Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Thriftkitten

Yes I think I may have left it too late also Beetle as mine were born Friday and the already have their lemon sabelpoot feathers coming on their wings, can't believe they are changing so quick.

Out of interest my chicks are Lemon Milfleur Sabelpoots and they lay white eggs, but are Bantams... plus side is they wont make half the mesof the lawn as Marj or the the brown ones do, However...... the others eggs are yummy so they can scratch about as much as they like I wuvvv em dearly!;)

mumonashoestring

Jenny_Wren wrote: »

Does anyone have any white egg layers please? I'm going to succome to morechickenittus and want white egg layers but I've heard that legbarrs and snowflake hybrids are noisy. Any experience welcome before I annoy the neighbours!

Our Dorkings lay white eggs and are no noisier than our hybrids (a Plymouth, a Bluebell and a Light Sussex). They do go off lay over winter though.

Beetlemama

Jenny_Wren wrote: »

Does anyone have any white egg layers please? I'm going to succome to morechickenittus and want white egg layers but I've heard that legbarrs and snowflake hybrids are noisy. Any experience welcome before I annoy the neighbours!

Phantom the bantam lays teeny white eggs, they're so cute! we use them as halves, if it says "one or two eggs" (as it often does in my 1940 cookbook, there was a war on ya know!) we use one ordinary and a Phantom.

The other girls are both Cuckoo marans and they lay different eggs from each other, Edith lays light brown speckled eggs while Ethel lays plain light brown (Ethel sat on and hatched Edith's egg that made the chick Phantom is now raising - keep it in the family girls!)

HeatherintheHills

Jenny_Wren wrote: »

Does anyone have any white egg layers please? I'm going to succome to morechickenittus and want white egg layers but I've heard that legbarrs and snowflake hybrids are noisy. Any experience welcome before I annoy the neighbours!

Hi Jenny Wren, Henderson's guide might help you find what you are looking for? It is USA based but it normally isn't too difficult to find the British equivalent of the breeds if they have different names.

Some hybrids lay quite pale brown eggs. If you check the colour of their ear lobes I think it is meant to reflect the colour of their eggs, but I'm not sure how true that is.

Jenny_Wren_3

HeatherintheHills wrote: »

Some hybrids lay quite pale brown eggs. If you check the colour of their ear lobes I think it is meant to reflect the colour of their eggs, but I'm not sure how true that is.

Thanks, I have 4 hybrids at the mo who all lay pale brown eggs, just fancied white for a change but have to be careful of the neighbours as Chloe the bluebelle and Sally the speckled make a racket already! My girls are in their third summer so egg production has dropped

ionahenor2

Jenny_Wren wrote: »

Thanks, I have 4 hybrids at the mo who all lay pale brown eggs, just fancied white for a change but have to be careful of the neighbours as Chloe the bluebelle and Sally the speckled make a racket already! My girls are in their third summer so egg production has dropped

Do your neighbours complain Jenny? Would offering some eggs help?

Lettie, my only layer, makes me laugh when she is shouting and trying to eat pellets at the same time. There is a loud cluck then a muffled cluck as she puts her head in the grub.:rotfl:

Thriftkitten

Quick update, all 4 chicks are doing fine and mum is bringing them into bed now on her own with no encouragement, woke up late yesterday(around 7am) when i went to let the girls out I heard the most shocking noise coming from their coop.............."cox-a-dooooo"........not "cox-a doodle doo" just half a one!!!!
Hmmmmmm I managed to video it and it kept happening until I let them all out then nothing....
I called my friend who breeds game and poultry and shows them, he came over, checked all 3 birds and they are deffo hens, but "Sue" is behaving like Stew..art!!!
Aparently because there is no cox in the flock, sometimes a female can take on the role.
I got up extra early today(6am) and just opened the peek window to let some light in, Sue was roosting so I could see her, and once I opened the peek hole and she got some light... she was off...... "cox-a dooooo" again and again until I let them out.
I am very gutted to say the least as this means that we will have to try and re-home Sue, I wondered why we never had any eggs from her in the 4 months we have had her.
Am gutted to be honest but we have elderly neighbours and can't have her waking them up from 5am every morning.:eek:

sunflower76

Morning all. I have 8 regular brown hens who are brilliant layers and pretty friendly. They're not in a huge space but they have enouogh room to wander, scratch, dust bathe etc and they really are quite spoiled girlies .

I've been given the chance to buy a small plot of land at the end of my garden (approx 5 x 5m) which I'm very tempted to do, in order to give the chickens a bigger space, and to be on grass / mud permanently as opposed to the mainly concrete they are on now.

Firstly, how many chickens can I fit into this space? I have an 8 x 6 shed I can convert into a big home for them as well as the house they have now which holds 10.

Secondly - am I insane? This is going to cost a fortune - just for some chicken land!!!! It's also going to be a lot of work, new fencing, cutting down some HUGE trees. Sounds like I have Iwantmorechickenitis real bad. :rotfl::rotfl:

Jenny_Wren_3

ionahenor2 wrote: »

Do your neighbours complain Jenny? Would offering some eggs help?:rotfl:

Luckily no they haven't so far, and I never seem to have spare eggs what with the huge amount of baking I do and the girls egg production slowing down.

We have been trying to move (for a year and a half) to get a bigger garden that they can be down the end of but no luck so far. I should really wait then I can get the noisy legbarrs that I would love but i'm just too impatient!

LAM2011

hi, not been in here in ages - just catching up on last few pages - lots of babies how cute.

My hens are about 4 years old and stopped laying about 4 months ago. All 3 seemed very healthy until about a month ago one seemed very depressed and got very quiet - I noticed that her droppings had changed to a yellowish colour and very watery. She went downhill quite rapidly. I now have another hen starting to show symptoms and I think I have caught it earlier as this one (black rock hybrid) is particularly chatty and nosey and is found more often just sitting in the garden. If I take her out a treat she comes over fairly quickly but not as chatty either. I have now noticed her back end is messy and has really loose watery droppings.

The third hen is as chipper and healthy as ever - she is very cheeky.

About 3 months ago we had redmite and chickens were treated and moved house. They were also wormed and I bought a tonic to put in the water when the last chicken started looking poorly.

Any help would be appreciated. The hen that is currently ill is my favourite and I dont want to watch her get more and more lethargic like the last one did. I have asked locally and cannot find a vet that will see to chickens. The local farmer gave me a suggestion that I didnt like