Hen Blog

Big Day Out

2007-05-19T14:55:00.000Z

Today is the chicks first day out into the garden. They are so big now about the size of a blackbird. The boys are getting their beautiful black and white barred feathers and the girls have their salmon coloured fronts. Both the boys and girls are getting their floppy crests typical of the breed.

I was chatting to a real chicken expert a few days ago and he we telling be the history of the cream legbar breed. To be honest I was so overwhelmed with information that Ive gone and forgot it all. May be a project in that if anyone is interested Id lovel to know. One interesting thing is their love of perching on the smallest thinnest thing possible (see picture here they are all asleep on a piece of hardboard about 3mm wide). My other hens don't perch they prefer to spread out when they sleep but the chicks prefer to perch. My mother used to say my dad could sleep on a washing line may be he was a cream legbar!

Chicks

2007-05-09T07:16:00.000Z

Here's the latest chick pic they are growing so big now the girls have the red brest and the boy the silver breast they are doing really well.

Dealing With Visitors

2007-05-08T17:57:00.000Z

Today has been a really busy day. Finally I have given the hen house its spring clean and the chickens likewise. Chickens always seem to be full of lice by this time of year. The diatoms seem to be working. I have put some in the hens' favorite dust bath spot and we have rubbed it well into their feathers. Places which seem to be a favorite with the lice are under the wings, between the legs and the vent area. Some people don't de-flea their hens but I do feel that fleas and mites etc. do carry all sorts of diseases and chronic infestations can lead to anemia and weakness which can then leave the bird open to infection .

chick update

2007-05-01T21:50:00.000Z

Well the chicks are two weeks old. They have grown so much and are about twice their hatching size and are growing their adult feathers. They are eating loads today we tried them on some finely chopped spring greens and spring onion with some natural yogurt. Natural yogurt is a great food for them great for their guts and general health we give it to the grown hens too. its high in calcium and the friendly bacteria are excellent at keeping bugs at bay.

The adult hens are in good form and loving the sunshine lots of eggs at the moment. They do have lice though so we will de-louse them at the weekend. We use Diatom powder its natural and seems to do the trick They may have a bath too give them a bit of a spring clean. Well more later hope you enjoy the picture of Hannah with her chick.

Enjoying the Sun

2007-04-29T05:38:00.000Z

I'm not prone to passing comment on how people live their lives but its mid spring and i thought Id share a rare group photo of the girls enjoying the sun. Chickens are surprisingly intelligent animals (OK they've never been to the moon but neither have you!) They are jungle birds they need space to peck, scratch, perch, bath and run away if they are being bullied. How can I eat a tasteless battery egg or a chicken raised so intensely and in such cramped conditions that they are too heavy and unfit for their legs to support them. There are other cost effective ways to raise chickens. It is the consumers responsibility to stop this, its not good for any of us.

2007-04-21T06:40:00.000Z

Well two days ago the chicks hatched there are 3 girls and 2 boys they are beautiful. Here is a picture of little Carter hatching more pics to follow.

cheeping chicks

2007-04-18T18:52:00.000Z

The chicks are cheeping (or peeping) inside the shells we can hear then tweeting away its so exciting They may well hatch tonight! We have got the camera at the ready to record the happy event. In the final three days of incubation you have to increase the humidity within the incubator to soften the shells a bit. The chick obviously needs to break free from the shell and although they have an egg tooth they need to muster all their energy to hatch. If the shell is not a little softened by increased humidity the chicks can die in the shell. So we are not out of the woods yet but keeping everything crossed.

Naughty Hen

2007-04-14T06:13:00.000Z

Last winter Joan was suffering from mites. A lot of chickens get them and live quite happily but for some reason it affected her quite a bit. She also moulted. As a result she lost quite a few feathers. Now the ones she cant get to have grown back but the ones she can she has taken quite a fancy to and she keeps pulling them out. I read somewhere that feather are pretty tasty things, they are full of protein. Also hens love the taste of blood (you only have to see them catch a mouse in the hen house to work that one out). As the feathers grow out of the shaft the shaft itself is blood filled and makes a tasty treat. Sometimes its boredom or bullying that causes feather pulling, but in this case we are pretty sure its just a bad habit she has got into. We've tried anti peck spray but it doesn't seem to work so yesterday we bought some super strength anti self harm spray for dogs. It sprays on and works by coating the feathers with a disgusting slimy liquid which tastes of cloves. Lets hope it works.

Growing Chicks

2007-04-08T21:28:00.000Z

Our last two attempts at egg candling have not gone to plan. The light was not bright enough to shine through the shells. Today we built the new egg candler with the 60 watt bulb at last and tonight we candled the eggs. OMG a tiny heat beating in one of the eggs the others look good too its amazing. At the moment the digital camera is with a friend but as soon as it gets back we will take some pictures and may be try to up load a video. Its such an amazing day to see the babies at last. This is not one of my eggs but I thought youd like to see a supurb candling video. Watch out for the little peeps foot kicking around

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/gallery/albums/chickens-reloaded/chicken_egg_embryo_candling.wmv

Day 8

2007-04-06T21:21:00.000Z

well its incubation day 8 so Ineed to candle the eggs to day. The incubator seems to be keeping its temp well and the little trough of water is working to keep the humidity up. The chickens are Happy now there is a bit of sun about dust bathing, preening and sunbathing are so much more pleasurable in the sun!
The warm weather has meant Joan can do a bit of worming by the compost heaps and this has improved her skin condition no end. he feathers are growing back now so its good news. More good news is that Clover's picture is going to be in the BHWT newsletter. Well better get off and candle these eggs.

Incubation

2007-03-30T09:50:00.000Z

Well Joan decided not to sit (may be she got disturbed) so we are incubating the eggs in our incubator. We have been storing the eggs (pointy end down) for a couple of days. It is important to store pointy side down because the air sac which the chick embryo uses to breath is almost always at the round side. the chick needs this to breath. Next time you crack an egg from the shop look on the inside of the blunt end for the air sac.

We have given the eggs a wash in warm water to remove and dirt and bugs. We have put the eggs in the incubator at 37.5 degrees Centigrade. We placed a cross on one side of each egg so that we know which side up they are. It is very important to always wash your hands before turning the eggs this means we don't transfer germs from us to the eggs. Obviously in the wild hens don't wash their hands before touching the eggs but as the eggs are coming into contact with humans we need to keep things clean. We need to keep an eye on the humidity in the incubator but as it is quite wet at the moment we dont need to add any water. We turn the eggs 5 times a day so that the chick embryo and its membranes don't get stuck to the shell. In the wild the mother hen will turn the eggs with her beak.

Baby Chickens

2007-03-30T07:42:00.000Z

Last year the black hen Joan went broody. So this year we've decided to get her some eggs to sit on. We have put some ceramic eggs in with her nest so she will get 'in the mood' and with a bit of luck replace them with fertile eggs when they arrive. As we have no cockrel we have to buy our fertile eggs. We have chosen cream legbar eggs. The eggs from these hens are blue/green in colour and apparantly are very tasty. The chicks are also auto sexing that means the girls look different from the boys at a day old allowing us to seperate them very early on. Incubation for hens eggs takes 21 days wish us luck for our hatching. We will keep you posted.