Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Gigervamp

I love the picture I've got in my head now of you and the cockeral by the pond. Nothing wrong with talking to a chicken, I have whole conversations with my cats!
:rotfl:

Katharine

I'll talk to anything alive, but mostly my dog. I even used to talk to the stick insects and snails in my old job. I speak to animals more than people these days.

jpwhittle

HI,

Pretty new to keeping chickens only had 3 sussex stars hybrids a week they are 18 weeks old. I was told by the farm that sold them to me that they were all hens but one is showing signs of trying to crow. Can hens get noisey before they start to lay and how do you tell the sex of a chicken?

any help would be great.

Frugaldom

I have very noisy hens when they lay because they LOVE to tell the entire neighbourhood when they have laid an egg. :rotfl: We call it 'Big Egg' syndrome as it sounds like they are yelling, Big, big, big, big eeeeeeeeeeeeeg, big eeeeeeeeg, big, big, big, big egg... at the top of their voices. A couple of them do just lay quietly and have no more than a brief clucking session as they saunter back outside but I really don't know why so many people say hens are quiet - mine aren't. They are louder than the Pekin cockeral once they get into a squawking fit.

If your hens are cockerals, they will have shiny pointed feathers around their necks and big pointed feathers drooping over their tails. Just do a search of Google images for whatever hreed you have and you'll see the difference. By 18 weeks, almost any breeder can tell the difference, so I'm guessing your hen has just laid an egg or is about to do so.

b3nton

OMG those ducks are sooo cute!

Frugaldom

The heatwave means the chickens are plodding about here with wings drooped and looking for cool shade. If hens would swim it would help a bit, we had the kiddy paddling pool out this afternoon but look who beat us to it... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: We've named them Joey, Phoebe and Monica. Joey is otherwise known as Drake Ramorez - it took him ages to work out how to get into the water, he's a bit dim at times.

Frugaldom

I am slowly working my way through the list in an effort to cut down on grocery spends, buy less meat and use home produce every day. Here's my list of 100 things to do with eggs but there are loads more when you start searching.

100 Things You Can Do With Eggs

001. Boiled Egg
002. Scrambled Egg
003. Poached Egg
004. Fried Egg
005. Omlette
006. Souffle
007. Meringue
008. Lemon curd
009. Quiche
010. Eggs Florentine
011. Eggs Mayonnaise
012. Scotch eggs
013. Devilled eggs
014. Sponges
015. Custard
016. Pancakes - sweet or savoury
017. Crepe Suzette
018. Pickled eggs
019. Ice cream
020. French Toast
021. Fried rice
022. Eggnog
023. Mayonnaise / salad cream
024. Egg salad
025. Brioche
026. Flan / tarts
027. Egg Foo Yung
028. Eggs Benedict
029. Bread & Butter pudding
030. Coddled eggs
031. Frittata
032. Essen eggs
033. Huevos Rancheros (Ranch eggs)
034. Egg custard tart
035. Clafoutis
036. Egg and lentil curry (Delia recipe)
037. Piperade (a spicy scrambled egg with bits of bacon and/or chorizo)
038. Curried Eggs
039. Macaroons (whites only)
040. Mousse
041. Yorkshire puddings
042. Syrup or jam pudding
043. Baked Alaska
044. Caesar Salad
045. Baked eggs
046. Steamed eggs
047. Egg bread
048. Egg noodles
049. Pasta
050. Ravioli
051. Zabaglione
052. Hungarian Kiflies
053. Batter
054. Egg Biryani
055. Eggs Mornay
056. Chinese Egg Rolls
057. Creole Eggs
058. Kedgeree
059. Convent Eggs
060. Eggs in Aspic
061. Egg Cobbler
062. Egg Croquettes
063. Egg Fricassee
064. Egg & Bacon Pilaff
065. Egg & Tomato Gratin
066. Bacon & egg pie
067. Egg fried cheese sandwiches / Cheese Dreams
068. Egg toasties
069. Hard boiled egg & chives/cheese/onions/cress sandwich filling
070. Egg Mimossa
071. Lemon Meringue Pie
072. Nicoise Salad
073. Toad in the Hole
074. Hollandaise Sauce
075. Flamenco Eggs
076. Parlies
077. Grilled Fish in Egg
078. Carbonara
079. Koulibiak
080. Plum or fruit pudding
081. Scotch Woodcock
082. Queen Mary Tart
083. Whisky & Chocolate crunch
084. Sweet loaves (fruit, tea, banana etc)
085. Date Nut Bread
086. Egg Scones
087. Dorayaki Japanese sweets
088. Creme Caramel
089. Creme Brulee
090. Shakshouka
091. Blitz Torte
092. Steamed Egg Custard
093. Friar's Omlette
094. Piedmont Eggs
095. Shortcrust pastry
096. Chinese Egg Soup
097. Garden use - plant food / composting material / snail deterent
098. Egg face mask / anti-wrinkle treatment
099. Egg hair conditioner
100. Leather conditioner

