Keeping hens and ducks chat.

MysteryMe

It's wonderful that they seek you out when you are in the garden, not just for food either.

edwink

Aww lovely pics Cheery. I particularly liked the one from last of your hens sitting next to your legs. They look so very relaxed sitting there in your company

Must dig some more of my older nice ones out.

Thanks for posting them Cheery.

Edwink x

edwink

Hi everyone :hello:
As some of you know I often describe my girls as loonies and I definitely have 2 of them right now. OMG it is so funny and heart warming watching them free to run about wherever they want to. Honestly, these 2 don't stop and just run around getting up to allsorts of mischief with their wings slightly spread out looking happy to be here. No point in me trying to take photos of them because as soon as I get my phone out of my pocket they have shot off somewhere, it's hilarious. Just wish I knew how to put a short video of them on here to show you all what these 2 little girls are getting up to. I could sit and watch them all day.

I have managed to get them all in to a bit of a routine now so none of them are standing looking lost and don't know what to do, bless 'em. When we let them out in the morning we keep the coop enclosure door closed for half an hour so they all have their breakfast then all hell lets loose. We open the coop door, say CHAAAAAAARGE and they all rush to come out heading towards OUR lawn. As some of you know this time of year we always let them munch on our grass so there is no need to cut it for the rest of the year as they do that job for us. Well, they do have to join in and help with the chores around here once in a while :rotfl:.

Does any one know how to put short videos on here? Not sure if it is permitted to be honest but would love to be able to, as long as it isn't too complicated as I have enough trouble trying to just put pics on here

Today we are going to erect a small slanted roof over their dust bath as although it is in the coop enclosure which now has a roof, we are finding that it gets some condensation on the underside which collects, then finally drips. So today we plan on making a roof to go over the dust bath that slants enough to allow any condensation to run off. Well that's the plan anyway. Although their new coop roof is slanted, it is not slanted enough to allow the condensation to run off in to the guttering like the rain does. Will put some pics on here later which should explain better than I can

Right enough of my waffling, will be back later

Edwink

edwink

Finally got the Perspex roof on over the hens dust bath today, yay!!. Had planned to do that job 2 days ago but wood/logs for the 2 stoves were getting a bit low so we got some more of that chopped up instead. The weather has totally changed here with lovely sun out in the daytime but come the evening and boy is it cold, Brrrr!! Anyway, I took some pics of the finished article and shall put them on here in the next day or so (not my favourite task I must admit) although saying that the more pics I put on here the easier it has become:dance:. I used to hate it but do find it somewhat easier now, thankfully. Mind you I do have the full instructions written down now. OMG I hope I haven't spoken too soon. :rotfl:

All harmony in the camp here I am pleased to say except one fairly baldish menace of a hen who keeps picking on one of the fully feathered girls. She just won't leave her alone even when I am standing next to the one she is picking on. We watched her closely today and the same hen keeps going for her. I actually had to tell her off today and push her away, which I hate doing but she was having none of it when I told her off verbally. Not sure why she would have chosen that hen to bully to be honest because this feathered hen quite a bit bigger than she is. Just going to keep a very close eye on her and take it from there but not much we can do if we are not out there. I'm pleased to say the hen that is being picked on hasn't been hurt in any way and there is no blood showing anywhere, so I think it is just little tiny pecks but not enough to draw blood, thankfully.

Hope everyone and their hens are doing ok in this chilly weather. Hens are known for how good they are at regulating their body temperature so there is normally no need to worry about them when the weather turns chilly, bless 'em.

Will get new pics on here of the girls too besides pics of the new roof over their dust bath.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Glad you got your roof on edwink! :j They are pesky, picking on each other aren't they? I hate it Ours are pretty good at the minute - take an occasional swipe at each other when there's a treat to be had, but otherwise pretty harmonious. They're having a great time this week in the sunshine! :j :j

Must get out there and clean out their run today. Need to get all the old bedding out of the house like I do every week, but now I've started using hay on the floor of the run, I'm getting into the habit of raking out and replacing that once a week else it starts going a bit manky. Straw is better - but since I have free hay, that's what we're using...

I also need to get on and build my compost bin - I'm making a new one right next to the chicken run for easy disposal of bedding :j :j But I started laying a path across the garden first (more of a priority given the mud) and that's taken far longer than I'd planned... Going to try to finish that today, but without Mr Cheery to help me lug the giant stones I might not get it finished... I can make some more progress though, and then maybe I'll move on to the compost bin :j

MysteryMe

Would a compost bin right next to the chicken run risk attracting vermin?

edwink

Guess who got locked out of Postimage again ? Yep me, AGAIN. Doesn't seem to like me very much I guess. I tried the other night to get these pics on, again last night and finally tonight I get another new password so I can sign in. Does anyone else use Postimage on here? Cheery if you don't mind me asking, what site do you go through to put photos on MSE and do you ever have the problems I have?. It's just so frustrating all the time and takes ages to sort it all out. Anyway must not grumble I suppose they are on here now I guess

Hope everyone is ok in this rather chilly weather, although saying that it warmed up here slightly today. Girls had their scrambled egg treat for lunch and I bet they thought it was a nice change after being given porridge everyday because of the cold weather :dance:

Will put some more pics on here soon, if and when I can get on to Postimage again :rotfl: It's so annoying to say the least.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Evening :hello:

I did use Postimage edwink after you suggested it, but I didn't sign up, literally just uploaded a photo and it gave me a link, which I pasted into here. Obviously I can't go back and link to those photos again as it hasn't stored them. But it was really simple for me! Sorry :rotfl:

I love to see pictures of your run :j Looks SO exciting in there for them :j

Mystery me, you asked about the compost bin next to the run attracting vermin... Well, I confess the chicken run already has a mouse living in it :rotfl: No idea about the compost - I've never had rats living in my compost before, and I've been composting for years. There are mice in OUR house too which we occasionally get rid of but mostly just tolerate as long as they pretty much stay in the attic and out of the kitchen

I dunno, maybe we should be more bothered about that type of thing :rotfl: But we live in the middle of nowhere, the middle of fields, and it's very unlikely we're going to avoid some kind ofn mice, rats or whatever out here. I prefer not to fight it til it becomes an issue. Suspect having the chicken run and compost close together won't make that much difference to either of them - except perhaps the same family of mice will share both rather than us having two lots :rotfl:

But who knows, maybe I'm being naive and will live to regret it have you had problems with this type of thing?

I'll try to get some more pictures up, took some of the run the other day but it's far smaller and less exciting than edwink's chicken town!

Cheery_Daff

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Cheery_Daff

Hmm, can't edit that on my phone, but it's pretty exciting that I can post pictures from my phone!

Edwink when you go to the postimage page, it just says "choose image", which I did - then once it's uploaded them it gave me an option to log in, but below that was just a link to my pictures. I literally just copied the link and clicked on the link icon in here, and pasted the link in.

Obviously this time it's not quite worked as it's repeated one image and put in an extra link, but still and my pictures are smaller than yours, and I don't know whether I can resize (although you can click on them to make them bigger)

Anyway, they're not very picturesque :rotfl: But this is when I'd cleaned out the run and filled it with some of our hay :j You can see their little house with the pink wall, and the extra shelter for when it's really cold and rainy, and the little low perch (which they love) and additional bread basket perch, which they use to look at the car coming down the drive :rotfl: