So if I do need two new hens...

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Cab

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So if my sick bluebell doesn't pull through, and I choose to pick that moment to also replace my leghorn who's clearly never going to lay, what shall I get?

Got an old speckledy (four years old, boss chicken, but a really gentle old hen), a goldline (who doesn't care for pecking order dynamics), and a rhode rock (who hasn't the brains she hatched with). What would fit well?

I'd LIKE a aruacuna and a partridge leghorn if I could find a supplier with both. I haven't a layer of a blue or white egg, and I like knowing who's laying every day when I get home from work.

This is of course worst case scenario; Jane my bluebell might yet recover! But if this happens, there's nothing particularly hard about integrating an aruacuna that I need to know? And anyone know of a supplier of such POL's around Cambridgeshire?

Cheers,

Cab.
 
The ones you have are all hybrid layers, which have presumably been vaccinated. There's a wide choice of hybrids that will lay different oloured eggs, probably more consistently than purebreds. Many people prefer not to mix vaccinated and unvaccinated birds because occasionally this can cause health problems within the flock. You can get very beautiful Leghorn hybrids that lay lovely white eggs, I have a brown Leghorn who does just that, and other types will lay recognisably different eggs as well. But at least you would be fairly certain of eggs throughout the winter if you bought some POL hybrids a around 16-18 weeks now, to lay before the end of October when the days get short and the others are packing up.
The 'gentle old Speckledy' may well turn out to be anything but, when faced with some new upstart POLs!
 
Cheers Margold.

Yes, all vaccinated, and I wouldn't dream of bringing new birds in who aren't. I've also got the old chicken house in the shed to get out for introducing new birds - I'll assemble the run next to the newer one and give them some days to acclimatise. That is, assuming the worst for Jane the bluebell...

Old Bess the Speckledy coped fine with the new birds earlier in the year. My Sussex, Vicky spent a week issuing death threats across the garden at the new girls - and when there was any vague chance of getting at them she tried to make good on her threats! So much so that, because we're living in a street with other folk, we decided we had to lose Vicky - maybe after several weeks of this we could have acclimatised them, but it wasn't fair on the younger birds, they were terrified even of the sound of Vicky, and it wouldn't have been good for us our our neighbours.

Bess has a habit, with new girls, of asserting her dominance once or twice and then she's been fine - we got her from a friend originally and she already had a good record of accepting newbies. So in my opinion she's worth her weight in gold!

Thanks for advice re. breeds. Only thing remaining from that would be which hybrid might lay a blue/green egg?
 
Cream Legbars lay either blue or green eggs, depending on the strain, both colours are allowed in the Breed Standard, so enquire about what the parents produced before you buy. Very pretty little birds, and mine is the most intelligent hen I've ever had. She's never gone broody and is now in her third year and still laying well.
 
Excellent, thanks for that Marigold! :) Really useful knowledge.

Just looking at Cambridge Poultry, who have a decent reputation around here, they've got a 'heritage blue' cream legbar cross...

http://www.cambridgepoultry.co.uk/chickens.html

To get the other bird from there, if I want a white layer, would be a white leghorn or a black sussex... Decisions, decisions...

Fingers crossed for Jane the bluebell first though!
 
Just reading up on cream lebars... Its a Cambridge breed! Well thats it then, next time I get hens I have to have one :)
 
That looks a nice selection of hybrids, doesn't it! I liked the way they're honest about the colour of eggs from the Legbar cross. Good that they're raised outdoors on the premises. You might find it hard to choose!
How is Jane getting on?
 
Marigold said:
How is Jane getting on?
Click to expand...

Just posted over on the other thread about that.

She's doing okay. No longer sulking in one place, she's wandering around, eating, and even resisted being given her medicine to day which is an excellent sign. If I'd been told on Monday that she'd be where she is getting better today I'd have more than settled for this.

Suspect it'll be a little while yet though. Not back with the other girls, still a wire barrier between them to give her space.
 
So very likely this weekend we'll pick up two new hens from here: http://www.cambridgepoultry.co.uk/chickens.html

Definitely want a cream legbar.

I'm half inclined to get another white leghorn to replace the one we've lost, but I also see there's a copper maran. Is that a good hen? The one I've known about was something of a bully, is that common to the breed? Is the copper maran a good hen to keep? I know little of its temperament other than the one a friend had.

Thoughts?

Cheers,

Cab.
 
I didn't know you could get a Sussex that laid white eggs. I thought they all laid "tinted" eggs?
(No doubt someone more knowledgable than me will be along shortly, or tomorrow given the time...)
 
Marigold, who s a purebred Buff Sussex, lays pale magnolia cream eggs, sort of paper white. -when in the mood and not broody. I wouldn't call them tinted - just flat colour really. .
 
Sussex hybrids like Sussex Light (not Light Sussex which is a pure breed), Sussex star & whatever other name they call them could lay white to even a blue? green? egg depending what they are crossed with . A pure bred sussex will lay creamy to light brown tinted eggs.

This is quite a useful chart for info on pure breeds & egg colour

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html#sussex
 
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