Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Chilly outside today but it was not as cold as it has been lately, Brrr!!  Had a good old cleaning session with the girls hotel and coop and little Hoppys hotel and her run. Raked up everything on the ground in both and added it all to our compost bins so both areas have new straw shavings and everything smells nice. The shavings we use has a pine scent that lasts for days and is very pleasant but I am not sure what the girls think of it though, all they care about is what they can find to eat in it that is edible 🤣    Washed and scrubbed out containers we are using for the 2 boot dips and refilled them with clean water and disinfectant. Cleaned out their hotels and mopped surfaces with more disinfectant and washed and refilled water containers except one of Hoppys as it still had some mealworms floating about in it from her breakfast this morning.  Finally threw several handfuls of kibbled corn into the hens and a big pile of chopped greens to keep them occupied.  Oh nearly forgot, sieved 2 more big lots of soil from the greenhouses to add to the hens indoor dust bath.  Might make the sides higher to their dust bath in the week because they flick the soil about in all directions, not to mention sometimes over Hoppy too as she insists on sitting right behind it in her run, silly duck she is 😂 

That's it from me for now.  I hope everyone else is doing ok and that they have a happy and healthy flock.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Hi edwink, 

glad to hear all is ok in your chicken run and with Hoppy. Sounds like you are keeping nicely on top of the cleaning, well done! Gosh I cannot wait for them to be let out Hate having them confined. Especially as Mr Cheery has been poorly and the weather has been so bad that they still don't have their extension (and I'm not holding my breath that they'll ever have it...) 

I have been a rubbish chicken owner this week and let our supply of corn dwindle to nothing! Aarrgghh! I completely forgot I'd brought the last of it into the house. I've ordered more a few days ago so they will have only had a few days without - and of course they can survive solely on actual FOOD if necessary, and they've had plenty of other treats. 

Not sure there's much else to report in the beaky world. We both go and sit with them every day, and the older ones do come and sit on our knees, and occasionally Chippy, but the others are still too timid. Slightly unusual situation in the hen house this evening - Bunty (one of the new ones) was snuggled in the nest box with Bessie and Rusty! Normally the new ladies stay strictly on the perch, and Bessie and Rusty have the nest box to themselves. It does make me laugh to note where they all sit at night. We call it 'the chicken bus', because when we had the first four, they regularly used to sit two in the nest box facing forwards and two on the perch behind them facing forwards, looking like they were all sitting on a bus

So a slightly unusual chicken bus tonight! 

edwink

Hi everyone

Hope all is well with you and your hens.  All ok here, thankfully with us and our girls. Not much to report really except to say that my hens no longer try to get out when their coop door is open.  I know you have said the same about your hens Cheery, bless them. Better for us as it is much easier to get into their coop but sad in a way they don't try to rush out anymore.  Maybe they have just forgotten about life outside their coop, who knows 🙁 

Little Hoppy is doing ok and still managing to get up and down her ramp ok, bless her. We are still spoiling her like we always do with cucumber, mealworms and rice but this week she had some chopped up wholewheat spaghetti too. Couldn't give her spaghetti without the hens having some too so it was shared between them with Hoppy having extra.

We are currently getting around 6 to 8 eggs a day from the hens as have seen a drop since we had the snow. To be honest, I would rather they didn't lay in this cold weather and that they save their energy for their little bodies but at least it tells me they are healthy, which is always good. 

Keep safe everyone and take care.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

I bet they'll remember their old favourite places as soon as they get out edwink 😊 I bet ours will make straight for either the dust bath or our porch, depending on the weather 😂

Good to hear your ladies are all well, and Hoppy of course 😊 Ours are all ok too, thank goodness. I finally finished their temporary extension today, so they've had a bit more space to knock about in the sunshine today which has been lovely 😊 It's not pretty, or particularly well built, but it'll do for a few weeks 😊

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:

I bet they'll remember their old favourite places as soon as they get out edwink 😊 I bet ours will make straight for either the dust bath or our porch, depending on the weather 😂

Good to hear your ladies are all well, and Hoppy of course 😊 Ours are all ok too, thank goodness. I finally finished their temporary extension today, so they've had a bit more space to knock about in the sunshine today which has been lovely 😊 It's not pretty, or particularly well built, but it'll do for a few weeks 😊

Doesn't have to be pretty Cheery, it's the function of it that counts. Glad you have managed to sort something out for them, although saying that I am sure they were fine as they were (knowing how us two spoil our hooligans🤣)

I can just imagine yours running straight for the porch and because they will have missed going in there they will probably aim for it even if it's beautiful sunshine outside or failing that aim for Mr Cheerys lap 🤣🤣

