Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Sadly lost one of our new rescue girls today. She was a bit quiet when she came to live with us but I took it as she was very shy. We found her when we went to tuck them all in to bed tonight. She was ok this afternoon when I checked on them all though.

I absolutely hate loosing any of my girls. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Sad

Better_Days

So sorry to hear you have lost one of your new girls edwink. :A

Poor things, it must be so stressful when they are taken out of the farm, transported to hen central for health checks and re-homing. Then caught up again and transported to another new environment with other hens they don't know. All in one day.

Much better though than spending her last days on the chicken farm. At least she had a few days of freedom and there was someone who cared enough about her to offer her a cosy coop, tasty treats, the sun on her feathers and soil to scratch. For her last few days she was not simply an egg producing machine, but a hen valued as an individual. That is worth something, surely.

ali-t

Sorry for your loss edwink, they really do steal a place in your heart

edwink

Thanks very much for your kind words both of you. Really appreciated what you have both said.

On a much nicer note. All the girls are together now. Yay!! So happy for them. A few squabbles between them but nothing major and Mr Cockerel was a good boy and told a few of our older girls off and told them who was boss. They are all sleeping all cosy together tonight too. I hate having to keep them separate but always think it is better for the new rescue hens that way. They stay in their own little hut in our duck run just to keep them separate for a week or so. They can see their new friends through the chicken wire and there has been the odd rare up but again nothing major.

Just sad that the little hen we lost did not get to run around as much as the older girls who have the whole of the garden to run about in. There is plenty of room in the duck run but much more room in the rest of the garden to run about more freely. But, I did give her some nice sweetcorn, dandelion leaves, lettuce, cabbage and some fruit in the short time she was with us. She was one of the more feathered ones and looked a little healthier than some of the others. I guess we will never know why she died suddenly. RIP little hen!!

Now my next job is to explain to my new girls that they must wash behind their ears when they dust bathe or else their mum will have to do it for them. I love burying my hens in soil slowly when they are dust bathing. Some of them just stop washing and let me cover them with cool soil. One in particular that we recently lost used to just sit there for ages until I had covered her completely with just her head sticking out from the soil. Then I used to massage her back slowly with my finger tips and she would close her eyes and every now and then open them just to look up at me and then close them again. She was almost in a trance and totally chilled out. I could walk away and she would still just sit there with all the soil over her. She was a really lovely tame hen.

Hope everyone's hens are ok.

Edwink x

Happygreen

Good morning, all.
So sad you lost one, Edwink. They are quite delicate creatures and moving house is not easy for them. One of my girls died the night after I chased her out of the greeenhouse (a few years ago now), she must have had a real fright, so sad.
At the moment all are well, although the eldest looks very dishevelled as she's moulting. I always find that look amusing but she doesn't think it's funny, seems a bit miserable

edwink

All going well with our new girls thankfully. They are now with our original older hens which is lovely. Also easier for us because we only have one hotel to clean each week.


One of the new girls has a slightly deformed beak and struggles to pull bits of lettuce and greens off the stalk so I have been breaking bits off for her and she is scoffing them. At first I thought she was just playing with her food and not bothering to eat but soon realised it was her beak that had the problem. She is one of the new girls that has hardly any feathers bless her.


Weather has cheered up her so they are not looking all soaked and seem much happier. They are dust bathing everywhere. Hoorah for some warmer weather for them.


How is everyone else doing with their hens. All is well I hope.


Edwink x

Better_Days

Good to hear your new girls are settling in well edwink.

Ours are very happy atm as Mr BD has been doing quite a bit of digging in the garden, so worms galore. Looked out of the kitchen window yesterday afternoon and one of the girls had made an escape bid and was pottering around on the drive. She had found the new flower bed (with lots of the aforementioned worms) and was very reluctant to be shooed back into the back garden. Mr BD needed to employ some fancy footwork to encourage her to return.

Having hens bring more than you anticipate. I give spare eggs to one of my neighbours. Yesterday she came round with blackberries, apples, cherry tomatoes, courgettes and some leaves for the hens. Not a bad swap! My neighbour and her husband love the girls' eggs, declared as definitely even better than those that they usually buy from Waitrose. High praise indeed.

But once you have had very fresh eggs from a free range hen there is no comparison to shop bought eggs. I think our hens eggs must have a 'happiness' aura or energy which you just don't get from shop eggs.

suki1964

Still no eggs here

Well that's a nit of a lie. The new hen hid in the greenhouse the day we got her home and whilst hubby was cleaning it out at the weekend he found an egg . Unfortunately it was cracked

She has since gone into moult so I'm guessing there's no more eggs for a while and the original three seem to be more content on eating me out of house and home, and getting into my home, then to lay eggs


The "greenhouse" is now their new home. Its really just an add on to the garage built using old windows and door. We built a couple of nesting boxes and added some perches and have moved the plants to the brighter side and blocked them off so the hens can't get them. They seem to like it as they can come and go as they please. Will have to cut a wee door in the door for them before the bad weather hits us full on. It's very wet and cold now but still getting some sunny spells

The new hen is so funny. Our other three have been very slow on the uptake when it comes to scraps. Not her, I throw anything out and she comes flying and wolfs it down. So now the others are learning and are eating more then just their layers and corn

They have dug all the plants out of a planter and use that as their dust bath and also an area under the honeysuckle. This week they have finally found their way into the raised bed and are slowly destroying that lol. Mum is most upset,I just laugh at their antics. They are so going to have a ball when we open the veg plot to them

I could sit watch them all day. They just love coming into the house, I'm having to shoo them at least 10 times a day. I was standing out the back door yesterday having a smoke and catching up on FB and the wee sods tiptoed right beside me and snuck in lol. The dog just lay there under the table and watched them, didn't stir himself at all

Have to keep them out as new hen has had runny bum. I started worming treatment Monday and already she's firming up so I guess that was the problem. I'm just hoping she eats enough layers to get a full treatment as she prefers free ranging and only touches the layers first thing

Mind I do wonder why the food is called layers, and mine are doing anything but lolololol

ampersand

Hello suki, smiling at this: have moved the plants to the brighter side and blocked them off so the hens can't get them'. I womder how long that will last:-)
#
edwink - that is a google image, the truest I could find. Other pics have me in them:-)

It's been 5 years since les poules for me[very sadly], but Vicar's cockerel crowed as I arrived for brekkie there earlier. She's a new hen keeper/lover, since arriving nearly 2 years ago. We all have our eggs from Vicarage girls.

One of neighbour's new guinea fowl confronted me in my raspberries the other day, but flew up and over back hedge before recapture. Foxy wil be happy.

suki1964

Wooooo hoooooooo

I posted too soon

Wee Honey laid again today :T:T:T

One pale brown egg weighing all of 43g


Can't believe how happy I am. I've just treated her to a plum as a thankyou

:j:beer::j