Molting over...

It seems that Kiev and Leia have stopped molting and in fact Kiev has grown some lovely new white and caramel coloured feathers.

She looks like a fine specimen of Buff Orpington at last (she has even got feathers on her bottom at last - no more baboon bum, hooray!).

Not amused!

The chooks looked such a sorry sight after their adventerous night that I felt the need to take some pics.

Molly seemed to think this was a little insensitive (she might have a point!).

Topless!

It was a wild old night last night here is Southampton, even so, I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I saw that the roof of the coop/run had blown off! The roof is really heavy, it takes two of us to lift it (although when pushed I found out this morning that in fact one person can reinstate it on their own!).

Leia and Kiev (who are frequently found lacking in the common sense department) were huddled inside the coop with the lashing rain having soaked them to the skin. Molly, showing a bit more sense, was underneath the coop.

I don't know when the roof blew off, but the inside of the coop, the newspaper and wood shavings, were absolutely sodden. The three nestboxes were still nice and dry and snug, but as it was not night time and not time to lay an egg, the chooks evidently elected not to use them.

Molting Chickens

For some time now, we have noticed quite a lot of Kiev's and Leia's feathers in the coop and run and generally around the place. It seems they are molting, which evidently chickens do about once a year (further information about molting here). Aparently most chickens stop laying while they are molting and they generally molt when the light levels get poorer. This seems a bit daft to me as their feathers fall out just as it's getting cold! (mind you, not having any teeth isn't a brialliant design feature either!). One of our chooks is still laying most days and although Molly doesn't seem to be molting, I think it is Leia who is still laying. Leia and Kiev are starting to look a bit scrawney as you can see!

"Going off lay"

Egg production has really dropped with the changing of the seasons, we are getting one every other day or so. We think this is Leia and the other two have given up. This might have been a matter of concern for us (given that this is our first winter with the chickens) but today, Jill Archer put my mind at rest by referring to the fact that her hens were "going off lay". I am now completely reassured, safe and sure in the knowledge that if it was on 'The Archers', it must be legit. The chooks are going to bed at 16.15 now! Have added some worming powder to their layer pellets as it has been a while.

Holiday care

We had a week away recently and the chickens were spoiled rotten by Lynn from over the road who treated them with tit bits and even cleaned them out during our absence! (definitely over and above the call of duty!). I think they are missing her visits (Thank you Lynn!).

Temperature drop

The temperature has dropped significantly here, with frost most mornings this week. The nights are drawing in and with the clock changes, the chickens have adjusted their self imposed bed time accordingly. Today they were all in bed by 16.50! Having problems with the auto door which does not seem to be working.

Molly to bed on time

Molly seems to have sorted out her body clock now and has been to bed in time for the auto-door closing every night for over a week (phew!).

Renegade chicken

Molly has become a bit of a renegade chicken of late. As mentioned previously, the evenings are really drawing in now and the light sensitive auto-door is closed by about 7.15pm these days. In the time they have been with us, the chickens have amazed us at their ability to 'take themselves to bed' at dusk. The last two nights however, we have found the auto door shut and Molly running around outside, having obviously missed her chance to go to bed! It is fortunate that it is Molly as we can catch her and put her into the coop (this would not be possible with either of the other two!). Maybe she's having trouble adjusting to the changing seasons (I know how she feels!).

Winning the red mite battle

Have purchased some PoultryShield (http://www.microshieldsolutions.com/agriculture/) as the primary weapon in our battle against the evil Red Mite. Last weekend we sprayed the whole coop with the stuff and this weekend, the red mite colony was much smaller, I think we're winning. We sprayed the whole coop again and hopefully, this should only need doing every 6 weeks or so now.

Auto door fixed

The Auto door has now been fixed and has been fine for the past two weeks. It is a clear sign of the changing seasons that this evening I went into the back garden at 19.15 and the chickens had tucked themselves up in 'bed' and the light sensitive auto-door was closed.

Toast pincher!

On returning from work, Alan always has a couple of peices of toast. These are invariably 'taxed' by Abi but on this occasion they were not. Al was sat on the floor eating his toast and Molly strolled in the patio doors, strutted up to Al and just helped her self to the peice of toast in Alan's hand! (he was not entirely amused by this!). The following evening Alan sat just inside the patio door (with door closed) and waved his toast to the chickens who had assembled just outside. In Alan's own words, this was not his proudest moment!

