Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Frugaldom

Good luck, Angela, hope the wire cage works.

My 6 girls are all behaving a little better since the dreaded wing-clipping. 5 of the 6 have now been done, plus the Pekin cockerel, who really needs to go back to his own home with the neighbours soon. I have only one more hen to catch and wing clip, she's the only one who has been going walkabout in the field recently. Mr White, the neighbour's cockerel, however, has taken it upon himself to start trying to attack Captain Beaky through the fence and, this morning, tiny Pekin made a headlong dash for the open gate whilst I was in feeding the huge Captain! Won't he ever learn? He's only been here for 3 months recuperating after being in a scrap with the neighbour's other cockerel! :rolleyes:

Silkiechick is now 18 weeks old, so we're expecting her to start laying soon. The next 3 'chicks' are 15 weeks old, so not long to go before finding out if any of them will lay blue eggs! I'm still not 100% sure they were sired by an Araucana but the green legs are keeping me hopeful. I'll be :j if I get blue eggs.

Nothing broody here at the moment, been getting half a dozen eggs and have just made another 2 batches of lemon curd. I now have a dozen egg whites in the fridge, so it looks like meringue making needs to be added to the 'to do' list.

Hope everyone is having fun and that your chickens are all surviving the recent heatwave. I've found it incredibly difficult to keep mine eating and they all seem grumpy! :rotfl:

DON79

Well haven't updated for a while but some news from me, not so good!

Happily got our cockerel rehomed, got the two new little pullets, been going ok apart from the littlest pullet - called her Tiny - not taking to the coop really and preferring to try sleep outside! Well we were away for a week and the chickens had loads of food from a treadle feeder and water from drinking cups. Came back and littlest pullet had died!

Was really upset as she was my favourite but deep down I knew that she was not thriving as she should have been like her friend who we got at the same time. so she has been buried.

And just our luck! since rehoming our first cockerel, hen number two has blossomed into.........guess what........... another cockerel! so we had two cockerels from what were supposed to be five hens.

So far cockerel number two has yet to crow........ but as soon as he does, then he will get rehomed also, which is a shame, he is a handsome bird too.

So we have three hens and one cockerel now. but it's very likely we will rehome this cockerel too because we want hens as our pets + eggs, not chicks even though they are gorgeous, we just don't have the space for lots of chicks.

Hope everyone else is getting on well.

steady__eddie

Sorry to hear about your bereavement Don, I remember sobbing my heart out (before it turned to stone) when a little white bantam pullet of mine died. One could tell that things weren't quite right after a couple of days and the mother started to ignore it. "Sell a V", as Dell Boy would say.
What's the chance of a few more posts on this board ? What with the credit crunch, the possibility of another opportunity to "spend more time with my family" and another failed attempt to give up smoking, this topic is the only one which 1 which have designated under "Instant email notification status" in order to cheer myself up. I wish that she who thinks that she must be obeyed would let me have some chucks. I was ridding myself of my grumpy old man status yesterday after Englands performance but the Ozzies have put a stop to that today.
Can anyone recommend any other sites where topics like ths one are discussed please ?

Gigervamp

You could always try the River Cottage or Downsizer forums.

lostinrates

steady__eddie wrote: »

What's the chance of a few more posts on this board ? What with the credit crunch, the possibility of another opportunity to "spend more time with my family" and another failed attempt to give up smoking, this topic is the only one which 1 which have designated under "Instant email notification status" in order to cheer myself up.?

Alright then! Hi! (and good luck with the horrid stuff).

as kid I kept rehomed battery hens (and some other poultry) but life meant for a long time I couldn't keep chooks. A few years ago DH, my mother and I bought my father a hen house and half a dozen cochins. Well, long story short, we now live as one big happy family, and the chooks are mine. We have one very old original cochin, and one year old home bred, but between foxes and buzzards we had a very bad year and we decided to branch out breed wise this year. So we are now running a few marans and cream leg bars too. I love them all, and enjoy the mix of personalities in the different breeds. We don't want to get too many as we are looking to move, but we are also considering adding some guinea fowl to the flock this summer (no more than haf a dozen) and a couple of peacocks. I've taken care of guineas before but not peacocks

Frugaldom

Don, sorry to hear about your little pullet. Nature's way, I guess.

steady__eddie wrote: »

Can anyone recommend any other sites where topics like ths one are discussed please ?

We could just chicken chat even more on this forum, if you like? My lot have been behaving like a bunch of hooligans recently. Ankle high Mr White has been squaring up to the enormous Captain Beaky through the fence and I've had to remove the 3 hens from Beaky's run. That's them all 15 weeks old now, got 5 cockerels and 3 hens out of that lot, so 3 of the cockerels need to go. Yellow Legs has already gone, so that just leaves Captain Beaky and Ned the Thug. I'll keep the 2 as yet unnamed Araucanas.

