Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Karmacat

I was thinking of this thread yesterday I went on a horticultural society day trip to RHS Wisley, and their huge lake has a little colony of ducks. The ducks were sitting on the grass, and one of them was in a right strop with one of the others, "biting" so that the other one would run away a bit. It went on for a while, I'm afraid, though actually they hardly touched beaks, so no physical harm done. No chickens in sight, sadly!

edwink

Thanks for the info on the BHWT Cheery, much appreciated. We've been so busy here since coming home from our break away I've not had time to have another look at their website since getting back. I think that's where we will get them from this time so shall get registered with them over the next week. Thanks again for the info


Aww bless Beaky, it looks as though naughty Mildred has taken a real disliking to her. Just make sure you keep spraying her Cheery with quite a lot of the spray. She'll look less Punk then and more part of the Blue Rinse Brigade instead. The colour of the spray is meant to put other hens off of nipping at any red sores and apparently the scent of it is also meant to be a deterrent.

From what you have said about the amount of feathers in the nesting box this morning I would think that Beaky is probably sleeping in the nesting box to keep away from Mildred and not going up on the perch to sleep. Maybe Mildred tugged at those feathers during the day and they became loose and fell out overnight. Definitely worth keeping an eye on both of them but you can't be outside all the time with them.

I had a hen that often got picked on by a particular hen and I had to spray her quite a lot at times just to keep her skin and surrounding feathers fully covered. This bully hen used to pick on her in fits and starts then leave her a lone for a bit. I was always chasing or shooing her a way from that poor timid little hen There will always be a top hen and it looks as though it's naughty Mildred. I just wish they wouldn't do it to each other because if you see them in action it looks spiteful not to mention downright painful for the hen on the receiving end

Edwink

edwink

Karmacat wrote: »

I was thinking of this thread yesterday I went on a horticultural society day trip to RHS Wisley, and their huge lake has a little colony of ducks. The ducks were sitting on the grass, and one of them was in a right strop with one of the others, "biting" so that the other one would run away a bit. It went on for a while, I'm afraid, though actually they hardly touched beaks, so no physical harm done. No chickens in sight, sadly!

Nice to have a day out from time to time especially if there is a nice lake when you get there Hope you had a nice day out despite the duck biting episode. Sometimes when you see something like that thankfully it looks worse than what it actually is. Sometimes they just get in each others way and get annoyed with each other or as you say in a strop about something.

With mine over the years I've seen the odd spat between them, certainly a lot less than with the hens I must admit. One thing we did often see with the ducks is that if I called them at lunchtime and one of them were to trip over for what ever reason the others would just carry on and literately step on her in order to get to their lunch first. The poor little duck that got stepped on would almost wait until they had all stepped on her or passed her before slowly getting up looking all dishevelled. I used to really tell the ducks off when I saw that happen I always used to think, for goodness sake why do they not waddle round each other if one of them trips over? Why did they feel the need to clamber over the one that had tripped?.

I always say that hens are the Landrovers of the poultry world and never trip or fall over as a rule. But, when it comes to ducks they just can't rush anywhere because they are so blooming clumsy.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Naughty Mildred indeed, although I confess we believe that Maud is secretly in charge and Mildred is just the hench chicken :rotfl: I've never seen anyone pack Maud, and never seen her peck anyone else - we think Mildred does the dirty work for her :rotfl:

It occurred to me this afternoon that I think they might be mounting. Not because of Beaky's back - she's never grown feathers back there but they're definitely staying too come through with this blue spray. But the coop was full of a flurry of little fluffy white feathers this morning, and at lunchtime I noticed a couple of other piles of them elsewhere. Definitely didn't look like they'd been pulled out, more like they were being ruffled out in the wind...

So extra mealworms rations all round and a special eye on Beaky...

Cheery_Daff

MOULTING, not mounting!! :eek: stupid autocorrect and stupid phone not letting me edit!

edwink

YAY! We have managed to move Hoppys hotel and also lower the height of it. Wasn't easy I must say but we got there in the end. Aww bless her hopefully she won't stumble waddling up the ramp at night now. Whilst in the process of lowering her hotel we also pushed it further back down the duck run to allow more natural light to get in to the chicken coop next door. We had been wanting to reposition her hotel anyway before putting a roof on the coop and the run so at least that job is out of the way now too.

