Well Missy is earning her keep, she has laid 4 eggs in the last 5 days, which roughly equates to £200 and egg at the moment, crikey more expensive than a faberge!
Anyway its now looking like the next to start will be Dot my columbine. Today she has been in and out of the cube and her face and headgear is looking decididly red. I havent done the 'squat' test as they are staying in the run today while the garden is wet and boggy, so Im now excited at what colur the eggs will be!!
Well I raced outside first thing this morning, before feeding my childreen breakfast I went to feed my girls. Missy was just emerging from the cube. I opened it up sure enough to find one perfectly laid in the nesting box, still warm!! The other girls now keep going in and out of the cube to as if to see whats going on. I decided to reward them all with a fist full of sultanas which lasted oh all of 30 seconds.
So I now know who is laying. Still only a little thing weighing in at 38g but over joyed, its like christmas every day here now!
Also each time I go to stroke her she squats for me, which at least makes handling easier! I took pics of her comb and face colouring again as I have been monitoring the change to see what happened when they get ready to lay and her face hasnt gone as red as expected. I will be interested to see now how my White star prepers herself she is now the one to watch, as they aperently start laying very young and she has a significantly bigger and redder comb than when I got her, although she is still very flighty.
Well I went out to give the chooks there food this morning before work, and thought I would just check for eggs, something I havent been doing on a reguar basis as Im not really expecting anything from them yet.
And lo and behold I see through the egg port a suspiciously egg shaped thing on the roosting bars! Woohoo, I start shouting so the lther half can hear me in the kitchen 'Weve got an egg!' and proceed to do the chicken dance in the rain while my chooks look at me all baffled. Im then in the house grabing a camera and back out in the rain taking pictures of my girls so once I get home from work I can analize who looks like they might be the culprit. I go off to work and stop off at the super market on my way home to pick up sime new digital scales and weigh the little thing, a tiny 35g and its slightly broken, but the membrane itself is intact, so I will do the water fresh test to see if its okay.
After analising my photos I can safely say I have no idea who laid it! none of them seem to be coloured up the right way, and it may not even of been laid today, as its been a couple of days since I last opened the cube to clean it. The size and colour could be the Mini Orp, but aparently Bluebelle eggs often start very small. The only way for me to see will be to see if more are laid. Unfortunatly I asked my other half to check again at about 3:00 before it gets dark, but he was to engrossed in the Xbox. So Im like a kid before Xmas now wondering if I will wake up to another egg in the morning!
Wing clipping is needed. I was hoping my happy girls wouldnt be wanting to try to escape the garden, but I was a fool. Today as I watched them free range Dot decided to become steve McQueen and jump the 5ft fence. she flew up and landed on the top and sat their for a couple of minutes as if to compare gardens and decide which way to go while I paniced about how the hell to catch her if she decided to go the other way. (luckily we have very nice neighbours who like our chooks) Eventually she decided she loved her mummy to much, that or she spotted the bag of sultanas on its way to coax her in and she jumped back into our garden.
I now know I really need to wing clip them, as the gate leading to the frount of the house and road is even lower. Im not looking forward to trying to catch them though, so I think it will have to be a late night break in to the cube and smuggle them out. The earliest opportunity that me and Mark will both be about in the evening to do this will be Friday, so I think they may have to stay in their run tomorrow afternoon, so avoid any escapies.
Now excuse me, I need to go and check they are all still there!
Okay okay so the White Star (now named Dippy) hasnt been here for 5 days yet, but I decided to let them have their first go at free ranging over the weekend. As soon as the door opened they started eatting my grass, and Noah was most amused to run around after them, they wernt quite so amused so I lured them back into the run with some mixed corn and waited till Noah went down for his afternoon nap before trying again.
All went well, and they trundled back into bed when it started getting dark. Its funny when one of them gets a bit startled and jumps and flaps cause it seems to start off a chain reaction and they all have a jump and a flap at each other, like some sort of chicken mexican wave!
By the sunday they were all getting a bit more adventurous and comeing up to me for treats, with several of them eating sultanas out fmy hand, not quite sure how much I like this as their fast beaks sometimes miss the mark and peck my hand instead! Buffy in particular was becoming very tame, wether its cause it was getting quite dark at this point so she was more dopey, she wanted in through the patio doors and let me stroke her for a while. Im hoping she will keep this up as she appears to have a bit of a dirty bum, and this afternoon when I wash out the cube, I will attempt to pin her down for a little bath!
Well its all change in the chicken house today. Over the last few days the chooks had been settling in well, I have started to handle a few of them and hand feeding them and they have been happy eating everything I give them and getting on well together . . . .
