Saturday, 28 April 2012
A link to YouTube.
If you want to see how much Lunar enjoys her highway to bed and board then look at this Youtube clip.
Chicken sexing
Between you and me, I am very loath to start naming these chickens in case any of them (the tiniest, possibly?) are male. There is talk that the head shape is an indicator and that if the legs are thicker they are male but at this early stage it's still tricky to work out.
The breeder we bought the last two from is convinced that they are both girls but I have a nagging feeling that the baby is going to start crowing further down the line. That will be a great shame if I call her what I want to - Mrs. Bun.
Lunar, the lavender (so called because she glows like a new moon) is almost definitely female but she has several weeks more growth than the other two. That leaves our new gold laced, our Shakira mini-me, who is clearly going to be Luke's little darling (he has a soft spot for these beauties). He calls her Poppy.
Our original Lola*, a blue laced hen we bought five years ago turned out to be a hermaphrodite! She didn't have spurs or could crow but she had the comb and wattle plus the shape and colouring of a cockerel. It was such a shame because she/he tried hard to fit in with the rest but they knew the difference and used to cluck noisily and angrily when Lola copied them and sat in the nesting box for hours, producing nothing but a warm patch of wood shavings. As Luke happily suggested we call her Lola I reminded him of the lyrics of The Kink's song of the same name but we never really expected to get a male, masquerading as a female.
So, if the baby of our brood turns out to be Mr.Bun instead I shall be very sad; after all, whilst we can take it back we'll have grown attached to it and so will the other birds. Fingers crossed that my hunch is wrong and we have three little ladies.
Having come home from a day's work to find the little chicks in the run I've had a chance to have a look at them in daylight. I'm sure I can see the beginnings of spurs on the teeniest, two little light dots that will continue to grow. I'm goign to take a photo and send it onto the breeders for their take on it.
*Amendment, I seem to have confused my chicken names...., Luke tells me that it was Coco who turned out to be the hermaphrodite and when we returned it to the breeder we tgot Lola as a substitute along with Sweetie - who was my favourite hen for her tenacious attitude in such a teeny bundle of feathers. (I still think it should have been Lola though as the story makes more sense!)
The breeder we bought the last two from is convinced that they are both girls but I have a nagging feeling that the baby is going to start crowing further down the line. That will be a great shame if I call her what I want to - Mrs. Bun.
Lunar, the lavender (so called because she glows like a new moon) is almost definitely female but she has several weeks more growth than the other two. That leaves our new gold laced, our Shakira mini-me, who is clearly going to be Luke's little darling (he has a soft spot for these beauties). He calls her Poppy.
Our original Lola*, a blue laced hen we bought five years ago turned out to be a hermaphrodite! She didn't have spurs or could crow but she had the comb and wattle plus the shape and colouring of a cockerel. It was such a shame because she/he tried hard to fit in with the rest but they knew the difference and used to cluck noisily and angrily when Lola copied them and sat in the nesting box for hours, producing nothing but a warm patch of wood shavings. As Luke happily suggested we call her Lola I reminded him of the lyrics of The Kink's song of the same name but we never really expected to get a male, masquerading as a female.
So, if the baby of our brood turns out to be Mr.Bun instead I shall be very sad; after all, whilst we can take it back we'll have grown attached to it and so will the other birds. Fingers crossed that my hunch is wrong and we have three little ladies.
Having come home from a day's work to find the little chicks in the run I've had a chance to have a look at them in daylight. I'm sure I can see the beginnings of spurs on the teeniest, two little light dots that will continue to grow. I'm goign to take a photo and send it onto the breeders for their take on it.
*Amendment, I seem to have confused my chicken names...., Luke tells me that it was Coco who turned out to be the hermaphrodite and when we returned it to the breeder we tgot Lola as a substitute along with Sweetie - who was my favourite hen for her tenacious attitude in such a teeny bundle of feathers. (I still think it should have been Lola though as the story makes more sense!)
Friday, 27 April 2012
Hen envy.
