Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Aww, how sweet! And yes, beautiful feathers

Merry Christmas to you all too! (rather late I'm afraid...) All cheerful here :j Beaky is still doing well out with the flock - although they'll all be quite grumpy with me today as it's very misty and we're going out shortly so I've kept them in the run. I knew it was going to be misty, so I opened their house door while it was still dark in the hope they wouldn't try to escape but as usual Rusty and Bessie came out anyway, and loudly voiced their objections when I wouldn't let them out of the run

Hey ho. Our elderly neighbour always says the fox comes out in the fog - I have no idea whether that's true but not taking any chances, not when we're not going to be here for a few hours. They can come out later if it clears up a bit

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

All cheerful here :j Beaky is still doing well out with the flock - although they'll all be quite grumpy with me today as it's very misty and we're going out shortly so I've kept them in the run. I knew it was going to be misty, so I opened their house door while it was still dark in the hope they wouldn't try to escape but as usual Rusty and Bessie came out anyway, and loudly voiced their objections when I wouldn't let them out of the run

Hey ho. Our elderly neighbour always says the fox comes out in the fog - I have no idea whether that's true but not taking any chances, not when we're not going to be here for a few hours. They can come out later if it clears up a bit

I wouldn't worry about them being left in the run Cheery, honestly I wouldn't. Just look at all the space they have when they are not in their run They have so many areas to forage in and places to dig where you are they are spoilt for choice, I'm sure. The odd day or two in their run especially in nasty weather is to keep them safe isn't it and not because you don't want to let them out at all. We do the same with ours now and they are kept in the coop if we are not at home because we just can't chance it now.

There is normally one of us at home most days because I am a bit of a hermit to be honest. I like it at home here and I have plenty to do everyday. I like to spend time outside with my rescue hens plus grow veg or doing other general outdoor mucky stuff, unless it is freezing cold then I am normally making jam or chutney, baking or sewing. Would you believe I have spent time every day it has rained this Winter sewing little people made out of buttons and other bits and bobs, on to a pair of dungarees. Why I have no idea but I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and as I like to be unique I thought these definitely would be. So far I have a hippy couple on one leg, a lady all glammed up on the other, another lady with a little boy and girl on the bib and finally this odd person hanging by some wool from its head from the top of the bib. The mind boggles eh?. Anyway I still have a few bits to finish on those little people and then I am going to do another little person hanging upside down at the top of the back of the dungarees. Also, I plan to put two more little people on the back with one coming out of each back pocket. Happy to put a photo on here when I've finished them for those that haven't a clue what I am going on about :rotfl:

We are going to attempt to get one of the 3 greenhouses back in its new place tomorrow. Two new bases have been done so far, just one more to do now so no reason not to make a start getting one of them back up Not one of my favourite jobs so I might just slope off and clean Hoppys and the hens hotels out because I would much prefer to do that job any day. I don't know but there is just something very boring about putting greenhouses back together, I just don't find it very appealing at all. So that's that sorted then, I shall be sloping off, I've made my mind up already. :rotfl:Will update on progress as and when

Nearly forgot to ask Cheery, How is the egg laying going with your girls?. We are getting around 15 to 20 a day even though we have an egg eater on board here. We know which hen is doing it and to be honest I really don't mind if she wants to eat an egg or two. But, it is just that the egg(s) she is breaking open to eat runs underneath the others and when we collect them they are all in the nest box mucky and wet with raw egg on them. When she hears us on the war path she comes running out with egg all over her beak naughty bird.

Edwink x

Karmacat

Loving your dungarees! Slightly boggled at the egg eater! I never knew about that ... living with them day in day out you see such things, don't you - you could definitely write a book, edwink.


ETA - actually, you and Cheery could write it together

edwink

Karmacat wrote: »

Slightly boggled at the egg eater! I never knew about that ... living with them day in day out you see such things, don't you - you could definitely write a book, edwink.

ETA - actually, you and Cheery could write it together

Hens can often take a liking for eggs just by trying their first one that maybe accidently gets cracked in the nesting box. Following that they will start to crack the eggs themselves and eat all of the contents and the shell too.

Some hens that lack calcium often crack eggs open to be able to eat the shell which contains what they need calcium wise. Then when they get the taste of the egg itself they then become egg eaters more often than not.

If a hen keeper gets a persistent egg eater or even two of them they will take a small piece of shell out from the top of an egg, tip the contents out and fill the egg with hot mustard. Then place the egg back in to the nesting box in the hope that the egg eater will break open the other end and get a huge shock in the process because of the taste of the hot mustard. Personally I've never done that because I wouldn't want any of my hens to be distressed in any way. Just wish our egg eater would roll the egg she takes a fancy to and takes it to the other side of the nesting box and consume it there so it doesn't make a mess of all the other eggs that are waiting to be collected by us. We just need to make sure we collect them regularly throughout the day now and get to them before she does. We normally collect them when we let them out in the mornings, at lunchtime and later in the day when we feed them before they go to bed. We have been collecting them at other times lately too but looks as though we will need to keep going out there and collecting them much more frequently than we have been. The trouble with trying to stop them is that they then take a liking to the eggs and do it every day. We are currently working outside at the moment sorting the greenhouses out so will collect them every time we get a minute. I actually did that today and ended up with 14 in my bobble hat because I forgot to take the egg basket out with me and anyway my head was getting hot wearing the hat so I made use of it, like you do:rotfl:

Three quarters of one greenhouse done today and we shall continue with it tomorrow or should I say Mr Edwink will as I loathe that job. I was on hotel cleaning and disinfecting duties today besides, perch scraping (is it 1 P or 2 ?), bucket washing, poop picking the coop and duck run, cabbage hanging amongst other lovely Hoppy and hen related jobs. Tomorrow I'm staying out the way again and am going to finish off collecting the leaves up and raking the lawn which I didn't get to finish last week when it was constantly raining here.

