Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Gosh orangecrush, drama all round! :eek:

Sorry to hear about your hen experience:( sounds like you did everything right. Hens can just be plain old mean

Our ladies have heard a full day free ranging today :j although they did confuse themselves earlier - they've been in an enclosure in the garden all week - it's an area they are used to spending a lot of time in, but not used to having a fence around.

Today I left the gate open but they kept going to another hour of the fence (which is blocking their normal access route through some trees) :rotfl:

Bunch of hen plonkers :rotfl:

Considering myself this evening with the clocks going back :rotfl: they've been getting up about 7.45 but obviously that'll now be 8.45...

I've set the alarm for half 6 and hopefully we can do it gradually...

edwink

Very quick update from me as I am so tied up at the moment and to make things more difficult my laptop has given up on me and I'm now forced to use my "going away" tablet which I really do not like using for typing as it takes so blooming long. I know I said I would get some pics on here of my new girls BUT they are all on my laptop and as that has given up on me I can't access them until I transfer them over to my new laptop, when I get one that is Grrrr!!.


Anyway, all going well and a lot less pecking going on now which I am most pleased about, just the odd spat here and there, that's all. As of last Friday last week they all took themselves off to bed up on the perches without any encouragement from us. Most mastered it earlier in the week but there were a few that couldn't quite work out the little ladder to get to the perches so decided they would perch on the ladder instead. Funny little things they are.


All of them are eating well and have now gone through numerous big bags of dried Meal Worms, big, big bags, I mean 800g sized bags. They like them better than their pellets, fussy lot they are. I suppose it serves me right for spoiling them so much but in my defence I do have a lot of fairly bald-ish girls and out of the 24 I only have 2 that have their feathered knickers on, the rest have bald bottoms, bless them. So I am feeding them up, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it. Hee!!


Finally, they have a permanent roof on their coop now and today the guttering was fitted plus the waterbutts were put in place. It will make a nice change to have a supply of rainwater in the duck run so we don't need carry it to the coop and duck run in watering cans anymore. In the ten years we have kept hens we have never given them tap water to drink ever. Anyway they put fluoride in tap water and my hens and Hoppy do not have any teeth


Will update again as soon as I can and respond to posts.


Take care all.


Edwink x

Karmacat

I've just got back from a trip, edwink, I'm so pleased for you that things are going so well. Rainwater butts especially are wonderful things.

Cheery_Daff

Morning :hello:

How are our feathery pals? All cheerful and well I hope?

All well in my coop, although I'm sure the ladies weren't impressed at being shut in all day yesterday while we were away from home. Still, they survived, and don't seem to be holding a grudge this morning - they came straight out and tucked into their warm porridge with great gusto. They're out wandering free for the whole day today so all is hopefully forgiven!

Nothing much else to report. We've still not got round to taking the temporary fence down and putting the tarp on the roof - that's a job for this weekend (or next week, when I'm off work). But it WILL get done, and when it does I'll also give the run a jolly good clean out, take the mud off the floor, put in a load of our hay etc. Make it nice and fresh and cosy for them :j :j

Hope you're all getting on well

edwink

Hi everyone :hello:

Sorry I've not been on our thread much but had 2 weeks of being so busy which was fine but didn't leave much time for posting on here. Now for the past week I've had a nasty cold which is thankfully on its way out but I've still got a really sore throat

I have managed to get my poorly laptop to wake up at last, how I don't know but it has :j It is definitely not long for this world though because I can not switch it off again as it refuses to come on for a few days. Temperamental springs to mind :mad: Anyway, a friend of mine bought a new laptop last year but couldn't get on with it so I have bought it off her. Only problem I have with it is that it runs on Windows 10 whereas my old laptop runs on Windows 7, which to be honest I much prefer. But, mustn't grumble because at least I won't need to post via my phone again which takes ages :j

All my girls are doing really well and coming along nicely as their pecking order is almost established with only the odd spat here and there. I have one little girl with a slight limp but I can't physically see what the problem is so she must of jumped down from something like hens do, bless her. It doesn't appear to bother her much and she is mixing well with the others and eating ok. It's definitely better than it was at the beginning of the week so we are just keeping a close eye on her.

Hoppy is dong ok and to be honest I think the new hens have given her a new lease of life. When the hens are all in the coop she sits in her run next door giving the odd little quack while watching them which looks so cute. They don't see her as a threat which is good but we wouldn't trust them around her whilst we were not outside. Hoppy was brought up with hens so she totally accepts them but in fact probably trusts them too much. The hens walk around her and so far have not bothered her but we wouldn't trust them as there are so many more of them than her. Some years ago a group of hens jumped on one of our ducks, the duck was fine just badly shaken but we wouldn't want to see that again so are being very cautious.


Orangecrush...... I remember the problems you had with poor Buffy. My guess is that Rusty was protecting Ginger especially because she was one of her brood and as you say she was so tiny. Hens can be so horrible to each other when they want to be and it's normally to do with their pecking order unfortunately. Looks like you did all you could to help Buffy, bless her.


KC...... Glad you are back :j Hope you had a nice time on your trip and better weather than we had here. That's assuming you were not in the UK during your time away of course. If you were here, you would have got as wet as we all did :eek:


Cheery...... I am sure your hens didn't mind being in their coop all day, just for a change. It is rare you need to do that and even when you do it is only for their own safety. Gives them a change of scenery too and somewhere different to scratch about. Have you managed to get their roof on?. I guess not an easy job in this odd weather we have be having.


We had problems with our builders too when we had our rear extension done. I couldn't wait for them to finish and go because they drove us mad, especially me. They nearly left us with a very water logged mud bath of a patio and a soak-a-way that wouldn't drain. The walls were not straight and the place looked like a tip because they were so untidy. It was done during the Winter months but never again would we do anything on that scale whilst it is snowing because it just added to the stress of it all. Builders eh?.

Will be back on here over the weekend to hopefully get the pics on of my new girls now my laptop is behaving itself I just hope I haven't spoken too soon :rotfl:

Take care all


Edwink x

Karmacat

edwink wrote: »

KC...... Glad you are back :j Hope you had a nice time on your trip and better weather than we had here. That's assuming you were not in the UK during your time away of course. If you were here, you would have got as wet as we all did :eek:

I found an all-inclusive cruise for literally half price, so I went for it, with my sister :eek: one of the places we went to was St Petersburg, which is proud of having only 60 rain free days a year :eek: I was completely soaked, twice: if you're touring a garden, then thats what you do



I'm glad Hoppy and your hens are doing well, edwink, looking forward to the photos.

orangecrush

Hello everyone!


How are you all and how are the feathery ones? Buffy and Ginger are both moulting terribly - I got a huge fright when I went to see them yesterday as I thought a fox had visited, but no, they're just shedding! They look rather bedraggled, and it's really turned cold here so I hope they get their new feathers soon to keep them warm.



It feels like it has rained constantly for the last few months, and their run is turning into a mud bath. We need a large delivery of wood chips I think, and we already have rain covers on the run, but what else can I do to give them a bit more shelter? I suppose they can always go in the Eglu if it's extra cold!



I remember during the beast from the east they didn't come out for a week and we had to put food and water in the smelly Eglu for them! Such pampered princesses :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Hi orangecrush (and anyone else lurking in the wings :hello:

Certainly does feel like it's been raining for months :eek: Our run is also like a swamp :eek: Although slightly less so now I had a good go at it today and removed all the smelly rotting hay and mud :eek: Urgh.

I am also delighted to report that I have FINALLY got the plastic roof and sides on the run :j :j :j SO pleased about this. Although of course it hasn't worked perfectly The top is flat, so of course the water has pooled in a couple of places and is finding its way through where we stapled and dripping down the beams. But at least it's only in a couple of places, rather than everywhere. And finally this afternoon I put the sides on too :j :j :j Scraped all the vile mud out, and put a load of fresh hay in, so I suppose time will tell whether it's good enough to last the winter...

The chickens themselves of course are fine - there are windows (yes, actual windows :rotfl: ) all the way round at ground level (as well as the mesh) so they can see out but are protected from wind. They also have a sheltered area at one end of the run protecting them from rain - it just means I practically have to crawl through the muddy bit to clean out the house :eek: With this new plastic we can remove most of the obstructions, and if it works well, I'll get some more and cover the other end, so then we can remove ALL of the mini roofing inside the run itself :j

I've also brought the chickens' porridge bowl inside this evening and given it a good clean out - the weather has been so vile I confess I've just been dumping the new porridge in on top of the old

The ladies are fine of course. They stay in their run through choice when it's really raining, and this afternoon when I came home three of them had found the greenhouse and were sheltering in there :rotfl: I do need to order some more food, must get on the case with that!

Hope you and your feathered ones are all good :j

edwink

Karmacat wrote: »

I found an all-inclusive cruise for literally half price, so I went for it, with my sister :eek: one of the places we went to was St Petersburg, which is proud of having only 60 rain free days a year :eek: I was completely soaked, twice: if you're touring a garden, then thats what you do:)
I'm glad Hoppy and your hens are doing well, edwink, looking forward to the photos.

Proud of having only 60 rain free days a year :eek: OMG :eek: Sounds as though you enjoyed yourselves and yay! to a half price all inclusive cruise, despite the rain. Hope you packed wet weather gear to go.

