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!

Mite Mare!

When cleaning out the Hen Coop this weekend, we noticed a few tiny red blobs wondering around near the perch. I had heard of Red Mite and went on-line to find more information. All the information was consistent in that Red Mite can live in coops and come out at night to suck the chicken's blood! A particularly popular hiding place for Red Mite is on the ends of perches. Our coop doesn't have removable perches (well not in the traditional sense anyway, everything is removable in the end I suppose and so we proved). We used a hammer, a screw driver and a paint scraper and removed the perch and perch supports from the sides of the coop. The squirmish should now look away.....

Blood spot

Molly's first egg had a small 'blood spot' as can be seen. Have looked up 'blood spots' and found out the following:

"Blood spots are the result of broken capillaries in the reproductive system. When the capillary ruptures, a drop of blood leaks out and becomes part of the egg. The presence of a blood spot does not mean the egg is fertile or that an embryo is beginning to form. Egg processors attempt to identify and remove all eggs containing blood spots before eggs go into the carton." (For source click here).

Aparently blood spots are more common in older birds and the first eggs laid by younger chickens.

Molly's first a double yolker!

Molly's first egg turns out to be a double yolker!

Molly lays first egg!

Molly laid what we are pretty sure was her first egg today. It was a very good size for a first egg and a light brown colour (so the item that I read about chickens laying eggs the same colour as their ears was obviously not true - strange as it seemed like such a sensible theory!!).

Molly not too bad

The vet was very nice and checked Molly over thoroughly, she admitted she was not a chicken specialist and said Molly seemed a good weight and didn't have any discharge from nose etc. She thought Molly was of an age to start laying (judging by position of bones at rear end) . She prescribed some anti-biotics to be on the safe side, in liquid form which is added to drinking water. For us to administer this means either separating Molly from the other two for three weeks (this is really not pratical) or to treat them all at the same time. This seems sensible as if Molly has got a bug, the others might have caught it too. The down side of all this is that it means throwing all eggs away for the next month.

Two eyes open

Half an hour before we are due to leave for the vets and both of Molly's eyes are now open, she's hopped out of her box and gone back into the garden where she is drinking water enthusiastically.

I am reminded of when Abi was a small baby and went all floppy and hot, we were advised to take her to the hospital immediately which we did. We then waited in A&E for three hours before we were seen. By the time the doctor came Abi was running around like there had never been anything wrong with her and we looked like over-protective, worrying, time wasting first-time parents (which I suppose we were!).

Bird's eye view

One hour before we're due to leave for the vet and Molly's right eye has opened and she's eating corn like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully this means that there will be for Molly!

Molly going down hill

First thing this morning Molly seemed OK but by 11am she was not in a good way. Her eyes seem to be closed all the time. She's just standing around with her eyes shut. I have picked her up and brought her inside again so she gets a bit of peace and quiet. She's not eating though, just preening her feathers every now and then. Scary Chicken Health Book suggests anything from a cold to Cholera and imminent death. I have made an appointment at the vets (different Poultry vet, not rubbish pet vet) so will take her along this evening and hope for the best.