New Additions (hens) & Egg Rolls

 A friend of dads has a big chicken farm and they sometimes offer us birds when they have their cull to replace with younger birds. These were from a free ranged chicken farm and are very lively and healthy birds! 

We've increased our flock by 6 birds, and I know these will lay better than our Indian Game over winter, which hardly lay at all when the nights draw in. 

Chicken Tractor Refurb!

When you keep more than just a few chickens having some extra pens is essential. 

They have lots of uses but having somewhere to keep a poorly chicken away from the others is essential and a pen around this size also makes for a great broody coop for a hen to sit on some eggs and have the chicks have safe access to some grass outside. 

This chicken tractor/ark is one I built in 2008. The picture above is how it looked when I first built it, complete with cedar cladding in our very tidy garden at our first house!

The picture below is me putting our first ex-battery hens in the coop and my first chickens since leaving home.

Fox Attack

Well I know I'm going to get a "I told you so" from mum, but tonight something killed half of my free range chickens. 

Six dead, I managed to find two bodies but I guess the fox carried off the rest. I hate it when this happens.

The trouble is it makes me ask myself some questions:

Should I keep free range chickens? 

There's no stopping a free range fox. Is it unfair to them to let them have this risk or to my own pocket? I genuinely enjoy having them about the place and getting up to their mischievous antics but it's obviously going to happen again.

Also what should I do with the six that are left?

I can add them to my other flock (seven birds) which is in a semi fox proof pen, but with a randy cockerel and I'm sure they'll be some fighting with the other hens. Or let them take their chances, although if the fox is on "cubbing" then I know she'll be back - this attack must have been bold as brass in daylight as all the chickens were scratching about the place when I left to do a job this evening.

Bugger.

Egg Numbers Improving

Although we're still not getting huge numbers of eggs the numbers do seem to be improving.

Thanks to anyone who left advice when I asked about stopping an egg eater.

Regular egg collection by my wife and two little "helpers" have helped the most I think (and it's not been easy for her in all this mud and wet with two little ones). But I've also made sure there is plenty of extra bedding and added a grit feeder as well as mixing it in their food.

I've not seen any wet, eggy patches in the nest boxes in a long time so, without wanting to use a pun, maybe we've cracked it!

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Blogging is such a good tool for a homestead! Real advice from people who are living it is hard to beat!

How To Stop An Egg Eater?

My new batch of hens have got everything they could ever want, a nice big coop, a fresh patch of grass, bedding and plenty of food and water.

Why then are they only giving me a few eggs if I'm lucky?

I think I know the answer to this one - egg eater.

I'm pretty sure the eggs are being eaten by a bad hen. The harder question is how to stop it. My wife is going to check and collect the eggs a couple of times a day to lessen the time they're in there. I've added in some ceramic eggs which won't break to fool them into thinking they can't break them and I've added loads of bedding for the nest boxes so the eggs are snuggled down into it.

I'm considering interviewing them one by one, with an egg on the table, and any that go for it will be sentenced without trial (on bin day).

Any other suggestions from fellow chicken keepers before it gets to this?

Chicken Retirement Coop

As I need my movable coop for the new batch of ex battery hens I needed somewhere else for my three surviving ex battery hens from last year to live. This is what I've come up with:

Earlier in the year a customer gave me a coop with some wire panelling, so long as I took it all down and removed it for her. Seemed like a good deal as the panelling is really good quality and has already come in handy. The only down side was the fact I had to dig out the wire all round the pen that was nailed onto it, this took a bit of time but with a mattock it wasn't too bad of a job.

 The coop on the other hand was a bit pants.

The pen I took down

 The coop is an off the shelf mass produced thing, with the thinnest possible wood and far too many places for mites and other bugs to hide. The only reason it had lasted as long as it had was because it was under cover the whole time.

The coop - Cheap and poorly designed

 The first thing I did was to loose the nest box off the side. It was so weak and leaky I don't think it would have held the straw for bedding let alone a chicken. I then stripped off the roof which was two layers of timber nailed together - a perfect hiding place for red mites.

I then set about making it useful, but without spending a penny (except a few screws). I raised it up so rats and mice can't nest under it, using some wood from the floor we ripped out. Added a perch inside and sectioned off a small area for a nest box. The removable "easy clean" floor got fixed in place, because sliding it out made the whole thing want to fall apart. And finally I added some bitumen roofing and a side panel made out of scraps. I used toggles here to save having to buy any hinges

After I'd done a bit of work to it! Still looks rough but at least now it should work a little better.

