Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Well it's over 2 metres, but the wall is probably nearly 1 metre high and about 1.5m from the edge of the run so I didn't want to risk it... i accept they might be got while roaming about the garden (although clearly I'd rather they weren't) but I will be VERY upset if the fox manages to get into the pen we've built

crv1963

Hi Cheery


We had a hen called Cleoptra, who hopped for ages, wouldn't weight bear on her foot at all for quite a while. Took her to the Vet, who on examination told me she had broken it, but that birds feel pain differently as in they do not dwell on it or try to rationalise it so other than the immediate pain on putting it down she would not worry about it. There was no cure/ treatment but time. She did recover and start walking on it again after a couple months.


I think Luna should be okay, ours had jumped too far - underestimated the height or overestimated her ability.


Our hens are now all laying daily, love cabbage and fresh veg but not so keen on broccoli.


CRV

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

Blimey, Edwink!
That's a real break!
Sounds like it was in Scotland or Wales if that remote!
Do I dare ask what the ahem bathroom arrangements were like? :eek:

Its in Lacock, Wiltshire. If you Google "Snuggly Tin Shepherd Hut" it should come up so you to have a look at it.

The bathroom arrangements consist of a lovely painted shed about 70-80ft down the field. No lighting in there so you need to take a torch or the wind up lantern for night time visits:eek:. There is a compost type toilet which consists of a Tate and Lyle tea chest with a proper toilet seat on the top. For flushing you add compostable disinfectant type wood shavings from a metal bucket with a scoop. The shower is over a large tin bath with shower curtain which goes all the way around it. The floor is non slip like they use in wet rooms. This is the best bit:- To operate the shower you have to turn the hose on up the field before walking down to the shed. At the back of the shed there is a gas bottle which needs to be switched on which is attached to a heater which operates when the shower is running. Lots of lovely hot running water which is bliss. The basin for hand washing etc. is an old antique French wash stand sited in the corner of the shed. There is a tall mirror in there, various hooks about the place, a wooden chair and a bench. There is a large side window with net curtain across to let in daylight.

A washing up bowl is provided with washing up liquid and cloths etc. Towels and bedding are all provided too. Plus kindling, matches, firelighters and logs for the stove.

Such a lovely little place for us to stay in as so, so peaceful and a great place for charging ones own internal batteries.

Edwink

edwink

crv1963 wrote: »

Hi Cheery
We had a hen called Cleoptra, who hopped for ages, wouldn't weight bear on her foot at all for quite a while. Took her to the Vet, who on examination told me she had broken it, but that birds feel pain differently as in they do not dwell on it or try to rationalise it so other than the immediate pain on putting it down she would not worry about it. There was no cure/ treatment but time. She did recover and start walking on it again after a couple months.

I think Luna should be okay, ours had jumped too far - underestimated the height or overestimated her ability.

Our hens are now all laying daily, love cabbage and fresh veg but not so keen on broccoli.

CRV

Thanks for posting the info about your hen. That's really interesting and useful to know.

Your hens are not keen on Broccoli :eek:. Mine demolish it almost the moment it is given to them especially when on the ground because they can just pin it down and eat it. I tend to hang Broccoli up now for that reason so it takes them longer to eat as it swings about a bit.

Edwink

Pyxis

That shepherd hut place sound really eccentric!

A compost tea-chest toilet and an antique French wash-stand. :rotfl: :T


Doesn't get much more random than that! :rotfl:



Surprised it doesn't double up as a hen house! :rotfl:

edwink

One of my quiet hens has gone really quiet and not got out of bed today. I have offered her some food but she won't eat anything so I have left the food with her in the nesting box. I have sat with her at various times throughout today because she is on her own, bless her. Poor little thing is on her way to hen heaven Just keeping her quiet is all I can do and also not allowing the others to bother her. Keeping the others well occupied with extra treat food today

The other previously quiet hen has picked up nicely and spending lots of time with the other two and the Cockerel. She has definitely got a little frail but is not being picked on so I am no longer concerned about her for the time being:)

Lovely day here weather wise with the sun beaming down. So a fair amount of sunbathing is going on with my girls which is always lovely to see :cool:

Edwink

Pyxis

Cuddles to poorly hen.

