Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

tSisterAnna said:

I am sad to hear your news about your little duck Hoppy.  Like maddiemay, I have really enjoyed hearing about her and how she was getting on. That's a good age for a duck at nearly ten years old, what a lucky little duck she was to have you and Mr. edwink to look after her. 

I don't post on your thread much because I don't keep hens myself but I do love following this thread and catching up on everyone's hen and ducks news. Just wanted to say that I am thinking of you both, take care.

Cheery_Daff said:

Aw Edwink, I am so sorry to hear about Hoppy. Such a good age, and she had such a lovely life with you. I can only imagine how sad you are xxx

Thank you both for your posts about my dear Hoppy.  She was with us for a long time. bless her and we gave her the best possible life here. Especially when she became much older she was so spoilt. Mealworms mixed in with her main meals because she loved them so much.  Who wants just poultry pellets when they are reaching old age eh? Also, gave her wholegrain cooked rice too and she used to gobble that up.  We have some lovely memories of her that will never be taken from us. That's what I always hold on to when we lose one of them

Edwink x

edwink

Just found this picture of one of Hoppys black eggs. Weird looking but the same as proper eggs inside. They make better sponges than hens eggs do for some reason.

thriftwizard

So sad to read about your Hoppy, @edwink. But what a life you gave her, I just wish more birds were so well-blessed. That black egg is amazing - makes my Legbars' bluey-green eggs look quite ordinary.

Prepping my runs for lockdown at the moment, not that anyone was inclined to brave the appalling weather today anyway! The bantam run is all ready apart from the door which is gappy; I need to sort that out pronto as there's a sparrow who seems to think she's a Pekin. But the new tarpaulins to go over the Big Girls' run have vanished without trace; I bought them back in the early summer, as the old one is disintegrating now, but didn't feel the need to replace it straight away, what with all the lovely weather. Needless to say, someone has tidied them away & I have no idea where they could be - my dear family believe out of sight will do, when it comes to tidying, so they could have been stuffed just about anywhere! So I've had to order some more; ah well, tarps are always useful!

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, I hadn't realised Hoppy laid black eggs edwink, how interesting! 

Good to see you getting your run ready Thriftwizard. It's just getting earlier and longer every year.

Very sad time here. We found Poppy dead in the garden yesterday ☹☹☹ Still noidea what happened. Mr Cheery was tidying up but had seen them all pottering about the garden - it was windy so they were hanging round near the house.

I went to the airport to pick up a friend, came back, head chickens in the garden but couldn't see them (not dostress noises though). Saw a couple out of the window just pottering. 

Then, about 5 mins later, out of a different window, spotted Poppy, dead, with a bit taken out of her neck, and Sunshine next to her looking slightly confused. Rushed out, she was already stiff and pretty cold so it hadn't only just happened. No sign of a struggle, Sunshine didn't seem distressed, but we eventually found the other two hiding in the hen house so they'd obviously been spooked by something. 

No feathers everywhere, so we're thinking maybe she had a heart attack or something, then was incidentally bitten by something after she'd died (possibly even by Sunshine - although I won't be sharing that with Mr Cheery, who is inconsolable - he's kicking himself because he normally let's them in the house for a sit down around that time but was busy yesterday so didn't).

So our friend's first experience of our home was a frantic search for the other chickens and a funeral 😕

Obviously no rehoming now because of the lockdown so we're heading into the winter with just 3, which h seems awfully precarious 😕

Not great timing as we're going away for 2 nights for the first time in 5 years. My sister is staying to look after them - and I am so grateful this happened when we were still here. She'll leaving them in the run while we're away now.

Hope your beaky friends are all safe.

orangecrush

@edwink I’m so sorry to read about Hoppy, she meant so much to you, and I am sure you meant so much to her too! She had a lovely life with you. It is probably so upsetting now but I hope there will be a time when you can enjoy the memories you have.
Sending love from afar! 

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:  Very sad time here. We found Poppy dead in the garden yesterday ☹☹☹ Still no idea what happened. Mr Cheery was tidying up but had seen them all pottering about the garden - it was windy so they were hanging round near the house.

I went to the airport to pick up a friend, came back, head chickens in the garden but couldn't see them (not dostress noises though). Saw a couple out of the window just pottering. Then, about 5 mins later, out of a different window, spotted Poppy, dead, with a bit taken out of her neck, and Sunshine next to her looking slightly confused. Rushed out, she was already stiff and pretty cold so it hadn't only just happened. No sign of a struggle, Sunshine didn't seem distressed, but we eventually found the other two hiding in the hen house so they'd obviously been spooked by something. 

