Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Dizzy_Ditzy · 11 February 2016 at 10:17AM

We had a case of RM in the summer and the first we knew about it was when the girls set up home on top of their house instead of in it. We decided to let them do it as it we thought it was too hot in the house, and it gave us time to deal with the RM.

We ended up taking the wood and felt roof off and replacing it with plastic. We destroyed the old roof. There was not a single millimetre of that house that didn't get treated for RM with pink spray that I can't remember the name of, diatom and even good old flame! We replaced their perches with a plastic base - it still has wooden perches but we sealed where the wood meets the plastic with silicone sealant. There is nowhere in the house for them to hide. Nowhere at all.

I do still put diatom down in the bedding, rubbed into the perches, in the nest box and the hay in the nest box. The girls get a good rub down with powder fortnightly. Every time I do a bedroom/nest box change, I do the paper towel thing. That's one, two or three times a week depending on how dirty it is in there.

edwink · 11 February 2016 at 2:29PM

Happygreen wrote: »

Will do we might be a bit more northerly than you are - it just started snowing! And it might depend on breed and age of duck when they get going.

We are In the south in Hertfordshire so no snow here for us today. Our Aylesbury ducks are 5 now and all the others are 4 years old. So really do not expect as many eggs each year as they get older. We would like to get some more Indian Runner ducks but with 33 feathered friends in total we think we have the maximum we can look after at any one time.

How old are yours and what breeds do you have?

Lovely sunshine here today so hens sunbathing at the moment with 12 of them standing on my patio table where the sun hits the garden first. Oh I do like it when they sunbathe and look all relaxed and warm. Happy hens = happy me! Sorry that others have the snow again. It is a lot harder for the hens when it snows. Luckily we have only had a couple of days of snow this year. Fingers crossed that is it for the year.

Edwink x

skipton · 11 February 2016 at 11:58PM

I think I had a fox visit last night just as they were going into bed. They all started shouting and wouldn't go into their houses. I finished up carrying Amber, the most vocal, who was still chuntering as I put her away. It didn't help with our visiting blackbird shouting as well. What a racket!!!

They've had fun tonight. I've been clearing a bramble patch which has lovely rich leaf mould under it so lots of digging going on. I had help from a Robin too, eating any worms the girls missed, or ignored.

6 eggs today. (1 blue, 1 white, 3 light brown and 1 dark brown)

Happygreen · 12 February 2016 at 11:50AM

queenofcheap, the last time we had a chicken "ready to baste" was a few years back when Miss Feisty (RIP) was either bullied or had some mental issues. We never found out if she actually pulled the feathers out herself or if the big girls did that to her. It only stopped and her feathers grew when we were given a new girl they could all bully together

not such nice episodes in our flock...
edwink, our youngest ducks are coming on 3 years, the oldest we have had for at least 10 years or longer and we have no idea how old she was then! She is now sadly blind but still following her family. Some girls are pure Khaki Campbells but we've also had Indian Runners, Mallards and something like Cayuga in the mix - a real flock of mongrel ducks! I love that I can keep them apart when need be as most of them look different from the others

smallholding_antics · 12 February 2016 at 2:00PM

Hi there,

We'ew new and would like to join

We have 10 hens and 3 geese with 18 fertile eggs due on 21st. We've had a small amount of hens for a few years but only recently started to expand as we've moved to our dream smallholding.

The girls we have range in breed and are all for laying with 6 being pets that are past laying regularly but won't be going anyway any time soon (by our choice anyway, fingers crossed Mr and Mrs Fox don't think different).

They all free range in their outdoor space which is meshed off to the outside world but of course only as well as it can be. Being out in the country now, I'm assuming there are more foxes that we would have found in our previous town house.

Our geese are Emdens and are new to us. We can't wait until they start laying. Truth be told, we're not entirely sure if we have the 2 girls and a boy we asked for so we may have zero eggs yet!

Anyway, nice to meet you all and I look forward to reading this thread.

Horseygirl123 · 12 February 2016 at 5:37PM

Welcome smallholding_antics. I also only started keeping hens when I bought my smallholding although I don't live there. It is in the middle of the countryside and I've never seen a fox there and I've seen plenty in my suburban garden. Rural foxes are more timid than urban foxes I've been told.

I bet your geese soon let you know when you've got visitors:) I was talked into looking after 6 turkeys one year. I was right at the bottom of the field when I heard them kicking up a din. Sure enough as I got back to the yard i found some friends had come to see me.

edwink · 12 February 2016 at 10:07PM

Hello smallholding_antics so glad you have come to join us on this friendly thread.

I agree the geese will soon let you know if anyone is about. They can and do make a right noise when they want to. Do let us know if they are male or female once you know yourself.

From time to time let us all know how many eggs you are getting from your hens. We have found on this thread that the amounts vary and it does depend if we live in the north or the south.

Great to have you on board.
Edwink

Happygreen · 15 February 2016 at 3:48PM

Hello - reporting the first duck egg of the year!

Also took our oldest duck to the vet this morning and OH and DD2 will have to apply eye drops for a week as I'm away. I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch . Thank heavens she is fairly easy to lift out of the eglu isolation hospital at night....

edwink · 15 February 2016 at 5:56PM

Happygreen wrote: »

Hello - reporting the first duck egg of the year!
Also took our oldest duck to the vet this morning and OH and DD2 will have to apply eye drops for a week as I'm away. I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch . Thank heavens she is fairly easy to lift out of the eglu isolation hospital at night....

Thank you for letting us know that your ducks have started laying. There is hope for mine yet then.

I hope your little ducks eye(s) improve. Has your vet said it is some sort of infection?

One of our ducks gets sore eyes from time to time because she never goes in to our pond. Occasionally I will pick her up and put her in but she clearly does not like swimming and playing in there with all the others. She will have a quick splash about and get out again. Not sure why she doesn't like it so we asked our vet and she said if she doesn't like it she probably won't change and she had not heard of any ducks that will not go in a pond. Who would have thought a duck that does not like water? Weird duck she is.

Edwink x

smallholding_antics · 16 February 2016 at 11:17AM

Thank you for the warm welcome. It's lovely to hear/read about the life of others with similar interests.

So of the 4 new hens/chickens - I'm never sure of the right term, 3 of them are laying but only as of yesterday. We were having 2, 1, 2,1 over the last few days, but yesterday saw us having 3 from the 4 new ones. Our older girls, which we have 6 of, may or may not lay and that's fine with us.

The geese wander around the small holding and come and go as they please. Now where would I expect them to lay, in their shed where they spend the night, or anywhere they feel like outside, close to water maybe? I will have a google as I am really looking forward to that. They do come out of the shed every morning in the same line, I can tell one of them apart as the beak is paler, and s/he is always in the middle.

Our eggs that are chicken eggs are in the incubator and day 18 is on Wednesday which means we need to take out the removable parts and up their water / humidity. I am really excited to think we might have new additions to the flock this coming weekend.

Sorry to hear you have a poorly duck's eye Happygreen. Fingers crossed all is well whilst you're away.

Lovely to meet you all

Keeping hens and ducks chat.

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