Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Frugaldom

I only have one problem with these little coops with runs:

Captain Beaky, the chick on the right, hatched 1st April 2009



has now grown into this (and is still growing!)



He wouldn't be able to stand up in one of those little houses. :rotfl::rotfl:

If anyone has any idea what sort of breed (s) he may be, leave suggestions here. He hatched from a brown shelled egg, if that helps. The little Pekin cockerel is about one third the height of him.

lostinrates

He's impressive nykmedia!

Our feathered man kept us awake a lot last night: been crowing since about 2:30am. We don't live on top of anyone but our nearest neighbour have B &Bs and I'm concerned about the impact of a noisy rooster on them.

Good news here: although our new marans are still very small I took the plunge and integrated them with the rest of the flock on Friday night. They are small and the rick of bullying does worry me quite a bit, but they were in a small broody coop with no internal door from the run and out weather is so appaling I decided they'd be better off /warmer in the bigger house . I had to put away early on Saturday(into the run leaving door open to inside), and was frankly very edgy while away, but all sees calm. The little ones, by choice, aren't leaving the run much, and when they do they don't venture far, but TBH, tht makes me feel a bit happier than if they were too bold.

DON79

Hello all!

Nykmedia, I am not sure what breed Captain Beaky is but I can tell you we have a hen with similar colouring. We adopted her from another rehoming centre after we rehomed our other cockeral. We think she could possibly be an Orpington of some type, she has a rose coloured comb though. I do know that White Orpingtons have white legs though.

I have a question if you can help please?? We are wanting to rehome two other ex battery hens and know that the next rehoming is due to take place soon - August sometime I think - anyway, my husband applied about a month/six weeks ago to adopt two ex battery hens and we have not heard anything at all. Is this normal? Should we just wait and see or assume we have not been succesful?

I want to get him to wait but he is wanting to get two more hens asap and is now considering buying them whereas I would prefer to adopt again!

Anyone with experience who could help, that would be great!

Donna

Katharine

Could Captain Beaky be a splash maran Nyk? He lives upto his name!

All is well here with my chickens, Kiera started roosting away from her chicks a few days ago. The chicks now hang out togther and she is chooseing to be with the adults. At six and a bit weeks old the chicks are independant mini chickens. Kiera laid her first post broody egg today makeing full potential of 7 eggs from 7 hens today, Felicity didnt get back to laying anywhere near that quick. One of the Maran laid a ginormous egg today, that had to sting! Starting to think my three Maran cockrels look tasty can you life season them by feeding herbs, I tried some sage today but they weren't interested?:D

I now have an excess of eggs and trying to find some sort of local home produce swap group, or if I cant find one I might have to start one!

bagpuss512

bagpuss512 wrote: »

Hi
I joined you last week and you gave me some fab advice on my bullied hen. However, I'm getting increasingly worried re. one of other hens.
Have 4 ex-batts that free-range happily after onlyhaving them for couple months now.
They got wet two weeks ago and one started sneezing the following day. She was also wheezing. Two days later took to vet, who gave blue powder anti-biotic to put in water for five days for all birds. No change. So bought Citracidal off internet after advice. Again no change. She's still sneezing and wheezing over the ill period (now two weeks today!) but is still lively, active, eating and laying every day. slightly thinner than others. Should I take her back to vet? Buy High Stability Colloidal Silver (natural antibiotic)? What do you guys suggest. Is she likely to recover naturally - nature takes its course and all that.
Also, when do you use cider vinegar and can you use the supermarket stuff or is it different?
Also, as they free-range most of the time, should I Flubenvet them or is there a natural alternative? And how often. Sorry so many questions!! Really appreciate your advice!
Thanks
PS Still a complete novice to this posting lark and not sure have done this properly! (hence lack of smileys!)

Hi
I posted this last week. Can anyone help me? She's still sneezing and everyting more or less remains the same but I wanted to see if you guys had some good advice for me for the future.
Thanks

bagpuss512

Reading what you guys have makes me realise what a complete novice I am with my four chickens... Its pretty adictive stuff though.
Am currently eyeing up the garden for more housing space...!

Frugaldom

Katharine wrote: »

Could Captain Beaky be a splash maran Nyk? He lives upto his name!

You could be onto something there! The splash marks do have the Maran cuckoo markings in places, he does have white legs and he did hatch from a large, dark brown egg. Everyone here wants me to keep him and just get him a couple of hens for company. Sis is taking Ned the Thug +2 hens and Mr White has now gone back to his rightful owner, so perhaps Maran hens would be the right way to go. Must G00gle for some piccies and see what splash Marans look like and then inspect the photo.

Bagpuss, you can use the cider vinegar in the water all the time if you want. When you say about taking hen back to the vets, I assume you mean you already had her there? If so, why not phone the vet who saw her and explain that the treatment hasn't worked, and find out what's best to try next. It could be some sort of upper respiratory infection picked up from damp bedding after the soaking they got. Dampness can affect mould spores in hay, straw etc that the birds then inhale.

Katharine

I have a blue splash maran that hopefully someone will see as useful for breeding copper blue marans, (would have been me if I'd had more hens hatch out) if not he's in the pot. He has blue legs and he's an odd one in that he has no feathers on his legs tho he is from pure french maran stock.

Am I to assume you dont keep breeding groups but let them all run together and see what interesting mongrels you end up with? What do you actually have together hen/cockrel/breed wise?

Another 7 egg day for me oh my! I now have 62 eggs in the kitchen and am eating 4 a day for lunch, whats the RDA of eggs as I think I may overdose. Luckily the inlaws will take two dozen as their elderly black rocks dont lay many these days.

Only two days until chicken bedlam at the new house!

edmund_blackadder

edmund_blackadder wrote: »

No i didn't ... but I have now Thanks.

Hmmm ... they seem to think the one I was looking at is a bit flimsy and that the ramp is too steep... I'd imagine that could be a problem! Damn!

I've now found a very similar one that has been adapted from the original one to have a longer run (which is what I want). I'm not concerned that the run is not as high ... in fact I think I prefer it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHICKEN-COOP-HEN-HOUSE-POULTRY-ARK-HOME-NEST-RUN-COUP_W0QQitemZ160342189038QQcategoryZ46292QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp2773.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D22%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D54

As for the downsides mentioned in those other reviews, i wont be intending on moving the henhouse much anyway as I am fairly limited on space. I'm more than happy to add rungs to the ramp so they can get better grip and it appears that this is not so steep anyway. It also seems that with this one, the build quality is better (the photos and descriptions show the comparisons anyway). With the bigger run, the space should be better for just 2 chickens.


Any thoughts on this one? I'm very tempted by it ...

Frugaldom

Edmund, I say buy the biggest and best coop & run you can afford, because it's a longterm investment. It also helps to have enough space for the birds if you end up with more than 2 - I always think it's best to have at least 3, just in case anything happens to one, leaving the other with no company if you only had 2.

Katharine, Captain Beaky was hatched from mixed eggs I bought off eBay to try out a homemade incubator. They came from a huge freerange flock of all sorts of breeds. My laying hens freerange together now with no cockerel, but the Araucanas (2 lots), Silkies and Pekins are all in their own little unrelated groups in seperate pens. I want to breed some blue egg layers, so have kept an extra Araucana cockerel to run with a couple of the broodies once the new runs are sorted.

Good luck with the move! You're going to have to start making lemon curd and pasta as well as all the other things. There's 100 options in our list somewhere on here. LOL