Edwink x

edwink

Not sure what was happening with my hooligans tonight but they just wouldn't go to bed when I went out to lock them up for the night. Normally most have gone in and maybe one or two are still scratching about when I go out to lock them up but today they were not having any of it. I thought they all looked hungry 🤣🤣🤣 so I gave them some mealworms while I fussed about cleaning out their dust bath (poop picking actually). When they had eaten them I assumed they would then go in but NO they waited by my feet for more.  Thinking about it I should have put the mealworm tub back in their feed store out of sight so it was my fault really that they then had a second helping while I cleaned their 3 seater bench down.🤣🤣🤣 Lucky hens they are 😊

All in all, it was not the normal "good night girls sleep tight" routine and I was out there for ages, so much so Mr Edwink came looking for me 🤣🤣🤣

It's all good fun this hen keeping malarkey. Hope everyone is ok and their feathered friends too.

Edwink x

orangecrush

Hi everyone!  How are you all doing?  And your feathered friends?

We've had a bit of a manic few months, moving house and all that entails.  We're finally settled and the ladies have a new garden to destroy!  We've had so much snow here, they hate it the poor dears.  They have the best grumpy noises when they come out in the morning and see snow in their run. 

I don't know about you, but me and the chicks are definitely looking forward to spring!

edwink

orangecrush said:

Hi everyone!  How are you all doing?  And your feathered friends?

We've had a bit of a manic few months, moving house and all that entails.  We're finally settled and the ladies have a new garden to destroy!  We've had so much snow here, they hate it the poor dears.  They have the best grumpy noises when they come out in the morning and see snow in their run. 

I don't know about you, but me and the chicks are definitely looking forward to spring!

Hi Orangecrush

Yes definitely looking forward to the spring here too that's for sure.  Glad your house move went ok and you and your feathered friends are now settled.  I must admit I have never moved with my feathered friends and had to settle them in as well, must have been quite a task for you.

So glad to see you back on our feathered friend's thread now you have settled in 😊  It's been pretty quiet on here lately with just myself and Cheerydaff posting, I'm not sure where all the other hen keeps have gone 🤔😞   Everything ok here in my hooligans camp, bless 'em. Rather difficult getting into their coop at the moment as they all rush at me together even if I have treats in my pocket or not 🤣🤣🤣   Still have 19 ex-batts out of the 24 we rehomed here 16 months ago so they are all doing pretty well coming up to 3 years old.

I hope your new garden doesn't get too destroyed.

Take care

Edwink x

Mintyrbc

Hi all, new poster to this thread. we have 5 ducks, 2 Aylesbury's and 3 pekin. They have freedom of our garden during the day and a large enclosure with a house inside it which they live in as it gets dark. Iv been using playback for the base of their outdoor coup but overtime it gets messy, even after i remove their poo. Wondering if anyone has any better solutions for what I could put down on the floor. Im about to dig the whole enclosure out and replace it with new bark so if anyone has a better idea it would be very welcomed. 

edwink

Mintyrbc said:

Hi all, new poster to this thread. we have 5 ducks, 2 Aylesbury's and 3 pekin. They have freedom of our garden during the day and a large enclosure with a house inside it which they live in as it gets dark. Iv been using playback for the base of their outdoor coup but overtime it gets messy, even after i remove their poo. Wondering if anyone has any better solutions for what I could put down on the floor. Im about to dig the whole enclosure out and replace it with new bark so if anyone has a better idea it would be very welcomed. 

Hi Mintybc

Welcome to our feathered friends thread and thank you for posting.

We use Dengie fresh bed for our hens' enclosure and Hoppy's (Cayuga duck) run.  We also use it for the hen's hotel floor and Hoppy's too for her to sleep on.  We like the pine scent of it as it smells really fresh and it clumps up really well in the hens coop so we find it easy to keep everything pretty clean in between our weekly cleaning routine. I just walk around with a bucket and collect all the clumps up which takes hardly any time at all. We top it up during our weekly clean if needed.

From our experience of once having 9 ducks here, we have found that they are a lot messier than hens poo wise. We do think that Dengie fresh bed clumps up well overall but clumps better with hens because they spend a lot of time raking through it during the day. But, with ducks and their webbed feet they can't rake through it so although it is very absorbent their poo mainly sits on the surface of it but it still clumps up underneath so can still be picked up ok.

I hope that is of some help to you.  Would be lovely to hear more about your ducks if you have the time to post on the thread. 

Edwink x

P.S. you may have noticed my avatar, bless her that was Pingu my Indian Runner duck. Having her around was like having a little dog.  I always thought we should have called her Rover because she followed me everywhere. Beautiful little duck she was.