. . . That is apart from Iggle Piggle the little black Pekin. She has every day just sat in the sube, not wanting to eat or drink. I have been sneaking in a little container of high protein food for her like meal worms and tuna, but she hasnt really touched that either, she doesnt look to great and with my inexperience of chicken keeping I wanted to query it with the breeder. I gave him a call and he said he didnt want me to be unhappy and unsure of the best course of action, and therefore I should pring her back and swap her and he would sort her out. So a few hours later and Im back home with a White Star hybrid! Shes a pretty small think, who is ment to be an excellent layer of white eggs. Which means I now have three hybrids to provide me with regular eggs, one a blue layer, one a brown and one a white, so no way of confusing who laid what!
The white star (currently without a name) spent the first 1/2 shut in the cube and I open the door to her after and let her come out at her own leisure, she poked her head out and had a look around, untill Missy the bossy Bluebelle clocked her and went up to 'introduce herself' I have go idea if their was squarking invluved as I was watching from the shelter of the house as its reaining heavily, but I didnt see any pecking or flapping of wings, and the white star popped out into the run for a quick look around followed by Missy and is now watching from the inside of the cube again. Will see iof the others let her roost with them okay tonight, or whether I will be crawling round the run on my hands and knees trying to catch her to pop her in the egg port!
Well Im amazed at how smoothly things have gone so far. They have sorted out the pecking order with minimal scuffles. And they have names, so the order is as follows:
1 Missy - The Bluebell is head honcho, and is hand tame already, eating worms from my hand
2 Iggle Piggle - The Pekin Bantam, The boys pet, tiny but bossy
3 Plucky - The Wynadotte, the first one venturing out into the run, very outgoing character
4 Buffy - The 'buff' miniture Orpington
5 Bumble - The Brahma, fuzzy and coloured like a bumble bee, and 'bumbles' about, very undignified on the ladder!
6 Dot - The Columbine, Has a hair do like Dot Cotton, very nervous and flighty at the moment so will have to spend some time with her.
And here are pics of them all!
Well we spent eh morning preping the eglu by putting on skirts round the run and filling it with woodchip and lining the poop trays. Then I went off to collect my chickens, armed with carboard boxes lined with paper and straw. My list of planed birds went out the window however when I found he only had one Silkie and it was a male. So the birds I chose are as follows;
1 Miniture Buff Orpinton
1 Lacewing Wynadote
1 Gold Brahma
1 Pekin Bantam
1 Columbine Hybrid
1 Bluebelle Hybrid
The columbine aparently has a 70% chance of laying blue eggs, so we opted for one which looked most like an acracana in the hope thats the odds would be on our side.
We got the girls home and I started off by putting them all in the closed cube so they could get familier with the house. after 3/4 hour I opened the door for them to have a wander round . . . . . . and waited . . . .
None of them dared venture out, so in the end I opened the egg port to find all 6 of them stuffed in the nest box, I grabed one and put her in the run hoping the others would follow suit, but she just sat there paralysed with fear and the others paid no attention with exception of the Wynadote who legged it out the door and made herself very vocal charging round the run. So with only about an hour left of daylight left, I got them all out the cube and put them in the run. They responded well and even ate a little food before one by one all hopped up the ladder to bed by 5pm!
So far so good! Only got names for 2 so far, the Orpington is being apropriatly named Buffy, on acound of being fluffy and Buff coloured, and the Wyndote is names Plucky, on account of being pretty outspoken and the only one brave enough to venture into the run of her own accord. Im noticeing a pecking order appearing already, The Bluebelle seems to be putting everyone in their place and actually pulled a feather out of Buffys back and ate it! Buffy on the other hand runs away from all the others if they so much as cluck at her and seems to be at the bottom end. No pics yet as they only stayed outside for about 1/2 hour, will get some tomorrow.
Well here we are, never done a blog before but thought It would be intersting to follow our adventres into chicken keeping. This morning bright and early the Eglu arrives in 5 huge boxes. a few bits missing but on the whole very pleased. Managed to assemble it by myself, dispite Noahs best attempts as sabotage by posting the washers between the gaps in the decking and running off with the screwdriver. But I managed to get it done before nightfall with only a few minor errors along the way. Stil its upright and look to be water tight so it cant be that bad!
Recent Comments
-
-
Claret said:
White stars can lay enormous eggs - so watch out for them! The first egg is always the best though... read more
on Good girl Missy -
penguinmad said:
Your girls look lovely, I'm going for a bluebelle when I get more hens in Spring! read more
on Free Range
Great news Cat - Let's hope for a blue egg from Dot then. Keep us posted. Hi Emjay - fancy... read more
on Will they be blue?