Antibiotics

When we thought Molly was ill (it seems she had her eyes tightly shut for 5 hours because she had a massive double yolker trying to get out - her first egg) we started administering anti-biotics in the chickens' water. This meant throwing the eggs away which was quite tragic. We left it for a couple of weeks after stopping the anti-biotics and are now back to consuming the eggs. Hooray!

Chooks locked out!

On arriving home at about 7.30pm on Saturday evening we discovered that the knot had slipped again on the auto-door and the chickens were locked out and sitting in the run. The weather was foul, lashing with wind and rain. Leia was on the run perch and Molly and Kiev were huddled under the coop. We opened the door for them and expected them to go into the coops and out of the horrible weather. What we had failed to appreciate is that chickens are simple creatures who have a very strict timescale related to daylight. They had missed their opporutunity for going into the coop at dusk and were therefore going to sit tight until day break! Before we turned in we physically lifted Molly (she's the only one we can easily catch!) and put her into the coop, figuring that the other two would follow her in there.....at 2am I came down to see and Leia and Kiev had not moved an inch, Leia was clinging on to the run perch, being blown all over the place and getting soaking wet. Stubborn creatures! They didn't relent until day break, when they finally went into the coop.

Egg in the bath!

When we got home today I was baffled to find an egg in the chicken's dust bath (the large flower pot containing dirt that they have in their run). As I bent down to retrieve it I could hear a sort of whirring sound and to my horror, noticed that the cord/line for the auto door had snapped (later to discover that in fact the knot had come undone). This must have happened some time after the first chicken had laid her egg (probably Leia as she usually lays the first of the day) and the time the second chicken wanted to lay their egg. The second chicken must have been unable to get into the coop as the door was shut. I picture them hobbling around the run with their legs crossed until the forced indignity of laying an egg in the dust bath! Oh dear. Alan has had a go at fixing the auto door.

Don't tell Alan!

....well, she just popped in to see what was happening in the big brick coop........

Kiev on high

After 4 months, Kiev has finally managed to get up onto one of the high perches!

Maybe we will remove the low (for fat birds only) one now that she's figured it out.

Herby chicken

Molly is clearly back to her old self. She is regularly to be found in my herb garden. This is a raised bed about 3 foot off the ground level. She hops up there and helps herself to my sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano (she wasn't quick enough for the basil, the slugs got there before her!).

She was probably looking for my chilli plant!

Four month service

As we are currently binning eggs due to the fact that the chickens are on anti-biotics (by the way, I don't think there was anything wrong with Molly except that she had her very first egg stuck inside her which just happened to be an enormous double yolker - but thought we had better be on the safe side) thought we would also take the opportunity to treat chickens for lice. This involves a drop of liquid (medicine) on the back of their necks, once every week for three weeks. This is not a problem as far as Molly is concerned. Molly is a lovely chicken with a gentle nature, you can just pick her up and drop it on while giving her a cuddle. The other two however are a different case altogether, we've never managed to get hold of either of them. Alan and I spent about 15 minutes running around the garden trying to outwit the two chickens, they quickly headed for the tiny gap behind Abi's Wendy House and Molly joined them for good measure. Realising we were on a hiding to nothing (they are genius chickens you understand), Alan gallantly donned a thick winter coat and a pair of gloves while I enticed the chooks into their run with handfulls of corn. Alan then joined the chooks in their run and I closed the door behind him. Much squalking, flapping and swearing followed but Alan triumphed and we got Leia and Kiev treated too.......maybe next week will be a bit easier!

Spring (chicken) clean

This is a colony of Red Mite that was living underneath the perch. They were very well hidden there, had no idea they were all there!

Having found them, we removed the perches and supports and Alan replaced with a removable system of long bolts and wing nuts. We will now be able to check that the Red Army have not returned when we clean out the chooks.

We dispelled them with lots of water (containing Tea Tree Oil as disinfectant) and any that reamained, I ruthlessly tracked down and squished with the sharp end of a screwdriver!

Have been putting Red Mite powder in the chicken's dust baths, which may have offered them protection from these mites, however, will now ensure that they do not return!