Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

tru

Left to right - Maran, Wellsummer, Light Sussex, Cotswold Legbar.

ljonski

Hi all . i have just completed building my Chicken run and now need to finish the hut , which i am making from old pallets . I have been very busy and the project has so far cost me £40. However i have not yet got the chickens,food or bedding nor feeders yet ! i will postup a pic when the hut will be ready . I reckon 10 days :cool:
For obvious reasons i will not tell you which area i am in as i have an amusing/horrific story about this !

i was reading the posts and was interested in s.o. saying that hens are not vegetarians.
10 years back my ex-employer kept free range chickens on his run down small holding.
His main occupation was roofing and he would distribute the eggs freely and widely to his regular customers and me . They were absolutely delicious and provoked comments from everyone about their quality. They had the whole smallholding to run through and would peck at literally everything inside and out his own house . ( he is still a single man)

However what no one knew, but me and him was that the crap all around his property attracted huge rats ,that he would set large traps to get them, which they invariably did . BUt for days/weeks on end the dead rats would lie untouched rotting where they met their grisly end. Did i say untouched ? Well i meant to say untouched by human hands but certainly not untouched by the beaks of those lovely hens producing such delicious and scrumtious eggs .

Are you still keeping Hens, Paul ?

Katharine

Unsurpriseing, mine found a dead mouse and I could not get it off them, they were fighting over it! Just as well I dont use poison.

I'm going to need a chick drinker can anyone recommend a good cheap poultry supply place online please?

Primrose

Well, I suppose dead rats in warm weather would produce a large supply of juicy maggots which I'm sure the hens would love. Sometimes it's a case of what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over.:rotfl:Remind me not to think about this when I eat my free-range boiled egg tomorrow.

Katharine

If you found a maggot or a bit of rat tail in the egg it might bother you but that's not going to happen.:p

Frugaldom

Katharine, I got some stuff delivered from Merrydalepoultry.co.uk and they were fairly reasonable and very quick to deliver compared to my local store. Sadly, I see by their website that some miserable, slimey, unscrupulous *$"!&*! stole their pure bred hens in February! I get so mad hearing things like this as it's happened to me in the past with exotics/cage birds and then a very good friend had all her purebred ducks and hens stolen a couple of years ago

Re the rats stories, hens would eat each other if they had to, they can be quite cannibalistic, as can quail and other species. But at least they aren't as big as pigs and they won't eat us if we collapse in their pens... I don't think? LOL

Mojisola

I was told by an elderly man that, after he had been ferreting, he would throw one of the rabbits on top of the chicken run. It would get fly eggs laid on it, the maggots would hatch and munch away at the flesh. Eventually they would fall through the mesh roof into the run and the chickens loved them!

Katharine

I wouldn't want to test that theory nykmedia!

I think I would prefer to find them a bucket of slugs Mojisola! But thats a good idea, If Bear Grylls eats them they must be OK for chooks.

I'm so excited about my eggs to tomorrow I really hope they all hatch out. Particularly the copper blues. Just spoke to my friend who loves Marans who wanted me to hatch some for him. Unfortunatly I dont have the setup to have two broodies. Plus I've asked for a dozen or me and my chicken woman would need more time to supply more fertile eggs, I can't just stick more under her later. I've decided on Mum (Felicity) hatching them as she has the experience, the youngens can have a go next year, hopefully with some black indian runners.

Frugaldom

Ooh, black Indian Runners! I really like ducklings, they are just so funny. Apart from jemima, mine should be called Argie and Bargie because they just mow straight through the chickens to get at any food available - they've even knocked Mrs Grey (one of the broodies) into their bath!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my lot will behave today, after yesterday's shenanigans but the cows haven't come back to this side of the field, yet, so who knows what'll happen when they do. I retrieved eggs from the hen house, duck house and a chick house yesterday and am hoping they don't make a habit of going all over the place.

Does anyone know if a wasp would sting a chicken/duck or if the chicken/duck would manage to kill the wasp without being stung. There sems to be an awful lot of wasps about this year and they're rather big - I hate the things.

julietiff

Just been to let the choocks out and looked for eggs in the
nest box, one normal one and one so tiny I almost missed it!

Its only 3 inches round and nearly 4 inches long
Don't know why though?- we have 4 hens and get about
2 aday usually, just wondering if its the first one from 1 of
them?- they are ex-battery and we got them in feb.- anyone
shed any light on it?