Poorly Piper

One of our hens has been a little under the weather.  On Friday evening, when I let the girls out into the garden for a run around, three of them immediately started searching for goodies while Piper stood off to one side with her neck pulled in, looking very unhappy.

I got the corn bowl out, as this usually gets them all running over.  I immediately had Norma and Taystee on my lap and Big Boo scratching around by my feet, but no reaction from Piper.

I took the corn over to Piper and held it in front of her - nothing.

I put some treats out for the others and took Piper inside with me to watch The Simpsons and recuperate.  I put a bowl of corn on one side of her and a bowl of honey water on the other.  She ignored both and just sat down for a bit.  I had a feel of her neck and found that the crop was empty - she hadn't eaten all day.  I was starting to get really worried.

After about an hour of chilling out, she stood up and started straining at something.  About 20 minutes later she laid a perfectly-formed but shell-less egg.  It's an odd thing, still held together by a membrane, but squidgy, like a stress ball.

After laying, she took a nap for 10 minutes, woke up, had a look around and... OOH! CORN!  Started gobbling away at the food.  Looks like it was just the egg getting her down; she perked right up once it was out of the way.

Piper has been back to her normal self the last couple of days.  We had a very thin shelled egg yesterday which was probably her.  Not ideal, but definitely an improvement.

Great British Beak Off

Egg update:

37 eggs.  Average 2.1 per day.  £13.40 per egg.

Food

Ooh, pineapple!

Now that worming week is over, the girls are allowed treats again, so we're trying them on a variety of stuff.

I think they're starting to get used to me providing food.  When I come out the back door, they cluster round me and follow me around the garden.  Anything I drop, they try to eat.  When I'm hanging out the washing, if I drop a peg, they all run over and try to eat it.

This means they're up for trying most things.  If it turns out not to be food, they'll soon lose interest.

We tried them on green beans and mushrooms, not much interest there.

Fruit is popular.  We've tried melon, mango and Pineapple .  They're quite happy to strip any remaining flesh that we might have left on the rind.

Corn is a classic chicken treat and our girls love it.  I can see it will be a good tool for training them.  I found an old parmesan bowl in the cupboard and decided it would make a good corn bowl, as I can open and close it one-handed.  Using this, I've managed to get three of the girls to jump up on my lap to get some treats.  This includes Piper who was quite aggressive to begin with but is now becoming very tame.  She'll jump up on my lap and put up with being stroked and checked over, so long as there's corn on offer.

The only one who isn't jumping up for the corn is Big Boo.  She always seems a bit aloof and is now the only one who shies away from being touched.  She's happy to eat whatever scraps the other drop, but still doesn't trust me enough to come up.  Hopefully that'll come in time.

So far we've found two things that they really go mad for: rose petals and sardines .

There's a rose bush hanging over the fence from next door.  Every time a petal drops, they all run over and fight over it.

By far the favourite is sardines.  I emptied a tin onto the grass at the weekend and I've never seen them move so fast.  They cleared up the sardines in seconds and proceeded to strip out every blade of grass they touched.  Sardines are very good for egg production, due to the protein, calcium and omega-3 content, so this will become a regular treat for them now.

Great British Beak Off

Finally, our tribute to the Great British Bake Off: The Great British Beak Off.  It's starting to trend on the chicken-related Facebook groups and here's our entry for this week:

A pineapple shell stuffed with blanched potatoes, gammon and a baked eggshell crumb.

Prepared last night and in the fridge ready for judging this evening...

Home invasion

Egg update

We're up to 20 eggs.  Averaging 2 per day.  Cost per egg: £24.31

Exploring strange new worlds

I managed to get the girls out free ranging all day long over the weekend, so they had time to explore a little more.

All week I've had the kitchen door open while they've been out, but they've shown no interest in going inside.  Then this happened.  All four at once, having a good look around.  Piper and Taystee decided they liked it and settled down on the floor for a nap.

We've decided that they are allowed in the kitchen (although not on the worktops), as the floor there is washable.  They're not allowed in the rest of the house.

