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Keeping hens and ducks chat.

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  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,093 Forumite
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    Aw bless your little hen edwink. I hope she enjoys her stay with Hoppy.

    All ok here. Bunty seems fine after passing her lash egg but we'll keep an eye out of course. She's going through quite a heavy moult, and her poor backside has a bare patch, poor thing. Mr Cheery sat with them a while this afternoon, and thinks the new ones might be pecking at her feathers, so we might get the spray out tomorrow to discourage them. Pesky things.
  • MysteryMe
    MysteryMe Posts: 3,423 Forumite
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    I see in the latest episode of Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country they got some fertilized Cayuga duck eggs and incubated them. They now have several on the massive lake they constructed and have them housed in a floating duck house.
  • edwink
    edwink Posts: 3,003 Forumite
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    MysteryMe said:
    I see in the latest episode of Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country they got some fertilized Cayuga duck eggs and incubated them. They now have several on the massive lake they constructed and have them housed in a floating duck house.

    Hi MysteryMe

    Thank you so much for letting us know, that sounds like a brilliant series.  As you know my little Hoppy is a Cayuga duck so was completely black when she was younger but now she has got older she has started to turn white/grey from the head down. They are stunning ducks to look at especially when the sun is shining on them.   

    I'm sure others on here would like that series.

    Edwink x
    *3.36 kWp solar panel system,10 x Ultima & 4 x Panasonic solar panels, Solaredge Inverter *Biomass boiler stove for cooking, hot water & heating *2000ltr Rainwater harvesting system for loo flushing *Hybrid Toyota Auris car *RIP Pingu, Hoppy, Ginger & Biscuit *Hens & Ducks* chat thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5282209
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,093 Forumite
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    Evening all,

    We are having a dreadful time here today ☹☹ Bunty has gone missing. 

    I was out at work. Mr Cheery got back this afternoon, and for some baffling reason decided to let them out for half an hour in the sunshine 🙄 Yes, despite the bird flu, and not something I approve of, but also right now the least of our worries 🙄

    Bunty didn't come out with the others, he assumed she was in the chicken house laying.

    Anyway, he went back outside half an hour later, and the other 5 were in the dust bath area close to the run. Followed him back into the run, and Bunty wasn't there.

    He searched everywhere, but of course they're usually completely free range - we have acres of fields and no fences. They usually stick to a few favoured spots, and he searched and searched. Rang me after half an hour, but I was teaching and didn't get the message til 4, another hour later. Drove home as quickly as I could, but of course I work miles away and it was dark.

    We both searched and searched, but had to give up after a while - definitely not in any of her usual haunts, and the only reason she wouldn't have come back to the run is if she couldn't 😕

    So either she's been got by something - but we couldn't see feathers anywhere, and the others didn't seem agitated or alarmed. Possibly more likely that she's tucked herself away to lay, had another lash egg or something, and didn't feel well enough to get up. There really aren't that many bushes here though, and she's not in any of her usual places.

    If that's the case, will she survive the night? If she's off colour anyway, and with these freezing temperatures, and her going through a pretty heavy moult... it doesn't seem likely ☹

    We'll be up at first light of course for more searching, but right now it's looking likely that we'll never find out what happened. I can only hope she isn't suffering ☹☹☹

    Mr Cheery is absolutely beside himself 😕
  • edwink
    edwink Posts: 3,003 Forumite
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    edited 20 January 2022 at 11:14PM

    Aww, Cheery, how sad and bless poor Bunty 😢

    My guess is she has found somewhere comfy and settled there and has gone to sleep. Hens are pretty good with their body temperature so she will fluff herself up to keep her body warm.  But, I know you have said that she is moulting a lot for some reason but I'm sure she will still have plenty of little feathers underneath which will help her get through the night. She may have got into one of your outbuildings or the coal shed maybe. 

    As you say Cheery the only thing you can do is get up bright and early in the morning and go looking for her again.

    oh dear!!

    Edwink x
    *3.36 kWp solar panel system,10 x Ultima & 4 x Panasonic solar panels, Solaredge Inverter *Biomass boiler stove for cooking, hot water & heating *2000ltr Rainwater harvesting system for loo flushing *Hybrid Toyota Auris car *RIP Pingu, Hoppy, Ginger & Biscuit *Hens & Ducks* chat thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5282209
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,093 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks edwink xxx we've searched all the outbuildings as best we can, Mr Cheery started looking at half 2, so we had no hope in the dark if he couldn't even see her in the daylight 😕 I was only commenting yesterday how invisible the two black ones were when I opened the hen house first thing when it was still pretty dark. 

    Yes, we'll be out again first thing, and hopefully she'll be feeling well enough to come out of hiding spot. I might never let the rest out of the run ever again! 😕
  • edwink
    edwink Posts: 3,003 Forumite
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    One thing to remember Cheery is that chickens can not see in the dark so wherever she is she will stay put and not move until the morning or at the very least until daylight. 

    We left a chicken out all night once, just miss counted them into their run.  When we went out in the morning to get them all out she came running over to see us.  Obviously, she didn't mind being out and must have tucked herself in somewhere for the night once we had locked up. That was around this time of year too.

    I hope you are ok Cheery, what a worry for you x

    Edwink x
    *3.36 kWp solar panel system,10 x Ultima & 4 x Panasonic solar panels, Solaredge Inverter *Biomass boiler stove for cooking, hot water & heating *2000ltr Rainwater harvesting system for loo flushing *Hybrid Toyota Auris car *RIP Pingu, Hoppy, Ginger & Biscuit *Hens & Ducks* chat thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5282209
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,093 Forumite
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    Thanks edwink xx Yes, that's why we stopped looking really. I just don't get why she didn't come back earlier in the day. I so much hope she wasn't poorly and we missed it - we've spent some time with them this week, but between Mr cheery's dad being ill and me being at work, dentist etc, it's not been much xx
  • edwink
    edwink Posts: 3,003 Forumite
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    edited 20 January 2022 at 11:35PM
    Cheery_Daff said: Thanks edwink xx Yes, that's why we stopped looking really. I just don't get why she didn't come back earlier in the day. I so much hope she wasn't poorly and we missed it - we've spent some time with them this week, but between Mr cheery's dad being ill and me being at work, dentist etc, it's not been much xx

    Don't blame yourself Cheery, you can't be in two/three places at once.  Chickens are pretty good at looking after themselves, they are tough old birds.  I would think if she had been grabbed you would have found a load of feathers somewhere like you have already mentioned and the other hens would have been spooked and really on edge when Mr Cheery went back out to get them back in their run. I honestly think she's sloped off somewhere on her own and tucked herself away maybe because of the Lash Egg episode from before or maybe she just wanted to spend time away from the others as she was out of the run, who knows!.  She surely has to be around your house or the chicken run somewhere but as you say you have a lot of land but I honestly don't think she would have gone far, well not in half an hour from when Mr Cheery let them out. 

    Edwink x
    *3.36 kWp solar panel system,10 x Ultima & 4 x Panasonic solar panels, Solaredge Inverter *Biomass boiler stove for cooking, hot water & heating *2000ltr Rainwater harvesting system for loo flushing *Hybrid Toyota Auris car *RIP Pingu, Hoppy, Ginger & Biscuit *Hens & Ducks* chat thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5282209
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,093 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks edwink. All fingers crossed that she just reappears in the morning. I just hate to think of her out there all cold and on her own 😢😢
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