Fowl NOT Foul - August 1999

The last two weeks in July had been extremely hot, with temperatures reaching 36 degrees celsius. During July we had been slowly building a new house (complete with nestboxes and detatchable roof for easy cleaning) for the chickens, and on the morning of 1st August it was finished and put in position. At the same time I closed off access to the garden shed, which was the chickens' old house.

Below: The new henhouse (in the foreground, on the left. On the right of the picture, in the background, is the goosehouse)

Before letting Biscuit, Roadkill, Duracell and Darwin out of the Poultry Ark house, I altered it's position so that it now stood on a fresh area of ground. Biscuit and Roadkill were broody, which was extremely annoying to me as hens stop laying eggs when they are broody, and I had planned to enter the bantams' eggs in a Show this month. Broodiness can be very stressful for hens when no eggs hatch at the end of the broody period. If possible, it is less stressful for a hen to be put off from it's broodiness than it is for the hen to sit out the whole broody period.

On the afternoon of 1st August there was an enormous thunderstorm. The thick, heavy rain quickly turned into hailstones as big as marbles ! Luckily they didn't last long, and soon turned back into the torrential rain. I don't know what the new battery hens thought of the hailstones - they must have thought the sky was falling on their heads....This was their first ever experience of rain since their arrival from the Battery Farm on 14th July. I needed to check the chickens, so I quickly armed myself with waterproofs and ran out to the birds. The first one I saw was White Tara, the broody Light Sussex. She was standing outside the shed where her old nestbox was, obviously wanting to get in. She was very wet, so I picked her up and took her to the new chicken house, where I placed her in a nestbox. A few other chickens were in the new house sheltering, but most were under the purpose-built shelter I had constructed for them. The Professors Mendel, Hawking, Freud and Helm were all huddled around the Poultry Ark, thinking they were sheltering efficiently, but actually not at all - they were soaked, so I put them in the new chicken house so that they could preen the water out of their feathers. Ever-Ready, Alkacell and Nicad were out foraging, ignoring the rain - no matter how many times I put them under shelter, they all came out again!

The flock spent their first night in their new house on 1st August. When I went to let the chickens out on the following morning, I discovered that Helm had spent the night out in the garden. Luckily it hadn't rained during the night, so she was perfectly OK, and very glad to see the her flock-mates.

On 2nd August it rained for most of the day. The abrupt change in the weather from the drought of July to the torrents of the last couple of days had affected the broody hens, as had the alteration of their sleeping and nesting arrangements. After all this, Biscuit and White Tara had been put off their broody behaviour, but Roadkill was still broody - what a persistent little girl !

I still needed to familiarise the birds with the nestboxes in their new house, especially Ever-Ready and Nicad. When Nicad wanted to lay, she would just squat on the ground outside the shed, and be easy to deal with. Ever-Ready, however, insisted on flying up onto the shed roof, continuing onto the outhouse roof and next-door's fence before I could reach to retrieve her! I then showed the errant birds where they were meant to be laying eggs, and hoped that they would learn quickly.

At the beginning of August the neighbours who had lent us the top of their garden earlier in the year, were kind enough to lend us the rest of the garden for the chickens to go on. The flock now have double ther space to roam on than they did when they first arrived here !

As the days went by, the flock got more used to their new accommodation. At first they were confused by it, and at the chickens' bedtime I'd find them all huddled outside the door of their old shed, waiting for me to let them in. They just didn't realise that the new henhouse was their new home. So I picked the birds up and carried them two by two to their hew house at the opposite end of the garden.

After a week, about half the flock had learnt to put themselves to bed. This made my life much easier, as I didn't have to carry so many of them all the way up the 150 ft garden!

On the morning of 11th August there was a total eclipse of the sun over the south west of England. The path of totality was restricted to the extreme south west of the country, which meant that although Stroud is in the south west, we would only get 98% totality. We knew that the sky would go dark to some degree during the eclipse, and I was concerned that this would attract nocturnal predators to emerge, and attack the chickens. We watched the eclipse from the Stroud LETS allotment (which Nicad and 9-volt visited during spring 1999), about 2 miles away from home.

The sky was overcast during the eclipse, but thinner areas and tiny gaps in the cloud allowed us to watch the event and take photographs. Other gaps in the cloud enabled us to obseve the sky opposite the eclipsed sun, which had turned a beautiful dark slate-blue colour. There was an eerie coldness also, as the heat and light of the sun were prevented from reaching the earth by the body of the moon. The coldness felt like no other coldness I had ever experienced.

Above: Four progressive photographs of the eclipse taken with no filter - the clouds did the job for me!

When we arrived back home after the eclipse, I was relieved to see that all the chickens and geese were unharmed and the situation was normal.

Below: Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma and I, 11th August 1999

Below: A portrait of Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma

Pseudo-Swan and Sian continued to moult,

and by 11th August they had almost finished.

Their new feathers are extremely soft and silky, and Pseudo's are as white as snow.

As soon as Pseudo's wing primaries had finished growing,

I clipped them so that he couldn't try to fly away.

Below: Pseudo-Swan and Sian

On the afternoon of 11th August we had another short summer shower, and afterwards I took several pictures of the birds preening water out of their feathers.

