Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

:hello: hi maddiemay and edwink (and the rest of you feathery fans :j )

Would you believe I've never actually watched gardeners world?? :eek: what a shameful omission! :eek:

So excited about your new ladies edwink! :j so pleased for you, and it's putting a little smile on my face to think of those ladies all asleep tonight and not knowing how much their lives are going to change tomorrow :j

As for wellies. Well. I went to visit Pippi a few years ago (do you know her thread? She doesn't post much these days but used to post a lot). Me and Mr Cheery went to look after her chickens for a couple of weeks several years ago and we had SUCH a good time, it's really what started Mr Cheery's chicken enthusiasm :j much easier as she was up in Orkney at the time so there were no predators to worry about.

Anyway, she had an excellent pair of wellies that I borrowed (it was Christmas, and snowing :rotfl: ) and I wanted to buy my own pair the same when I got back, but they were so expensive and I lived in terraced house in a city and just couldn't justify expensive wellies as I had nowhere to actually wear them :rotfl:

So I ended up spending £16 on a pair of food factory wellies :rotfl: bright yellow, with steel toe caps and a moulded sole and excellent grip. Added bonus of being 'blood and acid proof' :eek: But they are actually really comfy, and have come in very handy now we've moved here.

Sadly they've recently sprung a leak, and my attempts to fix it haven't worked, so I think I'll have to go on the prowl again... will probably try for food factory ones again as they were so cheap and worked so well :money: and you never know when you're going to have to wade through acid, after all :eek: :rotfl:

edwink

maddiemay wrote: »

Been away and now caught up on a few threads, so much hard work been done by Edwink and Cheery to make the hens home safe and comfy.

Love the Pink Wellies too.

Can't wait to read about your new girlies when they arrive Edwink, so close now.:)

Watching Gardener's World a few minutes ago, lovely young man growing so many wonderful flowers all in containers and with some very exotic chooks, he obviously is nuts about them.

So glad you have caught up with the news on our hen thread. Lots been happening here getting ready for new girls tomorrow Can't wait

I used to watch Gardeners world going back a few years now. If anything was of interest for our garden I always made a note of it. Don't watch it now though because we no longer have a TV. There are some truly beautiful hens and their colouring is just fantastic.

Edwink

edwink

This one is taken from the inside of Hoppys duck run and shows her hotel, the 2 huts to the left of that are the hens outdoor huts and the door to the far left is the hens hotel door. The hens hotel is not actually in the coop itself but attached to the side. It's very safe there as it is totally covered in chicken wire including the hotel roof. Just gives them a lot more space in the coop if they need it.





A rather wonky pic of the hens hotel with only their little door open.




Standing inside the coop looking out with the duck run on the left.




Inside the hens hotel, all mite powder dusted and ready for them tomorrow. For their perches we take away or add them when needed.




From outside the chicken coop and duck run. Hens hotel on the left, then the 2 outdoor huts and then Hoppys hut on the right.




Looking in to the chicken coop with the duck run and Hoppys little grey ramp on the right.




I was really hoping to get these pics on here in some sort of order but for some reason I have had a right old hassle getting them on here tonight. Anyway, I am sure you will all be able to piece the coop and run all together so you know what I am talking about :rotfl:

Right I'm off to have my supper. I'm worn out after all that palaver :rotfl:

Thanks everyone for your interest. You have all been brilliant

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Wow edwink! Your hens have practically got their own hen metropolis!! How brilliant! I am inspired. I've got on my list for next year to think about expansion of our run so I'll be thinking how we ca do that without too much fuss and expense (although most things seem to involve SOME degree of fuss and expense :rotfl: )

Our ladies have had an exciting day today after being shut in their run all day yesterday while we were away from home. Mind you today they seem to have spent quite a bit of time in our house :rotfl: :rotfl: Mr Cheery hasn't been well and they came in the living room and hopped all over him on the sofa :rotfl: wish they'd settle down for a cuddle like a dog but no - clambering up onto the back of the sofa, jumping on the laptop, knocking over buckets and DIY kit is more their style :rotfl:

Which reminds me I haven't been out to shut the door of the hen house yet and it's pitch black out there now, sigh. They've been shut in the run since 5pm, and I try to shut the hen house once they've gone to bed but before it goes dark, but the dark is creeping up on me these days!