Today we had to lower the duck house to almost ground level because my dippy ducks won't walk up the ramp! We've been having to catch them one at a time and physically lift them into said house, which causes an awful noise - don't ducks quack really loudly??!! So, that's the duck house now been lowered and the 3 pullets removed from Beaky's run have decided that they rather like it inside that house instead of the hen house!

Ducks and 2 lots of chickens done, moves on to the third lot and, as I'm sweeping out the run, one of the chicks flutters up and disappears through a hole in the fence and out into the field! :rolleyes: The calves have only gone and chewed a hole through the corner of the brushwood screen where it meets the mesh! Escapee is still running up and down the fence trying to work out how to get back in and wondering why nobody is going to get her. Umm... the massive bull lying about 20 feet away, that's why! Wonder if I could creep in and back out before he hauled his massive bulk from where he's snoozing. . Could just be a case of 'Beware of the Bull Dozing' but then again, the pesky calves and lambs chase the chickens then the cows chase whatever goes near the calves! That could upset the bull! :eek: I call him Piglet, but I don't think he likes that name!

Someone told me that Silkies make excellent pets because they don't like to perch, they can't fly and they are very docile. Well, I kid you not. Today, my oldest Silkie 'chick' (now 18 weeks and should be starting to think about laying soon) jumped off her perch and started attacking my feet and the brush! It would have been really funny to watch, but I had my bare feet in red crocs, so the pecking was rather stingy! I'm beginning to think Silkies are short sighted and she thought I was chasing one of her friends with a big stick; I was sweeping your floor, stupid bird! :rotfl: Not content with that, she then FLEW over the fence and into the blackcurrants then flew from there into the vaggie garden, where I eventually had to lift her out as she got stuck under a cauliflower!

Finally, just to convince me that hens really are silly... I got 2 eggs inside the guinea pig hutch this afternoon.

Eggs mounting up now even after making the latest batch of luxury lemon curd (1 egg yoke per 100g curd) so it looks like there'll be meringues going in the oven tonight. Is anyone else a member of their local LETS group? I joined ours and the members love their freerange eggs! I've traded enough to pay for a weekend's B&B for friends visiting and I'm now saving for half a pig. :T Brilliant concept for anyone with eggs for trading!

Think I've waffled enough now, it was more to cheer up steady_eddie. Maybe I'll name one of my Araucana cockerels after him!

Lostinrates, you must be up here in Scotland when you're mentioning buzzards? We have loads of them breeding about here, they land on the walls and sit screaming jokes at one another about crows being wimps so they aren't moving for them! :rotfl: Someone near here also had peacocks but they ended up in court being sued by neighbours because of the peacocks. They got such a lot of abuse that they ended up selling up the very large house & extensive grounds and moving away. Funny how nobody said a word when his Rhea escaped and ran all the way into the nearby town! I guess it didn't fly over any cars or screech on the way past that particular neighbour's house. :rotfl:

Angela, did the wire cage work for your broody hen?

KAAT_LADY

this is my first Buff Orpington Egg ,, looking forward to more

seems very small & white compared to the others,, but i suppose she will get them bigger and better lolxxx

Frugaldom

Kaat, you'll need to let us know if it is a double yoker! :beer:

I'm just waiting for my first Silkie egg, as eldest chick is about 18 weeks old and becoming very bossy - she must be hormonal. :rotfl:

KAAT_LADY

nykmedia

I have just had another today and its the same size ,, but Larri (who is my orpington hen) is laying in the run and dont know what to do about that

I have named them after the Three Stooges ..Curly (who is the cockerel) , Larri and Mo the hens:rotfl::rotfl:

havent eaten them ( the eggs not the chickens) yet but will let you know if it is a double yoker

Frugaldom

My ducks are called Phoebe, Monica and Joey, as you'll have guessed, Joey is the Drake, as in Dr Drake Ramorez. :rotfl:

Not sure why Larri is laying in the run, maybe your ground covering is too comfortable and she doesn't need to go in the nest box? Or maybe she just hasn't realised that she's supposed to go in the nest box - could you leave an egg in it and see if it tempts her? I'd swap it for a dummy or store bought egg and mark it with 'X' so you can't mix them up and to guarantee it doesn't start to develop in the event of it being fertile. Or perhaps she got uncomfortable trying to lay, thought she was done and then came outside only to discover she hadn't yet laid the egg and couldn't make it back to the box? Even a small egg is a fair size for a young chicken to lay, it might be a bit like having a baby every day......... :eek: I'd run from the nest box too! :rotfl: