Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Pyxis

Ok, all you eggy people......... feast your eyes on this egg with a difference......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TluXwjUvkc

All this egg talk has made me fancy scrambled eggs on buttered toast. Luckily, I have both eggs and bread in, so probably will!

Dunno what has happened to my usual egg aversion!
Must be all the positive eggy vibes on here! :rotfl:



Factoid: an ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 hen eggs, and contains 2000 calories..

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edwink

DigForVictory wrote: »

Thinking of eggs, size, frequency etc I saw this collection of egg recipes & wondered how different they might be with other birds eggs?
Observer food monthly 1
Observer food monthly 2
Observer food monthly 3
Observer food monthly 4

Hi DigForVictory

Nice to see an new poster on here.

I must say some of those recipes do look really appetising so might have a go at some of those. When our girls lay us some eggs of course as we only get one or maybe two at the most from the hens per week and absolutely none from our elderly ducks.

From our experience with both hens and ducks we have found that for cake making the duck eggs are definitely the best. They give a much better rise/lift to sponges etc.. I had heard this before trying it ourselves and they definitely do. Duck eggs also give a good lift to Yorkshire puddings too. Not tried any other eggs in baking though except hens but ducks are definitely the best.

Hens eggs are great for omelettes, scrambled/poached eggs and my favourite fried egg with chips.

Thank you for posting and putting the links on here as they will be easy to refer back to once we get some more girls in the spring and therefore have more eggs.

Edwink

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

Ok, all you eggy people......... feast your eyes on this egg with a difference......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TluXwjUvkc

All this egg talk has made me fancy scrambled eggs on buttered toast. Luckily, I have both eggs and bread in, so probably will!

Dunno what has happened to my usual egg aversion!
Must be all the positive eggy vibes on here! :rotfl:

Factoid: an ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 hen eggs, and contains 2000 calories..
.

WOW that's some giant feast. Don't think I would be happy to pay £65 for it though. Mind you it did mention that it's for four people to share. At £16.25 a head I think I would prefer my own breakfast on my own plate especially being a veggie because all that bacon on that platter would probably put me off.

Bet one of those ostrich eggs would make a brilliant huge omelette that could be shared. Couldn't believe the size of it when I saw it :eek: I knew that were huge but have never seen one actually fried before.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Evening chicken chums :hello:

Welcome DigForVictory :hello: I confess I've only evdr had one duck egg, and never tried any other eggs! Never even thought about turkey eggs at all, what a thing. Lovely to see new folks posting and those puppies were adorable :j

Still lots of snow on the ground here. Mr Cheery has made more adjustments to what he's now calling the Chicken Village :rotfl: it was originally just a rectangular run with a hen house, but he then added the Chicken Palace (a kind of sheltered area along the back with kind of columns so they could see out), then propped boards round the whole sides to combat some of the wind we've been having, and this week he's covered over some of the rest with old shower curtains and insulation boards :rotfl:

It looks like some kind of chicken shanty town :eek: but actually if you get in (which I have, as he'd left the food bowl at the back and I had to retrieve it) it's actually pretty cosy in there. The girls love it - we've had the door open all of yesterday and they barely ventured out for 5 minutes before heading back into the warmth :rotfl:

They've been a bit more adventurous today :j I raked some of the snow off the grass for them :rotfl: we went out for a couple of hours and when we got back they were scratching at the ground where the car had been :rotfl: They'd also excavated their dust baths so they were all nicely covered in mud :j

4 eggs again today, got 16 in the kitchen now :eek: sorry edwink :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Sad new to report I'm afraid people

Seems a stoat got into the hen house through the (tiny!) air vent last night :eek:

Hermione & Luna are dead Mildred & Maud are with us, but deeply traumatised and with superficial neck wounds.

Just back from the vet. He reckons their wounds won't kill them, more grazes than anything, and apparently chickens are more resilient to shocks than other birds, so they might pull through.

