Keeping hens and ducks chat.

vjm63

Hi BetterDays - no not very graceful, but when someone one end of their area thinks someone the other end has found a tasty morsel... they can fly pretty fast!

I have four Bresse Galloise - lovely white birds, although when it is wet and muddy, I do think not such a good idea.

I know what you mean about going for the worms - I do not get that from the chickens, but I have had a couple of adolescent robins this year who keep nagging me in the garden - they usually find me within five minutes of me going out, and I hear a cheap or see a rustle, and there they are. They'll happily come within a couple of feet or less, and stand on the fork handle or barrow edge challenging me to get digging.

Dizzy_Ditzy

edwink wrote: »

Oh deary deary me!! My Speckled hen has gone broody on me again!! She comes out in the morning to feed, thankfully but that's it for the day. She won't come out and when I try to move her she screams at me and flaps about all over the place. Bless her little cotton socks!! I have told her nicely that this has to stop but she just looks at me as if to say "are you kidding". No I am not!!:rotfl:

Good luck with that :rotfl: mine just snapped out of it herself last time she went cuckoo broody but I'm fully expecting her to go again while we are away. They're going into boarding so it'll be their problem. They breed birds so if she does again I might just tell them to give her some eggs to sit on to keep her happy. They'll be in a much smaller run than they're used to so its easier just to keep the peace.

Just boot her out when you're sure everyone's laid, and shut the nestbox off until bed time. She'll stay in there overnight but then just repeat it until she gets the message. Mine usually goes in broody jail for three days

edwink

vjm63 wrote: »

Hello people - I have been reading this thread off and on, and I'd love to join in and play! First time chicken owner here - four chucks, who consider me an honorary cockerel, I think. We get shouted at whenever we go out the back door - but they are in a large pen so do not get mobbed. I love going out and talking to them, and trying them with different foodstuffs. Wild strawberries good, raspberries meh, earwigs good, large slugs ignored. Dried mealworms = yum ! One of my favourite incidents so far was when I was sitting on a step in their pen, and one actually flew up and landed on my head! Talking to her, and inside hoping she did not poop or anything! Within a couple of minutes the others flew onto the top of coop - obviously a game of I'm higher than you.

Hi vjm63

Glad to have you on board our very hen friendly thread. So a hello and welcome from me and my hens.

Dried meal worms I actually get attacked for. I think they must be able to smell them. Yum or what for them. They go blooming mad for them. It is their favourite treat without a doubt.

Hens are really the Landover's of the poultry world. Here there and everywhere. They don't worry if it is too low or too high they just do it anyway. Unlike ducks because they are so clumsy it is unbelievable. I love watching my hens as you do because they give me so much pleasure.

What are your hens names?

Thanks for posting.

Edwink x

edwink

Hi queen of cheap

My speckled hen is broody for weeks. I got her, out again today and we sat and had a little chat together whilst having a cuddle on my lap. I told her that if it continues she will resemble a little sparrow and that she must go out and play with her friends. Also she must dust bathe and eat her dinner!!! because she will get stiff bones later in life and she must stop this couch potato business right away. Guess what? She looked at me and actually winked one eye. What was that supposed to mean???. Any suggestions would be great cos I have no idea what was meant by it. :rotfl:

Hope everyone is enjoying their hens. I know I do, every single day. Besotted, me NO WAY!!!

Edwink x

Dizzy_Ditzy

edwink wrote: »

Hi queen of cheap

My speckled hen is broody for weeks. I got her, out again today and we sat and had a little chat together whilst having a cuddle on my lap. I told her that if it continues she will resemble a little sparrow and that she must go out and play with her friends. Also she must dust bathe and eat her dinner!!! because she will get stiff bones later in life and she must stop this couch potato business right away. Guess what? She looked at me and actually winked one eye. What was that supposed to mean???. Any suggestions would be great cos I have no idea what was meant by it. :rotfl:

Hope everyone is enjoying their hens. I know I do, every single day. Besotted, me NO WAY!!!