Hey ho, torch it is.

maddiemay

Edwink - exciting day today, hope all goes well with the arrival of "the new girls" and that dear little Hoppy doesn't mind all the changes.:):)

countrykate

I don't have any as yet but I'd love to call my hens:

Brenda
Hyacinth
Ethel
Clara
Nora
Mabel

Cheery_Daff

Excellent names countrykate:j My grandma used to have a hen called Clara Cluck when I was little :j

So edwink, how are the new ladies settling in?? Did you get the extra four lucky hens?? What do they make of their new surroundings, and each other? And how on earth did you get 24 of them home in the car??

We have spent a couple of hours this afternoon grumpily building our Hen Prison :eek: Just an enclosure to keep them out of the way of the builders, because I can just imagine the disaster that will ensue if they trip one up while he's carrying something heavy, or run into the house while the concrete is setting :eek:

They've got an area that's at least twice the size of old garden so they won't be deprived, but I'm not sure they'll agree, given that they're used to having literally no fences at all :rotfl:

Still, needs must. We've loaned some chicken wire from a friend and pressed every fence post we can find into service. It's not exactly a pretty fence, and I wouldn't use it as a means of keeping predators out, but as a way to stop them getting trodden on for a few days I hope it will do. They'll be able to come out for a bit in the evening, and all day at the weekends. I might even get up early and let them out so they can lay their eggs in the coal shed first thing before the builders arrive :rotfl:

edwink

maddiemay wrote: »

Edwink - exciting day today, hope all goes well with the arrival of "the new girls" and that dear little Hoppy doesn't mind all the changes.:):)

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

So edwink, how are the new ladies settling in?? Did you get the extra four lucky hens?? What do they make of their new surroundings, and each other? And how on earth did you get 24 of them home in the car??

Yes definitely an exciting day today :j and Hoppy doesn't appear to mind at all and just sat looking at them. Of course the new hens were really interested in her because they were just staring at her through the chicken wire as if to say "Hey you, yes you in there on your own. So what sort of species are you then?". Of course Hoppy just ignored them and carried on eating, bless her. Hoppy was used to having hens around before so they didn't appear to bother her at all but I wouldn't trust the new hens around her, especially with her being on her own now and being an old girl.


Today went very well and yes Cheery we did get the 4 Luckies as well. And how did we get them all in the car? almost with difficulty. We set up our metal cage transporter earlier this week and when we tried to get it in our car the blooming thing wouldn't go in. When we got the cage, which is plenty big enough for a large dog, we had a different car and now we have our Hybrid car the crate is too high. We have a poultry carrier but can only get 12 in there but couldn't get the other large boxes in around it. So it ended up as x3 boxes with 6 in each and two boxes with 3 in each. I sat in the back with them as we took our friend who is our hen sitter with us as she likes to be included and wanted to meet them on day one of them coming to live with us. I had 2 of the boxes of 6 on my right hand side and a box of 3 actually on my lap in the back and the rest behind me. The hens were well spread out even if the humans were not :rotfl:


All has been ok so far with a bit of pecking here and there but to be honest I think they were all so tired by the time we got home. They had the journey this morning from their so called farm and placed in either of 2 barns and then we collected from there and took them home. It would have been such a long, tiring, confusing day for them, bless them. They even all stood still and were so quite when our resident Robin started chirping away standing on the coop roof like he normally does whilst waiting to dive in to the coop to pinch his supper. Also, an ambulance siren went past and that really quite startled them. They will get used to the sounds and smells and gradually learn to relax.


Bed time tonight was a bit hard going with 24 of them especially as none of them had a clue where they were meant to sleep. One by one we placed them on the ladder in their hotel whilst patting their bottoms and saying "up you go you, up you go, bed time for you". Guess what? They totally ignored me and some turned around and started to come back down the ladder whilst others were attempting to climb up . And there is always one that is so hard to catch hold of and she certainly gave us both a bit of a run around but we finally coaxed her in just as it got dark .


So all is well here thankfully and hubby has just checked on them for the 5th time tonight to make sure none of them have been knocked off the perches. He has just come back in and said each and everyone of them had their head down and was fast a sleep. Ah bliss :rotfl:


A very tired Edwink x

MysteryMe

Hope everything went OK with the new arrivals Edwink, lots of pics please!

edwink

MysteryMe wrote: »

Hope everything went OK with the new arrivals Edwink, lots of pics please!

Yes all went well thank you. In fact, I have just posted about how the day went but at the time you were obviously typing your post out so you may have missed mine above yours.

Took loads of pics today so will go through them tomorrow and put them on here.

Edwink x