Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

jac99 wrote: »

Hello, so today I am pleased to announce that we have received our first egg! Not sure who laid it but my son told me there has been a lot of clucking going on while I was out today. Photo's taken and proudly shared around the family and friends of the little egg and the subsequent mini fried egg. I realised a bantam egg would be smaller but hadn't actually seen one before.

Arrived home to find my 16 year old had taken a chair into the coop and was taking pictures of the hens to share on social media - I think everyone has now been converted to life with chickens!
My eldest was given the responsibility of being in charge of chicken entertainment today. He hung some CD's up for them to peck at and filled a dog ball treat dispenser with hen seed. Tomorrow he said he will have a go at your bottle idea Edwink.
And my granddaughter has painted some pictures for the hen house. Grandsons are visiting at the weekend and apparently they have bought the hens a welcome present that they are excited to share with them.

I have now collected some herb plants from friends and reduced sections of the garden centre and supermarket so tomorrow I will plant them up into big pots specifically for hen house, nest box and coop floor. I have also found a 'recipe' to make a natural hen house spritzer from lavender, mint and white vinegar so will also start the concoction for that. If nothing else comes from using the herbs at least the hen area will smell nice.

I have to admit I do wonder what I did with my spare time before I started on this journey...

Wow!! Your first egg so soon Your hens must feel quite settled already which is really good. Sometimes there is a fair amount of clucking when laying an egg, bless them.

Great to see that you are involving many of your family members. For your young family members involving them is good as it teaches them where eggs come from.

I do like the idea of your hen house spritzer I will give that a go myself. Nice idea thank you.

What a lovely way to spend your spare time. You really seem to be embracing your hen keeping hobby, so well done you :cool: It is a pleasure having you as part of our hens and ducks thread.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Lovely to see someone else so enthusiastic about hens!

We collect our ladies on Sunday :eek: we are SO not ready BUT

* the house is mostly uilt, just need to screw the front on (the wood treatment was drying), and cut and fix a roof (although for the first night if it's just plonked on it'll be fine)

* Mr Cheery is getting there with the run. All sides assembled, all wire mesh ready to be fixed on. We do still need to erect the damn thing and attach the mesh, make a door etc.. suspect thus will take both of us the best part of tomorrow...

Food arrived today, and bin to store it in, and Chicken Keeping for Dummies book :rotfl: It's never been so busy down here! Feeder turned up yesterday, bedding due tomorrow but if it doesn't show up there's a bag of unused stuff in the stable ww can use...

Excited but wish we'd finished building before now :rotfl:

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

We collect our ladies on Sunday :eek: we are SO not ready BUT........

BUT....... you will be fine.

Lovely weather this weekend which will be great for all the finishing off you need to do before you collect them. Hope it all goes to plan.

I'll be on here tomorrow so if you get stuck with anything just pop on here and ask. If I can help with anything I will ok? so don't panic.

How exciting for you!

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink Needless to say we are still sawing and hammering and swearing :rotfl: They do at least have a HOUSE now so that's a start - looks like we'll be up at the crack of dawn to finish the run (fortunately we only have one neighbour within half a mile and he's very deaf ) and if all else fails I can collect them by myself giving Mr Cheery an extra couple of hours to finish off. And if all else REALLY fails we can shut them in the garage for the first couple of hours while we finish everything...

Cheery_Daff

... and a last minute change of plan to stop us getting our knickers in a very big twist...

Dawned on Mr Cheery that we actually have a stable block, and that it would make everyone's lives easier if the chickens had a temporary stop in there for a day rather than us running about like fools, banging and clanging at 5am. There's plenty of light, loads of room, and it's fox proof.

Ok, so it's not outside, but they have never been outside anyway so one more day inside is unlikely to make a difference (and honestly they will at least have loads more space, treats and a cosy house!)

I realise it's ridiculous that we kind of forgot about the stable block I mean we DID know it was there :rotfl: but until this evening we were planning on having the chicken run properly up but it's become apparent that we won't

(And yes, it's the most ludicrously over-engineered chicken run you'll have ever seen :rotfl: we've built it from stuff we had lying round which has made the whole thing far more complicated than starting from scratch...)