Edwink x

Chickens winking with one eye means they are planning evil seriously, their eyes are independent of each other so it does look rather freakish when they do that :eek:

We have gone back to shutting them in their house at night. It means I'm up this early so I can go and let them out on my way to work but it keeps them out of the bloody foxes way :mad:

My girls are going on their hols tomorrow, which means fun and games getting them there but once we've done that, we can go on our hols :j

edwink

Collected our new rescue hens today. YAY!! Got another 8 now. Four are nearly bald and the other 4 have about 10% of their feathers missing.

Got them out of their transport box and the first one swore at me so I have named her Abdab and 3 of the others have been named Ripplebox, Thornton and Firstin. I will choose the names of the other 4 as I watch them and see what I come up with as that is how I named the first four. I will explain another time how I came up with the names so far.

Night Night my lovely hen keepers.

Edwink x

suki1964

Our new hen who was supposed to be a layer is in full moult, so still no eggs

Still they are worth the cost of the food just for pure entertainment value

I laugh at the fact they can sound like a herd of elephants when charging across the garden to see what Im up to, yet go into complete stealth mode when sneaking into the kitchen. I was sitting eating lunch and reading yesterday and all four had snuck in without me noticing. Wasn't until one couldn't resist a fly and sent the dog bowl across the floor that I saw them lol Not even the dog had noticed

Better_Days

suki1964 wrote: »

Still they are worth the cost of the food just for pure entertainment value

Couldn't agree more, they have certainly fully feathered personalities.

Stealth mode made me laugh :rotfl:

When I go into the shed they can never resist having a nose (or should I say beak?) around. I'll turn round and there is a hen roosting on the empty plant pots or another poking around the cobwebs looking for a tasty spider. Jemima always wants to 'help', Mr BD was chuckling yesterday about the way she was following him absolutely everywhere as he is now seen as the purveyor of tasty worms.

Looking forward to seeing photos of your new girls edwink.

edwink

Better_Days wrote: »

Stealth mode made me laugh :rotfl:
Looking forward to seeing photos of your new girls edwink.

Was chuckling away to myself at the stealth remark too!!

Would love to get some of the photos on here but I have tried and tried and it is just not happening. I can post photos in emails etc. But when it come to the MSE site I just can't get them on here. Any pointers any one? Not sure what I am doing wrong to be honest. I am finding it really frustrating now because I have tried a number of times now. I have a lovely picture of my runner duck that I want to post on here. I know we all chat hens but this duck is the best. Anyway in the end I made her picture my avatar instead. Managed to get it on there ok. So any help with posting some photos on here would be very welcome please.

Now to the new hens we collected yesterday. Favourite treat is sweetcorn. That got the thumbs up all round. Couple of shy hens but they will soon come round. Had two of them sitting on my lap whilst I was sitting on the ground having a rules and regulations chat with them. Just letting them know what the score is around here. Plus a few health and safety issues that need to be chatted about. Like the pond is rather large, not too deep but all the same not for hens. And next door they have a dog and he likes to look through the fence so please be kind to her and don't take a peck out of her cute button nose otherwise her might bite you. Only a half hour lecture in the end. Think I was wasting my time if I am honest.

Oh and another name has been found and that is mumps. One of them has a lump on her face, not red or anything and appears not to be bothering her. So will keep a watch on it. Am wondering if she banged it whilst in transport to her new retirement home. Maybe but I am not sure. To be honest looks more like a facial disfigurement as her beak does not quite meet together. Also it does not look swollen otherwise I would be concerned. I will certainly keep an eye on her. Her appetite is very good. She came over to me and just stood there watching the other girls on my lap. I would be worried if she was just sitting in the corner on her own.

Right enough chat from me. Thanks for posting everyone.

Edwink x

Better_Days

Edwink - regarding photos what you need to do is upload the photos to a photo hosting site like photobucket or flickr.

In photobucket (and I would guess other photo hosting sites are similar) to the RHS of the photo are some boxes with links in. To insert a photo into a post on MSE I copy the 'direct link' by clicking on it.

When composing a post on MSE I click on the insert image button and then paste the 'direct link' info in the box that pops up.

Hope you can get it to work - I'd love to see photos of your girls.