I've finally gone and done It!!!!!!

[minskey]

Yay!!!! Done it, I finally have some chooks. 5 lovely young hens, collected this afternoon from a local chap. he told me what breed they are but I've already forgotten in all my excitement. Arrived home in the blazing sunshine at 5pm & put them in their run, then 7pm & no dinner on, hwere did the time go????. Put the dinner on & went to check again and they had put thenselves to bed, it was 8.30pm & I am so pleased. Pics will be posted to bore you all ASAP & i am sure lots of questions from me to follow

[ChrisB]

You'll find you get a lot of those 'forgotten dinner' moments now that you have chickens. The greatest time wasters I know

Enjoy them

[Kristen]

We locked ours in their run for the first 4 or 5 days, which is supposed to help them get their SatNav working properly

[minskey]

New hens & leg Mite?

Day 2 of my lovely hens. They are eating and drinking, don't seem very hungry, leap at the pellets in the morning and loved some sweetcorn I gave them later in the day. They have stopped running away and squawking hysterically when I go to them and I can now see thier legs; I think they may have leg mites, on at least 4 of them, day one keeps tucking her leg away not sure why. they are on grass which they peck at very daintly. Thunderstorms & poured with rain most of the day but they are not too wet so must have popped inside. What shall I do about the leg mite, surgical spirit & vaseline; this must hurt

[armadillo]

If they have leg mites the scales will be lifting up- I believe the cure isindeed to dip the legs into surgical spirit and then coat with vaseline- probably best to treat all of them if they are infested at all. I got mine a week and a half ago; I spent several hours of each of the next few days sitting by the coop watching them! Even ate my meals by them (they went MAD for the smell of mussels!)
I think it's good to get them really used to you anyway. I found that when I started picking them up despite their protests, they quickly became more relaxed about it, and were soon happy to eat out of one hand while I held them on the other.
Hope the mites clear up soon!

[minskey]

Cheers Armadillo. I am now armed with surgical spirit & vaseline, the chemist looked at me a bit odd, I said its for my hens & she really stared. I will get the deed done over the weekend, hope they will be Ok 'till then.