Chicken keepers beware of the horrors of wet hay. Watch out with your chicken bedding.
“That’s what your little one will look like when she grows up.” S pointed to a couple of pretty Wyandotte hens in their run. Last week I didn’t think that Dixie Chick would ever grow up. The month old chick was ill and clearly struggling. Initially I noticed that she was shrieking and pointing her beak at the sky. She was hunched, feathers puffed out and every now and then she closed her small grey eyelids. As our vets are not really switched on when it comes to avian care, diagnosing Dixie’s symptoms was down to me. My friend Tessa...
read moreRats in the chicken run
The rats are back. The harvests are in and they are looking for a decent source of food and water for the winter. What better than a spacious run with layers’ pellets, fresh vegetable scraps in the morning, and the possibility of bagging two plump one month old chicks. Mice are around all year but rats are generally seasonal visitors in our run. “Let’s winter at that cosy cottage down the village,” must be the Rat Master’s cry when the threshers arrive to harvest the corn. “Yes, but after our annual sojourn in the grain store,...
read moreSexing the bantam eggs: results of the ring test on the clutch of mixed bantam eggs
I must admit that I felt quite confident about the ring test on the lucky dip bantam hatching eggs that we bought on eBay. The ring test predicted that Dixie and Beatyl would be female chickens. But there has always been something about Beatyl Chick. A certain Tyrone Power swagger and adventurous approach to life in the Emerald Castle and grounds. Last week a teeny mound of feathers appeared on Beatyl’s rump. Hens do have tail feathers too, I reassured myself. Within days these feathers had elongated and a tiny ridged crest appeared on...
read moreThe scary balls in the Emerald Castle grounds
“Are you sure that Beatyl chick is a Silkie?” The Chicken Lady asked last week. “No, I just assumed that she was. The egg was tiny and just marked with an S.” “She could be a Sebright,” added S. “They’re a lovely breed, very pretty. You’d love them.” When The Chicken Lady and S visited yesterday, they went down to the chicken run and examined Beatyl Chick. They looked bemused when they returned to the kitchen. “We don’t know what breed she is. We’ll just have to wait...
read moreUpdate on Mrs Boss and the bantam eggs: Just two chicks
Mrs Boss has hatched just the two chicks. Three out of six eggs three were duff. Hoping for a miracle, I left the third egg in the nest and after a few days Mrs Boss moved it out into the castle grounds. Our ideal clutch was three as they could be accommodated easily in the chicken house when they grow up and there’s no overcrowding in the Emerald Castle. The two chicks are delightful and so very welcome. We won’t know whether they are male or female for quite some time. The ring test on the unhatched eggs indicated that these two...
read moreUpdate on Mrs Boss: lucky dip bantam eggs are hatching
The evening that we buried Great Aunt Daisy Beatyl I went down to the Emerald Castle to check if any of Mrs Boss’ clutch had hatched. One egg containing a tiny embryo had burst the day before. I was losing heart that we’d get any hatchlings. Bantams usually hatch after 21 days and this was day 22. I lifted Mrs Boss off the nest. As she stepped into the caste grounds there was a small thin shriek from the nest of eggs. A teeny wet chick stood upright in a half eggshell and started to cheep. Not the gentle nestling cheeps but a cry...
read moreSexing the bantam eggs. An old wives’ tale?
I stood in the bay window in Emma’s kitchen watching the bantams sunbathe like languid couples on a Greek island. I’d noticed that her bantams pairs tended to stick together whereas the Buff Orpingtons didn’t. In fact they couldn’t. There was just one Buff Orpington cockerel with a handful of pretty, plump wives. “You couldn’t have six husbands and wives as the cockerels would fight. One always has to be the master of the flock. With the bantams it’s a bit different. They tend to stick to their breeds...
read moreMrs Boss is sitting on bantam hatching eggs
“Isn’t it weird? When Mrs Boss used to go broody it was a nightmare. Now it’s a joy that she has gone broody again as we need her to raise new stock for us.” Danny was studying the lots of hatching eggs on eBay. We had decided finally to put a clutch of bantam eggs under our diminutive broody hen. Our main flock was bought four years ago and they are well past their egg laying prime. Carol, the Maran hen, is now three and still lays well. She is joined on the egg laying front by Cloud, the gentle guinea fowl hen. The...
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