Competition for something tasty!

Our hens are normally the best of friends, with very little pecking or bullying. But today I looked out of the window, and saw a full scale chase - Ginger had something in her mouth (I suspect a slug) and the other three were very energetically chasing her round the run. I think Honey actually managed to steal it off her, after a fairly violent assault. Sometimes they are so mean!

We are still getting lots and lots of eggs. Strangely, the colour of them seems to be stabilising as a darker brown - one chicken (I think Ginger) lays very pale eggs, but the other three are almost indistinguishable. They are all definitely laying as we often get 4 egg days now.

Bedraggled hens

It has been very wet here over the last few days, and the poor chickens have been looking very soggy. Honey and Dopey, the Goldlines, seem to really hate the rain - their feathers seem to absorb the water more. Ginger doesn't seem to mind the rain - she has thicker feathers and seems a bit more 'waterproof'. Speckeldy Selina doesn't mind it much either. Their run is a bit of a mud bath now.

Eggs - we have lots! Generally 3 or 4 a day. They are a little less reliable about laying in the nest box - Ginger in particular often lays in the house or even the run - perhaps this is when the nest box is engaged and she just can't hang onto her egg any longer!

4 eggs again today

We finally seem to have reached capacity production! The chickens are eating a vast amount at the moment, and producing lots of eggs. I think the fine weather is helping - May-July was just so wet that I think they 'laid off' the eggs. But so far September has been lovely, which must be nicer for them. I've been able to give a fair number of eggs away, which I always find a nice thing to do as people just love the taste of freshly laid free(ish) range eggs from very happy hens.

Today is the day we have been waiting for!!!

Today is a special day in the chronicles of the Alsop chickens! The hens have been very greedy over the last few days, demolishing a whole feeder full each day. And today, Speckeldy Selina and Ginger (I think) laid eggs this morning, followed by Honey and Dopey this afternoon. Which makes today officially our first four-egg day!

Congratulations hens!!!

Ouch! That's got to have hurt!

Egg production has settled into a more reliable routine. We are getting between 0 and 3 eggs in a day, but averaging 2-3. Still no 4 egg days, although I'm fairly sure all the hens are laying again. Honey and Dopey have both readopted the squatting position which seems to signal when they are in lay, and we are certainly getting more than one light brown egg most days, which shows at least one of the Goldlines must be laying (the other light brown egg coming from Ginger the Black Rock).

Last Thursday I was surprised to find not only 3 eggs, but one of the eggs was HUGE!!! On weighing it, it proved to be a whopping 75g. We haven't opened it yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a double yolker. It is definitely a Speckeldy Selina egg, because it is the lovely deep brown colour of her eggs.

This picture shows some of their eggs - the two on the left are either Black Rock or Bovan Goldline eggs - I haven't yet worked out a way to distinguish them. Sometimes the light brown eggs have speckles on them, sometimes they are very uniform in colour. The two eggs on the right are both Speckeldy eggs - the far right egg is a normal sized egg, and the one in the middle is her huge offering! She did squawk a bit after laying that - I can't say I'm surprised really!

Three eggs in one day

On Saturday I was away most of the day, and returned home to find THREE eggs in the nest box!! One was definitely Speckeldy's, and I think one was Ginger's, but of the other two I have no idea who it was. They are still a little bit subdued, but I think the worming medicine has helped a bit. I have just got the various powders and potions from the Domestic Fowl Trust, so I will try and give them a dusting this evening, and also put some in their dust bath. The first four egg day will definitely be one for celebration!

A visit from Mr Fox

We were woken this morning at about 5.45 to the sound of squawks coming from the chickens. As the weather is nice at the moment, I've been leaving their pophole open so they can enjoy the early morning, but this morning the fox came to visit. He was sitting on top of the run part of their house, and the chickens clearly do not like this! We chased him off, but Speckeldy Selina was now into squawking mode, which was rather embarassing, as at least one of neighbours had their downstairs lights on(!). Woops. We stayed in the garden with them for a while, till they calmed down, and Graham did some very early morning weeding. It reminded me of that episode of The Good Life when Margot and Jerry shout at Tom and Barbara for the noise they are making. They were revving the rotary cultivator though, not just a few chicken squawks.

I think I am going to have to shut them in overnight - it's not really fair to wake the whole street up at 5.45. And the mornings will be getting darker soon anyway.

I've also wormed them all - I got some Flubenvet from The Domestic Fowl Trust, where Speckeldy Selina and Ginger came from. The instructions said to add 120g of powder to 100kg of food. So last night I was painstakingly weighing out 2.5g to put into 2kg of food, using a Calpol medicine spoon! I hope this might perk up Honey and Dopey. I've also ordered some delousing powder and red mite powder, to put into their dustbath. Ginger and Speckeldy are laying pretty well now, but I'd like to get back up to full capacity!