Below, from left to right: 9-Volt, Duracell and Biscuit
standing on top of the rabbit hutch nestbox.

Below: Prunella and White Tara industriously preening

On 14th August Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma was prepared for her next Show. During July I had entered for Painswick Show, which was being held on 15th August 1999. I washed and dried the Brahma in the same way as I had previously in preparation for Stroud Show - but this time, the Brahma had just started to moult. A fair number of the feathers on her back and legs fell out while I was bathing her, and I could feel a few brand new feather spikes starting to break through her skin. The Brahma had started moulting - this meant that if she lost too many feathers before the Show tomorrow, I would not be able to exhibit her !

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma slept in the house that night, and on the morning of the Show she had not lost more than three more feathers, and looked fine. On arrival at Painswick Show I discovered that several of the other entrants had also just started moulting, and their owners were grumbling that this was really the wrong time of year to be holding a Poultry Show. So, after installing the chicken in her cage, and the egg entries on their plates, we left before judging commenced.

After looking around the Show for a while, we returned to the Poultry tent to see how our entries had fared. We were very surprised to see that Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma had won Second prize; the Single White Bantam Egg had won Second prize; the two Decorated Goose Eggs had won Second and Fourth prize; and the Three White Bantam Eggs had won First Prize and Champion Egg !

On Saturday 21st August five new pullets joined the flock. They came from a breeder in the village of Uley, which is where White Tara and the murdered Welsummer Keridwen originated from. The new pullets will hopefully be future Show birds, two of them belonging to me, and the other three belonging exclusively to Colin. There were many birds to choose from at the Uley breeder's establishment - Speckled and Light Sussex, Ancona, Maran, Jersey Giant, Barnevelder, Welsummer and Rhode Island Red. Colin wisely chose a Welsummer and an Ancona, which he would be able to Show the eggs of as well as the birds themselves, and a Light Sussex because he likes them. I chose a Jersey Giant and a not particularly good but especially endearing Exchequer Leghorn. All the birds were ten weeks old when bought, except Colin's Light Sussex, which was 12 weeks old. As soon as we got them home, we clipped their wings (one wing on each bird) so that they would not fly away if they were spooked.

Below, from back to front: My Jersey Giant, Colin's Welsummer, my Exchequer Leghorn (hardly visible), Colin's Ancona and Light Sussex.

Below, from left to right: My Jersey Giant and Exchequer Leghorn, Colin's Ancona, Welsummer and Light Sussex.

Below, from left to right: My Exchequer Leghorn, Colin's Light Sussex and Ancona, my Jersey Giant and Colin's Welsummer, meet Mendel the Ex-Battery hen through the wire.

Below: Colin's Ancona in the foreground, with his Light Sussex and my black and white Exchequer Leghorn in the background.

The new pullets spent their first day in an enclosure separate from the rest of the flock, so that they could get used to their new home without the other birds hassling them. They would sleep in the Poultry Ark until they got to the same size as the other birds.

When evening came, and I went to put the birds safely in their houses for the night, I couldn't find the little Exchequer Leghorn pullet. The other pullets were all huddled together amongst the raspberry canes and were easy to find. I searched for the little Leghorn, and in the end I found her. She had flown up into an ash tree, with the intention of roosting there for the night ! I rescued her and placed her in the ark with the other four pullets.

Below: Hawking (back), Nicad and 9-Volt (front), the Ex-Battery hens

Above: Energiser, an Ex-Battery hen, sunbathing.

During August, White Tara moulted heavily and suddenly, almost rendering herself completely bald during the first half of the month. Unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures of her then, as she became extremely shy and flighty, and I didn't want to stress her by chasing her for a photo.

Below: White Tara on 21st August 1999. Notice the patch of new feathers just beginning to grow on her neck.

Below: Tara's comb and wattles have shrunk during her moult. This is quite normal, and happens to most hens during the moult. It happens because moulting hens do not lay eggs - the comb and wattles are linked to egg-laying (they absorb sunlight which is transmitted through the skull and triggers hormones which flow from the brain to the ovaries, telling them to start the egg production process. During moult this system is 'switched off', rendering the comb and wattles redundant). When White Tara has finished moulting, her headgear should return to the normal size.

Below: Tara's wing coverts are also rapidly being replaced. The primaries have not been moulted yet.

Below: Poor White Tara's bald bottom !

Since their first night in their new home, the young pullets soon learned got used to the scheme of things. By their fourth night they had learnt to put themselves to bed in the Poultry Ark. They had also learnt that they could squeeze under the fencing of their enclosure to join the rest of the flock in the garden. I had expected the flock to chase and attack the young pullets, but to my surprise they mostly ignored them - the pullets had craftily integrated themselves into the flock, acting submissively whenever they were noticed, so as not to draw attention to themselves.

Below: Colin's Ancona and my Exchequer Leghorn, Ashley, on 28th August 1999

The little Ancona has been named Flathead, because her head looks flatter than any of the other birds' heads, giving her an amusing appearance.

Above, clockwise from left: Colin's Ancona, Welsummer and my Ashley, with Colin's Light Sussex in the centre.

Below: White Tara's feather regrowth is progressing well...

on her back and tail.....

on her head and neck.....

and her wings......