Cheery_Daff

Aw edwink, so sad but they've had a good life with you xx

I'm sick of my girls being cooped up, and now the run is completely ready other than a roof - but we've got a severe weather warning for wind all bloody week so we can't get the plastic sheets up without them breaking, and then Mr Cheery is away for a fortnight, gah!

So I think I'm going to let them do a bit of free ranging from the stables... which I might well regret, as they then might get used to going back there and I'll have to retrain them when they move :rotfl: :rotfl: but we'll deal with that later. They're only doing it while I'm supervising (at first anyway) so I'm going to attempt an hour in the afternoon tomorrow.

Can't imagine they'll be impressed when I shut them back in... :eek: :eek:

Do you all let your girls wander free? I've got 11 acres here and no near neighbours so it seems daft to shut them in, but I was planning on keeping them in the run on days when I'm not going to be here at dusk to shut the door.... but the rest of the time I'd *love* to just let them roam about

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

So I think I'm going to let them do a bit of free ranging from the stables... which I might well regret, as they then might get used to going back there and I'll have to retrain them when they move :rotfl: :rotfl: but we'll deal with that later. They're only doing it while I'm supervising (at first anyway) so I'm going to attempt an hour in the afternoon tomorrow. Can't imagine they'll be impressed when I shut them back in... :eek: :eek:
Do you all let your girls wander free? I've got 11 acres here and no near neighbours so it seems daft to shut them in, but I was planning on keeping them in the run on days when I'm not going to be here at dusk to shut the door.... but the rest of the time I'd *love* to just let them roam about

Ours Free Range but 9 times out of ten I am home with mine. We have 6ft high fences and even some of those have the addition of black netting above. The netting is only there as a extra deterrent really because we back on to a Common/wood where numerous amount of foxes are. We have certain areas that we don't allow them in to because we do back on to the Common and the actual fence that does is a chain link that is terribly wobbly which, as a rule, a fox wouldn't tackle. By all accounts foxes won't tackle fences that are not at all stable to climb. If we are away our girls stay in their coop for their safety and we have a hen sitter who comes in twice a day to unlock, feed/water and lock up again.

Suki who posts on the thread allows hers to Free Range and is in a set up like yours I believe with neighbours a little way away from her house. So maybe she would be able to give you some advice.

Others on here also let their girls out of their coops/runs when they are home.

Hope that is some help.

Edwink

jac99

Hello, our set up sounds quite different to yours Cherry Daff and Edwink. We have a suburban garden that isn't all that big and is surrounded by immediate neighbours on all sides. The hens have their house in an aviary wire run with a roof and are in there most of the day. We have created areas for them to hide and get away from the dominant hen and added in lots of activities which we change around every day to try and keep them amused. I let them out to 'free range' when I am home but the size of the garden obviously restricts the area they could range. Initially they would bolt out of the gate as soon as it was opened but now they meander in and out and will sometimes chose to be in the run even if they can be out.

This is really the reason I delayed getting any chickens over the years because I was worried that we couldn't give them enough room and opportunity to range. However I have a couple of friends with hens who manage similarly and their chickens have always seemed content so thought I would give it a go. This also influenced the breed of chickens we got and I think we made the right choice with the little bantams as we were able to have a little flock of 5 in our more limited space.

However it does play on my mind that they don't have any grass access for much of the day so last weekend my youngest son and I have begun a new project. We have a large trampoline which still gets a fair amount of use so not quite ready to rid of it. We have enclosed the area underneath the trampoline with chicken wire to make it somewhat secure although not fox proof. Next weekend the project is to create a chicken tunnel (chunnel?) from the hen run to this new area. We have been researching online but think there will be a lot of trial and error in this as we need to manage quite a height change from one area to the other. I think this will give them more outside access for longer but will I probably close it off if no one is going to be home for a while, just in case.

We had our first double-yolk egg this week - as I congratulated the hens with extra treats I heard chuckling from over the garden fence. My neighbour tells me he likes to listen in to my afternoon chats with the hens!