This wet weather means that the chickans are longing for their dry dust bath. They can only get as far as the greenhouse door though as we have the new chicks in there, keeping warm and getting used to each other.
First of all, after a night and most of the day in the hen house (with food and water) Lunar was settled enough to know where her home was so we could let her out into the run. First Luke had to add the run that he'd just made. Apologies for the chicken wire in the way.
Now she has a way out will she investigate?
Come on, Lunar......, be brave.
She now has an audience, the two hens outside looking in.
First of all, after a night and most of the day in the hen house (with food and water) Lunar was settled enough to know where her home was so we could let her out into the run. First Luke had to add the run that he'd just made. Apologies for the chicken wire in the way.
Buck Bucky tries her luck at the greenhouse door.
To no avail.
Lunar meets Lola (aka Megachicken) through the glass (by the orange tulips) for the first time.If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see the height difference.
We just love how these little chicks have starfish feet.
Pea shoots.
This year we have started our peas off in the guttering (I posted photos a few weeks ago). Now they are ready to go out as as we are expecting lots of rain not only does this mean they won't need us to water but peas LOVE water, it makes them very juicy.
Planting them out is the simplest ever. You just dig your trench and, lifting the guttering up and giving it as sharpish tap the peas with their network of roots should just slide out as you gently pull the guttering backwards until the entire length is sitting in the trench.
Just firm the soil back around them and keep the chickens off of them. Succession planting works really well for a longer picking season. Each few weeks more can be planted. In fact I chose to just push some peas straight into the ground and these will come along a little later. When they need the support I'll push in some twigs to act as pea sticks and soon enough there will be fat little balls to pop out of their shells and pop straight in my mouth. Lovely.
The potatoes are coming up too. With onions around the edge and the raspberries in the corner it should be a feast for the eyes and the tum.
Planting them out is the simplest ever. You just dig your trench and, lifting the guttering up and giving it as sharpish tap the peas with their network of roots should just slide out as you gently pull the guttering backwards until the entire length is sitting in the trench.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Colour is coming.
The bold colours of a lovely little Auricula and a flame coloured tulip.
I can hardly wait for summer. I will not be enjoying the drooping hearts of Dicentra this Spring though, the chickens and their passion for tender green tips have seen to that!
Double your numbers.
This time yesterday we had one bantam hen, a few hours later we doubled that to two and now, after a trip to Hereford we doubled it again to four!
Waking up this morning and have a quiet chat to Lunar was delightful. She is a real chatty Cathy and is very bright eyed and I think she will be quite bold. I had forgotten to double check what Sarah fed her own and we just assumed she was already on growers pellets but she didn't seem to take too well to them so I got out the pestle and mortar and crushed them into fine crumbs which she then gobbled down very happily. She's a lovely colour, the lady at the farm that we got our latest two from is trying to breed lavenders with the typical yellow leg but ours is quite dark in the leg. I don't mind one jot, I'm already so enamoured with her, she's such a beauty. She's as delicate as Odette, the white swan in Swan Lake with the merest touch of lavender to her feathers and I could watch her for hours.
However, we were after one more to make the numbers up and Luke wanted another gold laced really, like Shakira had been. So off we went this morning to find one more. I had been feeling unhappy that we had only bought one chicken yesterday. They are so little to be on their own. As the new chicken would be the last to be introduced she would be at a disadvantage so perhaps we needed to buy two this time.
We pulled up on the dot of ten am and were met with a beautiful collie with one blazing blue eye and one dark brown named Flye. Just behind Flye strode Sue the chicken breeder and she kindly offered to take us around the whole farm to view her different chicken breeds; Silkies, Gold tops, Pekins in a myriad of colours and a couple of large fowl too. All the time Flye whipped around our legs and squatted low in the grass a if rounding us and the chickens up. We were offered a lovley leggy Blue laced cockerel but we aren't brave enough to risk having a potentially noisy cockerel in our back garden so turned that one down. When we came across the first pullet on offer though we immediately knew she was going home with us.We still hadn't finished our tour though so continued on.
