all lovely and fluffy with the exception of Stephanie. Beauty looks beautiful and so do Flame and Jessica, been a long time since we have seen their butts covered in feathers, they all look lovely. Jess looks like a new bird. We are still putting the light up at dusk in the house for them to go to bed and its working a treat, no more messing about with them all trying to work out where they are sitting, they are settled when we go down to lock them in, its great!!

Minnie has started to moult now, been going through it a couple of weeks. This morning when she came out the house she was just standing about trying to keep warm as the weathers turned a little colder this last week (17th Jan). Later on in the day she was sitting in the sun, trying to keep warm huddled next to Vala, no you don't see that very often!! Think Shirl has taken over as top dog and ousted Vala out of the top spot, they were having a bit of a sqwabble and unfortunelty for Vala, Shirl won, usually nobody messes with Vala.

This week (30th Jan) Vala and Minnie havn't been very well. Minnie has been standing around a lot not doing much and we have been giving Vala a little bit of oil and water for the past couple of mornings as her crop hadn't been emptying properly.

Vala didn't look very well at all last night and Minnie was asleep most of the day, but we had a shock when we got them up this morning, both Minnie and Vala had passed away in the night. We are very sad to have lost them, Vala was the oldest of our brood she was around four and a half and Minnie was the smallest, she was never very big compared to the rest. We will miss them very much!!

Problems We Have Sometimes Encountered

Introducing New Chickens To An Original Flock
When we introduced our new additions to the flock, no one told us that the new and old birds should be kept apart in seperate pens or fenced off from each other in the daytime for the first couple of weeks, only letting them sleep together at night when they were more docile and less aggressive to the new ones. We introduced them to each other straight away and Margo, Carla and Geri were really vicious to them. We had asked at the time when we bought the new additions if they would be ok to be introduced to the original ones we had and were told, "yes they will be fine, just keep an eye on them and a spray gun filled with water on hand and squirt them every time they try to attack the new ones" Well that didn't work at all!! So we did a little research on the internet and found out about keeping them apart. If we had known that to start with it would have saved a lot of stress on the birds and us.

Feather Plucking
After we had seperated Pearl and Vala from Margo, Carla and Geri we found ourselves looking at another problem. After a few days We noticed that Pearl was missing a lot of feathers on her bum, at the time we thought that she had pulled them out herself but on one occasion we witnessed Vala pulling them out. We tried to stop her whenever we saw her doing it but we couldn't watch her 24 hours a day. We thought it was just one of those things until we noticed that Vala had actually pecked a whole in her skin and made her bleed, it looked really quite nasty. We seperated them immediately and started reading up on it to see what we could do. We found out that chickens can be cannibals and once they see blood on another chicken they will keep pecking at it sometimes ending up killing the injured bird as a means of survival. (if theres an injured bird in the flock, it attracts predators because the predator can smell the blood, so the rest of the flock will kill the injured bird to protect themselves)
Most of the articles we read about feather plucking said that it was due to boredom, we guessed that was because they were in a smaller run while the others were getting used to them. It recommended getting some Stockholm Tar to smear on Pearls bum. So we went and bought some, its a really strong smell like creosote and is really thick and sticky like the sap out of a pine tree. We applied that to Pearls bum every day until the hole Vala had caused healed up, and once that had happened Vala stopped pecking Pearl, although she did start to try and pluck the feathers of the others but they soon sorted her out. Now Pearl has recovered and her feathers are growing back nicely.

Soft Shelled Eggs
Lately we have been getting a lot of soft shelled eggs from Margo, we noticed that she looked a bit under the weather and was quiet and hunched up. We kept an eye on her and saw her lay an egg that had a very thin shell almost see through. We are not sure what is causing it but we have done a little research as to the causes and found that soft shelled eggs can occurr if the hen is not getting enough calcium or is unable to take up the calcium. Also stress or moulting can cause it. We have noticed that she is losing a few feathers at the moment. Here are a some things we found to help prevent soft shelled eggs:

Adding cider vinegar to the drinking water helps the bird to absorb calcium.
Always provide your birds with oyster shell, even if there are no soft shelled eggs.
Give the birds plenty of greens, many of them are high in calcium and are good for them anyway.
Feed them cottage cheese.
Mix a little cod liver oil in the feed. This supplies vitamin D to help the bird use calcium. About ½tsp for large fowl.