In the end it's about right for three hens (possibly a couple more) and it now sits in the back garden. It was never my intention to have free ranging hens, or any in the garden, but these three hens seem to spend most of their time around the house so we decided why fight it!
Anyone else been making good with old chicken pens?

Ex Caged Birds Update

I got to see the new batch of ex battery chickens in the light this morning, as I've been leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark.

 Although numbers have dropped from 15 to 14 (one died the first night after the shock of moving) they seem quite happy trashing my greenhouse. I'm hoping this to be very temporary accommodation, they've got access to outside (where they've been trashing my veg garden).

The bald things seem quite happy and roost themselves on the greenhouse staging each night, have a good fill of food each day and we've already had a good amount of eggs off them. Not bad for £25 worth of chickens!

Now if they could just grow some feathers!

3 Old Birds

Last October I had my first "big" batch of excaged birds (well 11 of them - big for me). Over a year on and yesterday I picked up my second batch of 15 birds so I thought I'd show you what I've got left of the first lot.

Well two of them pictured, as one was on walkabout! Only three have survived to this point.

I lost two early on - the shock of coming out of the large sheds into the fresh air is too much for some of these girls. Then the other 9 lived happily through the Spring, Summer and Autumn, laying a surprising number of eggs everyday, until the incident with the dog walker that put us down to six. Then, as I couldn't find where the bodies of the chickens from the dog attack, I think a fox got a taste for them, so I lost three more over the next week or so, leaving me with my three scouts that I've got now.

They've got a great coop and large run but pretty much go where they like during the day, favourite spots include (but not limited to) under the old oak tree in the orchard, up by the patio at the back of the house and "teasing" the other chickens in the big pen who can't get out!

The best bit about these three is they still lay three eggs every other day. Productive for birds that are past their best out of a large factory hen house!

15 Oven Ready Birds

Not many feathers between my new batch of ex-caged birds. I was a little shocked when I picked them up as they seem to have even less feathers than normal, some have none except on their wings and heads. The hen house they came out of must be really warm as they don't look like they've been pecked out.

 This lack of feathers has given me another problem. I was planning to have them go straight into the field with just a normal chicken coop, but I think the change in temperature might just be too much for them due to their lack of protection from the elements.
I had to come up with another solution.
The greenhouse, some cardboard boxes and lots of straw. Just for a few days, with access to outside for a bit of pecking and scratching.

In a few weeks they'll look great and become happy birds (that lay me lots of eggs). In the mean time they need a bit of care to bring them up to health.

And as for the three I've got left from last years batch (after dog and fox attacks), I was going to kill them to make way for the new ones but they're still laying really well, have no idea that they're meant to stay in their pen and love wandering about the whole smallholding. I think they can stay.

Happy Hens

The electric netting and movable coop seems to be working really well.

You can see where they were the week before by the area of yellow grass to the pens left

 The hens get fresh grass every few weeks and a large fenced off area big enough to stop them from getting bored.

"Folding" then hens like this seems like a great way to keep them and although I know it's not true free ranged, but when foxes and uncontrolled walkers dogs are about, this is the next best thing! Everyone who see them says how healthy they look so all that fresh grass and insects must be doing them some good!

Excaged Birds Outside For The First Time

Just some pictures of our excaged birds enjoying the outside for the first time!

A friendly hen

 

More feathers on a bird in Tescos!

Excuse the ripped trousers!

They all seem pretty friendly. The hen in the first picture won't leave me alone when I'm in the garden. My little girl loves them as well, and kept making "BOK" noises at them!

Ex Caged Birds

Although battery hens are a thing of the past in this country there are still caged birds. I've bought 10 of them (well 11 as I got given one for luck) and you can see the condition they come in isn't much better than from battery cages. Many feathers missing and some sore bums!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticising the British farmer, it's all about supply and demand, if people still buy the eggs it's better they come from this country. Not to mention the fact that our welfare standards are much higher than many EU countries where we still import eggs from, so I'm not having a pop at British farmers.

A few feathers missing

These birds haven't cost me much and it was a bit of a spur of the moment thing to buy them (in fact I've just spent my Friday night putting up a shed for them to sleep in while they waited in the van!) but I like the idea of bringing them back up to health and we've had them in the past and they make great layers. That said I know I've got them the wrong time of year - but their main job is to be eating and scratching all the weeds from the veg garden for the next few months anyway so any eggs will be a bonus!

Not looking too happy for themselves

Some sore bottoms!

But with all this niceness I must bring you all back to earth. This are still not pets, and although I'm giving them a nice "retirement" when they stop producing eggs they will be culled. But then they will have hopefully had a nice couple of years living nearly free range on my little smallholding so it's not too bad!

More pictures to follow when they spend their first day outside!