Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Happygreen

As our beloved DD1 is coming home on Saturday my feathered girls will get porridge! They would kill for porridge
We still have no fresh eggs but I do have a bit of a stash put away for the CHristmas baking. I do my "triple test" before using them...
Floaters get chucked, if I can see any solid bits when candling they get chucked (fertilised...) and after that if it smells weird once cracked open it's for the bin. The third has only happened to my DDs because they forget to do test 1 and 2! This method has always helped me over the winter and eggs do last so much longer than the officially recommended 3 weeks (3 weeks, honestly?). If they are older than 4 weeks I only use them in baking and for quiches, etc. How long do you use yours?
I am looking forward to the first gifts in the morning for poached eggs, a real yummy treat at the start of the season.

suki1964

We haven't seen an egg for 3 weeks now

How long before they start laying again?

We have had rain, rain and more rain the past month, and storms so the girls haven't been out too much. They don't like the wind at all. They come out in the rain and just perch under the slide

We opened up the veg plot to them so when it's not raining they have loads of greenery to peck at and lots of loose soil to pick over for insects

They are still using the "greenhouse" as home. However their new house is being built for them. Now I'm not saying we spoil our girls, but this house is being double insulated , has double glazed windows and will have an electricity supply. The floor is going to be covered in a kind of rubber matting so easy to clean down and a tiled roof to help prevent mite

Oh and I'm sacrificing a part of the veg garden for it lol


Dizzy, hope you are all warm and dry. We have terrible flooding around here but luckily our only problem is the septic tank isn't draining fast enough as the soak away is flooded. A minor inconvenience. More rain from tonight for the weekend

Better_Days

Oh dear Edwink, a purple comb is not a good sign. I do hope she picks up overnight. Whatever happens at least she will be cosy and safe. :A

I've not given ours a Christmas dinner - but perhaps I should try this year. I have cut down on the kitchen scraps as Jemima tended to get an upset tummy. Previous hens seemed to be able to eat anything, but not Jemima.

Suki - your girls new house sounds great - can I move in? Double glazing will keep them cosy, how are you keeping some air flow going? Good idea for tiles for the roof, I think that you are on a lost cause when you get mites and you have roofing felt.

Not tried porridge on ours Happygreen, but I do give them yoghurt sometimes. Nearly all of them love it. But it does tend to get spread around a bit, as they shake their heads to clean their beaks of excess

stepuptothepl8

I'm reassured to see that others are not getting eggs either.. Ours have stopped laying altogether for about ten days now. I hate buying eggs! :eek:
We're down to 8 girls now but we've planned to get more rescue girls in the spring. They're getting mealworms as treats (which they do love so much) and I always cook more mashed potato than we can eat.. They aren't spoilt at all, oh no!

ali-t

Ours have gone back up to 6 a day and have been getting bananas and wheetabix one days. I boiled up some veg from a soup pack tonight and blitzed it before checking whether chooks can eat onions. Its a resounding no from the internet so for the bin rather than kill them.

suki1964

The air flow will be sorted with wired vents which can be opened/closed.

Got some lovely brass ones sitting here looking a home

Tell ya, no expense spared

Former_MSE_Megan

Gobble, gobble, gobble... :xmastree:

Dizzy_Ditzy

I only had 3/5 eggs today. Girls had some sweetcorn this morning which was gone in about 30 seconds flat and some spinach this afternoon which they devoured

It's not the lack of eggs that's annoying me, it's that I have to PAY for greens etc for them this time of year :eek: thankfully the shops are all trying to outdo each other in the run up to Christmas

edwink

MSE_Megan wrote: »

Gobble, gobble, gobble... :xmastree:

This is a hen and ducks thread no turkeys allowed. Hee!! Hee!! Hee!!


Sorry x Hee!! Hee!! Hee!!

edwink

We lost our little peasha yesterday afternoon. Bless her. She did not suffer and was sleeping most of the time.


Purple combs are not good!! Sad x