The last place we visited was the barn with three heated pens in it. Masses of ten day old chicks huddled together under a warm lamp and chirped away in the first pen The next pen had chickens in that were about 5 weeks old and were starting to look more like the chickens they would eventually become; their feathers had grown and the down wasn't so prominent. They still chirruped away but were more active and less inclined to mass together under the lamp. The last pen had three options for us; two young gold laced and one buff laced. Gold laced, as you probably know, are a rich golden brown with black markings on their feather edges. The buff laced is patterned just the same but the colours are buff and white. We have never owned a buff laced before, it's not my favourite colourway but this little dot just looked so sweet and was gleaming white with beautiful streaks of copper on her feather edges. I checked with Luke and suggested we take the small buff laced and the older Goldlaced that was outside. I was unsure about the difference in ages but Sue assured me that it was only about ten days and that they would be fine together. I knew this little one was smaller but after being assured she would be fine I did a final nod and then Sue deftly caught her and placed her into Luke's palm where she sat, dwarfed and overwhelmed. We popped her straight into our wood shaving-lined carrying box so she wouldn't be so nervous then went to catch the bigger one who was happily unaware of her future outside. A round little gold laced, full of energy and sticking close to her surrogate mother she raced in different directions whilst Flye, Luke and I stopped her from getting too far from the net wielded Sue who managed after a few near misses to bag her bird and, scooping her out of the net showed us what a nicely patterned bird she was. Money was handed over, Sue bade us a cheery farewell and suggested we start breeding our own and we bumped down the single track lane back onto the main road, all the time with the two new additions tweeting and whistling from their box.
I was shocked though when we got them home to see how very small the buff laced one was and even more shocked when we saw Lunar who only yesterday looked minute. She must be three times the size of the baby. We now have to very carefully introduce them and that will have to wait till tonight when they are more placid and all ready for sleep. Till then, Lunar is still acclimatising on her own in the hen house (in the well ventilated greenhouse) and the new girls are on the floor of the greenhouse, still in their carrying box now with food and water added. We'll leave them all to settle down and tonight we will decide whether to put them all in together. If we do we shall have to monitor them all to ensure the little one has plenty of places to hide if she is picked on by the others. I always fear the worst but you do your very best to limit any problems, take the advice of people who are experts and keep an eye on the situation. Sadly I am working from 9 in the morning tomorrow till 10 at night so it's not ideal. We'll see how it goes in the morning; with the dawn chorus and early sunrises they will probably be awake from 6 onwards so we have some time to assess the situation.
I'm like a new Mum, all nervous and wanting the best for my brood.
Waking up this morning and have a quiet chat to Lunar was delightful. She is a real chatty Cathy and is very bright eyed and I think she will be quite bold. I had forgotten to double check what Sarah fed her own and we just assumed she was already on growers pellets but she didn't seem to take too well to them so I got out the pestle and mortar and crushed them into fine crumbs which she then gobbled down very happily. She's a lovely colour, the lady at the farm that we got our latest two from is trying to breed lavenders with the typical yellow leg but ours is quite dark in the leg. I don't mind one jot, I'm already so enamoured with her, she's such a beauty. She's as delicate as Odette, the white swan in Swan Lake with the merest touch of lavender to her feathers and I could watch her for hours.
However, we were after one more to make the numbers up and Luke wanted another gold laced really, like Shakira had been. So off we went this morning to find one more. I had been feeling unhappy that we had only bought one chicken yesterday. They are so little to be on their own. As the new chicken would be the last to be introduced she would be at a disadvantage so perhaps we needed to buy two this time.
We pulled up on the dot of ten am and were met with a beautiful collie with one blazing blue eye and one dark brown named Flye. Just behind Flye strode Sue the chicken breeder and she kindly offered to take us around the whole farm to view her different chicken breeds; Silkies, Gold tops, Pekins in a myriad of colours and a couple of large fowl too. All the time Flye whipped around our legs and squatted low in the grass a if rounding us and the chickens up. We were offered a lovley leggy Blue laced cockerel but we aren't brave enough to risk having a potentially noisy cockerel in our back garden so turned that one down. When we came across the first pullet on offer though we immediately knew she was going home with us.We still hadn't finished our tour though so continued on.
