Poultry
Hatching eggs
Wednesday 16 April, 2008
Our French Copper Black Marans are due to hatch today. Two were pipping last night when I went to bed; by this morning at 6am niether had made much progress so I reluctantly decided to give them a hand.
Armed with warm water and some damp kitchen roll, I started to remove some of the shell. I would have stopped if there had been any bleeding from the membrane, but both were OK. There are now two little chicks drying off in the incubator. I'll move them to the brooder later.
I'm not sure if there are any more coming - two out of 10 would be a bit disappointing. I bought 12 off Ebay; the incubator only takes 10 (who designed an incubator for 10 eggs, I ask you); Dan candled them last week and discarded three as definitely being empty and he was not sure about the rest. So two is better than he expected! We'll be keeping any hens and one cockerel for the flock.
New hens
Sunday 13 April, 2008
Well, the new Black Rocks seem to have survived the trauma of the poultry sale. We cobbled together a temporary run for them today round about their house - the fixed run is way too small and is difficult to move. One BR flew over the fence but we caught her and put her back - to be hinest, it's not a big deal and they will be free-ranging in a few days anyway, once I'm sure they know where home is. Our other hens seem completely unimpressed - even when the escapee joined them.
Poultry Sale
Saturday 12 April, 2008
Caledonian Marts in Stirling hosted the Central Scotland Poultry Sale today. I went along, armed with cheque book, puppy cage and cat basket (just in case). There seemed to be a good turnout, but the first person I saw was Jo Lennon, who's a founder member of the FV&WF Smallholders' Association! I had arranged to meet Andrew and Janis Sharpe, who were "just there for a look". Hold that thought! There were about 200 lots, including hens, cockereles in singles, pairs and trios; ducks, geese, a few turkeys and two pea fowl.
Poultry update
Sunday 9 March, 2008
Our Hubbard meat chicks are now 7 weeks old and will be changing from chick crumbs to grower / finisher pellets over the next week or so. They are all growing well and have (finally) got the hang of the ladder up to the roosting area. This saves us the job at night of putting them to bed! Of course, now they've got the hang of it, they disappear at the first hint of inclement weather - which deprives Tess of her hen TV. They don't seem as active as the chicks we bred and raised ourselves last year, but maybe they're bred not to burn off energy tearing around. They are certainly very docile.
The Hubbards are on the move
Friday 8 February, 2008
The Hubbards, our five chicks, are moving out of the guest room into the garage tomorrow. I think we pamper them a bit and keep the lamp on too long, specially since the room is centrally heated. We've had the window open today, so it's been quite cool and they weren't huddling for warmth. They are quite well feathered now and sh*t for Britain.
So Dan's outside converting one of the portable runs for a hen house into a home for the chicks. within the garage. We will leave the lamp in - they can have it on at night still - but we can open the garage doors to toughen them up, then soon they can go REALLY outside.
Meet the Hubbards
Sunday 27 January, 2008
Courtesy of the TAS forums, we're now the owners of five Hubbard chicks. The Hubbard a meat strain of chicken - so I'm thinking of them as five Sunday lunches, but it's quite hard because they're awful cute.
As usual, they are in the guest room, in the puppy cage. They seem to eat and drink a lot more than our homebred chicks did - they also seem to gro fast. I got them on Wednesday and I think they are noticably bigger already. I might try and weigh them, in my attempts to be more scientific!
The killing of cockerel #2
Sunday 16 December, 2007
Back in September we killed a cockerel for the table for the first time. It wasn't exactly textbook (at least not according to Seymour) but we got there in the end.
This morning we were up early again to despatch another. We had been planning to kill all three of the surplus cockerels we had, but with the loss of Hobbes a few weeks ago and a friend wanting a cockerel to give as a Christmas present we were left with only one to spare.
The King (of the dunghill) is dead.
Saturday 1 December, 2007
When I went out to let the hens down this morning, there was a pile of feathers under the ark. All the hens were present but no Hobbes. I assume a fox must have got him as he went to bed last night. Reynard must have fancied a change to rabbit.
The three young cockerels are fine, so one of them will get a reprieve from the roasting tin either as our stock cockerel or as a swap for an unrelated one. It's an ill wind...
Free range cockerels
Thursday 11 October, 2007
We're learning all the time here - sometimes by accident rather than design.
When I fed the animals this morning, I failed to secure the door on the pen holding the three young cockerels properly. As luck (good as it turned out, but bad at first discovery) would have it, the pen is on a slope so that the door swung open. When I went out about 10am, I thought Hobbes had shrunk then realised that Hobbes' "boys" were out.
Now, I was concerned about this on two counts (well, three if being considered a dope was a concern for me); firstly, I was worried that Hobbes would harm them - he intimidates them dreadfully by strutting round the pen and crowing at them and secondly, I was worried that they wouldn't find their way back at night. I shouldn't have.
The circle of poultry life
Sunday 30 September, 2007
It's been a big weekend for our first ever batch of chicks (two hens and one cockerel) which were hatched back in April.
We were up at the crack of dawn, despatcher in hand, to kill the cockerel, who had the dubious honour of being our first table chicken. The actual despatch went very smoothly - Rosemary holding him upside-down and me dealing with the neck end. It was very calm, with no tears - afterwards Rosemary rightly said that his fate had been sealed the day he had hatched. As a Light Sussex/Rhode Island Red cross he had little enough prospects, but we had always planned to eat any males we hatched.
