Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Happygreen · 13 July 2016 at 1:01PM

Better_Days wrote: »

Very sorry to hear about your SIL edwink
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Any news on your ducks Happygreen?

Many thanks for asking, BD. No, sadly no sighting of the missing girls. I never hear anything in the mornings either, when broodies might have a bath. I'm leaving food out for them for a few weeks. OH thinks they must have been taken but I still have hope that at least one of them might reappear as a new mum (she's one of 2 constantly broody ones).
Eggs are good with around 3 dozen a week - especially if I can win the competition with the crows in finding the garden eggs!

Dizzy_Imp · 14 July 2016 at 7:26AM

Sorry to hear about your SiL Edwink - thinking of you and your family xxx

Sad about your ducks too Happygreen

I hope they make an appearance soon.

Well to keep the thread down, I'm reporting red mite in my coops :mad: Spent an hour yesterday scrubbing and spraying all the nooks and crannies. Will be powdering chooks and dosing their water today. Nasty little things! I squashed many as I could to exact revenge of sorts. Urgh...

Still getting a full house of eggs most days though, so I'm hopeful I caught the infestation early enough. Did I say "Urgh" ???

normandynat · 14 July 2016 at 2:51PM

hi all,

i live in normandy france and have done for the last 11 years, when we lived in the uk we didnt have room for animals but here i have
we have 16 chickens _ranging from oldest blossom and lily who are 6 years and still laying , crunchie, milky way, galaxy, golden nugget, buttons who are 4 years {kids named them after chocolate], and then we rehomed 11 ex battery girls which we only have 7 now _bloody foxes and then we rehomed a cockeral and his 2 ladies
and then 2 ducks 1 male all white_alysbury {i think} and 1 female {malard}
between them all we get 6to9 eggs a day as some are layers/meat birds so dont lay everyday and then our female duck has just laying again

they are free range but at the moment back in their huge inclosure as they were eating too much in the veg patches
treats they love are pasta

oldandhappy · 14 July 2016 at 8:10PM

hello normandynat I have lived in France now just 1 and half years..Poitou Charente area. come under area 79 Deux Sevres far border and in Montalembert commune...near the church if you have goggle earth...have 4 chickens and 7 ducks in England still as 1 duck died 2 weeks ago and she was such a complete loud extravert character I wonder if she burnt herself out....call ducks I have in England still...miss them so much but they are in good care at our friends who have Mantel Farm a chicken mainly business near Battle East Sussex. Great you have taken in some battery hens....they should have a better life for sure...bye for now Dianne

Better_Days · 15 July 2016 at 8:27AM

Ohh this is turning into an international thread, how lovely

:D:D Welcome to our friends in France and so sorry to hear the news this morning. Incomprehensible.

Love the chocolate themed names for your hens normandynat. Mine love pasta too, I give them a spaghetti and sweetcorn treat every day which always elicits clucks of excitement and frantic rushing around when I throw it down. Sometimes I put some chopped grapes in too, which raises the excitement level even higher.

When we first had hens we had a lot of problems with mites. But we have found a monthly clean of the coop with poultry shield then when dry a thorough coating with DE does the trick. Those mites are horrible though, and when we were in the 'getting under control' period we also found ivermectin for use on the hens helped.

Our new little dog Dotti is settling in well. She was racing round the garden with her stuffed pumpkin toy yesterday and managed to drop it into our small pond. Pumpkin now drying out on the boiler.

normandynat · 15 July 2016 at 8:48AM

Oldandhappy some of my family live in three oaks and my nan lives in battle by the village center,

Betterdays yes what happened last night in nice is awefull _we often go to french celebration days like most french to see the fireworks

touch wood we dont have a great problem with red mites _ i have got the powder but we wash the chickens in a non bleach floor cleaner mixed with water and then rinse them off if we see any sign of them on a hot day so they can dry off _ if you do this wear old clothes and expect to be wet

we went and rescued 50 hens altogether for friends from a egg farm where they only keep them for a year then they get sold for meat birds and you pay them 2.50euros which is what they get for meat { was great fun trying to get them in and out out a trailer and put to bed -luckily by the end of the week friends collected theirs and just left with our 11]

for brooding chickens if we dont want them to brood we have some old huge concrete rabbit cages that we put them in without hay:bedding and just food and water and only need a week in there to stop them_ its also used as a hospital wing if any get poorly

edwink · 16 July 2016 at 9:20PM

Just got back in from the hospital. SIL off Life Support and slowly making a little progress. She had allsorts going wrong with her so it is a blooming relief. Still not out of the woods for her but a little progress is a positive step. Bless her!!

On a sad note I lost one of my rescue girls this morning. She went down hill over the past couple of days after being very quiet. I hate it when that happens like all of us on here do. I am sure she enjoyed her retirement with us what little time she had of it. I gave her a raspberry every single day because she used to jump up at me when she saw me heading up the garden. But yesterday she didn't jump up for it so I knew something was wrong then. RIP little Squidley x

Happygreen have you seen your ducks yet? Wonder where they have gone. Strange for that to happen.

Hope everyone is ok and enjoying their rewarding delicious eggs.

Welcome to the newbies on our wonderful feathered friends thread (try saying "feathered friends thread" fast) :rotfl: You are more than welcome to join in with us all. We like to know your hens and ducks names and the breeds if possible. There are some great names on here so far. Also little pictures would be great. That reminds me I did promise you all a picture of my girls dust bathing. Will take some pictures to put on here tomorrow all being well at the hospital.

take care all

Edwink x

Happygreen · 17 July 2016 at 1:23PM

I'm glad to hear your SIL is improving, edwink.

No sighting of my ducks yet....I fear they might have disappeared on that one day we were all out in big town. I'm still hoping that a least one might be sitting somewhere...

normandynat · 18 July 2016 at 9:53AM

arrrrrgh hubby saw a fox in our field but right close to garden yesterday evening
all our girls are fenched it but its not that high so they could jump over
but 3 girls jump out so will have to clip their wings for their sake _ blossom being 1 of them has already survived fox attacks twice

edwink glad youre sisters better

oldandhappy · 18 July 2016 at 12:20PM

removed Madge from the nesting box because she has been in there forever really...but soon found a good place instead.....Thats Henryetta
next to her...she is the boss and very greedy...and the biggest by far of course...

Keeping hens and ducks chat.

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