The last place we visited was the barn with three heated pens in it. Masses of ten day old chicks huddled together under a warm lamp and chirped away in the first pen The next pen had chickens in that were about 5 weeks old and were starting to look more like the chickens they would eventually become; their feathers had grown and the down wasn't so prominent. They still chirruped away but were more active and less inclined to mass together under the lamp. The last pen had three options for us; two young gold laced and one buff laced. Gold laced, as you probably know, are a rich golden brown with black markings on their feather edges. The buff laced is patterned just the same but the colours are buff and white. We have never owned a buff laced before, it's not my favourite colourway but this little dot just looked so sweet and was gleaming white with beautiful streaks of copper on her feather edges. I checked with Luke and suggested we take the small buff laced and the older Goldlaced that was outside. I was unsure about the difference in ages but Sue assured me that it was only about ten days and that they would be fine together. I knew this little one was smaller but after being assured she would be fine I did a final nod and then Sue deftly caught her and placed her into Luke's palm where she sat, dwarfed and overwhelmed. We popped her straight into our wood shaving-lined carrying box so she wouldn't be so nervous then went to catch the bigger one who was happily unaware of her future outside. A round little gold laced, full of energy and sticking close to her surrogate mother she raced in different directions whilst Flye, Luke and I stopped her from getting too far from the net wielded Sue who managed after a few near misses to bag her bird and, scooping her out of the net showed us what a nicely patterned bird she was. Money was handed over, Sue bade us a cheery farewell and suggested we start breeding our own and we bumped down the single track lane back onto the main road, all the time with the two new additions tweeting and whistling from their box.
I'm like a new Mum, all nervous and wanting the best for my brood.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Welcome to lovely Lunar.
After a thorough Internet search and a happy chance text we have today picked up a lovely little Lavender (and hopefully female) chicken. We met an extremely nice lady, Sarah, who has a lovely set up with several different breeds and all of them beautiful and healthy. We spent a happy half an hour looking at her flock and were delighted to see 10 day old chicks looking like little pom poms, hopping around their home.
We were there to collect a new chicken though and we were thrilled to cast our eye over Sarah's lavender brood. I really wanted a pair, mainly to keep one another company whilst they settled in but of course we don't have a large set up so have to keep our numbers down and as Luke wants a Buff (and I really desire a Barred after seeing them today) we are having to be sensible.
But just look at this little sweet thing. Welcome to Lunar (so called because Sarah says they glow in the evening light).
Here she is again, safely in her hen house that has been scrubbed and dusted down with a thick carpet of wood shavings. It's always advisable to put new chicks in their new house (not the run) for a few days to settle them in and we will do our utmost to ensure this little chick is happy and healthy in her new home. When I checked on her later she was up on the perch and tweeted away as I spoke gently to her. I think she'll be a little star.
We were there to collect a new chicken though and we were thrilled to cast our eye over Sarah's lavender brood. I really wanted a pair, mainly to keep one another company whilst they settled in but of course we don't have a large set up so have to keep our numbers down and as Luke wants a Buff (and I really desire a Barred after seeing them today) we are having to be sensible.
But just look at this little sweet thing. Welcome to Lunar (so called because Sarah says they glow in the evening light).
6 or 7 weeks old and what a beauty already.
Here she is again, safely in her hen house that has been scrubbed and dusted down with a thick carpet of wood shavings. It's always advisable to put new chicks in their new house (not the run) for a few days to settle them in and we will do our utmost to ensure this little chick is happy and healthy in her new home. When I checked on her later she was up on the perch and tweeted away as I spoke gently to her. I think she'll be a little star.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
April showers.., and then some.
