LL's chicken keeping adventures

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Mo
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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lancashire lass wrote:(who said you can't train chickens )


It usually happens the other way round though.
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire

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KarenE
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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I'm surprised your girls aren't catching and eating the mice - Remie has scoffed 3 mice that we know of. Perhaps none of your girls is a pure kickback to the dinosaur.

Funny that you mention the White Ladies' smell - Casper was the same and I noticed that has gone too. Perhaps it's something to do with the oil on their feathers, taking a while to work through their systems. It definitely smelt more 'farmyardy'
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Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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sandy
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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Just been catching up, hmmm I get my wormy pellets from farmand pet too have to read up about the Dr Green. Get rid of the mice, yes they are cute and cuddly and yummy for hens and they mean no rats but of they can get in then Roland will find a way! I am loving reading about your finicky white 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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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

Post by lancashire lass »

Mo wrote:
lancashire lass wrote:(who said you can't train chickens )


It usually happens the other way round though.


LOl - you are right there - they've got me trained into getting their greens in a morning otherwise they make a raucous noise

KarenE wrote:I'm surprised your girls aren't catching and eating the mice - Remie has scoffed 3 mice that we know of. Perhaps none of your girls is a pure kickback to the dinosaur.


Maybe they have - to be fair I'm not around during daylight hours, so who knows how many have been eaten. Apart from that one wee baby mouse, I've only caught adults in the traps. Last week alone there were 5 and I know I've not caught them all. I'm just giving the traps a rest for a few days to let memories fade then will start up again with some irresistible bait

sandy wrote:I am loving reading about your finicky white girls


they are well pampered LOL. But learning to be less fussy as the treats become more scarce

Well, not a lot more to add for this week. Egg numbers dropped slightly to 34 this week, with 2 less from the Spice Girls but the White Ladies are a steady 18 eggs. The white eggs are just starting to match the brown eggs in size, today a very large one (must have hurt) which I suspect is a double yolker. Egg sales last week was the best so far with 6 lots of half dozen eggs sold (3 dozen eggs in proper english)
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sandy
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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Hmmm are the white ladies destined to be forever known by that name or will they aquire a lady pop girl groups names? Mice, have them too have blocked up their entry inside the run as cannot put up with rats following them again }hairout{
Sorry I really think hens do train us!
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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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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sandy wrote:are the white ladies destined to be forever known by that name or will they aquire a lady pop girl groups names?


They've got names but it's easier to clump them together as a group - they are not as friendly as the Spice Girls (who are cheeky, get under my feet, make the loudest noise and do the wiggy dance but have very different personalities) The White Ladies are very skittish every time I step into the main run but then rush back in to see if I've dropped any goodies for them to eat. I've tried standing about inside the run to let them get used to me but it's like one eye on the food and one eye on me and bolt at the first tiny movement.

The ladies on the reception desk at work (Pearl, Lesley and Liz) have named the girls ... when I e-mailed photos of my new girls, one reply back was "OMG that looks like Pearl - you'll have to call her Pearl" {rofwl}

During the pecking order, I noticed one was quiet and shy - Lesley said "just like me +pinn+ "

That left just Liz - Liz the hen is a bit of an inbetweener (manages to get out of the way of bully Pearl but shares the same bottom ranking as Lesley)
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sandy
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

Post by sandy »

)like(
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/
bikesandbirdsbob
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

Post by bikesandbirdsbob »

Hi,
My girls hang aroung the pond. Frogs have no chance, Karen ( whom must be obeyed ) saw the rush around the garden with the lead hen legs hanging out of beak . no chance of retrieving it.They also pull the bread out of the fish pond , you can see on the faces standing on the rocks watching where the bread is floating , or crossing on the wood bars and pulling it out . My cats catch the furies and I either get them in the house (what is left of them ) or the chickens get them .The furies were there before the chickens so poor devils will have to go back to the marshes and foxes .
best wishes to all .(and humans ).
Bob
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KarenE
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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I wonder if that's where my frogs have gone. I thought it was the cat who'd done them in but perhaps the chickens have turned French and fancied cuisse de grenouilles as a snack.

My White Lady Casper is the shiest of my 3 but she's slowly coming out of herself. I've found loads of treats in the kitchen (in which I fed her the medication) has helped her to get more confident around me and now she's even sitting on my knee. Perhaps your White Ladies will become as confident although probably not as cheeky as the Spice Girls. I like the name White Ladies - Casper is far more ladylike I find, and I'm sure yours are too!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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KarenE wrote:Perhaps your White Ladies will become as confident although probably not as cheeky as the Spice Girls.


They are finding their voices but it is more like a croaking sound but getting louder when it comes to feeding treats demand LOL and as soon as I appear with "the tray" they all pile into the main run ready for the feast. It's my stepping into the run that gets them in a fluster but it is slowly getting better so confidence wise, they are not shy.

