Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[jessmorris]

My small orloff hen is home! Cost me £30 at the vets with a nasty wound under her wing but he thinks she'll pull through with daily flushing of the wound with Hibiscrub and antibiotic tab taken orally (her not me - I'm sticking with G&T.) Gordon Bennett - hens!!

[jessmorris]

Does anyone have any non show standard modern game girls (2) looking for a new home by any chance? I don't think Deirdre is ever coming back......

[Snadger]

Just thought i'd mention that I had to break up a cockfight. It was a nice day so I buit some tempoeray fencing and let my three flocks have a forage. They each have a cockerel but were seperated by fencing.
One of them, the daft young Legbar cockerel that I rescued, jumped the fence and thought he'd try his luck with Sid (Vicious).
Not a good move on his behalf as Sid was on him like a flash. Managed to seperate the two of them with a broomshank, but even though the youngun was bleeding he wouldn't back down. In the end i had to heard him back into his pen whilst still trying to keep an eye on Sid for a sneaky attack from the rear.
Little sod doesn't realise how lucky it was that i was around.

[RichmondHens]

Having massive problem with jackdaws, pigeons, crows etc stealing food from the feeders. I have two long legged feeders for tall/big hens but the shorter ones for bantams are easy pickings. Have resorted to going round with a bucket several times a day and just putting in enough food that chooks will clear up all at once. Very time consuming. Husband has shot a couple but at the moment we just don't have enough time to sit out with a gun waiting. Means I get beseiged by birds with every appearance, they are now flying over the fences to get to me - aaargh.

On the plus side my ugly Ross Cobbs are growing fast, and look less like bald eagles now they are fully feathered. And the feeding frenzy has slowed down as they have discovered the delights of grass. They smell better for it too!

Have amalgamated all my pure breed growers into one enclosure now which make life easier. The leghorn cocks are quite aggressive even at 6 weeks old and have been taking chunks out of the 11 week legbars who are three times the size!

Only one set of week old chicks left in a broody coop. I am not hatching any more this year, not deliberately anyway. I have my suspicions about one or two bantams that have been sneaking off into the undergrowth so we shall see if we get any surprises.

[petal]

Championship row!!!


herts county show- my little girls birds occupied 2 pens- one for best juvenlile- best out of the kiddies with Edward the gold brahma who was an absolute hit with the public and much photographed!and a bigger achievement still was beating adults to win best trio in show with her silver laced wyandottes!WOW!!!


RH: yes pigeons and crows are a plague but our cats like chasing them, which is good!!and EATING THEM! which is even better.

[petal]

silver laced wyandotte bantam


best trio in show, need 2 greek names for the girls please (boy is son of Perseus)

[RichmondHens]

Well done you (and little Petal), those Wyandottes look stunning. What is the black egg on the far right of the first picture, that is intriguing me?

Too many baby rabbits here for cats to bother with pigeons, although they do get the odd one. Never had a crow though.

[petal]

The black egg is a cayuga, so I believe RH. Crows tend to outsmart cats, shooting is the best thing for them. The cats will chase them off though.

[polo]

How about Hestia and Hera? (Little Polo just been doing ancient greeks at school)

Well done on the show - especially little Petal! Great result.

Glad I have covered runs for the girls. Far too many crows and magpies around here so I reckon they would have caused loads of bother since they are plaguing you RH.

The chicks are 3 weeks old now and behaving like small hooligans. Their poor mother who is being jumped all over is looking sick of them and takes herself of for 10 minutes if I let her out. She is back quick enough though...

[petal]

I just had to bring the buff orpington and her chicks into the barn on a bed of soft shavings- their house is leaking outside and its pouring with rain here! Poor mummy hen was getting most of the rain.

[jessmorris]

I've always liked ' Hera'

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best trio in show, need 2 greek names for the girls please (boy is son of Perseus)

[its hilly]

I like Artemis, godess of the hunt and wildlife. Thalia, a muse I think, and Persephone.
Mind you it's a fair old mouthful is Persephone if you are wandering around calling for them.
I've been really good this year, mostly due to lack of time. One small hatch, all spoken for in advance. Pen improvements, number reductions (mainly boys). Now I'm going to try to build a couple of new coops. My poor little barred wyandottes have been soggy once too often in their bigger coop and the other is too small for the cream legbar LF girl who moved into their pen last year and is still in there despite being evicted 4 times. I gave up on her as the poor girl was being bullied in the big world and she's really happy with the barreds. Maybe its cos the stripes are sort of similar to a CL cockeral. Who knows?

[petal]

Hera and Artemis sound nice- no worries about calling their names to find them- they have a special contained run that can be moved on the grass(helps their legs go the desired yellow) and prevents any damage they might get freeranging. Thats the thing with show birds - their freedom is limited!

[jessmorris]

Just to say...I found a young hedgehog caught in my electric net last night. Its prickles meant it could not extricate itself forwards or backwards. It was fine once I'd puled it out with two sticks though!

[polo]

Just to say...I found a young hedgehog caught in my electric net last night. Its prickles meant it could not extricate itself forwards or backwards. It was fine once I'd puled it out with two sticks though!

Bet it won't forget that night in a hurry