I've had a rare weekend to garden. I work most Saturdays so and entire weekend is precious to me. So it drives me mad if the weather stops me being able to get out in the garden. All weekend we have had scant patches of sun before the hailstones or driving rain have soaked us through. It has allowed me lots of time to locate new Wyandotte bantams to replace our dear old Shakira and keep Buck Bucky company. We've now found a breeder who has lavender 7 week old chicks for sale although there is no guarantee that they will be female as they are difficult to tell apart at such a young age.. The breeder has agreed to change them over if they turn out to be cockerels. We just can't risk upsetting the neighbours with dawn crowing nor do we want to breed from them. We just want to run a small flock of hens for their eggs and the pleasure of seeing them scratching around in the garden.
Today we put together the small hen house and run that we wanted to use for Quails. As the chickens we will get are still young they will need warmth so we have built the house in the greenhouse. As long as there is plenty of ventilation so it doesn't get too warm or muggy it should benefit them to be in there and it quarantines them from our hens. Introducing any new animals to existing groups must be done carefully for both parties.Our old hen, Buckser was vaccinated as a chicken but the new chicks haven't been which is a shame. However, their new home is ready for them, dusted with red spider mite powder, carpeted with fresh wood shavings suitable for birds in their house and deep compost in their run. If it all goes well we will introduce the new chicks when they are bigger. We've a way to go yet and still have to check the new chicks over before buying them. Until we have checked out how healthy they are and how well they are housed we won't know for sure if they are suitable for us. There's no point risking the health of our existing hens.
It's been very time consuming finding suitable bantams and I must have contacted about ten breeders and have only been able to find year old pullets (young hens up to one year old) in Mille Fleur which is a very rare and unnusual colour for Wyandotte bantams. buff laced and gold laced two week olds (I've seen the photos and think only the buff laced is female but still there is no certainty) and finally the breeder who has our longed for lavender bantams.
We are hoping to pick them up on Wednesday afternoon then, once checked over, we will get them back as soon as possible and put them in their new house. They will stay in the house to settle them down for a day or two (obviously with food and water) before the door is opened and they can investigate the run. We will do everything we can not to stress them out as this can cause them to be susceptible to fatal diseases. It will be strange to have tiny tweeting chicks again with baby blue eyes and undefined feather patterns.
We'd have loved to have had Shakira for longer but we now want to ensure that Buck Bucky gets some new company and gets to be top of the pecking order again.
Today we put together the small hen house and run that we wanted to use for Quails. As the chickens we will get are still young they will need warmth so we have built the house in the greenhouse. As long as there is plenty of ventilation so it doesn't get too warm or muggy it should benefit them to be in there and it quarantines them from our hens. Introducing any new animals to existing groups must be done carefully for both parties.Our old hen, Buckser was vaccinated as a chicken but the new chicks haven't been which is a shame. However, their new home is ready for them, dusted with red spider mite powder, carpeted with fresh wood shavings suitable for birds in their house and deep compost in their run. If it all goes well we will introduce the new chicks when they are bigger. We've a way to go yet and still have to check the new chicks over before buying them. Until we have checked out how healthy they are and how well they are housed we won't know for sure if they are suitable for us. There's no point risking the health of our existing hens.
It's been very time consuming finding suitable bantams and I must have contacted about ten breeders and have only been able to find year old pullets (young hens up to one year old) in Mille Fleur which is a very rare and unnusual colour for Wyandotte bantams. buff laced and gold laced two week olds (I've seen the photos and think only the buff laced is female but still there is no certainty) and finally the breeder who has our longed for lavender bantams.
We are hoping to pick them up on Wednesday afternoon then, once checked over, we will get them back as soon as possible and put them in their new house. They will stay in the house to settle them down for a day or two (obviously with food and water) before the door is opened and they can investigate the run. We will do everything we can not to stress them out as this can cause them to be susceptible to fatal diseases. It will be strange to have tiny tweeting chicks again with baby blue eyes and undefined feather patterns.
We'd have loved to have had Shakira for longer but we now want to ensure that Buck Bucky gets some new company and gets to be top of the pecking order again.
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