Now to the photos. As laptop is working today I thought it is about time I got my long awaited photos on here and finally put my sewing down for one evening. BUT, and here is the big BUT. I can't log in to Postimage Grrr!!!. Why I don't know but they kept saying my password was wrong but I knew it was correct. So they sent me a new password and now that one won't work either Grrr!! So the only thing I could do was email them to find out what is going on. Maybe they have a problem with their homepage today, I dunno!!. Frustrating because I had earmarked tonight for getting quite a few of them on here. I do find it rather fiddly to do but once I get going with it I'm fine with getting them on here. I do find these photo hosting sites rather complicated for some reason. I used to use Photobucket but gave up with that because of the difficulties I was having. Then another mse member directed me to Postimage and I've been fine up till now, well sort of. How annoying not to mention how frustrating I'll have another go tomorrow

orangecrush wrote: »

Buffy and Ginger are both moulting terribly - I got a huge fright when I went to see them yesterday as I thought a fox had visited, but no, they're just shedding! They look rather bedraggled, and it's really turned cold here so I hope they get their new feathers soon to keep them warm.

It feels like it has rained constantly for the last few months, and their run is turning into a mud bath. We need a large delivery of wood chips I think, and we already have rain covers on the run, but what else can I do to give them a bit more shelter? I suppose they can always go in the Eglu if it's extra cold!

Sometimes they do moult all of a sudden and when they do it can look awful, as if they have been in a massive fight but hens are clever little things really and easily regulate their body heat so don't worry they should be fine whilst their new feathers are growing. A good old bowl of warm porridge will keep them cosy on the very cold days. Temperature has really dropped here too

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I am also delighted to report that I have FINALLY got the plastic roof and sides on the run :j :j :j SO pleased about this. Although of course it hasn't worked perfectly The top is flat, so of course the water has pooled in a couple of places and is finding its way through where we stapled and dripping down the beams. But at least it's only in a couple of places, rather than everywhere. And finally this afternoon I put the sides on too :j :j :j Scraped all the vile mud out, and put a load of fresh hay in, so I suppose time will tell whether it's good enough to last the winter...
Hope you and your feathered ones are all good :j

Well done on getting that job done Cheery. When we put tarpaulin over our coop several years ago it pooled in 4 big areas so we needed to go up there and push the rain off from the underside in all the 4 areas. This was a constant job so we started propping these areas up from underneath with fence posts to see if the rain would run off on its own but this caused other areas to collect the rain instead. In the end I made a hole in these areas and put huge buckets underneath to catch the rain and then within time the buckets overflowed. But, of course you can't catch the rain in buckets because of it now running down the beams. To be honest I don't know what to suggest at this stage. Will have to get my thinking cap on to see if I can think of anything that will help.

I Know what you mean about the about the vile mud as ours was the same because it was literately water logged. you will need to leave the hay down until it soaks up a lot of the damp from the ground underneath, then rake it all up and put a fresh lot down. Once you have done that the ground should be much drier for a new layer of hay which should hold out for quite a while if you manage to keep most of the rain out. That should do the trick Cheery

Edwink x

edwink

Just a selection of pics I took on the day my new girls arrived with us........ But, first LOOK at my lovely NEW pink wellies... OMG so soon! Hee Hee. I don't mind really cos that's what they are for and I do give them a scrub before going indoors.




Couldn't get our hen carrier box in to our new car so had to transport 6 hens to a box. This hen is one of the more healthier girls. We were only given 4 with this amount of feathers.





Most of my new girls looked like this bald-ish little girl and sadly some were a lot worse than her. Bless her heart she looks so down and lost in this pic. It is sad seeing them like this but within a few weeks or maybe a month or so they cheer up, start running around a bit and they grow so much in confidence. I can see the difference in them already. bless 'em.




They soon learnt where their food was, sensible little things. We have 3 feeding troughs for them but 12 of them crowded round this one, why I have no idea.




You can see from this pic the way they hold themselves when they first arrive. Some look so traumatised but others cope much better.




I am pleased I finally managed to get some pics on here. I tried over the weekend but I still couldn't get on to Postimage. Maybe they were having a few problems, who knows but it was blooming annoying as I had all the pics ready and waiting to go on. Anyway was given yet another new password this evening and finally it let me in to get my photos on, yay!!. Have quite a few more photos I'd like to put on here so hopefully I should be able to put my sewing down and get that done now :dance: It's been so frustrating with Postimage this past week so I stuck my head in my sewing so I could calm down. I've bought a very plain-ish pair of dungarees and doing what I love best and that's jazzing them up so nobody in the whole wide world has a pair the same as mine :dance: Just like being unique I suppose, plus I do relax somewhat when sewing after a day outside with my little loonies. Talking of which, it took me 3 hours to clean their hotel and coop out the other day, 3 whole hours. What a mucky lot this lot are OMG they love their food so much and it certainly shows. Think it may be the numerous amounts of Meal Worms they get through every day. Got them started on porridge yesterday as it turned really chilly here, they nearly knocked me over all leaping at me trying to get to it first.


Hope you enjoyed the pics, will be more soon everyone.

Edwink x