Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Sorry to hear about your poorly hen edwink. Such a worry. Glad she's picked up though, fingers crossed for her xxx

We've booked for 2 rescues, which will take us back up to five. If we get new hens, we'll get three to have as a longer-lived core flock, which will mean we'll have six 😮 Got a list of local ish places to ring round tomorrow - at least a couple look like they have some in stock, or at least might do in the next few weeks.

If we can get new ones before the end of July, we'll cancel the rescues (they've got a waiting list so I'm sure they'll still be rehomed). So feel free to stop posting the hen countdown until I actually know whether I'm going with those hens or not, I don't want to be waiting your time Pyxis!! 

Bessie's antibiotics arrived in the post today - the tablets are massive! The vet said to shove them down her throat, but they're so huge we just can't bring ourselves to. We're crushing them instead (which the vet said was ok) - mixing with a tiny bit of yogurt, then mixing the yogurt with a few tiny bits of bread to make sure she gets it all. Convoluted but it does work!

Pyxis

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CHEERY'S HEN DO CLUCKDOWN!:

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🐓🐓...............ON PAUSE.........................

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edwink

How is Bessie now Cheery?  Any more improvement with her since being on the antibiotics?  I do hope so, bless her.

Big clean up here today of both Hoppys hotel and the hens.  They are cleaned out weekly in the colder months and twice a week in this weather but on a nice warm day like today, it gives us a chance to wash down the walls as by bedtime it is fully dry again.  With so many hens sleeping in there at night it does accumulate quite a bit of dust and dander so we sweep the walls down then give them a rub over with very wet cloths.  We mop the floors with disinfectant, washing up liquid and water and they always come up nice and clean as they both have washable flooring in them.  It makes life so much easier especially with having so many hens here. 

I don't know how warm/hot it has been where you are Cheery but I've had a couple of irritable hens on my hands today.  My goodness, they were so grumpy and even took the occasional swipe at a poor little hen that was minding her own business.  I had to tell a couple of them off a few times as they were truly being a menace.  I have found that it does happen occasionally on very hot days which it has been here today for most of the day.  To be honest I am glad to be back indoors as it did get pretty hot at times.

Our little hen is fine now and back to her old self, thankfully. She is happy to follow me about so I have managed to give her a few ripe red currents when walking past the bushes and some dried mealworms whilst the others have been elsewhere out and about.  Luckily she has managed to gobble them up before a few of the others come flying over, literately to see what she was doing.  If I have had a poorly hen I will always make sure they get a small handful of extra bits of food besides their normal pellets and treats just to make sure they are eating enough. 

Now that their homes are so much cleaner than mine best I stay indoors tomorrow and get some housework done 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes, it always feels a bit ridiculous when their house is cleaner than the human house!

Glad your little hen is feeling better, that's great news. Bessie seems fine too, thank goodness, and is taking her medicines well each day (mostly I suspect because we're crushing the massive tablets and mixing them with yogurt and oats, rather than trying to shove them down her throat whole). She has been disappearing into her favourite egg-laying spot in the coal shed the last couple of mornings, but no eggs as yet... 

I cleaned out our run yesterday too - I do the house regularly but let the bedding accumulate on the floor of the run and dig it all out every few months - the stuff on the top is still dry as I top it up regularly, but the bottom by that point has composted into a nice crumbly compost which went straight on the new veg beds. They've barely been in the run anyway for months now, just an hour or so each evening before going to bed. 

Pyxis

I heard somewhere that someone hatched a couple of free-range eggs they bought in a supermarket!

They put them into an incubator, not sure why, and they hatched. 

The supermarket, can't remember which one, said it was ok to eat fertilised eggs and they don't look any different from 'ordinary' ones! I suppose they had to say that in case people thought  that they might crack an egg and see a chick embryo pop out! 😂😂😂


That made me remember that in the past, some people swore by eating fertilised eggs...they said they tasted better, but maybe it's all in the mind?


edit ...it was Waitrose, and they were duck eggs.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52838747

edwink

So glad Bessie is doing ok now Cheery, that is good to know.

Pyxis I saw the article you mention online in the news about the woman that hatched the duck eggs.  Apparently, according to the article, she thought she would try hatching them just to see what would happen as she was home during the lockdown. Bet she was so surprised when they actually hatched.

It is true that you can eat fertilised eggs but NOT if you have allowed a hen or a duck to sit on them for any length of time because they keep them warm and incubate them.  It is then that the embryo starts to form into a little chick. Fertilised eggs don't look or taste any different that's for sure because for several years we had lovely Bertie the Cockerel living here with my former ex-battery hens and he was a very rude boy with them  🤣🤣🤣🤣  So most of my eggs would have been fertilised but I didn't allow them to be incubated so they were fit for consumption.

My little hen is still much better, thankfully, and is joining in with the others ok now  😙💖
Edwink x

Pyxis

Were you never tempted to have the odd brood of chicks?

Although, lovely and sweet as chicks are, you then have the later problem of what to do with any males. ☹️

dizzybee

Looking for ideas for plants i could plant that the girls won't eat, any ideas

thank you

Cheery_Daff

dizzybee said:

Looking for ideas for plants i could plant that the girls won't eat, any ideas

thank you

So far mine have left my herbs alone (I've currently got rosemary, sage, lavender, oregano). They've not eaten ferns, rhubarb, or any of the flowers. I've not planted any veg out yet... They did jump up to pick gooseberries and raspberries from the bushes last year, pesky blighters!

I've had more of an issue with them digging in the disturbed soil around a newly-planted plant, and then uprooting it. Not to eat, just because they don't realise it's there. 

But then ours have a huge space to hang round in - I imagine they'd be more of a problem in a smaller space.

Pyxis

What plants are poisonous for hens? I suppose that's a consideration, too.