A Broody hen, who I thought was past it!

Fleck Serama hen has gone broody, and was hiding in the ivy on top of the wall.

Fortunately she was only sitting on one, very old egg (we marked it and kept removing the new laid eggs)

Now safely shut in the top section of the double decker hutch she and husband Chancellor the Serama share.

 He's now downstairs, and NOT happy!

Fleck is at least 8 years old, if not older, and I thought was well past all this hormonal nonsense!

An errant hen

Fleck the Serama hen had been missing for 5 days . We were pretty certain she was hiding somewhere, and when Compostman spotted her this morning under the bird feeder, we kept a careful eye on her to see where she went. 

We found her hiding on a nest with 9 eggs in, behind the JCB bucket. She and the eggs have been moved to safety back in the hen house. If you look carefully you can just make her out under the bucket! 

Very grumpy at being found out! I doubt she will continue to sit on them, from past experience, now we have moved her but we shall see. 

Chicks?

Mini Pearl the rather grumpy-at-the-best-of-times Serama hen has gone broody. So she is now even more grumpy!

After leaving her for a couple of days with a rubber egg, just to make sure her broodiness was firmly established, I put a selection of hers and Mille Serama eggs under her. Molly ( the pheasant hen looking Serama) only lays wind eggs so none of hers would be fertile.

Mini Pearl is now ensconced in the  cat carrier - in the lean to by day and brought in to the downstairs bathroom for night time.

We shall see what happens in 3 weeks time!

Another Marjoram Update

Marjoram with her very broody friend Nutmeg


 They are such good friends that Nutmeg allows Marjoram into the sleeping area to rest during the day, although Nutmeg drives off all the other hens.

Nutmeg update.

So, with Nutmeg very firmly ensconced on The Eggs, my morning routine has had to change a bit.

I now go out and open the door of the Brody Ark where Nutmeg greets me with a frenzied crescendo of
 " bock bock bock" while I carefully pick her up off the eggs and put her outside.

I have already put her food and water bowl nearby, so she has to move towards it, rather than turning round and going straight back inside to The Eggs.

 here they are - two French Copper Blacks (dark brown) a Dorking x French Wheaten (pale) and a Cream Legbar x French Wheaten ( Blue)

 I quickly shut the doors so Nutmeg can't get back in until she has eaten, drunk

 and eliminated. Broody hens only poo once a day and do huge, very smelly ones. Like this.

While I guard her eggs, Nutmeg eats a bit of grass, does a few stretches and flaps her wings. Then with a huge "squaarrrk" she heads back to the Broody Ark and I let her in.

I do this before I let any of  the other hens out and I shut the others in at night a bit earlier than normal so I can let Nutmeg out again last thing at night for more food and drink.


If I didn't do this I don't think she would bother - I have seen a broody hen turn to skin and bone, rather than leave her eggs and I do not want that for Nutmeg.

Fingers crossed, so far, so good.

I finally cracked...

ha ha 

and tonight , despite a very aching bad back. went out and drove around a fair bit of my local patch in order to get four fertile eggs for Nutmeg my broody, 5 year old, virtually stopped laying eggs, ginger hybrid, (never had one gone broody before). She is now settled on them and gave an aprreciative purr after I put them under her

Watching her tuck the eggs under her, croon a bit and "nestle down" on them made my back ache from driving to get the eggs ( thank you Jo at Hansnett farm ) worth while

The things I do for my hens.

 She was SO pleased and  I feel very happy that I could make her so content

*If* ( big ask I know) she manages to hatch them I will have a very interesting mix of chicks - but am not counting my chicks before they have hatched,...! Just happy to let her try to do what Nature is asking of her

Hen news - life, death and movement.

Nutmeg is still broody. And even more "in the zone" of broodiness than before. I got severely pecked today when I was getting her to go out and have a drink and some food. And I shall draw a veil over the GINORMOUS poo she did; lets just say it was VERY smelly!

