Keeping hens and ducks chat.

suki1964 · 6 September 2016 at 9:24PM

edwink wrote: »

Please can I have the ickle white one??? Oh how cute are they???

Suki it took me ages and ages to be able to post pic on MSE. I finally got the hang of it but each time I think of posting another pic I can't remember how I did it the last time To be honest I just take a stab at it and it usually turns out ok in the end, sort of.

Betterdays so sorry you have lost another hen. Sometimes it happens like that and 2 go to hen heaven within weeks or days of each other. But, as you say they had 2 lovely summers in retirement scratching about and just being hens. Aww bless them!! x

Edwink x

I used to be able to do it no problem with my phone or iPad. Now for some reason it won't work for me so I have to up load to the pc then the photo bucket then onto here. Which takes forever as pc is so slow

I've some lovely videos of the girls bathing I thought I'd loaded but it's not worked for me yet

The white one was first born. That's Augher, little brown one is Clougher and the three grey are Five, mile, and town. Lol

Look the names up on a map of NI

edwink · 8 September 2016 at 5:20PM

Hi everyone

Anyone else had a drop in eggs this week? We were getting around 15-18 per day and have dropped to around 10. Maybe because it has been so muggy and hot here it is making the hens feel a bit uncomfortable.

Our sweetcorn is ready now, finally. The cobs are not very big but the girls are really enjoying them which is great to watch. They are getting plenty of cabbage leaves from the garden too to munch on. Can not get any fresher than that can they?. Coming to the last of the cucumbers now and only have about 10 growing from the 7 plants we grew this year. We have managed to keep the odd one for ourselves thankfully :rotfl: our girls and boys go mad for chopped cucumber.

Let me know your egg situations if you get a moment guys. Thanks!!

Edwink x

suki1964 · 8 September 2016 at 6:00PM

I'm getting between 8 and 10 out of 12. Most I get is 11. One hen just lays when she feels like it. Often a softee which is gone by time we are up

oldandhappy · 8 September 2016 at 6:48PM

all ours are laying this last week despite the heat...two have a straw box they have commandeered in a cool barn and they queue up to lay in it.funny very funny watching them..weeks before has been hunt the eggs......always happens when one takes over sitting in the hatch area attached to the chicken house but now all back to normal.....our white duck who was a larger than life charactor and amused many visitors on the working chicken farm sadly passed away a few weeks ago in UK she lost her partner Fluffles our first duck hatch ever to a fox over two years ago now but Bibs went on to a happy very verbal life.Snowy to start with but soon became Bibbib and bib bib by the constant sounds she made....the first week we had her we thought we would go mad with her constant bib bib but of course she grew on us to the point of laughing at her every day we had the pleasure of her.....BW Dianne

oldandhappy · 8 September 2016 at 6:57PM

White Duck was Bib bib

edwink · 8 September 2016 at 11:10PM

First time ever we got a double yoke egg. Had our favourite egg and chips for supper tonight, hubby cracked my egg in to the frying pan and 2 golden coloured yokes popped out. We must have had hundreds of eggs over the years and this was the first double ever.

I remember one of our thread members used to get quite a lot of double yoke eggs but I can't remember who that was now.

Anyone else get double yoke eggs and if so how often?

Edwink x

edwink · 10 September 2016 at 7:36PM

Thanks of the photos oldandhappy. Awww how lovely are they? That reminds me I must post some myself when I get a moment.

My boys and girls got blooming soaked today. Hubby is out there now sorting their supper out and it is still raining. I have noticed the nights drawing in already and it is only the beginning of September. Why can it not stay light till 10pm every night???:mad:

Hope everyone and their girls and boys are ok.

Have a good Sunday everyone. The weather here is forecast as sunny tomorrow hoorah!!

Edwink x

suzialwaysbroke · 16 September 2016 at 8:10AM

Lovely to have found this thread!
From a newbie chicken and duck owner. We inherited them with the house we have just bought!
I have 3 call ducks, 1 large white duck and 2 hens. No particularly good layers, 1 egg a day between all of them, no eggs now since 1st September, but I think it is because they are moulting like fury. I shall be on her with many novicey questions I'm sure

jim-jim · 16 September 2016 at 10:39AM

Our chucks had dropped off laying, from the original 5 we normally only got 3/4 a day, down to 1/2. But now the poorly chuck has finally died. They must have known she wasnt right.
We are now getting 5 a day. one of the babies has still got to lay, so out of 6 chucks 4 large eggs a day and a dinky egg.

I wanted to ask what is the best thing to treat/paint the coops with?
Last year we used shed paint from wilko, but after loads of rain the coops always seem damp inside, even when they don't leak.

Whatever I use they will have to go back in the same night.

Thanks for any suggestions

x

edwink · 16 September 2016 at 2:01PM

suzialwaysbroke wrote: »

Lovely to have found this thread! From a newbie chicken and duck owner. We inherited them with the house we have just bought! I have 3 call ducks, 1 large white duck and 2 hens. No particularly good layers, 1 egg a day between all of them, no eggs now since 1st September, but I think it is because they are moulting like fury. I shall be on her with many novicey questions I'm sure

Hello suzialwaysbroke

Welcome to our very friendly hen, duck and geese thread. Please fire away with any questions no matter how silly you think they might be. Everyone on here is very helpful.

Your large white duck sounds like an "Aylesbury" duck to me. Do you know if it is male or female? If it has a bright orange beak and a curl on its tail feathers it would be a drake. Also it would have a "half a quack", in other words a very quiet quack. Do you know what breeds your hens are? If not what colour are they? We should be able to help you with that.

Moulting time is right upon us poultry keepers now especially as the weather warmed up for a while. Great for them as they will now grow a new winter coat which will keep them warm and comfy all winter.

Do you have any pictures you can post. Most on here love a picture or two.

Any idea how old they all are, roughly? Just to say don't worry if you get any funny shaped eggs as that happens to all of us. Just keep those for yourself that's what we do. Also don't worry about wrinkly eggs or ones with freckles on these come with old age of the hens. I personally love the wrinkly ones because it gives me the opportunity to draw a face on them and give them to someone as a quirky present. Often the wrinkles are only on one end so I make that the hair. Just a suggestion for a quirky birthday/Christmas present to someone if and when you get some of those. Although your hens may not be very old.

If your hens have rusty coloured feathers they could well be rescue hens. Normally Rhode Island Red Sussex Cross. Let us know what colour they are as that will help to identify the breed for you if you don't already know.

So glad you have decided to join us

Edwink x

Keeping hens and ducks chat.

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