A while ago we bought a Brinsea mini incubator cheap on ebay, turned out to be a good bargain as it wasn't much and works perfectly! We now have 7 gorgeous chicks nearly 3 weeks old! Anyhow, we were given 10 duck eggs which the farm owners believed would be fertile, so we incubated them, did the can...

It's good that Molly just takes the bullying though. It means she is not fighting for a higher place, so once Lily is satisfied that Molly is no challenge to her position she will probably leave her alone. One other tip I have read somewhere is that when you put them all together you make a threat t...

Hi Sam, do you still need to rehome your 3 girls? Sorry for the long delay in you getting a reply. Will PM you too.
Ellie x

Lol, I can see where onion and sage have come from. Those are the sort of names my husband was very keen on.

Hi David
We are up the road in Lancaster and might be interested in your cockerels.
Do you still have them, if so, how are they getting on?
We are thinking of breeding from our ladies.
Ellie x

totally off topic here, but Maude is such a lovely name for a hen!
What are your others called?
Ellie x

Is the early-moult late-moult thing influenced by breed? Or is it just individual to each hen?
Ta.
Ellie x

That's a great idea, smallholderwannabe, thanks!

Our freezer is almost exclusively filled with meat, veg and fruit. We moved in to our new house in December last year, and as the garden is huge we will be growing veg - but with a young baby I haven't got it started yet ( one of our winter jobs!). So the freezer will definitely be having our own pr...

We were looking at doing paper logs, but haven't really started with it yet.
We researched the log makers on the net, and most got really bad reviews - either flimsy or fiddly or both.
Think I might go for the stuffed envelope method - less effort and mess but it won't burn long I suppose.

Hee Hee

Good luck! It sounds like it will be OK. I think you must have just been very unlucky first time with bad-attitude hen.

We adopted a Speckledy hen two weeks ago, she was the sole survivor of a flock that had been attacked by a dog. She was in a bit of a state at first but recovered really well. I put her in the same run as the others, but with some temp fencing, so they could all get close, and see and hear each othe...

Mind you, the freezer thing is a bit of palaver to go through just to get some early sprouts. Alternatively, they could just be cooked with a bit of bacon or chestnuts to hide any lack of sweetness.

How about picking the sprouts and putting them in the freezer for a little while?
Not enough to freeze them, cos then they would be mushy, but just enough to give them a good chill.
Would that work maybe?