Will post pic of dungarees when they are finally finished. Talking of pics I got a couple of really good ones today of a few of the hens that I had previously sprayed with the purple anti-pecking spray on their backs. All that is on their backs now is a mass of new feathers and the faint tinge of purple on the surrounding older feathers. I'm chuffed to see them like that now considering how they were. Still have a few with bald patches on their backs but nothing like before when we first collected them just over 2 months ago :T I'm so pleased with the progress they are making even if they are eating MY eggs :rotfl:

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

They're making such good progress edwink!

Ours like eggs too, although fortunately we don't have any of them breaking eggs to eat them. I confess occasionally I do crack them one myself if I need them to get out of the way quickly for whatever reason and don't have any other treats handy shouldn't really though - especially as we're only getting about 6 a week from our lot at the minute! :eek:

Naughty Maud gave Mr Cheery the runaround yesterday when I wasn't here. First of all they al came in the house, and she wouldn't go out, so he had to chase and catch her. Then he put the others in the run later and she just refused to follow him, so he had to chase and catch her again. Normally he's quite persistent but he's currently got shingles so is in rather a lot of pain and not at all impressed! :eek:

So I'm on all hen-keeping duties today and young Maud had better keep her head down... :eek:

laurenh1

Hi guys,


Has anyone used chicken coops direct? Were looking for a cheap chicken house but I dont want to buy something that wont last xx

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Naughty Maud gave Mr Cheery the runaround yesterday when I wasn't here. First of all they al came in the house, and she wouldn't go out, so he had to chase and catch her. Then he put the others in the run later and she just refused to follow him, so he had to chase and catch her again. Normally he's quite persistent but he's currently got shingles so is in rather a lot of pain and not at all impressed! :eek:

So I'm on all hen-keeping duties today and young Maud had better keep her head down... :eek:

Oh no poor Mr Cheery, not so cheery I guess at the moment. Some years ago my poor mum had Shingles and OMG she was covered and itched all over, literately, well almost anyway. I kept putting cream on her so it was more bearable for her and even then it drove her mad. Does Mr Cheery have cream for his?. I know my mum's doctor prescribed hers. OUCH poor man especially over the festive season too and with naughty Maud giving him the run around I'm sure he wasn't best pleased about that.

Probably best you are on hen duty then, I guess.

Edwink x

edwink

laurenh1 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Has anyone used chicken coops direct? Were looking for a cheap chicken house but I dont want to buy something that wont last xx

Hi Laurenh1

Thanks for posting on our friendly hen and duck thread.

Personally we have never used them so couldn't say what their hen houses are like. The only thing I would say is to take the amount of hens they say will be suitable for a hen house with a pinch of salt. So many companies state a certain amount of hens and there is no way that they would be comfortable at all in the size of hen house that they suggest. It does make me cross and worries me that they will state X house is suitable for X amount of hens when there is no way X amount of hens would be comfortable at all. Does that make sense or is it past my bedtime?. Sometimes I read posts back to myself and do wonder what I have been waffling on about :rotfl:

I suppose it all depends on how many hens you wish to keep I guess. If you were going for say 10+ you would be better buying a small shed and putting in your own perches etc. Personally, if I were buying a purpose built hen house I would halve the number of hens they suggest for any particular house.

As a rule they do say the size of an A4 sheet of paper is comfortable for them at night whilst they are roosting so if you take that roughly as a guide that may help you decided.

Remember also that you will need to stick your head and arms inside to clean it out, so that is always worth bearing in mind when deciding what size you buy. The easier it is for you to clean out the better especially when there is some scrapping of their poo to scrape up, as you should not allow yourself to breath in the dust from this.

Hope this info is of some help to you. Do pop back on here if there is anything you need any help or advice with.

Edwink

laurenh1

That's great help thank you.



We have 3 already that are in a house for 6 but they have a lot of free time in the allotment so it's not like they're in there other than to sleep as I too am conscious of them not being "cooped up" :rotfl:.


I thought about a shed but someone at flight so fancy said they were too big & they'd struggle to get warm which threw me a bit.



Our last chicken house was 2nd hand & is now just in a bad way so this is my first time actively looking for a new one & I dont know whether to spend a bit more or if I'm being ripped off....:rotfl:Maybe I'm over thinking



Thanks so much for all your advice, if anyone has ordered any coop from anywhere I'd be happy for all suggestions


Happy new year & thanks again xx

laurenh1

Ps- I'd like 6 I think xx