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The Chicken Thread.


phoebejo

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Daytime candling technique number 428: Mr Hazells black dressing gown over my head.

 

One of the Wyandotte eggs is doing something weird. Either it's totally normal or it's about to explode into a stinky mess :wacko: It's leaking clear fluid through the pores of the shell :unsure: These Wyandotte eggs have been carp, out of 9 there are only 2 left in the incubator and I really really want them both to hatch because it's sods law that if I only get 1 it'll be a boy :rolleyes: There's definitely something in it, I can't tell if it's alive or not but the oozing is a worry. I know they naturally lose moisture as the chicks develop but I've never actually seen droplets on the eggs :unsure: I've asked on the Practical Poultry forum but nobody has answered yet.

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Hens living as hens should..................crapping all over the garden

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Really hard to get a pic of Cackypants, every time I go out she legs it up the garden towards me looking for a treat :laugh:

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Who would have ever thought Spud would get this close without eating them :wub: ............he'd still like to mind, but he's being a good boy

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:laugh: Lizzie would love to chomp the chooks. She looks at them, looks at my disapproving face and I can almost hear her saying "spoil sport" :rolleyes: :laugh:

:laugh: ................Daisy has decided that if she's not allowed to chase them then she's not going into the garden at all !, honestly, all I've done with her is walk her round on the lead, told her no twice in a dull flat voice, and fed her M&S pre-cooked bacon (love that stuff) for being a good girl, anyone would think she'd been kicked from one end of the garden to the other the way she's carrying on :rolleyes:

 

Polly the cat really is in a huff too, don't blame her, the hens are bigger than she is !

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Here we have it, the final 22:

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The three at the bottom are the 'dodgy' ones. The remaining two Wyandottes and a Poland that looked a bit odd last night. The Wyandottes have their air sacs on the side, making it even more difficult for them to hatch. Above those are the three black Orps. Those little guys are rocking all over the place and I'm sure could make it from one end of the incubator to the other :laugh: To their right are four Houdans, five Dorkings to their left, four Polands to the top left and three Aracaunas top right.

 

I stopped turning them last night and put them onto cloth so they don't slide around on the plastic floor when they hatch :wub: They're due Saturday :pinkie:

 

I had an email yesterday from the lady I buy some of the fertile eggs from and also my last lot of hybrids. She had Silkie chicks born two days ago and I'll buy buying a couple of those next week :rolleyes: She's also got Splash, Gold Laced & Partridge Laced Orps that I MUST NOT BUY! :laugh:

 

Next week my incubator is going on Ebay. With the proceeds of the sale I'm going to buy a shed for the Orps & Brahmas to live in when they're all growed up :wub: I don't want to incubate anymore, the future is broodies :biggrin: I have loved watching Tiger Lily caring for her baby Brahma family :wub: With a few adult Silkies and God willing a Wyandotte next year they can incubate and rear some chicks for me. Saves on the leccy bill too! With the new arrivals and the ex-bats I'm full up here at the moment anyway, the incubator might as well be put to use elsewhere.

 

I'm hoping to be try rigging up the webcam on Saturday. I can't try until then because the incubator is on the landing, I'll move it in here near the computer on Saturday morning so I can be glued to it :laugh:

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I often come and have a lurk in here, so can I ask a question please :flowers: Do any of you live in proper town type houses without mahoosive gardens, go out to work and keep a few chooks (rather than a Bejo type flock :D ) how are your neighbours with it, does it work out?

 

Pee Ess Can't wait for Hatchcam this weekend :pinkie:

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I often come and have a lurk in here, so can I ask a question please :flowers: Do any of you live in proper town type houses without mahoosive gardens, go out to work and keep a few chooks (rather than a Bejo type flock :D ) how are your neighbours with it, does it work out?

 

Pee Ess Can't wait for Hatchcam this weekend :pinkie:

 

Ooooohoooo, someones getting itchy :laugh:

 

I do live in the country with a fairly big garden, but there are quite a few people on the forum I go on who do live on housing estates/terraced house, who have small gardens, and manage just fine with three hens. You could go for bantams, that way they would need less room, and you can get automatic pop hole opener/closer gadgets, that work on a timer. There are guidlines as to the size of coop and run you need for certain sizes of hen, obviously the bigger birds need more space, and if they are going to be penned up for most of the time they will need more enviromental enrichment (stuff to peck). Most breeds come in a bantam size, you can even get banty Orp's.....how cute would they be !........go for it, it's great fun, and hen watching is a wonderful stress buster.

 

 

Mrs Bejo, I'm soooo jealous of your (soon to be) Orp chicks, I'll get them one of these days.

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Tiger Lily was really stressed when she got here so I've left her pretty much alone so she could settle in and get on with being a mummy to the Brahma babies. Today I got her out to give her a good going over and to check for nasties and immediately I found lice on her :rolleyes: I'm wary of using any chemical treatments while the babies are so tiny so I've liberally rubbed Diatom all over her tonight, much to her disgust. She was better behaved than I thought she would be :wub: I hope that does the trick. She's got loads of Diatom on her, she went straight back to sit on the chicks so it ought to rub off on them too. I must take more pics of the babies, they've got little wing feathers growing now :wub: She's a brilliant mum, she doesn't stop chattering away to them :wub:

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