Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

doodlesmum

pixiehouse wrote: »

My dear oh spent a few days last week building our hen house and fencing so that cats or foxes cant get in to them ..We used wood that was in the garage(He is a carpenter so we always have some kind of wood) the only thing we had to buy was the fencing wire. we picked our hens up Sunday, weve named them Meg, Molly and Milly and they are gorgeous, just got to wait up to a week now for them to settle in and start laying our yummy eggs
My cousin gave us to LARGE bags of hay fro their beds. so only thing we had to buy was there food, which was £8
so we are all happy bunnies here lol

Hi pixhouse,

Hay is not the best thing for chicken bedding,it can encourage mites and fleas and gets damp very quickly which can cause mold which can then cause respiratory problems in your chooks.Dust free shavings are a good thing to use,we use it for our chooks and ducks.Enjoy your new additions and your eggs .

doodlesmum

silverleaf79 wrote: »

I think I'm wearing HI down, slowly.

He's now saying, "Maybe one day..." which is a definite improvement. We're currently in talks about what changes we could make as a household that would make him feel more inclined to having chickens, which feels much more like a compromise situation. He's stressed that he's not going to say, "If x y and z happen then you can have chooks," because he might not feel any different if they do happen, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

He even agreed to take me to a local garden centre that has some chickens along with pigs, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc., so we could have a look at the chooks. As luck would have it, they had a big pen with maybe 20 ex-batts in it and I was able to point out the trimmed beaks, skinniness, missing feathers and sore skin, and the fact that the majority of them were standing out in the rain looking miserable and confused, while only a few had started scratching about and looking like "real" chickens. Such a contrast to the gorgeous iridescent cockerel and his two beautiful ladies who were free-ranging and stealing bits of food from the pigs! HI did spend a few minutes in quiet conversation with one of the braver ex-batts who came up to the wire of the pen to look at him.

I'm quietly hopeful. Fingers crossed!

Google the British Hen Welfare Trust page and get him to have a read we had two our girls off them and when you read what a fantastic job they do, seeing how the ex batts got his attention and see before and after pics then he may give in a bit quicker .

spirit

doodlesmum wrote: »

Google the British Hen Welfare trust page and get him to have a read we had two our girls of them and when you read what a fantastic job they do seeing how the ex batts got his attention and see before and after pics then he may give in a bit quicker .

i'm going to get my first lot of ex batts from freshstartforhens which is a similar, but smaller organisation than BHWT. 30 July I have to wait til the next release It'll be worth it though.

ljonski

My little Black Rock has a poorly eye, . It started on Sunday night and yesterday she kept closing itfor long periods. I bathed it and also used some eyewash but today she is keeping it closed most of the time. When she opens her eyelid the eye is very cloudy. When she came out this morning she just sunbathed instead of digging/scratching about. She hasn't eaten much and has now gone in the nestbox to lay. I wondered if it was Mareks disease and she possibly was missed her injection. She has runny poo as well.

The other 2 are on guard duty and had a share of her pasta. I have given her some water by pipette which was a bit of a struggle.

Can anyone recommend anything else ? One site reccomended Hypericum tablets in water.

these people are chiken lovers and can give you good advice .

hth

http://www.downthelane.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

spirit

ljonski wrote: »

these people are chiken lovers and can give you good advice .

hth

http://www.downthelane.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

I agree with you

doodlesmum

spirit wrote: »

i'm going to get my first lot of ex batts from freshstartforhens which is a similar, but smaller organisation than BHWT. 30 July I have to wait til the next release It'll be worth it though.

You cant beat ex batts .We had ours last November and it took around 3mths for them to fully feather up,they were nearly bald in places bless them.Considering the horrific way they are kept they are so friendly and will happily follow you around.My DS goes out to feed all our brood in a morning and its like a scene from the pied piper,him followed by two ducks and seven chickens .

mambury

can I join the club.... Officially??

Milly, Bluebell and Daisy have arrived at Mambury towers yesterday and I must say are settling in rather well....

They are all hybrids
Bluebell is a Buff Orp x Cream legbar so has blue legs and a fab hairdo!
Daisy is the biggest and is a RIR x with something, I think it is a LS
and little Milly is chocolate brown with markings to ends of some of her wing feathers...

They are amazingly tame and although they are only 14 weeks and we have some time before they lay I am a happy bunny....

One question though, I read that I should be feeding them growers pellets before they lay and not to limit their feed as they will self regulate, what do you guys think??

Oh, and DS (7) has fallen in love with some blue silkie bantams that we saw yesterday so I can see the flock expanding already.... along with the Wheaten Marsh Daisy's that I fell in love with too.....

Must start saving for a field!!

Mambury

spirit

mambury wrote: »

can I join the club.... Officially??


Mambury

as long as you post some pics

Welcome

lapetiteanglaise

I'd love some chickens, but the deeds to my house say that I can't :-(

The in-laws have three and they're soooo cute (the chickens, not the in-laws ;-))

I'm very jealous!!

doodlesmum

mambury wrote: »

can I join the club.... Officially??

Milly, Bluebell and Daisy have arrived at Mambury towers yesterday and I must say are settling in rather well....

They are all hybrids
Bluebell is a Buff Orp x Cream legbar so has blue legs and a fab hairdo!
Daisy is the biggest and is a RIR x with something, I think it is a LS
and little Milly is chocolate brown with markings to ends of some of her wing feathers...

They are amazingly tame and although they are only 14 weeks and we have some time before they lay I am a happy bunny....

One question though, I read that I should be feeding them growers pellets before they lay and not to limit their feed as they will self regulate, what do you guys think??

Oh, and DS (7) has fallen in love with some blue silkie bantams that we saw yesterday so I can see the flock expanding already.... along with the Wheaten Marsh Daisy's that I fell in love with too.....

Must start saving for a field!!

Mambury

Hi Mambury,

You will be hooked and expanding before you know it .You are giving them the right thing Growers they are best on this until about 19wks old.If you give them easy access to their food they will get it as they want it.Make sure they always got plenty of water around as if they run out they wont eat if they are thirsty.We also have a Daisy she is the head chook and can be a little bit of a bully if she is in a certain mood,but she wont mess with the ducks though

Enjoy your eggs when they arrive,nothing beats seeing your kids faces when they find their first egg,our 2 and 4 yr old love getting them in .