We have given them a bowl of oyster shell in their pen now so they can eat it whenever they want. We gave them some cottage cheese which they absolutely loved and we did put a little bit of cod liver oil in their feed for a couple of days. Margo stopped laying for a few days but now she has started to lay again although not every day. There have been no soft shells which is a relief, we read that once a flock start to eat the soft shelled eggs it is very difficult to get them to stop and they will quickly learn to break into eggs with hard shells. Well we will wait and see how she goes but she looks a lot happier again, more alert and back to her perky self.

Prolapse

This happened to us with Pearl, this is when the reproductive tract is turned inside out and protrudes fom the vent. Luckily I was in the garden when it happened and noticed it straight away. We immediately seperated her from the others as left with them they would pick at the protruding material. We took her inside the house and genlty pushed it back inside. We kept her in the house for a while in a box and kept an eye on her to see if it happened again. Once we thought she was better we put her back in with the others and kept her off the layers mash for a while but the first egg she laid after the prolapse caused her to bleed a little and the the other chickens noticed and set about her. We took her to the vets but with the shock of it all sadly she didn't make it. We were so sad, after all she'd been through and she was lovely and friendly.

Preventing cannibalism within the flock

We have had our fair share of feather plucking in the flock and this can lead to cannibalism if the chickens see blood. One day we found that the chickens had set about Felicity, she didn't look too badly hurt. We don't know why they picked on her but we seperated her from the rest straight away. She stayed in our back bedroom in a box for a week and looked as though she was recovering well but went down hill over night and we couldn't get her to eat or drink. Sadly we lost her the next day, we couldn't believe it after we thought she was getting better. I've read that the risk of cannibalism is lower when hens are fed a mash diet, which takes longer to eat, than when fed a diet consisting of pellets, which are quickly consumed. We started our chickens off on pellets but found that they preferred the mash anyway, so switched them to that. Increasing the time spent foraging for food reducese the incidence of cannibalism also, so now we make sure that the hens have plenty of food they can forage for. Instead of just throwing their titbits on the floor we put them all over the pen and hang spagetti and rice from their perches and scatter around rocks and cover some over with dirt. So far this seems to keep them more entertained and more content, keeps their minds active thinking where all their favourite foods are hidden and we have noticed they only pluck the occasional feather.

Moulting

The new chickens look like they are starting to moult. They all seem to be going thin around their tail feathers. They have already lost a lot from around their bums because of Beauty and Daphne plucking them, which they seem to have stopped now at last. We can see the new feathers starting to grow back but it seems to be taking a long time. Carla has finished moulting and now has a lovely soft full plumage again and Geri is halfway there, she has nearly got all her feathers back.

Egg Bound (Egg binding)

Margo, one of the very first three we got, has been laying very large eggs for quite a while but she tends not to lay as regular as the others. We have been thinking for a while that she was probably older than Carla and Geri, although we got them from the same place and they were all supposed to be point of lay pullets, but she was already laying decent sized eggs and consistantly, pretty much every day. We think now that she might have been a lot older. For the last week we thought that she might be egg bound, she was hunched up and not moving around very much at all and we hadn't seen any large eggs for a while. She was still eating and drinking and we seperated her from the rest. We read that if she is egg bound, bathing her in warm water might help. Also to see if we can feel an egg inside but we couldn't feel anything at all. We bathed her a few times and sat her on a warm hot water bottle which was wrapped in a towel and gave her cod liver oil but nothing seemed to work but sadly a few days later we lost her.

Broody

We noticed Minnie was in the nesting box a long time the other day and when we took her out she wanted to get straight back in, even when the pen door was open and the rest of them were in the garden!! She was also making a screeching sound, which made a real racket and fluffing up her feathers. We thought she was going crazy!! We think now she might be broody and we are keeping an eye on her and we get her out regularly, when she's been sitting there for a long time. It's been a couple of days and she's not going crazy to go to sit in the nesting box any more, think we caught it in time, nice and early, which is a relief because its supposed to be hard to snap them out of it once they are broody and it can be detrimental to their health by not eating and drinking properly.

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