Dotty.

Hello everyone, sorry I have not been here for a few days. Dotty has been under the weather since Thursday. At first I thought it was just a little chill as Wednesday night was icy because of the snow, (which the girls don't like). But when Dotty did not improve on Friday I was getting a bit worried.

Dotty has been very quiet and not moving around much. She has spent most of the last three days sitting on my lap / shoulder going to sleep.  Dotty has been eating and drinking, which has been very positive but I was worried about this constant sleeping, especially on my lap.

When any of the girls are ill, they all just sleep on my lap, its their way of telling me that they are not feeling well, I think.......... As usually they never sit still. And Dotty has never been ill, so I was abit concerned.

Daisy has been very worried and would not leave her side, while Betty has been telling everyone very loudly that there is sometime wrong. So our three days have been a bit noisy.

I think it is due to her change over of egg laying. The girls need 14 hours of day light to keep their eggs flowing but now it winter they are up at 6.30 - 7am and off to bed by 4-4.30pm, which is just not enough day light hours. All free range chickens have this problem but I decided Sunday night that if Dotty did not come out of her house with a skip in her step she was off to the Doctors' (Vets) as I could not go through other day worrying. Also Daisy needed to be put at rest as she was worrying more that me. And Betty was heading for a sore throat with all her crowing.

So I let them out at 6.45am and Dotty came out first chatting and running to her box of straw in the cabin, settled down for half an hour, but has not laid an egg today. Though she is feeling much better, running around the garden eating everything she can find, anyone would think she has not been fed for a week but she seems alot better.

I'm going to keep an eye on her for a few more days, just in case. Daisy is a lot calmer and Betty has gone back to her normal self. Today we have had words about sharing breakfast and lunch......... we will see how dinner goes. At the moment she is sharing the corn on the cob!!!!!!

Oh the snow lasted one day!!!!! At least we can say it snowed this year... If we are lucky we may have some for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by...... see you soon.