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

duckcity

Thanks for your reply and really useful info. We will be keeping the chicks and are going to build a chicken run in our field.
Wish me luck!

poohbear59

Good luck with your chicks duckcity,
When we had an extended holiday about five years ago we found our hens had doubled in number when we returned and we had also gained two cockerels. Later we found they had all come to our garden from a neighbour up the road. They came every day for food but went home to lay. The cockerels didn't go home and after our closer neighbours found out they didn't belong to us they both had very nasty accidents. Nothing was ever proved but I think it was someone who just couldn't cope with being woken at 4.30am. We have never had cockerels since and our girls all seem quite content. We still, after many years now, have one of the visiting hens living here. She doesn't want to go home now and her previous owner has long since lost interest in his hens.

catewithers

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Cate - groups.google.com looks quite good, as opposed to Yahoo groups which I actually hate with a passion, but am forced to use. We need to come up with a name. I think it should incorporate the word poultry instead of chickens as that encompasses more people.
Bristol Poultry Keepers Association/Club
Bristol Poultry Association/Club
Bristol Domestic Poultry Association/Club
Association of Bristolian Poultry Keepers

Or something to that effect - let me know, and if anyone else has any input then I would be happy to hear it, positive or otherwise.

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply - things have been a bit crazy and we've been away on holiday as well.

I think Bristol Poultry Keepers Club is a great name - you're right, it would be good to include those who keep other birds besides chooks.

If you're happy to set up the group that would be great - I'm not really sure how to do it.

Where do you think we should advertise it?

bella165

I have 6 chicks not sure what they are but there 1ofn the best things ive owned :j

V_Chic_Chick

I found two escapee chickens in my road in Long Ashton . . . turned out that they came from a house down my road, and they keep escaping the garden. Neither of us knew that the other had chickens!

Anyway, I figured that there must be more of us in LA, so I am going to put up notices offering my chicken-sitting skills. What do you think would be a reasonable price? I was thinking in the region of £2.50 a day for two visits.

Anyway, notices will be going up on the village notice boards, post office & vets surgery, and notices for the BPKC could go up in similar places. I can't remember if Mogfords has anywhere that you could put up notices . . . I could also try some of the shops in Gloucester Rd area as I spend a fair amount of time up round there, and I could pay for a notice to go up at Windmill Hill City Farm, as I work there, as well as sending off a notice to Practical Poultry when it gets going (they're not going to print a notice about a group with two members).

I have now set up the group on google, and when you join I'll add you as a moderator.
http://groups.google.com/group/bristol-poultry-keepers-club

catewithers

Fantastic! I've joined and I'll put a post on the PP forum to let others know. I'll see if I can put up a notice in Mogfords, but judging by the state of their window now I'm not sure how visible it'll be!

It might be worth contacting PP about the group being set up - ie. running with the angle of "here's a new group in bristol, please contact.... for more details and to join." They might go for that as an interest piece.

I think £2.50 a day is more than fair. Good luck with that.

V_Chic_Chick

LOL @ Mogfords! I'll get a notice put up in that pet shop in Worrall Road, and I'll put something up along with my notice about poultry sitting. Have you got any ideas for a logo? I'm fairly handy with a paintbrush (I'm no van gogh but it's perfectly passable) but graphic design on computers has entirely passed me by.

I've now made you an "owner" of the board, along with me, so you can change anything that you want to but it's going to be best if we talk before making any major changes, such as making someone a mod (which shouldn't be necessary as yet).

As for advertising, then make it clear that anyone is free to join, whether or not they have already got chickens, if they focus on showing / meat etc. and whether or not they live in Bristol.

7_week_wonder

Help - I need some advice before I get one of my hens re-homed.

The background is that she is about 2 years old and was the bottom of the pecking order until her 2 companions died. So we got 2 new youngsters and introduced them. For the first couple of days she was very pee'd off and would run up and down crowing, squawking, clucking and making a real din. After a week or so she calmed down, and seemed to have established herself at the top of the pecking order and normality was resumed.

But now it is about 2 months later and all 3 hens are laying and she is being a right nuisance. She is generally quite noisey, but if she finds someone else is in the nest box (which is big enough to take three of them) she screams the place down squawking and clucking for up to 45 minutes. It drives me nuts, so I dread to think what it's doing to the neighbours (especially when it starts at around 8 in the morning). Can anyone think of a way to get her to calm down? If not I think I will have to give her to some people I know who live in the back end of beyond where the noise will not bother them.

All suggestions gratefully received,
Thanks
7WW

catewithers

Blimey what a nightmare!!!

I've no idea what you can do about this but someone on Practical Poultry Forum may well have an answer.

Follow this link and put a post on the Behaviour board.

http://www.kelseyinfo.co.uk/yabb/YaBB.pl

Good luck!

Spirit_2

I got for chickens in June, one turned out to be a bantam (very sweet) and started laying straight away. The other 3 had a bit bit more growing up to to do before coming in to lay.

Over the last 3 weeks these last 3 they have all matured and they are all boys! We only wanted chooks as pets and for eggs so this has come as a bit of a shock. Neighbours are fine, but I am concerned they will fight (as well as making excessive demands on my 'girl'.)

What can I do with them - 3 very handsome pure breeds ?.