New Course Dates for 2013

After much huffing and puffing in the garden to get it looking mud free we have now been able to get our course dates for our chicken keeping courses for 2013 sorted. Please check out the Course Info tab in the blog. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us this year as I have had a stern word with the weather man and he has promised to provide sunshine. If only. We look forward to meeting up with you to teach you the ins and outs of chicken keeping and turn you into an enthusiastic chicken nut like we are about these endearing creatures.

Spring is Finally Here

Well it finally came, and better late than never. Spring that is. The clocks have just gone forward an hour and its amazing how long the days seem all of a sudden. From my last batch of chicks that we hatched just before Christmas, we have now 4 lusty cockerels and 5 hens despite the fact that I thought I had culled the cockerels in the first week. I obviously have a bit to learn about how to tell the difference.  Two of the cockerels had green leg bands meaning I was not sure so I let them grow. Sure enough, despite being thought of as hens at one time, they are now definitely cockerels.  To spare the neighbours we have to bring them in overnight to live in a cardboard box which they seem to like. Come dusk they all start wailing and waiting by the gate so I can let them inside. They are almost ready now for their rendezvous with the freezer but Keith my husband is not too keen on performing the deed until he has had proper training, which is fair enough. He is booked on a course in Hampshire so he can be a fully fledged dispatcher and preparation person. I am expecting great things when he comes back.

Glamorous Gordon, our resident cockerel who is not having the rendezvous with the freezer, has always been quite sweet, but now he is vying for the attention of his ladies against the increasing advances of the new studs on the block, he has become a bit more feisty. He has discovered he doesnt like the colour red so he jumps at anyone with a red coat or fleece on. He also doesnt like me using the wheelbarrow to prop open the run door, and he attacks it. It is green, and now he doesnt like my green wellies if I stand by the wheelbarrow. Crazy bird.

Happy New Year!!!

Here we are again, a brand new year. Hopefully 2013 is going to be better in terms of weather than we have had so far.  We wish all our past customers and future customers a brilliant new year to come and thank you very much for visiting us.

Worm Tag

Hi Folks...as promised I have got together the video of the chicks playing tag with an enormous worm.  It looks really speeded up but it is actually normal speed.  The chick that gets the worm at the end is a Silver Appenzeller. Note the funky hairdo.

Enjoy

If you enjoy this please let us and all your friends know.

Hen and Chicks



As promised, better late than never, I have gathered together some pictures of India and her brood. These are day old chicks. A few hours out of the incubator. India had hatched some of her own also and we "donated" a batch of 12 others so she had 14 altogether. We didnt actually think she would be able to keep that many warm, but she did. She could hardly sit down and her wings were spread out so there was plenty of room where it was nice and warm and protected.

You can see in the other pictures how many little heads pop out when they think there is food to be had. Chicks raised by a hen are much stronger and take on food and water much better than chicks who have had to work it out for themselves. They also get exposure to a less than hygienic existence. I firmly believe that for chicks to be strong and healthy they need to be exposed to bugs at an early age. Bugs but not filth I mean. It builds up their immunity and makes them more able to cope when they are older.  They dont need the heat that brooder raised chicks need and they spend a great deal of time away from the warmth of the hen as they practice foraging for themselves.  She will call them over when she thinks they need to try something new.  If you are raising chicks this way you need to be aware that the chicks will be fair game for any birds like magpies, crows, seaguls, and raptors like hawks, falcons and owls.  Your friendly neighbourhood cat or dog or a passing rat will steal them away also. A protective mother hen will protect them to the death if she needs to and she will be formidable but its best not to take the chance. The chicks will huddle under the hen all night so they need somewhere protected from the elements and predators at night too. It will give the hen a bit of relaxation time as she will feel safe and not anxious.

 The chicks here are hitching a ride. They get to borrow some of the hens warmth while avoiding the log jam underneath.  As the chicks grow the hen will stand more and more upright trying to cover the increasing size of the brood.

Worming Time

Now that winter is coming up. It arrived months ago I hear you say. It is a good time to worm your chickens so that they dont have a worm burden going into a season when they already have enough to do. They will probably be starting to moult soon and Flubenvet worming product needs to be done before the moult so that it does not damage newly produced feathers.

Duckies and Drakes

Our older bunch of two ducks are actually drakes as I suspected.  One is a fantastic Silver Appleyard and he is huge. Much bigger than his parents. The other is a Dark Campbell, but unfortunately he ate something which didnt agree with him and he died suddenly.  My other two duckies are younger and are definitely ducks (female). Drakes are very active in the romance department and are finding these two young duckies irresistable much to their disgust. They quack very loudly when the drake threatens to do the business. I have had to separate them by a low fence to keep them from being abused too much and so they feel safe until they are old enough to cope with the attention. The good thing about ducks such as Silver Appleyards or Dark Campbells is they dont fly so a low knee-high fence or temporary plastic fencing is enough to contain them into a particular area. As the weather this year has been so awful I have had to keep them off the muddier parts so they dont mess up their coop as much and it is healthier for them.



I have come to the conclusion that ducks are indeed stupid, but they are funny creatures though and just as watchable as chickens. They are apt to avoid human contact though unlike chickens, but herding them shepherd style is such fun as they all move like a little army all together all quacking loudly as they go.