We'll put their actual HOUSE in the stables and shut them in it overnight so hopefully they'll still associate that with going to sleep. And in a couple of days we'll move the house into the finished run, and shut them in the run for a few days and hopefully they'll forget all about the stable block... :rotfl:

jac99

Good morning, Cheery Daff I'm sure your chickens will appreciate all your hard work and be very happy in their new home.

As I mentioned before I seem to have one hen who wants to be in charge! The last few days this seems to have gone to her head and she has been pecking at the others and pulling their feathers out. I can't see that she has broken the skin on anyone but she seems quite aggressive. Or am I just over-reacting? I bought some anti-peck spray yesterday so will persevere with that today.

Obviously the hens have been given things to entertain them in their run and the run should be plenty big enough for 5 little bantams to have their own space. I have been letting them out into the part of the garden in the evenings and yesterday we let them all out into the garden together for the first time so they had use of the full space. For the first few days I had restricted them to just part of the garden, don't know why really it just seemed like a sensible first step. We swiftly discovered all the hen shaped hiding spaces and escape routes so today will be blocking them up.

On a more positive note we received our second egg yesterday although I still don't know who they are coming from!

Good luck today Cheery Daff!

Pyxis

It's over for this year, but on the first Saturday of August every year, there are the World Championship Hen Racing competitions in Bonsall, Derbyshire.

http://www.barleymowbonsall.co.uk/world-championship-hen-racing/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qYs63X5W3I

Marginally more exciting to watch than slug racing!

I would be interested to know what hen-keepers think of this sort of thing? I'm assuming that there is no harm in it, given the emphasis on animal welfare these days, in public at least, but it would be good to get your views.

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Thank you SO much edwink :kisses3: You have no idea how much you are calming my (admittedly ridiculous) nerves about chicken keeping Your encouragement and cheerfulness are making it seem like an everyday normal thing to do rather than some madcap scheme

She's good, isn't she, that Edwink? :T
From someone who was scared of birds to hen-keepers' guru! :T

Well done Edwink! :T :T


I must say, I've learnt tons from this thread, and it is soooooo interesting!

And it's been great being in on the 'birth' of a couple of new hen owners!

Congrats on the FIRST EGG, Jac! And on the second one!
You'll have to frame the photo of the first egg, and hang it in your kitchen! :j


Getting ejukated.......
I had to look up what diatomaceous meant........ I've learned a new word and some geology! :T


Just reading all the posts about buying stuff for hens.........gosh! Such a lot of things! More complicated that having your first baby! :rotfl:



Talking of hen feeders, I have one of those vintage cast iron poultry feeders in the jungle (back garden). I used it as a mini-bog-garden until the jungle took over.
You know..... the ones that look like a sombrero. Are they still used today?
For a few years after I first got it, I didn't even know it had been a poultry feeder. I can't remember what I first thought it was!




CheeryDaff should be picking up her hens now...........:j:j Good Luck, Cheery! Fingers crossed for your first egg!

CAFCGirl

Any advice on chooks who keeping eating the eggs?!

They dont lay at a predictable time, so im in and out all day trying to see if there is one, but the little so and so's keep eating them!

Cheery_Daff

Evening all, our ladies have arrived :j

Run still not ready but they seem happy in their temporary stable home sat in there with them for a couple of hours when we got back as they wandered around making chicken noises Lots of investigating, saw one catch a woodlouse and they managed to get up onto the walls between the bits of the stable.

Went to put them to bed about 8pm and they were already roosting, two in a corner and two on a bit of a gate. Managed to scoop them all into the house - the house will be moved into their run so that'll be their permanent night time sleeping quarters.

They're a bit scruffy but they've actually got most of their feathers - they were in a barn, not cages, so had a bit more room maybe. I was surprised how quickly they started exploring and coming close to me - still won't eat from my hand and not too impressed at being picked up, one in particular is a bit pecky at me, although she also seems the most brave in terms of coming close and also exploring new places (she's also got the most feathers - perhaps not a coincidence....)

I'm back at work tomorrow but I might just have one last push with Mr Cheery to get the run finished to get them outside...

Very happy new chicken owner here, been waiting for this for years, thank you SO much for all the support and advice on here :kisses3: