Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Hope everyone and their feathered friends are ok.

I lost one of my ex-batts this morning, bless her.  She was quiet when we let them all out this morning so I just kept an eye on her as planned to be outside for most of the day. I checked her over and nothing appeared to be wrong with her except real tiredness so thought perhaps she had had a rough night as it was rather warm. She didn't suffer and it appears she just nodded off whilst relaxing and went in her sleep. Found her under the pair tree. 

It is unusual for that to happen as we have found mostly they go in their sleep during the night, but not always.  At least she was outside and chilling out as they do on a sunny day, bless her. 

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Aw edwink, how sad. But how lovely that was her end, underneath the pear tree, safe, in the sunshine, with you nearby. She had a lovely life with you xxx

edwink

Hi everyone

OMG, it is so hot here today.  I've not been outside much except for checking on the girls every so often. Encouraged them all to drink a bit more today by shedding some lettuce and putting it in their water containers.  Bless Hoppy she always flicks it everywhere including over herself, the lettuce, and the water I mean.  We've bought Hoppy down near the house where we can keep an extra eye on her because she is an old lady now and parks herself in direct sunlight so we have put her in a shaded spot with a huge washing up bowl of water.  She spent time in the pond this morning so had already had a nice splash about and a wash before we brought her down. 

Hope everyone and their feathered friends are ok.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Aw bless Hoppy, I love how you look after her in her dotage

All cheerful here. Our hens were warm too, but they seemed to alternate between sunbathing, and then finding a nice shady spot to lie in - just like I would I suppose. I did take pity on them and open the front door so they could spend some time hanging round in our house, which is quite cool. Mr Cheery usually lets them in for a nap at some point in the day, but he wasn't here on the hottest day, and I was working, but I did come back at one point to find several of them lined up on the sofa, like they would usually do with him. They're so funny

They're all quite cross with me today though because I've had the strimmer out. They do NOT like the strimmer. I leave them shut in their run while I do it, so they don't either get in the way (unlikely) or scatter to the four winds, never to be seen again. Mr Cheery went into the run while I was strimming, and said they'd all taken themselves into their little hen house, peeking out of the door to see if it was safe. Bless them. 

I only did 45 minutes, so he's let them out now - I've not actually seen any of them yet, I think they're staying close to the run in case the noise starts again... Oh dear!

edwink

Sounds like your girls are being spoilt too Cheery.,  I had a chuckle at yours lining up on the sofa, bless them 😊😊😊  Mine are never best pleased with our strimmer here, it's just the noise like yours.  Hens can be a bit jumpy with noisy things at times.

All is good with my girls except Hoppy has started to eat less but I am not overly concerned because she is actually still eating.  I don't think she is unwell or anything but just slowing down, maybe. She has stopped eating much in the morning and then dipping into her bowl of food before bedtime.  And, she is eating some during the night, strange duck.  She does eat some of her cucumber when we give it to her but never demolishes the whole bowl of it like she used to. I'll just monitor her closely with what she is eating. Not even adding mealworms to her breakfast is helping which is strange because she used to love those. 

Hope everyone is ok and their feathered friends too.

Edwink x

thriftwizard

Oh good golly, I've just popped into the farm shop & picked up corn & layer's pellets as I was passing & knew we were beginning to run low! It's all but doubled in price since the last run... £11.80 for the pellets & £12.20 for the corn. Was £6.20 & £6.80... just when the bantams are raising another 4 legbars, who appear to have hollow legs!

edwink

thriftwizard said:

Oh good golly, I've just popped into the farm shop & picked up corn & layer's pellets as I was passing & knew we were beginning to run low! It's all but doubled in price since the last run... £11.80 for the pellets & £12.20 for the corn. Was £6.20 & £6.80... just when the bantams are raising another 4 legbars, who appear to have hollow legs!

Crikey that's a big increase thriftwizard.  I'll nip off and check our prices here, we are in Hertfordshire.....

Right, I'm back with prices for the large 20kg bags

Heygates layers pellets were £8.20 and are now £12.35, so an increase of £4.15

Corn was £9.00 and is now 10.55, so an increase of £1.55, which is not too bad.

Looks like our price increases are nowhere near yours thriftwizard, although your prices were cheaper than ours before the recent increase(s).

It will be interesting to know what Cheery_Daffs prices are now.

Edwink x

edwink

Hi everyone

My little Hoppy is definitely getting old, bless her. She didn't get out of her bed today until 1pm.  We left her there sleeping and just kept an eye on her.  I saw her when she had just woken up and the first thing she did was start preening herself whilst still in her hotel.  She is definitely getting frail as I watched her waddle down her ramp and she was rather slow but she did manage it ok. These are the things we are keeping an eye out for because we would hate her not to be able to manage her normal daily things, bless her. In fact, I dread that happening because I would hate to see her struggle in any way, shape, or form.  

The 4 hens are doing ok but never stick together, there are 3 in a little group, and one of them is mostly on her own and it appears that she prefers her own company. I would need to separate her from the other 3 if I saw any of them pick on her but thankfully they don't.  When it's treat time all 4 come running to me together which is nice so I know she is safe with them.  I've watched them all together in their run when we put them away at night and they seem happy together eating their supper or having a dust bath and when they go to bed they are all near each other on the perches.  If she was being left out she would definitely be on her own on the perches.  So I am happy she is ok.

Hope all is good with everyone and I hope others that plan on getting their hens are nearly up and running now. I know this takes a while to do and costs money of course because I was in that position myself once. Thankfully now for us, it is just the odd repair of something and their weekly cleanout or twice weekly cleanout if the weather is hot.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Aw, sorry Hoppy is slowing down edwink. Good job she has you to keep an eye on her.

We usually buy food from the British Hen Welfare Trust online shop, we buy 20kg bags which are currently £19.75. I'm not sure there's been an increase recently. We used to buy their organic corn, but that's gone up to £22.75 for 20kg, so we bought a cheaper one at £19.25 and they seem to like that more. Looks like we're paying more than you lot, but I don't know how big your bags are so perhaps not! 

We nipped home to let the chickens out this afternoon. Saw Bonny lay a lash egg, just came out just before a dropping while she was pottering round the lawn. She seems ok, but we will keep an eye on her of course - she always has trouble with her egg laying but is SO jumpy I think it would be super traumatic to get her to the vets. Fingers crossed she stays OK.

edwink

Hi Cheery

Hoppy has been ok up until now to be honest, it's been this past week we have both said we have noticed a difference in her.  She'll be ok because we'll look after her, bless her.

I hope Bonny will be ok after laying that lash egg today. Horrible things those lash eggs are, they look revolting don't they?. Fingers crossed from me, bless her.

We buy our feed in 20kg bags as that is the cheapest way around here because the little bags are so expensive in comparison to them.  We purchased our feed and corn through the British Hen Welfare Trust during lockdown but have now gone back to our local-ish supplier as it is so much cheaper, plus we get the Dengi bedding from them too. Didn't check to see if that has gone up as well, I wonder!  I do buy our calender through the BHWT every year, I always love it with all those lovely pictures of little hens relaxing and chilling out everywhere.

Edwink x