Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Fruball

OK_Sauce wrote: »

If I started over again I wouldn't bother with a purpose built coop, I'd go for a small shed instead connected to a covered home made run. The chooks could come and go as they pleased and would be fox proof from the start.

Hello all :hello: I am back and love reading all about your hens and seeing your piccies :A so thank you for those

We started with a normal garden shed - it was a perfect home for my lot. I put a bale of straw in there for jumping on, a perch and a vegetable crate served as a nest box! Altho they often laid on the straw bale too.

We have just ordered a dozen cinnamon quail hatching eggs! :j:j:j:j:j:j:j

I've not had any birds for about 6 years and do miss them, and esp miss the fresh eggs. So, we will hatch the quail and they will be housed in a rabbit hutch with run, and as soon as they growing well in the brooder, we will start incubating some chickens. I will keep the hens but get rid of the boys either by sale or to the table :eek: IF I can manage to dispatch them :eek:

Really tempted by Cream/Cotswold Legbars for the blue eggs but also tempted by the size of bantam pekins and the fact that they don't scratch the ground up too much. Any advice welcomed as I still have a month before I need to decide and want to make the right choice... Unlike when I previously had hens and got them at POL and had no idea what I was getting

Does anybody know of any small breeds that lay unusual eggs?

Hopefully will be a bit more active on this thread now that I will have birds (IF the hatch goes according to plan! I shall be gutted if we get no chicks)

Have any of you hatched your own? Raised chicks etc? Would love to hear more.

ljonski

Ive squeezed her crop again and some more gunge came out, but still not smelly. She took some cat food this evening and then ive put her to bed. She's not quite herself but i think she could be worse. I was going to put sugar and water together to give her some energy but this is not necessary. I will worm her tomorrow as i now believe this could be the underlying problem. But its maggots for everyone tomorrow, Also have ACV , Thanks Lj

Gigervamp

Sunflower, one of our girls laid an almost round egg yesterday! Not sure who it was, maybe one of the warrens.

It looks like Sweetpea has started laying again now as we had a small blue egg today along with the legbars eggs.

Our araucana x girls are laying eggs that vary in colour every time they lay, from bluey green to olive with speckles. I'm surprised at the size of egg that the ara x pekin lays. Considering she's quite a bit smaller than the ara x sussex, they're laying the same size eggs.

I'm loving all the different egg colours that we're getting though and so are our customers!

ionahenor2

Mine all looked a little guilty when I opened up this morning. Daisy had egg yolk all over her beak with bits of shredded paper stuck to it. The other two had yellow feet with shredded paper.:rotfl:

They had eaten an egg from the nest area but I think it could have been a softie as there was no sign of any shell. Their roosting bars were covered in egg yolk too so I finished up cleaning all the inside of the eglu. Good job the sun was out as it dried everything quite quickly.

Gigervamp

Lol, Iona, we've had that too a few times! I noticed the girls the other morning fighting over a piece of very yellow woodshaving! An inspection of the coop revealed the remains of a soft shelled egg.

diluvsdiscounts

Gigervamp wrote: »

Lol, Iona, we've had that too a few times! I noticed the girls the other morning fighting over a piece of very yellow woodshaving! An inspection of the coop revealed the remains of a soft shelled egg.

We had a problem with them eating their own eggs as well. It started when we were on holiday as I don't think they were let out as early as I let them out myself but it's easy for me I just stroll down the garden with my coffee as soon as I get up.
Anyway to try and stop them I had a hard plastic egg from a joke shop so I popped that into their nesting box.It seemed to do the trick but the next problem we had was a visiting rat,it was coming in from the garden at the bottom and I believed that it was pinching eggs.My DD and DH wouldn't have any of it saying it was the chickens eating their own again until I went one afternoon and the plastic egg had gone!!
That'll teach the little bu**er.
We found how it was getting into our garden and blocked the hole so hopefully that will be the end of the rat!!

sunflower76

I think ours only eat their eggs when they are clumsy and break one. You'd be amazed at the amount that are cracked because they are pushing to get into the nest boxes and clumping around. I'm hopng an additional nest box will solve this but it is a pain when six lay in the space of an hour or so - you can't be out their checking all the time!

We've also had a visiting rat. I only ever saw him fetching spilled corn but I did suspect he was taking eggs when the chance was there. I had to put poison down in the end.

ljonski

Im hopeful that Botty will pull through. I forced her to be sick this morning - it went all over trousers and shoes. Bought some maggots, she was a bit reluctant at first but eventually golluped her plate clean. Went out with some more an hour ago and everybody stampeded to get them. In 2 and a half years of chicken keeping - i havent lost any yet, and hope that will continue for some time yet.

Fruball

Just wondering.... why do you give them maggots? is it a protein boost or something?

ljonski

As well as the protein, the most important thing is while they are wiggling in the crop, they are busily munching on the residue that is festering there. Eventually they will eat all the rotten stuff up before themselves being digested. At least they perish on a full stomach (if they have one!)