How to breed any fowl using a broody hen: preparing a safe environment
Last weekend, Sara from Farming Friends generously offered us some Guinea Fowl eggs to put under our broody bantam hen, Mrs Boss. This would be an inter blog breeding event, a joint event hosted by Farming Friends and Cottage Smallholder. We took up Sara’s offer. We would love Guinea Fowl in our garden. Why not give Mrs Boss a break? Having made up our minds we ventured into Sara’s Guinea Fowl gallery and were introduced to her regally named flock. With the imminent arrival of guinea fowl eggs from the North, I left work early the...
read moreHow can I make my chicken go broody?
Every now and then I get an email from someone who desperately wants a chicken to go broody. Going broody means that the hen suddenly fancies raising a brood of chicks and will sit on the eggs constantly to incubate them until hatched. You can’t make a hen go broody. It’s like trying to make X more amusing, or sexy. Either X has the tendency to be amusing or sexy or does not. If you want to breed chicks you need an incubator or a broody hen. There are strains that have a tendency to go broody. Bantams (a small breed of chicken) are...
read moreHow to make a broody coop to stop your chickens and bantams being broody (takes 1 hour to make)
“Two of my hens are broody.” Bunty was exasperated. “We’ve got a broody one too.” This was our first summer of keeping bantams (a small friendly breed of chicken). Bunty continued, “I wish I hadn’t suggested Bantams. I’ve discovered that they go broody at the drop of a hat.” Years ago Bunty had kept chickens commercially. Those were a type of chicken bred for laying that rarely go broody. She thought that she had the answer to our dilemna. “We need anti broody coops. You’re good...
read moreCaring for your eggs
If the weather is wet or you have a chicken roosting in the nesting box, it’s important to collect your eggs every morning and evening. The shells of eggs are porous and the eggs can become tainted very quickly. In wet weather, our hens get muddy no matter how much gravel I spread in the run. The mud sticks to their claws and legs. With the exception of Mrs Boss, who tends to turn brown in wet weather. Her companion Pekin Bantam remains a glorious sparkling white. We were initially briefly concerned. Was Mrs Boss preparing for The Great...
read moreWhen will my chickens lay eggs?
Even though I know that egg laying is unpredictable at this time of year, it’s always a bit disappointing when I lift the lid of the nesting box and there’s only one. An egg from Carol. She is firing on all cylinders now and producing one egg a day, the maximum that a domestic hen can produce. “What’s going on with the other four chickens?” I think as I stump back through the garden in my dressing gown and wellies. The other four chickens are elderly maidens, well into their third year. I know that after two years...
read moreCarol (the chicken)
Carol, our Maran hen started laying again on Saturday. Large brown eggs with deep orange yolks. I have a soft spot for her. She is the first hen that we raised from an egg. Carol is special. We were happy with our hens until Thumper, a ginger layer, became broody. I was working locally at my friend Carol’s house and bemoaned my fate. I’d tried shifting the hen off the nest every few hours but she would stalk back up to the nesting box and settle again immediately. At this early stage in my chicken keeping experience, I didn’t...
read moreOur hens are laying again
Our hens, being elderly maidensof three years old, stopped laying at the end of October. They started to moult, and when their combs changed gradually from red to pink I knew that egg laying would cease until the days started to get longer. December 21 is starred on our calendar. Not just the winter solstice but as the shortest day. It heralds the start of the turn around in egg production. Even though we can buy excellent locally produced eggs from John’s shop in the village, Danny has been impatient to have our own. A couple of weeks...
read moreEssential autumn preparations for your chickens (part two)
Having cracked the rat problem (see essential autumn preparations for your chickens part one, in the chicken category), it’s time to make sure that your chickens have every chance to pass the winter with health, happiness and warmth. And, even more important than this, that you have a good winter chicken wise. The winter of the first year that we kept chickens was a steep learning curve for me. Even though I’d thought the set up through, I struggled. I realise now that everything needs to be in place before the real onset of...
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