Stoat wasn't in there when I let them out. Bit suspicious that I didn't hear them nattering when I opened the run door, and then I opened the house door and none of them came out

Left the other two outside while I brought Mildred & Maud in, and when I went back out the stoat was feasting on them like some kind of zombie :eek:

Beautiful thing, bright white coat, saw it in the garden (not near the hen house) the other week. I knew they'd theoretically take eggs and chicks, but didn't occur to me that (a) they could fit through a gap that small and (b) they'd take on 4 fully grown chickens :eek: must have been hungry (although I'm in no mood for sympathy today)

Mr Cheery is setting up a hospital ward in the study so we can keep an eye on the other two, who've barely moved since we put them into a box to take to the vets. Didn't even make a fuss when he was prodding them poor things

Just hope it was a quick death for the other 2. Blaming myself for not putting mesh over the air vents, I really did think it was too small a gap

Sorry, all very gloomy On the plus side they had 5 months of complete cheerful freedom with us, and they even had a day of grass yeaterday after the snow had gone

Sad though

Pyxis

:eek::eek::eek::eek:


:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(



Oh Cheery. :(:(


How very sad.

I'm so sorry.



How big was the gap? I know that stoats and weasels can get very flat when they want to, like mice, but you'd think their skulls wouldn't budge much.


Don't blame yourself. :A It must just be the fraught side of keeping poultry.
Some animals can be wily little beggars when they have a mind to it. It must be difficult always being one step ahead.

Do give Mildred and Maud a cuddle from me.


You need a couple of geese.........I understand that they make cracking guard 'dogs'!

I wonder what a goose egg tastes like?

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Pyxis :kisses3: Gap is less than an inch :eek: Geese sound tempting right now - although they live about 30 years and I'm not sure I could take the commitment

Just yesterday we were saying how we knew that being completely free range there was a risk a fox would take them eventually, and at least they'd had a happy few months of retirement with us. But I really did think they'd be safe in the run, and especially in the hen house itself, never occurred to me anything could get them in there

Mildred & Maud ensconced in the hospital wing in my study It's warm and cosy and I can keep an eye on them, and we can turn the lights off when it goes dark and leave them to it. They're both just standing where we put them though, and literally haven't moved for an hour

Not much we can do really other than keep them warm and quiet and keep water and food available. Maud did perk up at the site of some chickweed earlier (but didn't eat any) and had a cursory peck of corn from Mr Cheery's hand, but Mildred hasn't had anything (she did lay an egg on the way to the vets though!)

We'll see.

VERY grateful to be working at home. Mr Cheery has cancelled this afternoon's plans though so we can both play nursemaid

Pyxis

Aw! Poor little chicks! :A

(I did giggle at the laying of an egg on the way to the vet's, though!:D

Did you give it to the vet? )

I am amazed at the thought of a stoat getting through an inch-wide slot! :eek:

Cheery_Daff

Should probably have offered it to the vet - especially has he was lovely and only charged us £12... Was too traumatised to think properly!

Going to measure the slot when we clear it out and make adjustments. Vet said to scrub out properly as they'll still be able to smell the stoat and will likely be reluctant to go back in.

Can see them living out the rest of their lives in my study

Mind you right now they're still standing completely still where we put them a couple of hours ago so the rest of their lives might not be that long...

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Should probably have offered it to the vet - especially has he was lovely and only charged us £12... Was too traumatised to think properly!

Going to measure the slot when we clear it out and make adjustments. Vet said to scrub out properly as they'll still be able to smell the stoat and will likely be reluctant to go back in.

Can see them living out the rest of their lives in my study

Mind you right now they're still standing completely still where we put them a couple of hours ago so the rest of their lives might not be that long...

Aw.

I don't know, but if you've the time, perhaps lots of stroking might perk them up? Stroking is often therapeutic for a lot of creatures, though I don't know if that applies to hens.