Of Chicken Coops and Barmy Bantams

With the weather forecast dry for today, I headed down to the allotment hopeful of a productive day. Upon arrival, I dashed around the coops to feed the girls. I noticed that Elsie, who has been a little quiet the last few days, was having a dust bath by the ramp. Pleased that she seemed to be getting back to normal, I headed back to the shed and rummaged around for the coop cleaning equipment which seemed to have moved since I last used it. The hardest thing to find was a bucket. I could have sworn I had at least three or four on the plot. After walking around the plot several times, I found an old grey one. It was smaller than I would like but it would have to do!

The Omlet was the first coop I wanted to tackle. Maude and Mavis were helpfully out in their run so I quickly closed the nest box door. This was not greeted with enthusiasm but I mollified them with a handful of sunflower seeds and some dandelions. It didn’t take too long to clear out all the old bedding although it seemed like half of it was Maude’s feathers. Fortunately, she seems to be almost done with her moult and has finally caught up with Maude. Moulting can be hard on chickens especially if they lose the majority of their feathers or they are elderly. I’m still not sure quite how old Maude and Mavis are but I would estimate at least eight years old. Possibly more! They originally belonged to Bentley Mick who kept them for several years. When he left the site, Phil rescued them and had them for about a year before passing them onto us. I love Maude and Mavis – they are old battle-axes, tough as nails with iron beaks. Maude got her name from the ancient German meaning ‘battle mighty’, appropriate for a bantam who terrorised Tommy, our Rhode Island Red cockerel. Tommy was at least four times her size and completely petrified of her. So were all the other big girls! With the sun coming out, the Omlet dried quickly and I put in a thick layer of fresh bedding. Within a couple of minutes, Maude’s head appeared through the door to inspect my work. She didn’t seem impressed and I moved onto the next coop feeling rather insulted.

The Nest House. I have avoided cleaning it out for as long as possible as it’s a real slog. In between cleaning out the bedding in the Omlet and opening up the Nest House, I had lost my dustpan. I must have spent ten minutes going in circles trying to find it. It wasn’t anywhere! Giving up, I used a plant pot to collect the old bedding. Hardly ideal but it worked albeit slowly. Once I had managed to get as much of the old bedding out as possible, I topped up the cleaning bucket with more antimite fluid and water. Scrubbing out the Nest House takes ages after an hour, it was more or less done. Promising myself we would invest in a pressure washer to make the job faster, I left everything to dry.

I walked back over to the New Coop to discover Elsie sitting in exactly the same place I found her this morning. If she was in the nest box, I wouldn’t have worried but it’s not a good sign if you have a hem sitting on the floor for hours. As I got closer, I saw she was on her side with a leg stuck out at an odd angle. When picking her up, I discovered to my horror that she was all bone and barely weighed anything. I carried her up to the shed and set about trying to get some food and water into her. Fortunately, if I held her upright, she would eat and drink. After a little while, she looked around and began to devour dandelion leaves which were within reach. Pleased to see her perking up a little, I ran back down to the Nest House and put in the clean boards and some fresh bedding.

But what to do with Elsie? I couldn’t leave her in the New Coop as she would struggle to get into the nest box with the others. So i locked up the shed, tucked Elsie under my arm and headed back home. My plan was to put Gertie and Elsie together. Gertie has been behaving oddly for the past week, spending hours sat on her perch. I think she’s lonely. Even when she’s out and about in the garden, the rest of the Topknot Gang tend to ignore her. I wondered if she was a little depressed and hoped that Elsie would cheer her up. I have always worried about Gertie being on her own and the potential injuries she may sustain from another hen. But poor Elsie is so weak that I didn’t think she would be a threat to Gertie. If anything, it might be the other way around, assuming Gertie could land her a peck. Thankfully, they didn’t fight and Elsie ignored Gertie entirely, all her focus on the food and water in front of her. Gertie seemed a little nonplussed at the new arrival.

Hopefully, they will become friends as Gertie needs some company and Elsie will need lots of help over the next few weeks to build up her strength again. The plan for tomorrow is to clean out the New Coop and do both Omlets at home. Apparently, the weather is going to be dry again so we have to make the most of these dry autumnal days!