Keeping hens and ducks chat.

loskie

"Roost" in peace

beautiful_ravens

Yes, roost in peace Edwinks' Hen.

Mine are utterly bored. Ive put their tunnel on a normal bit of garden and they are not scratching. I gave them cabbage, tomatoes - theyre not that into it.
I think I will have to rebuild another tunnel on a different, more messy/mossy bit of ground to keep them busy.

I wonder if the very fertilised areas where they've been will have extra lush grass in the summer?!

edwink

Thank you all for thinking of us and our poor little gone to heaven hen. Aww bless her she was our indoor girl and so tame. Really miss her not being indoors with us and snuggling up to my feet in the evening when she used to perch on the wooden bar under our kitchen table. I think she thought that having my feet on the bar was like having another hen to cosy up to.

The weather here has been absolutely dreadful this past couple of weeks. So much so that the rain managed to get in through the sides of the chicken coop. Now one side of it is struggling to drain again. I didn't want the girls to all huddle over one side of the coop so I have put Unibeddding wood shavings down so their feet stay dry at least for a bit anyway until it rains in that direction again :mad: Having done all that we have just pulled up the last of our sprouts and kale and thrown all that in their coop for them to enjoy and to keep them busy.

Hubby has been putting more wooden supports underneath the areas where the tarpaulin roof is sagging ((again)). He did this last week but this week he decided to move a few to a different area to see if it directs the rain away from the coop better. Its times like this when I really wish we had a barn where my girls would stay warm and dry.

I really miss them all being out and about because this time of year we normally let them down on to our bit of garden that we keep hen and duck free the rest of the year. I love watching their little faces when they huddle up outside the door trying to keep warm. Our outdoor stove is in our bit of garden too and every year when it snows we light it for them and they would all gather around that too. Hopefully they will be able to huddle around it next year when it snows!!

How is everyone managing? Hope everyone is ok!!

Edwink

CAFCGirl

I'm struggling with the guilt and my ladies.
Im waiting for payday this month and then Operation New Coop will begin. It was always the plan to build (in fact that first original plan) one over an area at the bottom of our garden, but then weather delayed that so we bought a coop and I fashioned a run for them from an old plastic walk in greenhouse. That in itself creates issues so I need to get my engineering hat on and figure out how to build it and then ACTUALLY build it....

On the plus side we had anoter 4/4 day.
I've also changed their bedding and their house seems so much cleaner and poop picking is a much quicker and cleaner job.

edwink

CAFCGirl wrote: »

On the plus side we had anoter 4/4 day. I've also changed their bedding and their house seems so much cleaner and poop picking is a much quicker and cleaner job.

Just out for interest what have you changed their bedding to? We changed ours a couple of years ago from straw to Unibedding which is chipped straw. One huge compacted bag costs us £6.90. A bag lasts us around 3 months in the summer or 2 months in the winter for 20+ hens and 7 ducks. So for us that is pretty economical and definitely cleaner.

We are getting around 8 eggs a day at the moment and no soft shells which is good. Have managed to have our favourite egg and chips nearly every week throughout the winter. If we make the chips ourselves it is such a cheap supper for us and a real treat. Talking of soft shelled eggs if you get any you can still cook them up for your girls. We always scramble them and mix it in with their porridge on really cold days and they love it.

Hope you manage to get your new hen hotel up and running when you have the money. Just a thought but maybe you could sell your surplus eggs like we do and put that money towards the things your ladies need. I know it is not much per box of eggs but it can and does mount up. We have a little kitty running for ours for anything we need to buy for them comes out of that. We have regular customers for our eggs in our road so it is a constant little stream of money coming in for them.

Fingers crossed the ban is lifted in around 6 weeks time. Oh and toes too!!!

Edwink x

CAFCGirl

Unibedding is exactly what we've switched too
Manhandling that bag was a feat in itself, 20kg is more than a 1/3 of what I weigh, and on its end reached my shoulder. Still I prevailed!

I did think about selling the surplus, we're a very urban area. I have very lofty dreams however this year of come later in the spring and summer offering a 'Food is Free' selection from our front garden - which I could now include eggs for too.
Fresh wholesome foods being made available is something I feel quite strongly about. I plan on growing some foodstuffs for the hens (kale etc) on our allotment, as well as using our front garden to grow crops to share with others too. If anyone is interested you can google 'food is free project' which explains it a bit more.

4 hens are (even now) producing more eggs than a family of 2 adults and 1 child needs. Although the dog is lovely some scrambled egg every so often too!

arwenelf

Hi, we have three rescue girls - Matilda, Chewpecker and Princess Layer, we also have two cockerels from eggs that we hatched in the summer called Midnight (he is a australorpe bantam) and Kylo Hen (a pekin bantam). we also have four ducks that we hatched - a girl called etu and three drakes called Speedy (a runner cross), Magic and Snowy. We are currently building a new run for the ducks, once that is finished we will start on a new one for the chickens - wondering if we can put both of the bantams in with the hens.....

edwink

arwenelf wrote: »

We are currently building a new run for the ducks, once that is finished we will start on a new one for the chickens - wondering if we can put both of the bantams in with the hens.....

Hi and welcome to our friendly poultry thread

I personally would say you could give it a go and see how it goes. Having 2 Cockerels together is not normally the best of ideas but the fact they were hatched together and have lived together since could well make it easier. The only problem I can see you having is if one of the Bantams wants to be top dog and decides to fight the other off of his girls. Also it would depend on how old your rescue girls are. Do you have a more dominant hen amongst them? If so that dominant hen could decided to protect the other 2 hens and fight with the Bantams. I would just make sure you have another little hut in your garden for the Bantams if all hell brakes loose. I see no harm in trying to put them together but I would certainly make sure you are home for a day or so to supervise them.

Another thought if it didn't work out could you divide the hens area in half with a chicken wire boundary down the middle so they could live side by side but not in the same space. That way they could argue through the fence without getting in to a fight.

Hopefully someone else will pop on and give their thoughts on your idea.

Love the names by the way. We had a Matilda and one of the hen keepers on here has one. Great name for poultry me thinks!!:D

Edwink

Happygreen

So sorry to hear about your loss, Edwink. They are just so much more than just egg laying birds, every single one a wee personality

The ducks have now gone on egg strike again, they really don't take to imprisonment....

edwink

Happygreen wrote: »

So sorry to hear about your loss, Edwink. They are just so much more than just egg laying birds, every single one a wee personality

The ducks have now gone on egg strike again, they really don't take to imprisonment....

Yes you are so right every one a wee personality. Well said Happygreen :T
You saying that your ducks have now gone on strike again reminds me to "admit" MY HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED TO LAY THIS YEAR YET!!!!:mad:.
None of mine are happy out there now so have added some bits and bobs to the chicken coop and taken some older bits away to make it more interesting. Not much we can do to the duck run except add a water container they can have a shallow splash about in. Run out of ideas now to be honest. They are getting a few extra treats though because that's all I can think of doing to cheer them up. We can't sit out with them either much because it is so blooming cold here at zero degrees most of the day and around -3 at night

Soon have the ban over fingers and toes crossed.

Edwink