Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Pyxis

Erm........ did I say chicken seesaw?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYTAdBdSJBU

Pyxis

Having found the seesaw, I then looked for hens on a slide and trampoline, but the only ones I found were of children forcing the hens to 'perform' and it didn't look very kind.





But then I found this Chookagility routine!.......:T:T

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ya_3cnjr4

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

A chicken swing!!!

I just had to google that! :rotfl:

Are you going to make them a slide and a seesaw, too?

I know! A chicken trampoline! :j

I'm not sure about a chicken trampoline but a slide and a seesaw maybe but think we have now run out of room in the coop for anything else.

They have a 3 seater bench in their coop that they lounge around on. Two ramps to climb up and some logs to perch on. Also have some hanging CD's as they play with and peck at as hens always do that with anything that is shiny. They have a huge red current bush in there which they jump up and down at getting to the leaves and the fruit in the summer. They have a Red Robin ornamental bush which gives them shade and a small Bramley apple tree to climb up. Two outdoor huts with perches and a temporary framed area with dry soil in to dust bath in.

Just as well their hotel isn't in there. That is attached to the side of their coop and fox proofed as on concrete and is covered in chicken wire including the roof.

Been back up there for another session of mummy says the swing is safe so be good girls and swing on it cos it will be fun . Just don't think it is sinking in though.

Edwink

Pyxis

edwink wrote: »

I'm not sure about a chicken trampoline but a slide and a seesaw maybe but think we have now run out of room in the coop for anything else.

They have a 3 seater bench in their coop that they lounge around on. Two ramps to climb up and some logs to perch on. Also have some hanging CD's as they play with and peck at as hens always do that with anything that is shiny. They have a huge red current bush in there which they jump up and down at getting to the leaves and the fruit in the summer. They have a Red Robin ornamental bush which gives them shade and a small Bramley apple tree to climb up. Two outdoor huts with perches and a temporary framed area with dry soil in to dust bath in.

Just as well their hotel isn't in there. That is attached to the side of their coop and fox proofed as on concrete and is covered in chicken wire including the roof.

Been back up there for another session of mummy says the swing is safe so be good girls and swing on it cos it will be fun . Just don't think it is sinking in though.

Edwink

:rotfl: bless!

You need to put some food on the swing, methinks! :rotfl:


Sounds like chicken heaven to me! I'm quite jealous!

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

You need to put some food on the swing, methinks! :rotfl:

I have already, in fact 4 lots!

Any new suggestions very welcome please.

Forgot to add in my last post that they have hanging Broccoli, lettuce, greens and a huge Savoy cabbage in their coop as well not to forget the hanging metal basket which is full of green bits and bobs. Also 3 bowls of fresh drinking water the ducks and hens are now sharing between them. Oh and two small plastic water bottles with small holes drilled around them that are filled with dry corn and sunflower seeds that they push around the ground so the seeds are released out of the holes and it keeps them amused.

And here is the best bit for today. Hubby has got one of their outside lights working again:j. Didn't want to chance messing about with the other one it this awful wet weather but having one lighting the coop up for them has made such a difference and me happy:D.

Edwink

Pyxis

Could you lower the swing so that it's only just off the ground, then as they get used to it, slowly raise it, bit by bit?

I don't suppose the swing would take a human's weight, but if it does, you could sit on it holding a hen and gently rock with it on your lap?

Other than that, it might just be early days, and one day you'll go out there and they'll be on it!

Cheery_Daff

Love the chicken agility course :j :rotfl: :rotfl: hope yours get enthusiastic about their swing soon Edwink!

I registered online with the British Hen Welfare Trust and they keep emailing me saying I haven't reserved my hens yet... but the next rescue is 7th April and I just dont think we're going to be ready... We've got a million other jobs that are more pressing than building a hen coop and saddling ourselves with something else right now when we've got dry stone walls that have collapsed over footpaths, building work in the house, yet more snow forecast amd mo veg planted yet seems like a recipe for disaster :eek: :rotfl:

So I think we'll wait til the next rescue and hopefully we'll be able to give them a more attentive home later.

Will keep reading here though so i can feel vaguely like I know what I'm doing by that point :rotfl:

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Love the chicken agility course :j :rotfl: :rotfl: hope yours get enthusiastic about their swing soon Edwink!

I registered online with the British Hen Welfare Trust and they keep emailing me saying I haven't reserved my hens yet... but the next rescue is 7th April and I just dont think we're going to be ready... We've got a million other jobs that are more pressing than building a hen coop and saddling ourselves with something else right now when we've got dry stone walls that have collapsed over footpaths, building work in the house, yet more snow forecast amd mo veg planted yet seems like a recipe for disaster :eek: :rotfl:

So I think we'll wait til the next rescue and hopefully we'll be able to give them a more attentive home later.

Will keep reading here though so i can feel vaguely like I know what I'm doing by that point :rotfl:

Don't worry over getting them yet. They email me all the time and I just get on with doing what I know best. They have rescues throughout the year so don't whatever you do rush to get ready for them as you have enough on your plate getting things sorted at home first.

We haven't got any veg in either so don't panic. I would just say that if you have decided to grow new potatoes you need to buy them now-ish and get them chitted. When you get them just put them somewhere dark-ish and wait for them to sprout before planting. You can use veg trays the ones that have the individual pockets to stand the potatoes up in whilst they chit. If not egg boxes will also do. Other veg can wait because the ground is way to wet it will just wash the tiny seeds away if you are going to plant seeds or if you plant the tiny plug plants now they will get battered by the rain. Plenty of time to plant later.

Edwink

suki1964

I must sort out the picture of my girls playing on the slide Mr Suki was building the granddaughter. He was building it in the garage, left the door open and in they snuck and had a ball

Cheery, its going to be a while longer for us before we even get the beds ready for planting out, we are still getting snow and very heavy frosts. We won't be planting out till May at the earliest, vet then we have had late frosts and lost the potatoes

As Edwink says, rescues are available all year round so don't feel pressured if you aren't ready

Our girls are doing us proud and Ive eggs coming out of my ears. Our one duck is laying daily and Ive a queue of people wanting her eggs

I had to have a little giggle this week. As hen owners know, happy hens lay bloody big eggs. Huge eggs at times, but mostly what would be sold as extra large eggs in a supermarket. But they become our norm ( you don't realise how big they are till you see a "large" supermarket egg and think wow thats so tiny. so anyway mum decided to bake a cake. Used our eggs. Didn't weigh them. Has a cake that tastes of omelette lol

I don't think she really understood when I said it was because our eggs were so big because I was going to the shop when she asked me to see if I could buy eggs that "weren't free range" because she wanted to make another cake and all Tescos had were free range and they would make the cake wrong again. So I got a box of medium free range eggs for her and next to ours, they look like sparrow eggs. Hopefully she will have more success with her baking next time

Pyxis

I'd love to see pics of your sliding hens, Suki!


Re. the egg sizes, it would seem you've had flamingoes, and now you have ostriches! :rotfl:




Out of interest, are you allowed to sell your spare eggs, or are there loads of regulations meaning you have to give them away?