KarenE wrote:I like the name White Ladies - Casper is far more ladylike I find, and I'm sure yours are too


They do seem more ladylike than the Spice Girls - the description of White Stars is that they are like the ballerinas of the chickens, and they do seem to prance about lightly on their feet unlike the others especially first thing in the morning when I let them out of the coops.

The ongoing wet weather is becoming problematic - for both runs, but more especially the new one. As we've already experienced a damp winter with the Spice Palace, it's probably about the same as last year but this time I've not been able to clear the autumn leaves off the roof as well especially with the additional roof between the 2 ... last year I just reached over with the yard brush and dragged the leaves down to the floor but this time can only do half from the patio side. So the run seems dark and where rain has got in, it is damp but generally the rest is dry. In the White House, water has been seeping into the run - at first I thought it was from the back of the run between the greenhouse and shed but even in the mini run, the sand by the shed has been getting damp! Before I built the quail house and covered run, all that paving would have been open and dried off naturally so I probably never noticed that the concrete base built for the shed must be sloping down slightly and water from the back of the shed (bearing in mind the shed roof slopes to the back including the new roof so a lot of water runs down) is making its way to the front }hairout{ The only thing I can think of is to put some sort of guttering at the back of the shed, but easier said than done - it's an 8 foot long shed butted up to the neighbour's privet hedge so I can't get behind it. I'll have to give this more thought, maybe try and position a sort of trough along the bottom somehow.

Last week my egg tally was in error - 2 less eggs were from the White Ladies making it 16 with the Spice Girls at a steady 18. This week there were only 15 from the White Ladies with another steady 18 from the Spice Girls. This week I have probably been a bit heavy handed with the greens trying to use up the last of the summer cabbages and they also had a treat with rice and mixed veggies (I'd cooked too much for myself - there was no salt added so was fine) but it does surprise me because White Stars are reputed for having a very good feed conversion (meaning they don't need to be pampered as much to get eggs) Still, another 5 x 6 eggs sold this week )t' People are starting to think about baking for Christmas so sales are good at the moment and I expect demand to exceed supply in the coming weeks. My new customer to the growing list commented that the eggs tasted much better than shop bought and will be asking for more in the future.

Posh is going into full blown moult - she was already a partial bald chicken to start off so when I started to find umpteen primary feathers in the run on a daily basis, I was expecting to see an oven ready chicken ... surprisingly not as bad as I thought. Where her back and underside has been bare for so long there are now loads of new ones appearing - it would be lovely to see my old girl covered in feathers again (let's hope Scary doesn't start feather eating again) Meanwhile Ginger and Baby look a little moth eaten but to my knowledge, I've only seen the occasional feather in the run when cleaning up. Scary meanwhile still looks pristine as ever - her time will come LOL
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sandy
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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Why, why do girls moult in the winter }hairout{ something to do with daylight hours I expect, have to tell you this..my friend text me wanting an amarlyis for xmas so I scoured the alcohol section :oops: I honestly thought it was some sort of liquer. Bet you wont my help on your allotment would you +f+
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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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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sandy wrote:Why, why do girls moult in the winter }hairout{ something to do with daylight hours I expect, have to tell you this..my friend text me wanting an amarlyis for xmas so I scoured the alcohol section :oops: I honestly thought it was some sort of liquer. Bet you wont my help on your allotment would you +f+


LOL - an honest mistake to make, I hope you got something nice to drink to get over the trial of looking for something not there

Posh is looking really pretty now and I'm amazed of how quickly her feathers are growing - you can barely see any bare patches on her back now but I haven't been able to see her properly to see what her undercarriage looks like.

Not a lot to report - egg production was slightly higher and when I was giving the eggs a quick wipe over and sort out into the boxes, I recognised a few eggs I hadn't seen for a long while .... Posh is laying proper eggs again )c( I thought growing new feathers stopped egg laying altogether but I suppose she has been off laying for some time so making up for it. The new girls have been doing their best to beat the Spice Girls and this week's tally has them in the lead with 19 eggs while the others laid another steady 18. However ... I think the cold snap may have been a tad too much and today there was only 2 white eggs and what I assume is a wind egg (going off the egg shell colour, it looks like Baby's - she usually lays the extra large eggs so this just looks so funny being small):

Image

I have warned my customers that egg numbers may take a dive any time soon so they've been putting their orders in quickly for the Christmas week. I hadn't anticipated the response ... seems like a good sales ploy to get people to put their orders in LOL
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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Brrr, it's been a tad chilly this week with some proper frosts and biting cold winds from the north and a sign that winter has finally arrived - thankfully the house provides some shelter from that direction so surprisingly not as cold as I expected once I got into the shelter inside the runs but they are not immune to the frosts .... one morning I was chipping ice out of the drinkers (lesson learned, empty them on a frost forecast and bring indoors) The wind and rain on Thursday night however, has once again brought dampness into the White House run but luckily the sand dries off fairly quickly on a sunny day. The upside is that the strong winds have blown a lot of leaves off the main run roofs so at least not as dark and the sun can shine in now.