I think she is going to stay this way, so I am investigating what fertile hatching eggs are available from my local sources. I fancy some more Cream Legbars. So, I have moved her tonight into the Broody Ark. She is furious and despite moving her after dark she is still trying to peck her way out through the wooden sides back to her Rightful Place in the Compostman hen house nest box.


This move has caused a Major Shake Up in the pecking order of the other Ginger Girls; having lost (temporarily) their Leader, there has been a coop ( no I didn't spell it wrong, I was being funny!)  and Babs has seized power. She is now ensconced in the Compostman built house and run ( where all the Ginger  girls were living and where Nutmeg was malevolently squatting, broody,  in a nest box) . She has Bunty as her deputy and side kick.

Titch (still mourning her friend Tiny Hen) took one look at the new dynamics and was having none of this so has joined the new girls in the Mega Hen Pen and Flytes House, along with a subdued moulty Marjoram.

Apparently the new girls are ok with all this, but sadly,  in other news,  Treacle the Partridge Hen was taken by something tonight - don't think it was a fox as it was very fast and right by our House :-(   The feather pile looked more bird of prey -ish than fox attack, and the other hens were not alarmed by whatever happened.

RIP Treacle hen, pretty and nervous and soft feathered. And too young to be dead.

All the girls are on "only out when I am there to watch" duties, as a result.

Broody hen

Nutmeg the Ginger Hen, the oldest hen, the nearly-stopped-laying-cos-I'm-much-too-old hen, the kind, gentle matriarch of the Ginger Gang, the even tempered and generally delightful hen...

has Gone Broody. Now a Broody Hen turns into the Hen from Hell, pecking and growling and fluffing and generally behaving in a very slightly bonkers way.

A sort of " take me on if you think you are hard enough" gleam comes into their eyes and they have a tendency to peck at you and draw blood.

I am hoicking her out of the nest box several times a day to make her eat , drink and poo.

I have never had a commercial Ginger gybrid hen go broody before. We shall see if it sticks; if it does I might get her some fertile eggs to sit on :-)

At her age! honestly!

The patter of tiny claws......

20 days ago I put 3 fertile cream legbar eggs under Broody Ruby Dorking. She has faithfully sat on them, refusing to get up and eat or drink unless I push her out of the broody ark every morning - she is a VERY dedicated Mum!



Yesterday was day 19 ( chickens typically take 20 days to hatch out) so I hoped something would be happening soon and when I went out to open up the hen houses, guess what? I pushed Ruby off the nest to make her get some food and drink, I looked at the eggs and.....one of the eggs had "pipped"! (cracked from the chick pecking at it from the inside)



Can you see the crack? Click on the picture to enlarge it!

I went back again a couple of hours later and ...surprise! a chick was there, sprawled on the nest. The other two eggs had cracked and the chicks were cheeping furiously from inside, but hadn't emerged from the shells yet.







See the little chick peeking out from under Ruby?

I wasn't worried about the other two chicks then, as it can take a few hours for a chick to emerge, but as the day wore on I did begin to be concerned. The chicks were active and struggling to get out of the shells, but examining the shells showed me they were VERY thick eggshell indeed. The worry here is that, the longer the struggle goes on, the drier the shell and membrane inside becomes and the harder it is for a rapidly tiring chick to push it off.... So, by evening I had decided if the chicks hadn't managed to get out under their own steam I would give them a bit of help. I wasn't going to pull the shell off them but I would try to rehydrate the shells with warm water, to help the chicks along a bit..





So I did. I dripped warm water on the shells to help the chicks get out. The extra humidity allowed them to struggle free and they managed to hatch themselves. When both the chicks had made it out of the shell we put them in a box on top of the dehydrator to warm up and then I put them back under Ruby to dry out and fluff up.




I think I have two pullets and a cockerel. Chicks! I love them :-) More piccies to come tomorrow ;-)

Busy with new chickens...

Hmm seems a bit dusty in here, are those cobwebs?
Sorry for not blogging lately, its a very busy time of year!

