Keeping hens and ducks chat.

suki1964

Must say our girls were none too keen on the snow. Was funny watching them wanting to come out, but so unsure of what they were stood on ( the snow froze so it was like a skating rink ). Thankfully the rain came today and it's all washed away

They seem to love their new home. They have lovely big perches at different heights made out of branches and the nesting boxes are raised now. Not only is the shed insulated but the nesting boxes are as well. Hubby found them all jammed into one the other morning, but it was minus 2 so I guess they still felt the cold


With their new house,run and access to the veg garden they are happy enough. We have been talking on and off about getting a couple more and we have decided on two white suffolks come the spring Hubby wants to get a new !!!! but I'm putting my foot down. The last two were viscous Sod's and I don't want to have a rehoming situation again

skipton

Mine were just like yours Edwink. The 4 new girls just stood in the covered pen doorway and wouldn't venture out. The older 4 who saw a little snow last year just went back into their house muttering and grumbling. Then out of the blue one of them took flight landing in the snow. I finished up clearing a path to all 4 houses so they didn't get cold feet.
The snow had melted in patches this afternoon so they finally ventured out onto the grass outside but they were back inside at 4pm ready for oats and bed. ( 4 eggs today and one softie whose yolk was stuck on a white muggers chest and foot)

Dizzy_Ditzy

We haven't had snow

We did have. Mighty cold couple of days at the back end of last week which must have freaked out their system because suddenly we went from 4/5 eggs a day to 2 :eek: not for long though, we've been back at 5/5 for the last couple of days

They had some visitors this morning in the form of my parents, who very kindly picked some dandelion leaves out of their garden for them the girls now have two new favourite visitors :rotfl:

Better_Days

I gave our hens one of their favourite treats yesterday, warm oats with scrambled egg, yoghurt, and chopped grapes mixed in. Great excitement.

We have a light dusting of snow and the ground is quite hard. The girls are not too impressed by this as it is harder for them to scratch around and find tasty morsels.

Skipton, I loved your description of your hens muttering and grumbling at the snow. If I recall correctly chickens evolved in rainforests so coping with snow is not really in their DNA.

Dizzy_Ditzy

It got down to minus 5 here last night :eek:

The girls water feeder had frozen over at the point where they drink from but not in the bell bit. He managed to break the ice up a bit so they could drink but wasn't able to change the water this morning. The two 5 litre bottles of water we keep in the shed for their water had frozen up too :eek:

At home, I made them up some mash from their pellets and took it round with a flask of hot water. I thought there would be more in their drinker than there was and the only source of water I had was a bucket which collects rain water that had an inch thick film of ice over it.

Anyway, all sorted, girls absolutely loved their mash and when I left they were all crowded into a sunny corner

edwink

We have just lost our Speckled hen. She had been very quiet for the past couple of days. We let her come indoors everyday for a warm up and some treat type food and let her back out when she went back to the door and waited for us. Today she didn't get out of bed and stayed there with her eyes closed so my hubby brought her indoors first thing this morning. She was a sleep most of the day by the stove so nice and cosy. We moved her away from the stove in to a dark corner for the night knowing she would not be with us in the morning. But, she obviously did not last the night as we thought. My hubby will bury her first thing in the morning. I just hope the ground is not too frozen cos it is absolutely freezing here at about - 3. So not as cold as where you are queen of cheap. Brrrr!!!!

Got 3 eggs today from 12 hens.

Hope everyone and their hens and ducks are ok in the freezing cold weather. Well done for looking after your hens so well queen of cheap.

Edwink x

Dizzy_Imp

edwink wrote: »

We have just lost our Speckled hen. She had been very quiet for the past couple of days...

Aww, poor you so sorry to hear this. A sad day for you. How old was she? I'm dreading the natural demise of any of our girls. I'll definitely cry lots, although DH will be very matter of fact about it.

We have had really freezing weather recently. Two mornings running, I've been out with a kettle to melt their drinking water which was a solid block of ice and I needed a crowbar to open the coop door first thing. Seems toasty enough inside but I'll be stuffing another layer of straw in to make sure. Still getting an egg a day off our five ladies. I'm giving surplus to the builders doing our stone wall and they seem very pleased indeed!

Also catching a squeaker a day in the mousetrap. Poor things...

Better_Days

Oh dear, sorry to hear about your speckled hen, edwink, it's so sad when they leave us. Their little personalities make such a mark.

Chilly Chilly Chilly here this morning, heavy frost and freezing fog. Disgruntled clucking from the coop.

I think I will make them up their warm oats mash again today, it is always very well received.

Happygreen

Sadly we now had the accident now I feared might happen....thin shelled egg broke and was promptly eaten. Now she will have remembered that eggs are nice, oh dear....

Happygreen

So sorry, edwink, you lost another. It's always hard when one goes, especially for us all, they are loved little individuals or even pets and not lookalike laying machines....hugs