This week I've been rationing the bedding as the bag was emptying - at a time when the girls are in their coops for longer. Today that has been remedied after a trip to Derby to the farm supplies shop. I was debating on going to the Ravenshead shop because I need to get some Bio Dri which only they sell but the thought of getting stuck in the Saturday Christmas traffic queues in Nottingham put me off (there are major roadworks everywhere so the main roads get busy very quickly) No Bio Dri or similar at RE Farms but I did buy the girls a Christmas present - a pack of Hentastic forage cakes. I do hope they like them - the White Ladies have certainly got over their shyness for strange foods and tuck into everything and anything now so I'm sure it will be a nice experience for them, and the Spice Girls are well used to seeing new things. I'm sure they would much prefer the Garvo silkworm and shrimp treat LOL. On my way home I called in at the building supplies and got 2 bags of sharp sand ... the soil in the Spice Girls Palace has been going down fairly rapidly with all the poop picking and the poor things are almost down to scratching the paving stones underneath LOL.

A good week for sales with another new customer who came back the next day to tell me the eggs she tried were lovely and much nicer than shop bought ones {hug} My biggest problem has been a shortage of egg boxes. The White Ladies had another good week and laid 19 eggs most of which were a nice size, but the Spice Girls as suspected are on a decline down to just 14 with Posh contributing more than the others.
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sandy
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

Post by sandy »

Well I hope your girls like their xmas pressie, my girls wouldn't touch it while one gobbled so much she got a hard crop!
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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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's chicken keeping adventures

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The girls did me proud last week, meeting the pre-Christmas egg orders despite a drop in production - I managed to sell 2 and half dozen eggs. I just have one more order this week (a dozen) which is already filled, and I only need to make up a couple of small "Christmas" presents and then they can have a well earned rest until the New Year.

Last weekend I put the sand down in the chicken runs but with the cold weather, the sand was wet and cold. I know the girls probably wouldn't notice it, but as the entire floor space was damp I wasn't too happy about this. So in the Spice Palace, I layered some straw bedding on the balcony where they spend a lot of time and in the White House mini run, I did the same so that one part of their run would at least be warm and dry (I know, I'm soft LOL) Well, when I got home from work and down to do the routine nightly close up and tidy, the White Ladies had scratched all the straw and sand up against the shed side ... obviously not happy about having to find the seed and grains amongst the straw, and the Spice Girls had kicked all of the straw bedding off the balcony and all over the run. Clearly not impressed with my idea although I imagine they had a lot of fun doing it LOL

Scary is going into a full blown moult - yesterday I noticed some distinctive grey feathers around the run when tidying up but this morning when I came to clean the coop there was a layer of downy feathers everywhere. I had to double check to see if she had any feathers left at all but miraculously she looks just as feathered up as normal although not in pristine order. So different from Posh who is looking very smart in her new coat. It's lovely to see her thighs, bum and back now covered, and after losing the last of her old tail feathers, her new one is small and dumpy for the moment but getting bigger. Her chest/crop looks a bit tatty but I suppose that is to be expected as she had no feathers at all on her bum before the new ones grew.

The White Ladies are getting much more bold and confident these days - I've managed to step into the main run without them going into a frantic panic to escape through the bolt hole into the mini run. In a morning after cleaning the coops, I usually pop into the runs to pick up the big stinky poops they do soon after getting up so I'm not just standing in the run but bending down with my little poop scoop and poop box at floor level. Still wary of me but at least we can all be in the same area together now. Of course, what they are actually waiting for rather impatiently is the morning greens and seeds (and a few mealworms) The other day one of them was so impatient she actually ran out of the run when I opened the door - stopped in her tracks and dashed straight back in LOL It's just as well because I had taken the make shift door down (that blocks the exit to the garden) to encourage my neighbour's cats to come a visiting in the hope it will keep the mice problem away.

Last week's egg tally was 15 from the Spice Girls (mainly Baby and Ginger with the odd one from Posh) and .......... drumroll ............... 20 from the White Ladies. One of the eggs was HUGE - I mean twice the size in both length and diameter yike* It looked more like a duck egg it was so enormous - when boxing up the eggs for sale, it was so big I could barely close the egg box LOL. I imagine it is probably a double yolker but I wonder if it had been a normal egg if this week we would have made it to the maximum 21 eggs that I could expect from 3 girls? Whichever laid the egg seems to be none the worse for the experience.

sandy wrote:Well I hope your girls like their xmas pressie, my girls wouldn't touch it while one gobbled so much she got a hard crop!


Oh dear - I nearly went to the Ravenshead place for the Garvo shrimp and silkworm treat but I had such a lot to do this weekend. I bought a couple extra bags of mealworms and some sunflower hearts so I'm sure they'll be happy with those.

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