But...I really wanted to post up some photos of the new chickens! Well new-ish, as I have now had some of them for 3 weeks.

Bluebelle ( a Bluebelle),


Bunty (Rhode Rock)


and Mac (Sussex Star)


are (now) 18 weeks old and still just babies. They run around and flap their wings in a comical fashion when I let them out into the Orchard in the morning.

Ginger and Nutmeg (formerly Bunty) are now thinks 22 weeks old.


They are ISA Browns and very tame and friendly! Ginger has started laying but Nutmeg has not, yet.


Pearl the Leghorn is 26 weeks old. Pearl lays white eggs and is a bit skittish.



I went on a "Kill, pluck and gut" course last weekend at Cotswold Chickens, where I met up with a number of friends from the Omlet forum, and as well as bringing home a dressed chicken and a plucked chicken and a kilo of sausages I made, I also came away with 3 more pullets (I have no idea how the carrier got into my car ;-) )

Cinnamon is a Goldline


and together with Ginger and Nutmeg makes up The Spice Girls. The three have become friends and roam around getting up to all sorts of mischief!

The other two pullets, Cocoa


and Treacle,


are Black Stars, very pretty and gentle.

Broody Ruby Dorking is still sitting away, but I may well have breaking news about her soon.....

Meet the new girls!

I am putting together a post which will catch up with the doings of all the chickens at Compost Mansions, but the latest biggest news is I have 2 new pullets!

We went to Poultry Park a few days ago and I bought 2 POL Warrens, and 3 fertile cream legbar eggs to put under Ruby Dorking (who is broody). Ruby has accepted these eggs so we shall see what happens.

The new girls (still, as yet, unnamed...but I think one will be called Ginger Too) are very pretty and are ensconced in the Eglu and its run for a few days under quarantine. We have made a separate enclosure for them around the Eglu and I have this evening just let them outside the Eglu run, for the first time.



They came from a grass enclosure with no shrubs or soil or leaf litter, so seemed a bit baffled at first




but then started to have a good old furtle around and peck at worms in the sunshine,

making little "quarks" and croons in a contented chicken-y way.





They are both happy to let me pick them up as well, which is nice :-)



I love my hens :-)

I plan to get another 4 or 5 hens and am still musing on breeds....but I am happy to have another couple of ginger hens as to me they are what makes a smallholding! Probably because that's what we had when I was a child.....and it is nice to look at them and remember Ginger doing the same stuff :-)

Compostman is resigned to more chickens, now I think (grin)

Chickenailia catch up - March and April

I didn't really feel I wanted to post a "chickenailia " post for March, after what happened to Genghis and Cathy :-(


and the end of April sort of has passed me by as I have been sooo busy in the garden, polytunnel and wood......and I have realised I haven't given you an update on the hens for over 2 months!

So...to make up for my tardiness...the egg and general behaviour report for all things chicken related here at Compost Mansions ;-)

We are now into long days, an early start and a late bedtime for the chickens. The sun rises at about 5 am, although, bogglingly the silly males (Capt'n Flint and Long John Silver) often crow at 2 am ( why? it is dark then? so why crow?)

The days are lengthening noticeably and thus egg laying really starts to improve as it is controlled by day length ( which is why caged hens are kept under artificial light for most of their lives, to maximise egg laying :-( ).

The girls all look happy with this extra natural day length and seem pleased to be able to eat bugs and worms for longer and are mostly all laying an egg a day. Good job I now have a regular clientele for eggs at school .....otherwise we would be overwhelmed with eggs!





Henny laid 27 eggs in March and in April she laid 25!...she lays the biggest eggs! 90 - 100 g dark brown speckled whoppers!

Ginger has laid well both months (26 and 28), she is the Number 1 hen and by far the most intelligent of them all...I seriously worry about how bright she can be, sometimes it is quite scary! Henny and Ginger are now 2 1/2 years old and have been with us for just over 2 years, so they are doing very well for us and it is lovely to see them as the leaders of the flock..much brighter than the 2 males I might add!


