Poultry update

Diary

Posted: Wednesday 3 August, 2011

by Rosemary at 2:12pm in Poultry 3 comments Comments closed

Just a quick update on our poultry - there have been a few things happen over the last few weeks that I just haven't had time to share.

We've lost about five of the old laying flock that we brought from Alloa last summer. None have shown any sign of disease so I'm putting it down to old age. We have had one live to eight years and one to six years, but I think these are exceptions. There are basically three groups - aged 3 years, 2 years and last year's lot. The deaths have been mainly in the three year old Black Rocks and the two year old Warrens. Touch wood, we've never gone this long without a fox or dog attack, so I'm not sure what the "norm" is.

The Black Rocks we bought as day-olds in March are now twenty weeks old and starting to lay little pullet eggs. They've been joined by two 15 week old White Legbars called Ada and Olive, after Dan's grandmothers. Boy, can they run (the hens not the grannys)! They will lay white eggs, which will add a bit of interest to the egg boxes. I might try and add a couple of blue or dark brown egg layers as well.

The Hubbards are now five weeks old and growing like weeds. I think this is the best batch we've had - nine white and one brown. They are still in a box run and being moved daily to fresh grass. They do love a scratch around, some grass and a sunbathe.

Finally, we have a Warren with sour crop - her crop has become full of food and grass. I've bought some live maggots to feed her with - apparently they help to digest the crop contents and move things along. She certainly ate them with relish - watched by all the other hens, clucking "That's mine".

So that's the poultry update - I will try and be a better diarist in future.