No feathers everywhere, so we're thinking maybe she had a heart attack or something, then was incidentally bitten by something after she'd died (possibly even by Sunshine - although I won't be sharing that with Mr Cheery, who is inconsolable - he's kicking himself because he normally let's them in the house for a sit down around that time but was busy yesterday so didn't).  So our friend's first experience of our home was a frantic search for the other chickens and a funeral 😕

Obviously no rehoming now because of the lockdown so we're heading into the winter with just 3, which h seems awfully precarious 😕 Not great timing as we're going away for 2 nights for the first time in 5 years. My sister is staying to look after them - and I am so grateful this happened when we were still here. She'll leaving them in the run while we're away now.

Aww, Cheery, poor Poppy, and what a horrible way to find her when you got home.  Poor Sunshine too bless her being confused. Sometimes we have no idea what happens to them so it could have been a heart attack as you say. Or something attacked her but with no feathers anywhere that would seem unlikely I guess. But, as the other 2 were hiding in the hen house as if something had spooked them I guess it could be likely something had a go at her but it appears something did not spook Sunshine so maybe she wasn't in that area when it happened but the other two were if that makes sense. 

Hugs to both you and Mr Cheery x

Edwink x

orangecrush

Oh no @Cheery_Daff! That’s so sad. What an awful thing I’m so sorry you have lost a feathery friend too. Sending love, I hope you and Mr Cheery have a nice time away despite this x

edwink

orangecrush said:

@edwink I’m so sorry to read about Hoppy, she meant so much to you, and I am sure you meant so much to her too! She had a lovely life with you. It is probably so upsetting now but I hope there will be a time when you can enjoy the memories you have.
Sending love from afar! 

Thank you orangecrush that is so kind and sweet of you x I hope all of yours are keeping well. 

It's not been a very good week on our hens and ducks thread this week and all of our poor feathered friends are in Avian Lockdown from Monday onwards, bless them. What a rotten week it's been 😥😥😥

Edwink x

thriftwizard

Sorry to hear about your Poppy, @Cheery_Daff; it's particularly awful when you don't know why. 

My girls are shut in now, as the weather's awful down here; they don't seem to mind at all! I did get the bantams' door sorted but my tarps for the big run haven't turned up yet, and I'm away working tomorrow so it won't happen now until Monday. They do have a roof, so I'm not panicking, but it is rather leaky! Egg-laying seems to be drifting to a halt, all bar the one big red and one particularly motherly Pekin; she'll shut up shop until February any day. I'd hoped the young Legbars might "come in" before now, but no luck. Ah well, I can always buy some eggs!

Cheery_Daff

We've only bought eggs once since we had chickens (when we had a lot of visitors at once!) but now we've only got 2 layers and they've slowed down for winter, we're only getting a couple of eggs a week so we might have to consider it. Outrageous! 

Popped in to say, did you see edwink and Hoppy made the MSE Top Forum Picks list for the week??

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2022/06/forum-highlights-4-november-2022/


Hello to any new people popping in, you're very welcome to stick around and chat about hens and ducks 😁 Do introduce yourselves and say hello!

It's been windy here too, and the chickens don't like it, but nothing much we can do. Our coop has a solid roof, not tarp, so at least it doesn't flap about, but we're quite exposed on the top of a hill so the wind does still whip about a fair bit.

We've finally started the process of another extension 🙄 This one was meant to be simple 😂 More 'outdoors' than the others, with just mesh sides (and a solid roof of some kind). The current one has mostly windows at floor level to avoid the worst of the wind, which is great in winter, butnot great in summer. The top half of all the walls is mesh so it's not like a greenhouse (although they'd probably prefer that in this weather!)

Anyway, I stupidly bought MASSIVE bits of wood, about 18 months ago now 🙄 and they're so unwieldy we've yet to actually construct the darn thing. 4x4 inches I think, and I think 10 foot long 😂 Completely ridiculously over engineered but there we are. So I need to dig some giant holes... I was thinking it would be easier than the last extension, which is on breezeblocks, and also completely overengineered, but apparently not. 

Here's a picture (from before the flockdown) with the rough dimensions laid out itn garden canes. The existing run is actually quite light and airy inside despite how dingy it looks from the outside!



I'll post better pics as we're building it - might take a while as the weather is vile so they won't be using it much anyway. I'd love to see pictures of everyone else's set ups!