Poultry
Broody hen update 4
Wednesday 27 August, 2008
I think our RIR / LS broody has given up. When I came home this evening, the egg was out on the ground, all the food was eaten and she shot out for corn. She's gone to bed in the broody coop tonight, so we'll see what she's like in the morning.
I can't blame her - I know she can't count to 21 but she must know she's been there a long time.
Egg hatching
Tuesday 26 August, 2008
Our twelve Cream Legbar eggs, bought off eBay, were due to hatch last Thursday. One hatched and that was under Carol's broody hen. This time, I followed the incubator instructions to the letter.
I don't think I'm going to buy off eBay again. I'll either use my own eggs or try to buy fertilised eggs locally. The young Copper Black Maran cockerels are very active, but the CB pullets aren't laying yet.
Our RIR / LS, who was sitting on some of the Cream Legbar eggs, is still sitting. If she hasn't given up by 8th September, I'm going to slip some day-old Black Rocks under her.
Backyard Poultry Keeping - dealing with dogs
Tuesday 26 August, 2008
I was running the second backyard poultry course on Saturday. One of the participants had asked a question about dogs and hens and I had explained that most dogs would naturally chase hens and would have to be trained to leave them alone.
A bit later, Dan stuck his head round the door, excused himself to the group, then told me that we had a mini-crisis; Buster, the Staffie belonging to the nearby taxi company, had killed one of our chickens. I excused myself and shot out, followed by Calum, who was on the course but is a friend of ours.
Out to play
Friday 8 August, 2008
Our six Copper Black Marans, at 17 weeks or so, are pretty big so I decided yesterday to let them out to free range. Normally, I would keep them seperate until they come into lay, but I want to move Chip and the young Black Rocks into the smallark, so they can learn to use the ladders; I can then move the broody and her chick into the batchelor pad and give them more room.
I simply took the end off the run yesterday and waited. The first to emerge was the golden pullet, then the three cockerels then the two black pullets. The uber-confident cockerels weren't so bold once they were out in the world. I've been keeping an eye on them - all six stick together and away from the other hens. One of the old RIR whacked one of the cockerels this morning - he's not as macho as he thinks!
Who's who in our hen flock
Thursday 31 July, 2008
Until yesterday, we had three RIR in our laying flock. Last night, we had to despatch Mrs Pink. She had been failing for a few days - I don't think she was in any distress, just fading away so we decided that it was time to call it a day. I was conscious of the fact that the RIR were quite old hens, but I wasn't sure how old. This set me thinking about the other hens too, and I realised that my records were quite inadequate and that I had no real record of who was who.
Last night, I set about trying to work this out, using and Excel spreadsheet and back entries of the TAS diary. Wow, doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself!
Blanche
Monday 28 July, 2008
We don't normally name our chickens - the closest we've got previously was "Mrs Green", Mrs Red" according to the leg rings. Now we have Blanche.
Blanche is a Black Rock with distinctive white "earrings" - she's quite young and was in the batch of Black Rocks I bought at Stirling a couple of months ago. Actually, I'm not sure BR can have white lobes but that's another issue.
She's always been tame-ish and bit of a loner, but over the last couple of days (bribed with dried mealworms) she has become quite tame and I rather like it! She's also very vocal and if you talk to her, she "talks" back. This evening, we spend a happy 10 minutes in the garage, with the dogs excluded; I fed her some mealworms and caught her by one leg (!) before lifting her on to my knee. Once there, she sat quite contentedly for a few minutes before heading off quietly on to the straw bale next to me where I was able to stroke her.
Chocolate Eggs - and it's not even Easter!
Sunday 27 July, 2008
Six Chocolate Orpington hatching eggs sold on eBay today for £250 (Two hundred and fifty pounds - just in case you think I've misplaced the decimal point). Apparently, a pullet sold for £250 and a cockerel for £500 this year.
They are stunning hens IMHO, but I wouldn't pay that for a REAL chocolate egg!
I bought 12 Cream Legbar eggs - and am committed to following the incubator instructions to the letter. I fear I have been rather complacent with the last two batches, which probably explains the poor hatch rate. Must do better!
Chip
Tuesday 15 July, 2008
Here is a recent photo of Chip, our sole Cream Legbar. I'm pretty sure he's a boy. He has a head for heights - I've found him perched on top of the water container yesterday and here he is on top of the feeder. You can see his little harem, and Meg, gazing up at him in awe and admiration!
Broody hen update 3
Monday 14 July, 2008
Our broody hen and her small family seem to be fine.
The weather here was overcast and cool this morning, but at about 10am, the cloud cleared and it is now a lovely warm, sunny day. I checked on them both this morning Broody refused to stay out of the nest - if I shut her out, she was terribly agitated, so I decided to go with the flow.
As a mother who quite often has no idea what she's doing, I projected my fears on to Broody. However, her maternal instinct seems to be in good working order. She and chick have been out in the sun since it came out. Chick is pecking away at chick crumbs, with mum, and toddling about (he's not very good on his feet yet).
Broody hen update 2
Sunday 13 July, 2008
From previous entries, you will know that we have a broody hen, rather unexpectedly. We have no cockerel at the moment, so I bought 12 eggs - 6 RIR and 6 Cuckoo Maran; just in case she got fed up, I put four (plus the ones of ours she'd already hijacked) under her and the remaining eight in the incubator. They were due to hatch on Friday. I noticed last week that the temperature in the incubator was low, so wasn't at all hopful of getting any chicks - Dan candled them and said two looked like they were full of chick.
