Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

suki1964 wrote: »

We got them a chicken treat thingy last week. Lots of differing seeds in a fat block - marketed for chooks - and they haven't touched it Will chop it up for the bird table

We got our hens one of those and they did not touch it for weeks so I decided to do what you did with yours and then they started eating it. (all of a sudden) Maybe they overheard me saying I was going to take it away. It took them weeks to eat it though.

Don't think I will bother buying them another. They much prefer fresh corn or kibbled corn any day and that is so much cheaper to buy for them. They love it and the ducks too.

Edwink

Dizzy_Ditzy

My girls won't eat whole sprout but they will if I break the loose leaves off and shred the rest :rotfl:

Dizzy_Ditzy

BTW - MSE Megan posted on here the other day as part of a competition they were doing. They hid six baubles across the site and one of the clues given was a pic of a chicken, so I knew right away where to look

It worked because I won £100 :j

edwink

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

BTW - MSE Megan posted on here the other day as part of a competition they were doing. They hid six baubles across the site and one of the clues given was a pic of a chicken, so I knew right away where to look

It worked because I won £100 :j

Wow That's fantastic news. :T Well done you.
Edwink x

edwink

Can not believe the amount of eggs we are getting at the moment. Saturday we got 6, yesterday we got 5 and today 6 again. The weather has turned slightly colder here so we expected a drop in the amount.

How about everyone else. How many are you getting?

Hope everyone and their hens are ok.

Dizzy....I do hope that you are ok. I know you have such a lot to deal with since your flooding. I do hope you are managing to get a few things sorted. Been thinking of you. Take care.

Edwink x

Better_Days

Well edwink we were getting one every other day, but in the last week it seems to have gone up to one a day (5 hens). This is the dryest winter we have ever had egg wise, usually the ex-batts continue to lay well in the winter, although not as good as the summer. Maybe its the hens, maybe its the weather, who knows?

They have had poultry tonic the last few days too, that may have helped. The 3 new hens are quite nervous too, and that may be a factor. But at least Doris has her fluffy knickers back for Christmas :xmastree:

ali-t

We are back to getting 6 a day and im supplementing their diet wkth porridge, banana, veg and they have 2 basins of water, one of which has bird tonic glucose powder in it. They look terrible must now with bald patches as most of them are moulting.

Happygreen

Still no eggs here but I found some wet mess in the hen house so I think one may have laid a soft shelled. Little black girl is poorly, so I'm going to make her some porridge. Not sure about isolating a bird in the winter, she might get too cold....:(

Dizzy_Imp

edwink wrote: »

Dizzy....I do hope that you are ok. I know you have such a lot to deal with since your flooding. I do hope you are managing to get a few things sorted. Been thinking of you. Take care.

Edwink x

Thanks - still alive and kicking despite several close calls. Dehumidifiers in and working and whole of downstairs stripped out, revealing full extent of the damage. Will need a structural engineer in the New Year but hey, it could be worse.

My girls don't seem too traumatised by the whole thing as I'm still getting an egg a day from each of them. 6 whoppers too

Is there any advice for winter care I should be preparing for? Clearly still a novice and DH is not entertaining "indoor" hens until Spring :rotfl:

Dizzy_Ditzy

I'm not doing anything differently and my girls are still laying 4-5 eggs a day most days. There has been the odd occasion that they've only done 2-3 but they are very few and far between.

today is the shortest day so hopefully they'll keep going as they are

I'm going shortly to take some grapes round for them. They seem to know I've got them before I've even taken them out of my bag :rotfl: