Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Katharine

The feathered fools are laying at night on their perch! Went out to trim their claws to find two eggs under the perch, another blue and a broken Maran. This mornings blue was also found under the perch by hubby. Previous owner said that the Araucana only laid every other day? They must only feel comforable enough to lay at night, hopefully they will settle down soon and use the nest box. At least I know two are laying, shame to lose my first ever Maran egg tho.

Frugaldom

Katharine, that puts paid to what I read in a book about hens not laying in the dark. :rotfl: Maybe they haven't worked out where the nestboxes are yet and will need the perch removed for a bit, just until they realise where they are meant to go. Either that or a safety net under the perch to catch the eggs - what about a thick straw bed or trough of shavings?

Tallulah, your hens are still young, egg laying can be a little bit sporadic to start off with but they'll soon get into the swing of it. Remember all hens don't lay an egg every single day, there are different amounts for different breeds. The brown hybrid commercial layers are top of that score, as it only takes them about 23.5 hours to produce an egg. Every so often, we used to get 8 eggs per week from a single hen. Purebreeds lay less, so it's probably best to count it over a full year to find out how well they lay. Shock etc can also delay egg laying, but I'm sure it'll just be because they are young. Let us know.

Sud0crem is good for all sorts of stuff, even chickens. I have a large tub in my first aid box

Katharine

Wahey the Sussex laid! :j Found a white egg by the door today so at least its definatly not stuck! You read my mind Nyk I put an extra thick layer of shavings down. In their old home there was just inside and outside they laid on the floor in shavings and are continueing to do so. I have a blue and a white egg for my lunch tomorrow will let you know if its a double yolker. If they pull the same stunt tonight I might put them in the nest box tomorrow eve.

They have noticeably perked up a bit today, :T Marans pale comb is looking redder and Sussexs bottom is looking less red. Sussex is also behaving as if she is boss now and hogging the food. I cant wait to see them behaving as my chickens do.

Frugaldom

That's great news, Katharine, they sound as though they are settling in really well to their new home.

I just had my feed delivered and it appears to have gone up in price again. What's everyone else paying? For comparison, I've just paid £8.05 per bag for mixed poultry grain :eek:, £8.36 for grower pellets and £8.91 for a bale of shavings! It doesn't seem any time since these were all around the £4 mark, but I may just be showing my age. :rotfl:I've stopped buying the layer pellets, as my hens just waste them. They scratch and peck at them occasionally, but prefer to be scratching in the garden and helping themselves to the grain & grit. As soon as all the youngsters are up a bit, then I'll be sticking with just the grain. And the ducks eat anything. :rolleyes:

DON79

Hi, we pay £7 for for 20kg of layers pellets and £5 for 20kg of corn. my husband gets the straw for them so not sure what he pays for that am afraid.

We are taking our second cockeral to be rehomed tomorrow and another to get checked to see if it is a cockeral too. Have told my husband how he can check this himself but he is not keen to do it for some reason! :rolleyes::p

Katharine

Nyk your prices are about the same as mine, maybe a scotland thing? Yuck I had forgetten than non-free range eggs taste like, I wanted to put them in the bin rather than my mouth, the sussex was particularly bland.

bagpuss512

Kathrine & Nykmedia - Thanks for the info. Really appreciate it. Unfortunately, can't get cockerel due to neighbours but there's no blood drawn so I;m leaving them to it and keeping an eye on her. Really enjoying this 'chicken' forum and hopefully getting to grips with posting!

Frugaldom

DON79 wrote: »

Hi, we pay £7 for for 20kg of layers pellets and £5 for 20kg of corn. my husband gets the straw for them so not sure what he pays for that am afraid.

The bags I get are 25kg but I feel the pice of the mixed corn is a bit OTT as my dad pays only £5.75 for his. I'd order from there but the 200 mile round trip kills the savings. I'm lucky that I don't need to pay for my straw, I have a little exchange programme going with a friend on another farm.

Now all I need to do is rehome a couple more of my cockerels before I become too tempted to pass them on as table birds. (I can't kill them )

edmund_blackadder

Hi folks,

I'm sure this has been covered before but 30 pages is a bit much to find my answer...

So what is the general consensus about getting chickens when I already have a Border Collie, a small cat (who has never killed anything in 4 years ... or certainly not brought us any presents (other than a mouse in a mouse trap - the lazy swine! )) and a toddler?

lostinrates

edmund_blackadder wrote: »

So what is the general consensus about getting chickens when I already have a Border Collie, a small cat (who has never killed anything in 4 years ... or certainly not brought us any presents (other than a mouse in a mouse trap - the lazy swine! )) and a toddler?

I have three sighthounds, two very keen hunting cats, who never trouble the chickens or chicks. I find a rooster good for mking it clear to thecats that chickens are family not food. Your collie might even be a help, two of our dogs are not allowed in the chicken paddock alone EVER, but one has become very good and helps me gently round up if I want to put away early. One of the cats loves it when the girls go broody and curls up with them, but we put new hatchlings in a broody coop usually, just in case. When they are more mobile and the mother wants them moving more I find our chickens to be good protective parents.


Right, people, advice please!

I wrote recently that our broody young cochin had abandoned her clutch with four hatchlings which had died:( so I gathered the rest of the eggs up to kep warm just in case, but planned to toss out at end of gestation and thought would not hatch. I know they went over gestation this week because I dated the eggs.

This morning was the food waste recycling, where I was going to put the eggs in, the latest egg would be now 2 days over, but much to my total shock one was hatching this morning. It seems I now have a lone cochin/cream leg bar cross. Its dark, so if its inherited the sex linked colour from the leg bar then its a boy

Anything I shoud be particularly carful of raising one chick alone? I don't have anything broody togive him/her too, so s/he'll be alone for a long time:o