Attila laid 18 eggs both months, many of which were soft shelled or shell-less... she really is not much good at this egg laying lark...ho hum..I forgive her anyway ...

Sweetiepie has now gone mad bad bok bok broody again but laid 22 eggs during March and in April ...she is now though puffed up like a powder puff, bok bok hogging a nest box and really quite behaving quite potty! I like letting a broody hen hatch out eggs BUT it means a long wait to get an egg laying hen AND, of course, the chick may not be a hen, but a cock instead...



Yet again though , the absolute stars of egg laying and general loveliness are Babs and Goldie! Yep they laid the most eggs and the most splendishous...! Babs and Goldie laid a magnificent 60 eggs out of a possible 61 for March and April.

I am seriously considering buying more Rhode Rocks from Oxenhall soon, as these two have been SUCH good hens, brilliant layers and such friendly hens as well.

The big girls laid at total of 157 eggs in March and 147 in April, which is really pretty good, from 6 egg laying hens they have averaged 5 per day, which isn't bad going I think! AND the egg laying was 5 or 6 a day from the 6 laying hens from mid Feb.

The Silver Dorkings continue to delight, Cap't Flint the naughty cockerel is on a re homing list..I hope to give him away in the next week ... Cap't Flint chases Compostgirl every time he sees her and *I* have had to push him off with my foot and show him who is boss!

Long John Silver still lives in Cluckingham Palace with all the big hens and they are HIS harem. He leads them off into the Wood at every opportunity! Long John Silver is reasonably friendly and I hope that continues.

Ruby, Violet, Buffy and Willow are very sweet and cluck and croon at me and follow me around! And, of course, they are all now laying!




Dorking eggs are small (55g)at the moment but with the MOST amazing yellow yolks! Even more so than all the other hens! See what egg mayo sandwiches look like made from ther eggs....





The Fab Four Dorking girls coming into lay means even more eggs for me to sell and I recoup all of the feed bill as well, now. I have now 4 regular customers who LOVE the eggs and think they are fabulous!

Egg mayonnaise sandwiches, home made bread, salad, eggs, mayo...mmm delicious!



THANK you all, my lovely, lovely girls, you make my life very happy (and now you are finally paying for all the layers pellets and corn, I am made even happier!)

A hormonal Violet Dorking hen

Violet Dorking has gone VERY broody in the last week :-(

She sits all day in the Eglu nest box and is very vocal and aggressive if you try to feel for eggs under her or move her off the nest....and if you DO move her she squats down and "nests" wherever she is....



I have dunked her bum in a bucket of icy water , to try to "snap" her out of being broody..I did this 3 times in the space of one day...but she is STILL broody.

I don't want her to hatch out chicks at the moment as I don't want any more young ones just now, also I have not yet organised the houses for any more chickens or where I will pen them in to be safe and have lots of space and NOT trash my garden!

I plan on putting the chickens out in a big pen in the wood, but not just NOW!

And I don't like the possible option of putting her on fake eggs and letting her sit on them. I don't really want to put her through that for no return of chicks to rear AND she will not lay eggs for a long time.

hm mm will have to put her in a wire bottomed broody pen next, I think!

This cools her "nether regions" down due to the air circulating around...and she has no access to nesting material so it helps to stop the brooding instinct..

She will still have food and water and shelter...just not be able to make a nest and brood in it.

Poor hormonal Violet hen! She only started laying 6 weeks ago so is a classic hormonal teenager....I DO feel sorry for her but I cannot afford to just leave her be as she is disrupting all the other Dorking girls, who also want to lay and sleep in the Eglu...

Sometimes I feel a bit too emotionally involved with my hens...(!) but I am their surrogate mum and *I* have to decide what is best for them all..

Gosh it is like being a parent to 12 teenages at the moment I suspect! ( probably not really but you get the gist of what I mean! ;-)