ooops i've done it again.....more chickens...

LindseyM

Thanks CTC - will put the trellis up and see how we get on, i can just imagine next door's dog havin a party with one of them if they did get over...:eek:

JS, to post your pictures, you need to host them somewhere first, I use photobucket. Once you have uploaded it there, they will provide a link and then you use that within the post by using the [IMG]tags (its the little icon that looks like a photo with mountains and the sun on it). If you need any further help, give me a shout - we're all desperate to see those beauties!!! [/img]

COOLTRIKERCHICK

with ..everyone putting their photos on here of their new members of the family...

i will have to talk some photos of my little baby pekins.. which have grown on well.. and are colouring up nicely...

will try and post update photo in the next day or so.....

just-saving

Thanks LindseyM..I'll try and sort the photo uploading thing out now whilst I wait for my breadmaker to beep! :T BTW LindseyM, we made our house and run too...from what you say I agree with ctc. It does sound as though it would be fine.


Ok, here they are. Nearest is Prudence the ISA Brown (lightest in colour), to her right is Henrietta the Calder Ranger (darker brown) and then its Dorothy the Bovan Nera (black).


Would love to see your new family members ctc...I was going to ask if you had a pic you could share as I know you only got your little ones recently too. Very much looking forward to seeing them

Thanks again for the help LindseyM. Nighty night everyone

catewithers

Ok - not a great photo but the best I've got at the moment - been really busy building the large run for my lovely hens!



The nearest one (white) is Guinevere, the one behind her is Edna and the one whose tail you can see sticking up in the air is Bridget!! Margarita was still hiding in the house!!

I'll try and get some better ones when I've got a minute.

CTC - let's see your little pekins too!

JS - thanks for the info about mealworms - going to try and get onto that this week.

Back to the building!

just-saving

Look what I found this morning

Imagine my surprise when I went to clean the coop this morning and
found a little surprise! The first ever egg laid by Prudence. I
am sure it was her as she is a few weeks older than the other two.
Everyone was suspicious, I thought DH hid it in there and he
thought I did but it was smaller than the four shop bought eggs and it didnt have a stamp on.


Found in the flowerpot in the coop.


Here is Prudence with her first ever egg. It was lovely! I had it for breakfast

Had such a fab day today. Let the girls OUT into the garden and
they behaved beautifully. Prudence was funny as amongst other
things she:

* came in to inspect the house
* chased me around the garden to catch my shoe laces
* flew onto the garden table so she could have a look through the
kitchen window
* helped with the waterhose when I was watering the garden by
getting in the way and then drinking from a leak near the tap
like a little dog
* dug the flowerbed so I helped with my garden hand fork and she
was in her glory eating woodlice and worms (Dorothy and Henrietta
managed to have a few too)

So, we all had masses of fresh air today. The girls went to bed at
half past eight, first was Prudence followed by Henrietta and then
Dorothy got in a panic because she didnt know how to get up into
the house and so Prudence heard her and jumped out and went
straight up again and lo and behold Dorothy followed. Dorothy and
Henrietta didnt know how to put themselves to bed last night so I
had to lend a helping hand but they done well tonight and I was
really proud of them.

We very nearly added another hen to our family today after being
contacted by a friend of ours who had some little hybrids but we
ummed and arrred and eventually decided that the three we have now
have already settled and we don't want to upset them.

Love the photo cw....they look totally adorable. Sounds like you
had plenty of fresh air today too! Isn't it great having chickens!

I measured our house and run today LindseyM. The coop is 5 feet by
3 feet. The run is 6 feet by 5 feet (with a bit extra underneath
the house.) They don't use the house much...only to sleep and then
they all huddle up really close on the perch and the house looks
ginormous. We just ended up with our measurements from the pieces of wood we were using and think had we have gone smaller and they would have still been happy.

Cripes, its starting to look like I'm writing a chicken-blog on
here. So much more I would love to write about but I better try and
keep it brief! Its all the excitement...I am still on a high!

steady__eddie

Don't know if you've got one or not but I haven't heard mention of it yet but I found that a droppings board can come in really handy. Just a piece of wood 2 or 3 feet long and about a foot wide with a lip round the edges. Strategically placed underneath the perch, it is then just a case of tapping the contents out onto the compost heap or bin liner every morning.

catewithers

So we've spent all weekend building the larger run for our hens - we were out there in the rain first thing this morning and got absolutely soaked! But it's finished and my little chooks seem very happy with it! And I am so impressed with what we've achieved - DIY is not a strong point for us but it looks really great and we didn't have a single argument! :T :T :T :j :j :j

It's approximately 4m by 3m and is made up of individual 1m square panels. We've then added some strips of mesh along the bottom to prevent anything nasty digging underneath it and some mesh to the top to discourage anything from climbing over it - or hopping/flying over it! So in all it's about 1m50 high. In the middle of it is our hen house which has a completely fox proof run attached to it.



Don't know how clear the photo is but hope you can make it out!

JS - our hens seem to be much less tame than yours - although we're working on it - so I'm a bit concerned about letting them free range just yet - hence the height of the run.

They seem to be settling in nicely and are not so freaked out when we go near them - starting to associate me with food I think! Edna's still bossing them all around - poor old Guinevere seems to spend her whole time running round avoiding her.

So here are some more photos of them scratching about in their new palace!

Tetsuko

I wish I had space for chickens. I live in a small terrace so my garden is very small

I've already dug up half the back lawn to grow veggies

catewithers

So i was just pottering about in my house this evening and just happened to look out of the window over the back garden to see all 4 chooks lined up on top of the hen house and then Bridget making a flying leap for the top of the fence!! :eek: Amazingly, she managed to fly/jump/climb to the top of the wire mesh - that's about 1m70 - and then perched there very precariously on top of it!!! :eek:

So i charged down the stairs and retrieved her. But of course, they've all got the same idea now so they spent the next 3/4 of an hour trying to work out an escape route! I think Bridget is the only one who can actually manage it cos she's the lightest one.

It was getting really dark and they were still at it - I was sitting by the dining room window willing them to go to bed! Then they all settled down to roost in a little row on the edge of the hen house and I had to go out and pick them all off one by one and put them to bed!! :rotfl:

Now concerned that the roof of the hen house and our run fence and then our next door neighbours fence are just like stepping stones for little Bridget Houdini! So have assigned DH to B&Q duty tomorrow for some netting to make a roof for the run until they've got a bit older and a bit more used to us!

"And you said having chickens was going to be easy...." he was heard to mutter.... :rotfl:

*zippy*

Have you clipped their wings cate, I think we used the guide off the egglu site.