Keeping hens and ducks chat.

stuart45

I used to keep Call ducks which are just about the noisiest you can get, although it's only the females. Great characters and being small are OK for a garden. You can tell the sex once the females start quacking, although you can tell by squeezing in the right places when younger.

C_J

So I just wanted to report back on how my chicken fodder experiment has been going. I’ve been using cheap wild bird seed mix from the pound shop, soaking a handful of it in a bowl of water for 48 hours (changing the water a couple of times) after which it had all started to sprout. This was then sprinkled over a thin layer of soil in a seed tray, and put on a shelf in the polytunnel where it was watered daily. That was about ten days ago and there is a mixture of lush green growth about four inches tall already, which will provide fantastic extra fresh greens to supplement their diet if I can maintain that sort of growth over the winter.  If it’s not warm enough to grow the trays on in the polytunnel, I do have a sunny windowsill in the spare bedroom which could be used, so all in all I’m very pleased.

The bag was 1.5kg for £1 and seems to have a good mix of millet, sunflower, sorghum, wheat, rye and corn. I’ve calculated that one bag should provide at least 30 trays of green fodder so it’s quite an inexpensive way to top up their diet with fresh stuff. I’m also growing kale, spinach and chard in the garden which will over-winter well, plus several types of brassica from which they’ll get the trimmings. I do find the eggs are better and the yolks more golden when they get lots of greenery though.

Counting down until my new hens arrive - not long now, hopefully in ten days. So looking forward to it 😀

Pyxis

stuart45 said:

I used to keep Call ducks which are just about the noisiest you can get, although it's only the females. Great characters and being small are OK for a garden. You can tell the sex once the females start quacking, although you can tell by squeezing in the right places when younger.

😱😱😱
😂

Cheery_Daff

I do love a duck Stuart Must confess I've never tried squeezing one though!

Interesting experiment C_J! I've sprouted seeds for myself, but never for the chickens. Are you planning to just give them each whole tray as it grows? Or cut and sprinkle? 

I picked the caterpillars off my kale yesterday and tried feeding them to the chickens, they were having none of it and completely ignored them. Pesky beasts. So I punished them by weeding in the veg patch for an hour with the gates shut while they patrolled round the outside, looking for a way in I do relent and let them in sometimes, but seriously, the only things they've done in there are (a) scratch up the leeks, (b) make dust baths between the turnips and (c) eat as many worms as possible while ignoring caterpillars, slugs etc so I think I'm quite justified in keeping them out! 

Pyxis

Which bits do you have to squeeze? 😱
Do they squeak?

stuart45

Pyxis said:

Which bits do you have to squeeze? 😱
Do they squeak?

I never really got the hang of it. A duck breeder showed me how to do it, but I didn't really like squeezing a 4 day old duckling to find out what it was. preferred to wait to them to start quacking. If you get it right a corkscrew shaped penis shoots out.

edwink

Hi everyone

Huge apologies for not being around on the thread lately. I've been poorly and still am so struggling somewhat right now. Thankfully I've just caught up with the thread and am very pleased that we have some new posters on here.  So a big welcome from me and thank you so much for posting on our poultry friendly thread. The more the merrier I say 😘

All going well here for my hens except for one sudden loss of one of my ex-battery hens. Always makes me sad when I lose one as most of you know.  Can't fathom what happened to her exactly but looked as though she had gone in her sleep, bless her.  Hoppy duck is still plodding on bless her and enjoying her mealworms and chunks of homegrown cucumber. 

Talking of ducks from what I remember when we got our ducks we were told by the breeder that you hold the duck securely and slowly tip the duck upside down and if it quacks loudly it's a female and if it quacks quietly it's a male.  They call a male ducks quack "half a quack"  apparently.  From our experience here with ducks they definitely have a much quieter quack than females do.

CJ...I agree with Cheery that the sprouting of seeds is an interesting experiment.  I have sprouted seeds for us but never for our hens also. Mine would demolish a tray of sprouted seeds in minutes that's for sure.  I would be interested to know how you get on with the experiment. 

Again my apologies for not being on here of late but I am always in the background if anyone has any problems with their hens or ducks. 

Edwink x

maddiemay

Edwink - so pleased to see you here I have been hoping that you, OH and the flock are O.K.
MM x

C_J

So sorry you’ve lost one of you hens, Edwink. I always found it extremely upsetting when that happened to one of my bunch - I suppose I always feel that I am responsible for nurturing them and giving them a happy life, so I always get devastated when I lose one . It’s like I’ve failed somehow, even though it’s Nature’s way of things.

My original fodder plan was to try and grow enough of the sprouted wild bird seed to give the girls a top up of greens, maybe two trays a week of fodder to go alongside any other garden greens which might be available plus whatever they could forage for themselves when they are let out under supervision into the main kitchen garden. However the sprouted seed is growing so well that, if I could get it to continue like that throughout the winter, I might be able to give the trays several haircuts and feed them handfuls of that before finally giving them the whole tray. I realise growth will be slower over the winter months, but the polytunnel does stay remarkably warm. I have also put one of those “blow away” mini greenhouses in there and have made a fleece cover for it, so anything on its shelves gets double insulation.

I’ve been searching t’internet to see if I can find wild bird seed any cheaper by buying in bulk, but to be honest I’ve not been able to better the Poundland price for a 1.5kg bag so will be stocking up with a few bags next time I am out that way.

My new hens are due to be ready for collection ‘at the end of August’ so they could be here by next weekend.  Can’t wait!!

orangecrush

Sorry to hear you've been unwell Edwink!  I hope you recover soon, sending healing wishes!