Recent content by Cab

When you say chicks - you don't actually mean chicks, you mean point of lay hens, right? I wouldn't fancy trying to introduce chicks. We have a spare hen house and a door between two chicken runs. That allows us to introduce new hens and let them yell death threats at each other for a few...

Only two of us, but obviously as the hens age we'll get fewer eggs (until that time when we eat rather more casserole, curry etc.). Neighbours and friends get eggs, we also eat an awful lot of eggs, our main source of animal protein when they're laying like this.

6 from 6 today. They're young, we picked up 6 new girls to replace our old girls in autumn, and they've gone completely mad laying over winter. Couple of soft shells at the start of the week, first problem of any sort we've had with this lot, so I've been putting ground up eggshell in layers...

5 from 6 hens

I thought it might be handy for others if I do a vlog of my new girls settling in. This is them in the old run (which comes out of the garage for introductions), and an intro to the older hens. More on Friday or Saturday... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH6j79OjLrQ&list=UUDzuaANtugRgkose-kSTdvg

Pondering getting two new hens, one being perhaps a brown partridge leghorn (from here: http://www.jessieshens.co.uk/Our-Hen-Range.html) Had two leghorns previously, both white. Lizzie laid five or so eggs early on, mostly soft shelled, and went into the house every day thereafter to lay a...

Hi all, haven't been around for a while (too much to do!) but thought I'd check in to say hi. Lost a couple of girls from my flock recently - Jane, my shoutiest chicken, a bluebell who came back from infection last year, came down with a similar malaise this year. Seemed to be something that...

Anyone used rubber pellets in the outdoor run? Some of my hens LOVE mud, so I won't deprive them of outdoor wet areas entirely, but I'd like to cover part of the open area with something a little less soggy. They've got the covered are area too of course. Pondering on putting some mesh down...

I've got an Iranian friend who has fallen in love with the idea of keeping hens after spending time with mine. And she's particularly keen on some breeds that are common here but unobtainable in Iran. She's especially keen on getting silkies and possibly cream legbars. Import to Iran is going...

Matilda (rhode rock hybrid) was POL when we got her at Easter, and has been a good'un producing eggs since a fortnight afterwards. Took a couple of weeks off with being broody, she was a persistent broody for a hen so young, but she's been a really good layer all year. She's stopped over the...

We have a spare hen house and run in a friends garden. Its used when we're on holiday (our girls go over there). Today it has another inhabitant... Was contacted via. twitter by a mutual friend of someone who lives down off Hills Road, one of the main roads through the middle of Cambridge. She...

My better half got home before I did this evening, and the first thing she told me was not to worry. But I'm a little bit worried. Charlie our leghorn, still a youngster (been laying since we got her in September) laid an ostrich egg. Its 100g in weight, comfortably bigger than anything else...

Since Edie my cream legbar has been laying, I'm getting a green egg maybe five days out of every six, she's been a good 'un since her first egg on Christmas Day :) Now the physiology of green eggs seems quite interesting - according to an article in Your Chickens there's a deposition of brown...

Edie my cream legbar presented us with her first egg this morning, a lovely little green one :) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BcVM4bjIUAA_KIz.jpg

A friends boyfriend was raising turkeys in his garden, lovely looking creatures and she kept showing me footage of them on her phone. So, naturally, I have procured one for Christmas :) Just picked him up (five miles cycling in to a head wind, five miles cycling back with a tail wind and a...