Tweet
Hello there,
I'm in my second year of bantam keeping and this year have done lots of hatching - 6 clutches - 6 lemon pooters from ebay (lovely looking birds but slightly sickly - I ended up with just 2 roos (one rehomed) and one hen); 2 marans from a friend (lovely strong roos, both now eaten and v tasty); 6 pekins and 2 silkins from 9 eggs from a local breeder. Very strong chicks, lively and fun, 4 roos, 4 hens 9tho the juries not really sure what the silkins are yet!); 6 mottled pekin eggs incubated with only 1 hatched (another clutch through the post), chick rejected by ma, and fostered by a game bird; 6 d'uccle eggs of which 5 hatched - mille fleur, lavender, black and cuckoo (1 very sick chick died,and one still is weak) and lastly 6 silver partridge dutch ebay eggs, only one hatched, beautifully marked but killed by the broody (she flung it from the nest).
Have fettled up a second hen house and showed two birds - a lemon pooter (who was too young) and a mille fleur d'uccle who got a third (out of four!).
Have also eaten my first hatchling, and am wondering about going on a 'dispatching and dressing course' ready for next year? has anyone been on one?
I've had northern fowl mite, lice, cocciodosis (suspected), ascites and a wheezy bird, a suspected eggbound Dutch bantam (died), a d'uccle died (unknown cause and very sudden) and one roo found hanging upside down caught by his feet in the netting (survived).
Quite a year!
JM
I'm in my second year of bantam keeping and this year have done lots of hatching - 6 clutches - 6 lemon pooters from ebay (lovely looking birds but slightly sickly - I ended up with just 2 roos (one rehomed) and one hen); 2 marans from a friend (lovely strong roos, both now eaten and v tasty); 6 pekins and 2 silkins from 9 eggs from a local breeder. Very strong chicks, lively and fun, 4 roos, 4 hens 9tho the juries not really sure what the silkins are yet!); 6 mottled pekin eggs incubated with only 1 hatched (another clutch through the post), chick rejected by ma, and fostered by a game bird; 6 d'uccle eggs of which 5 hatched - mille fleur, lavender, black and cuckoo (1 very sick chick died,and one still is weak) and lastly 6 silver partridge dutch ebay eggs, only one hatched, beautifully marked but killed by the broody (she flung it from the nest).
Have fettled up a second hen house and showed two birds - a lemon pooter (who was too young) and a mille fleur d'uccle who got a third (out of four!).
Have also eaten my first hatchling, and am wondering about going on a 'dispatching and dressing course' ready for next year? has anyone been on one?
I've had northern fowl mite, lice, cocciodosis (suspected), ascites and a wheezy bird, a suspected eggbound Dutch bantam (died), a d'uccle died (unknown cause and very sudden) and one roo found hanging upside down caught by his feet in the netting (survived).
Quite a year!
JM
Comment