Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

ionahenor2

What great news Giger. Can you tell what sex they will be yet?:T

Gigervamp

The new one is another black with white bits. Apparently, you can tell by checking the wing feathers which sex they are, but we haven't tried that yet.

The first black one is getting very adventurous. When I checked on them earlier, it was up on mum's back again.
It's lovely watching Petal teaching them how to eat the chick crumbs, and she purrs when they're going back underneath her!

Shortie

Evening all, I was after some advicw if that's okay?

I've had my ex-batts for about 6 weeks now and they appear to be doing just grand - a few have out of a sudden spurt of feather regrowth and the others have a few growing through, or no new ones at all yet. The egg production is patchy with anywhere between 2 - 6 eggs a day from my 8 girls, but they're regrowing their feathers and the weather hasn't been great the last few weeks so I don't think there are any problems there....

Today while giving their run a good overhaul, I noticed in the coop something really odd, which I could only presume to be a super soft shelled egg... I've had a couple of eggs with paper thin shells (and I know what causes them) but this one alarmed me at first as it looked like a piece of pink/flesh coloured intestine! It was only the clear 'goo' in the middle that suggested it was supposed to be an egg. I didn't thinko much of it (the girls are allowed the odd mal-function after the hard life they've had..) but then I realised that one of my girls that had been sat in the nest box for ages (missing the dried meal worm and sunshine) had laid an egg. Off she went and I picked it up to find cracked egg shell of a second egg on the outside of the one she'd just laid...??

Do you think this was anything to do with the odd lumpy thing I'd found in the coop? And either way, what on earth were either of them all about??? I've heard of broken eggs inside chooks (and that they can be dangerous) but all the girls seem to have been just fine, no suggestion of being off colour?

ljonski

Hi the thing you found is quite common and is basically an egg that gets stuck in the chicken before getting coated in calcium to form the shell. it basically gets hard boiled by the heat of the chickens body. It is a sign that the egg laying days of that particular chook maybe coming to an end.
Just throw it away.

Syman

Also posted this in the ARMS thread, but i thought you guys would appreciate it too.

Getting the mower out this morning i found i had a squatter in my shed

Gigervamp

Symon, that's sweet!

Ok peeps, here are some more videos for you!

2 day old chick being taught to eat by mum.

Chicks having breakfast.

Checking up on the chicks.

Letting the ducks out, checking up on the chicks.

Enjoy!

RebekahR

Right people! We have been on our chicken keeping course today. The lady was lovely and took us round her back garden/farm showing all the types of houses and what was wrong with them etc. Got to hold a chicken - dust it for mites and cut the wing feathers. My chicken kept flying away lol. Got her book and i'm all ready and raring to go! Being 30 weeks pregnant it's a case of do we get them now or later lol. Does anyone have rubber chippings for mud management? The mud management is a big issue just wondering what you guys use? The other question is if you can house batams with the big hybrids or if the 2 need to be kept seperate?

Gigervamp

Sounds like you had a fun day!

Don't know about rubber chippings. We free range ours in a field which does get very muddy in places, so we've put down pallets on the worst areas. Not pretty but does the job and they're free.

Regarding bantams with big chickens, we've not found it to be a problem. Our smallest bantam, (a silver sebright who is a bit bigger than a blackbird) is very bossy! Even our largest chickens (french marans and an orpington) don't mess with her!

We also have other bantams who all get along with the bigger girls.

RebekahR

Aww good. As hubby likes the big hybrids for eggs and I like the small batams for "cuteness". Although I love them all tbh! My hen nearly went to sleep in my arms. I can see this being VERY addictive in no time! Just need to decide on a house now.Think mites will become a big issue for us in no time with a tree above and lots of pigeons visiting.

Gigervamp

We've only had a problem with mites recently. When we got our first 3 girls, we had a coop in the garden underneath 3 large trees with doves and wood pidgeons above and had no problem with mites.