Now that it's clear that birds are allowed in the house, one of the collared doves from the tree in the garden decided to explore too.  Then she couldn't get out, so I had to catch her, which she wasn't very happy about.

Collared doves are very cute up close, but their eggs are tiny, so I decided not to keep her.

When Doves Cry

Egg update

2 more eggs, bringing us to 12.  £43.44 per egg.

This is our garden now!

We have a couple of collared doves living in the tree in our garden.  Apparently that is acceptable.  They're also allowed to perch on the fence.  They are no longer permitted to land anywhere in the garden.

They tried a couple of times last night and that made Big Boo very angry and she chased them off.

They seem a little more tolerant of the neighbour's cat walking through the garden now, probably because she doesn't eat any corn.

Food fight!

A couple of days ago, I tried them on half a galia melon.  They didn't seem keen.  I took it away and put it in the freezer.  When I brought it back out yesterday (still frozen as it was a hot day), they loved it.  All they left was an empty rind.  All the seeds and flesh are gone.

I tried throwing them a couple of chips.  They loved those.  Norma, despite being the little scraggly one immediately grabbed them and run off, chased by the other three.  Round and round in circles.  So much fun to watch.

Chicken cuddles

Egg update:

Two eggs yesterday, bringing the total to ten. Down to £52.13 per egg.

Getting more comfortable with the humans

Norma and Taystee now have absolutely no objections to being picked up.  Taystee even had a good stretch and a look around before jumping down.

I managed to grab hold of Big Boo for a quick cuddle and check-up too.  She didn't like it at first, but soon settled when she realised it wasn't dangerous.  She's so soft and fluffy.

Piper's still having none of it.

New foods

We tried a couple of new treats for the girls today.  First we put out half a galia melon.  Very little interest in that.  Then I started on the kitchen scraps.  A couple of slices of cucumber caused initial excitement.  They grabbed it and ran off down the garden... then dropped it and walked away.

The radish trimmings wend down very well, as did the lettuce.

The clear favourite though was the potato peelings (boiled up to remove toxins).  As soon as they hit the ground, all four came running.  Crazy little cluckers.

Eating out of my hands

Egg update: 

3 more yesterday.  Price per egg down to £65.16.

The eggs are amazing.  We were expecting the bright yellow, very rich yolks but the whites came as a surprise.  So much flavour.  Egg white is usually bland, but this is delicious.  Might have to make some meringues.

Two of them are producing very thin shelled eggs that crack a little too easy, but hopefully that'll change with their improved diet.  The third egg was very solid.

Gradually getting tamer

Well, at least two of them are.

We've been giving them corn as a treat when we let them out in the evening.  We put it in a Tupperware box and rattle it as we walk out of the house so that they can start to associate the sound with freedom and nice food.

Norma

Mostly we just scatter some on the ground, but we're trying to use it to tame them too.  Monday night we tried holding the box out to see who would take it.  Only Norma was brave enough, or maybe greedy enough, to take some while we were holding the box.  She even put up with us stroking her as she ate.

Last night, I picked Norma up, put her on my lap and offered her the box of corn.  She was happy to eat and kept going when I let go of her.  When I took the corn away, she stayed around for a few more seconds before hopping down to find more food.  It was nice being able to give her a little cuddle and it gave me a good chance to check her over.  Her wing feathers are just as thin as the ones on her tail and she's got a bald patch on her chest to go with the head and baldy bum.  Other than that and being a bit skinny, she seems in good health.  Nice bright eyes and very alert.

Taystee

I also got Norma to eat some corn directly from my hand, which was nice.


I started the same process with Taystee.  She was OK taking corn from the box while standing on the ground.  She was a bit more uncertain when I picked her up, but went for the corn eventually.

Taystee didn't stick around long when I let go of her, but it was a good start and again a good chance to check her over.  She's looking good.  Could do with being a bit fatter and fluffier, but we'll get there.

Big Boo and Piper didn't go for the corn when we offered it and seemed reluctant to be picked up, so I decided not to force the issue for now.

All four went to bed nicely at dusk and snuggled up for the night.

Emma decided to start a Twitter account for the girls.  You can follow them at @litchfieldhens