Mo and the Rockers

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Mo
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Mo and the Rockers

Post by Mo »

I've just realised that I've been keeping hens for 10 years now (well, ten years and a month).
23 hens, over 9 thousand eggs.

The first 3 were a white star and 2 black rocks.
Then a 'little red hen' RI hybrid and a couple of chunky 'dual purpose' hens - maran hybrids, on blue and one buff.
4 more brown hybrids before I found another supplier for Black Rocks (the first chap had retired and his nephew didn't stock them.
A long journey to get 3 Black Rocks, I wasn't impressed with the way he handed them to me - 2 in one hand, upside down. They were kept in a wire cage on a frame, fair amount of room but not free ranging. And although they were sold as point of lay the first took 4 weeks, the other two 8 weeks before there were any eggs.
So next time I found a supplier of Block Rocks near Nantwich and started buying from there. I've been happy with Creag Mhor, and gone back a couple of times.
Up till this point I'd been keeping then in an arc inside a flocknet which I moved round the orchard. But this bunch decided they were not going to stay in, and they'd rather roost in trees.
So we found nothing but feathers and one lone hen one morning.

Time to build a Walk-in run. It took time to plan and build and meanwhile the singleton was kept in the arc with a small roofed extension made of flocknet, and moved more frequently.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire

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Mo
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Mo »

continued
Autumn '11 she and her new friends moved into the run. At the end of winter there was still some grass, so I was hopeful that we'd made it big enough. But then we had a wet summer and winter and acres of mud.

Last month the council sent a tree surgeon to trim hedges before our lane is resurfaced. An enquiry 'what are you doing with the clippings ?' and I had a massive pile across the drive. Luckily they bought them down past the garage, as moving them was quite a job.

And last year I decided that the arc was getting too decrepit so I bought a Garden Store (like Wendy's).
The old arc is tucked away at the bottom of the garden in case I need to separate any. My grandson thinks I should get a Daddy hen to keep in it.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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aishakali
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by aishakali »

Hi Mo, hope you keep posting on your diary )t'
LYN
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Annie
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Annie »

Mo , just want to say you have my vote for the diary with the best title )app(
It will be alright in the end , if its not alright, it isn't the end .
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Linda S
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Linda S »

Lovely background story to your hen keeping Mo :-D Lindaxx
And then there was one, Again!!!!
Jemima
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Little Angels Free For Ever
Honey,Lizzi,Peggy-Mitchel,April,Hope,Faith,Blondie, Sorrel,Scarlet, Penny, Gabby, Rosie, Chick-a-Dee
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sandy
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by sandy »

10 years, that is a long time. Such a shame about your first girls
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
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MissEllie
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by MissEllie »

Looking forward to hearing more about your girls Mo :-D
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Mo
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A flashback

Post by Mo »

A flashback to the early 1950s and my first encounter with hens.

We had moved into my Grandparents 3 bedroom terraced house, as Grandma had heart problems. I was at junior school, my sister not old enough for school yet. Grandad kept chickens.
He had the sort of shed you see in Dig-for-Victory books, a narrow closed shed and a run along the front. I remember them cooking up scraps (and a bran mash?) for the hens Occasionally they were let out into the back lane. Then it was my job to see that they didn't go round the corner and into the street. I used to play in that back lane, and had cultivated a little bed of weeds (I liked being different) - so I learnt early on the power of hens to destroy gardens.

At Christmas the hens weren't given a special Christmas dinner - they were the Christmas dinner.
I took that in my stride, but my sister was put off eating chicken for ever when Grandad calmly wrung the neck of one of her 'friends'. She was at home all the time and used to playing with them.
I do remember the excitement when one ran round the garden with no head though.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Stef
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Stef »

Is now the time to reveal that when I was 9 I earned a penny a chicken?

It would have made a lovely olde worlde picture: I sat on a 3 legged stool in front of a stable block, on cobbles, with chickens running round the yard. I'd reach out and grab one, wring its neck and drop it into a big bin, an adult would then take them out and rub the feathers off on a wheel thing.

I could make 50p in a day!!
1 dumbo rat still without a name; 2 top eared rats Octavia and Ursula
1 Rhode Rock, 1 Sussex Star, 1 Blue Ranger - The New Monochrome Set

My crafty blog, it's Frugal too http://relovedremnants.blogspot.co.uk/
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sandy
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by sandy »

Ooh Stef but then that was not only practical but humane. Not like being caged and hung upside down to be killed. It is a real shame no one took a photo but then cameras usually came out for special occasions didn't they
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
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Mo
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Another flashback

Post by Mo »

About the same time that Stef was earning her 50p a day * we'd just moved from Chester to the wilds of mid-Cheshire with 2 small children.
At the time there was a small 'lunatic fringe' who aimed to be self-sufficient. It wasn't very fashionable. John Seymour published his book about then, The Good Life was a few years later.
I set to work digging up the back garden and planting veg.

Our plot had been part of a field which before the war had been divided up and sold as plots for caravans. During the war most people didn't come out at weekends, and afterwards the Planning permission people put their foot down, so it went back to being a field. All except for one wooden shack in the corner. Someone had been living there permanently, and he stayed put, bought some of the other plots and got planning permission to build a bungalow - on condition he pulled the shack down.
When we bought the bungalow the shack was still there - full of chicken droppings. We could see the partition for the kitchen, and a loo roll holder still on another partition.
This sparked ideas for yet more self sufficiency.


*Which would have bought quite a lot - my 3 yr old was given 3p a week, enough to buy a bag of crisps or save for something. 3p = crisps, 15p = matchbox car.
Last edited by Mo on 07 Apr 2013, 23:10, edited 2 times in total.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Mo
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Another flashback

Post by Mo »

continued.
My son started at a Playgroup run by a real character. A Scot who had moved to the village in the early 40s and had her finger in every pie. Grew veg & fruit, kept hens and bees. When I said I was interested in hens she offered to get some for me since she was getting some for herself.
So we made a chicken wire run outside the pop-hole and started hen-keeping.

At the time shop eggs were very cheap, even though we'd spent very little on our set-up we didn't seem to be getting our eggs much cheaper after we'd bought the pellets. But we enjoyed 'new-laid-eggs'. And the 'Little Red Hen' in the story book looked so like our red hens - such character and expressions.

The little run was soon bare, we shifted it sideways onto new grass, but knew that wouldn't last long either.

Then we went on holiday. A neighbour was minding the hens, but when we came back it was to hear that we'd had visitors. Not a fox, but a thieves. We saw a pile of feathers where they'd climbed over the field fence. The neighbour contacted the police who had their suspicions who it was, but couldn't do anything.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Linda S
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Linda S »

Mo its lovely to read of the background of your life :-D Lindaxx
And then there was one, Again!!!!
Jemima
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Little Angels Free For Ever
Honey,Lizzi,Peggy-Mitchel,April,Hope,Faith,Blondie, Sorrel,Scarlet, Penny, Gabby, Rosie, Chick-a-Dee
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remembering Our Beautiful Foster Boys we are so sorry that we couldn't keep you
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Mo
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teleporting hens

Post by Mo »

My present flock are 3 Black Rocks. Golda (the one with a pale brown head). Blackie 1 & Blackie 2 - one of these is boss, the other is lowest, but I only discovered their evil natures when I gave them an ants nest I'd dug up, most of the time they are friends.
Blackie 1 has been renamed Ramoth. I'm convinced she can teleport. They have a flocknet extension to their run that they sometimes go in; until the weather improved and we started the garden planting they have been allowed to freerange for an hour before bed. So now I keep finding her
Outside the extension when the rest are in it
Inside the extension when I've shut the popgate
Outside the run when they should all be inside.
The run is 6' and mostly covered with net (but the door opens inwards so that bit is more awkward to cover)

I can hardly turn my back on her.
Thats what you get for letting them out.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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Linda S
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Re: Mo and the Rockers

Post by Linda S »

Iwish my girls would eat ants Mo there are loads in all our garden and they never bother, i just think the"r probably spoilt princesses :-D Lindaxx
And then there was one, Again!!!!
Jemima
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Little Angels Free For Ever
Honey,Lizzi,Peggy-Mitchel,April,Hope,Faith,Blondie, Sorrel,Scarlet, Penny, Gabby, Rosie, Chick-a-Dee
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remembering Our Beautiful Foster Boys we are so sorry that we couldn't keep you
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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