Going to start going through some of the wood piles this week and pull out what we will need for the roof. Definitely NOT looking forward to that job I have to say. We did get a price for someone to do it for us last year but although I am sure they would do a good job we thought that just over £2k was too much to pay. Got someone else round to price it up and he has still not come back to us with a price but hubby thinks it would also be around the £2k mark :eek: So it looks like we will have to do the job ourselves now Before we tackle the roof we are going to fix netting all the way round the coop top half and when that is done we are going to use the fencing that was recently taken down and fence all the way round the bottom half. Thankfully there is no sign of Bird Flu this year but there is nothing better than being prepared for it if that were to change. At the moment the whole of the coop and the duck run are fully enclosed in chicken wire and even the roof is completely covered with it. The netting of the top half is being done in case of possible future Bird Flu and the bottom half is being fenced to protect Hoppy and the new hens (when we get them) from any foxes and their prying eyes. Only when those two jobs are fully done can we then completely cover the roof. It would be nice for them to have somewhere where it is completely dry during the wet weather and the winter months especially when it rains day after day. We have been considering doing all of this work for a while now and the fact that we only have Hoppy here will make it so much easier to press on and get those jobs done. We have run out of excuse now to keep putting those jobs off. I'm ok with all the netting and hubby is fine with the fencing but it's fitting a roof that we both find rather daunting. But, when it is done I'm sure we will wonder why we hadn't tackled it sooner. I suppose it is just one of those jobs that gets put off and always ends up on the bottom of our "To Do List".

So I am sure all the above explains why we wanted to allow more natural light in to the chicken coop. The netting won't make too much of a difference but the fencing will darken it somewhat. For the roof we are going to buy clear Perspex we think as that would be the lightest material for us to work with and will allow the most light in. It's not totally clear sadly but more opaque but much better than the large sheet of blue Tarpaulin that we covered the chicken wire roof over with when we had Bird Flu in the UK last time . All that kept doing was buckling under the weight of the rain which drove us mad because every time we had rain here for an hour or more we had to go inside the coop and push the 4 sections up one at a time with a broom to get the rain off in case the roof collapsed. The roof is steel framed anyway but I suppose you never know.

Right, enough of my waffle. time for a cuppa.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Fingers crossed with your roofing and netting. Quite understand how much of a palaver it is, but it'll be worth it in the long run as you say.

Definite moulting going on here - clouds of fluffy white feathers everywhere :eek: Mind you, nobody looks like they've really lost any (other than Beaky's bare patch which has always been there) so clearly they could afford to lose a few from their fluffy bloomers :rotfl: :rotfl:

Raining and gloomy today, they won't like that

edwink

:j:j:jYAY I've registered with the BHWT YAY :j:j:j

Registered yesterday and received confirmation back straight away. Telephoned them today and am now on the waiting list at 2 of my nearest collection points. One is 35 miles away and the other is 48. We have a proper carry crate to transport them and also I can sit in the back with them because of their journey length of time. I will have one of the back seats down and have the crate next to me so I can keep an eye on them.

Have explained that we are just in the process of modifying the coop and that we would happily collect some around October time as it is so much easier without any hens around our feet to get the netting, fencing and roof done. I'm very eager to get some hens as soon as some are available but it would be silly not to get on with the alterations we want to do whilst we don't have any hens here. It is the first time in 10 years that we have not had any even now it feels so strange and doesn't seem right. I think it is because we collected our first rescue ducks the same year we moved here 10 years ago and we collected our first 12 rescue hens not long after that. I do miss having them around. I am a great animal lover and quite honestly I would have a house full of allsorts if my husband didn't rein me in from time to time :o:o

I think a house is not a home without some hens :cool:

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Hooray! So pleased you'll be getting some more hens soon - but yes, probably wise to get the renovations out of the say first :eek: I'm currently fretting how to keep ours out of the way when our builders are here :eek:

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Hooray! So pleased you'll be getting some more hens soon - but yes, probably wise to get the renovations out of the say first :eek: I'm currently fretting how to keep ours out of the way when our builders are here :eek:

Don't worry Cheery your builders will get used to them running around the place like loonies looking for food :eek: and looking up at them as if to say nobody has bothered to feed us for over a month. You know that look too well I am sure. Cheeky wotsits that they are

Could you put them in the stable during the day where you once kept your hens before you made their hotel and coop. If you sprinkle a load of straw and some treats about they will have great fun mucking about in there scratching about and it will be dry for them if the weather is rubbish too. Maybe put a tray of soil in there so they can dust bath as well because that will keep them occupied. At least that way they won't get under your builders feet whilst they are working. They would more than likely enjoy the change of scenery too. Just a thought.

No wait, thinking about it you could have them in your study office with you all day, they would totally love that wouldn't they??? :rotfl: Or you could even take them to work with you :rotfl: Just trying to help :rotfl:

Edwink