Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

[KarenE]

Sorry to hear about your hubby - hope it's nothing too serious and he is on the mend.

Wiggly has clawed her way up to the giddy heights of top hen an all! Proof that patience has its rewards. Well done Wigs, and of course the tactical use of her evil secret weapon - the comb of doom! If that flopping weapon of mass distraction hit me, I'd run away screaming too. Sensible Miranda

[HenPen]

Haha, yup Karen, you never spoke a truer word.

Mind you, it's not just the comb. Wiggy actually flew at me as I came through the run door today. The chickens are revolting! They must have got wind of the extended incarceration. To start with, the freezer bags on my feet (yeah, I know ) were enough to get them out of the doorway when I tried to get in, but a few days ago Wiggy had an exploratory peck and now they no longer hold any fears for her. The girls want out and they want it now.

And they're eating for Britain. I have never known them to eat so much. they are ploughing through the pellets - I guess it's the boredom. They're going to be the size of ostriches by Feb 28th.

To top it all, a robin decided today's treat (great big corn on the cob) was very interesting and managed to perch on the cladding around the back of the girls' run and stare through the wire mesh. Normally I would think this was cute, but I shooed it away. It just kept coming back. Determined little thing.

[HenPen]

About three days ago I had a dream that Miranda had laid an egg and I was absolutely astonished. I think this is an indication of how long it has been (and how dull my dreams can be)! In my dream, the egg was not in its normal place in the nest box - it has always been in the same spot - but hidden away in the aubiose elsewhere in the coop.

Yesterday I laid a whole new bale of aubiose in the run and made it extra deep in the nest box to keep them warm at night. Today, you guessed it, I was pretty gobsmacked to find a Miranda egg. Not in the normal place but on the opposite side of the nestbox.

Wooooooooo spooky... Just call me Psychic Pen.

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi you are wrong Miss M is the Mind reader, new one for the Chicken Diaries.

[HenPen]

Good grief. You're right! She's Mystic Miranda!

[HenPen]

Not to be outdone - TWO eggs today. A lovely speckledy one and a lovely greeny blue one.

I went out at around 4pm today, as the day had got away from me a bit. My arrival, at dusk, was greeted with the sort of excitement only two stir crazy chickens under house arrest could muster - it turned out they had been setting off to bed, but out they came, demanding treats and a top up to their feed (which they had somehow emptied yet again, the greedy things).

But once I had finished poo picking, treat dispensing and topping up the feeder, I was a horrified to see the automatic door closer had activated and the door was closed. So I had to hold the door open. But you know my girls are easily spooked, and so I ended up standing round the side of the coop, out of sight, craning round awkwardly to hold the door open for ten minutes until they couldn't wait any more and made a dash for it.

Wiggy's feathers have all grown in, including the weird back to front wing feather which first turned up after last year's moult. I assumed it would grow in properly this time, but there it is, still sticking out at an odd angle. I guess this is her new normal.

[KarenE]

Good to hear the HP Saucies are doing well And back in the land of the laying! What a pleasant surrpise at this time of year. My Tiddly Widdly has been laying all along, every other day or so we get a lovely brown egg. My Wigalike Dory Grey has well and truly given up, her legs and face are as yellow as Phil Mitchell before the op. She has more hair than him too

They're funny in this lockdown aren't they? Mine go crazy when they see me, and when I leave Tiggs does a heart-rending cry. I flatter myself its me but I suspect its for lost treats... Have to say though I think this lockdown is going them lots of good. Mine have pristine fluffy bums which is unheard of when they are running round the garden. That said, they are definitely putting on weight. Might need a chicken gym. Any ideas?

[sandy]

Hen, I am hoping all is well with you?

[KarenE]

HP, how are you doing? You've gone very quiet...

[HenPen]

Oh dearie me. Sorry, haven't been keeping my end up. It has been a bit frantic of late.

Anyhow, back in time to report on the release of the hens - and not before time. The girls are pleased to be out. Well Wiggy's keen but stays right by the door of the run unless I walk across the garden, then she follows me. Miranda heads straight for one of her favourite scratching areas and, once there, is like a limpet. You have to pick her up to get her back in the run.

She was so desperate to get out, she damaged her comb a few weeks ago rubbing it against the weld mesh. I was tipped off by the blood all over the feeder. Fortunately, Wiggy is hampered in the vision department, what with the huge floppy comb over one eye (and sometimes both), and anyway is generally pretty well behaved, so Mirry wasn't in any danger. I can only imagine the carnage if it had happened when I had the full contingent, but I have been left with the two girly girls.

Miranda has lost interest in laying. Wiggy, on the other hand, has been laying such a lot that I was able to give my neighbours a box full of Wiggy eggs as one of their farewell presents. Yes, the perfect neighbours are leaving. Sigh. On the plus side, at their leaving party another neighbour said we could call on them if we needed help with the hens, which was very kind.

I guess I need to gear myself up for a huge spring clean of the coop and run, but first Miranda needs her bottom sorting - it is a bit of a mess. I think this is down to sleeping in the nest box. I poo pick every single day, but I'm guessing this all happens at night. You wouldn't get a cat or dog sleeping on their poo, would you? But chickens walk in it, sit in it, sleep in it, pick worms out of it. Fastidious they ain't. You're not having lunch are you?

[KarenE]

Lovely to hear that Mirry and Wiggy are both doing well, and have their #sweetsweetfreedom as well. It makes such a difference seeing them doing their chickeny things around the garden, and obviously Mirry has missed it!

My Woo is laying all over the place too, very regularly. They are good girls, the Woos Dory has made herself a little nest on top of the straw bale and now all are using it.

Have you thought about getting some new companions for them? I think you (and LL) must have the longest-lived of all our hens now - you must be doing something right!

Final question - are you coming to our meet on the 9th April?

[sandy]

Ooh Henny please please come but Karen I think it is April 8th

[KarenE]

Quite right Sandy, Saturday April 8th

[HenPen]

Oh no! Not the 8th. Bum. I'm taking someone to the airport late afternoon/early evening and there's no way I can do both. I'm not destined to get to these things, am I?

It timely you should ask, I suppose, about companions, Karen. It has been preying on my mind what could I do if I was down to one. Particularly at the moment with all the restrictions. However, much as I love my girls, we had decided that we were not going to continue chickening for ever and ever, but if you keep getting more to save one being alone, then you're a chicken keeper for life, aren't you? I can't bear to think of Wiggy being alone...

Only I'm a bit worried about Mirry. I don't really want to say that, because it makes it real, but I was giving her a bath the other day and I thought her breast bone felt a bit prominent and her underneath felt rather big - not hot and squishy (I've had enough experience of that to know the EYP classic symptoms) but bigger than I expected. And looking at her since, the best way I can describe it is she looks like she's walking with a full nappy. And I was out there with them for an hour after the bath, and she did this tiny poop - just one, small, perfectly formed, but very, very small. It seemed odd. She looks like Wiggy used to look before she laid a softie - only that didn't go on for days, plus I would have expected the warm bath to have helped if it was a softie.

Yet she's busy, bustling, full of life, determined, eating constantly (like they do), barging Wiggy for treats. I've been watching her for a few days, trying to decide if I'm imagining things, but today her comb looks dark. I think if she looks the same tomorrow, we are off to the vet. Sigh. Perhaps we will try another warm bath first, but in all honesty I fear she may be laying internally.

[kitla]

Oh dear, perhaps she has a stuck egg. When mine started laying again after the winter break there were some thin shells to start with, Giblet's still arent right. Perhaps it gets harder for them as they get older.