angelavdavis

Despite information to the contrary, I have an ex-battery hen that has gone broody. She is one of four I adopted in February this year. All have got on fairly well without too much hen-pecking going on.

However, now she has decided to try to sit on any eggs that are laid, she is being quite severely pecked by the other hens. I had originally noticed a large clump of feathers had been taken from the back of her neck.

I am not sure if I am doing the right thing, but I have been lifting her out much to her disgust, at mealtimes. I have then been removing the eggs. The other hens are then having a go at her when she tries to get to the food (some are actually trying to physically stop her getting to the food, although she usually gets to the water and pellets if she can't get to the scraps and eats OK).

I am doing this at least once a day (I take out kitchen scraps in the afternoon after feeding them layers pellets in the morning).

I have tried spraying the bald patch (which isn't bleeding yet) with savlon dry antiseptic spray because it is yellow and disguises the plucked area a little, because it should help healing (and is safe to use on a baby older than a week old) and also in the hope it might taste awful, but its having little effect.

Is what I am doing right? Does anyone have any other suggestions on my approach to this?

Frugaldom

Good morning

Angela, are your hens freeranging or are they penned? Any ex-batts I've had in the past have had their beaks trimmed to prevent them from becoming cannibalistic within a confined area, although it's some time since I had any, so I don't even know if they still beak trim nowadays.

The other thing is that the bald patch may just be looking worse because the hen is moulting, so feathers are dropping out anyway. I'd just make sure that all the hens were put out at the same time and that she isn't allowed to sit on any eggs. Mine are all rehomed broodies, so I check for eggs several times a day to make sure there's no chance of anyone getting too comfortable. They do have a few squabbles about it with some fairly swift pecks to one another but there's plenty of space and several feeding points, so they're normally happy enough by the time they go back into the coop at night.

Hope your little hen is alright. Maybe someone with more experience of broody ex-batts will be along soon with a better solution. In the meantime, keep a close eye on her. Mine get grumpy if I'm not out there early enough and they don't come back in until after 10pm now, so maybe an extra few hours daylight might help if they are cooped up at nights? My Pekin cockeral is crowing from about 4am these days LOL

Edited in - I just noticed how early you'd posted, so scratch the last part as yours are probably out until late, too.

angelavdavis

Thanks for your response nykmedia,

Mine live in a large pen (4 hens in a pen designed for 10 chooks) with an open housing so they can get into their pen and scratch around, dust bathe and feed whenever they want to. I shut them out of the (larger) run which isn't fox proof at about 7pm, but they still have the pen to play in - plenty of room.

They go to bed when they want to as well!

Sadly I have had to pen them in since I started regrowing veg as they simply strip everything green.

I don't think is moulting - the feathers have been broken at the quill and I have spotted them pecking.

I am out for most of today, so can't do a lot today, but am thinking I might seal up the nesting box area to stop her returning to it, and extend the larger run area into one of my borders (I have a large, mature border of shrubs which they love digging about in adjacent to the current run area. I am wondering if its boredom...?