Where is everybody?

[Margaid]

Not having any hens now I don't post all that often, but where is everyone?
No new posts since Thursday

 

[valeriebutterley]

Margaid,
could not have put it better myself.

Despite the continual rain here which is nasty for the Croads feet, and has turned the run into a sea of mud, mine appear to be thriving, loads of eggs.

 

[chrismahon]

Not unusual this time of year Margaid. Presume everyone is tucked up out of the cold and wet weather as we are. We did have a nice day for gardening yesterday though, which suddenly went 'pear shaped' when I noticed the central heating had packed up. Then the main electricity trip was knocked accidentally and just wouldn't reset. Tried to call out EDF but the phone was dead! Set up the generator with lots of extension leads and plugged in the freezers, the phone and a lamp to work on the boiler because the torches were flat as well! Two hours later and the boiler was fixed and heating restored, phone charged and no food lost. Then I tried the trip switch before phoning EDF only to find it was now reset and the electricity could be switched back on. Job for today is to drain all the fuel out of the generator and put it back into storage- we'll phone EDF on monday and see about getting their trip switch replaced, which has been irritatingly 'humming' a lot recently as well.

We lost two hens last week with seemingly similar symptoms of tiny poos, but in the end one had a heart problem and the other simply couldn't transfer properly digested food into fuel so she wasted away- no idea what the problem actually was but it could be genetic?

 

[dinosaw]

I always feel utterly fed up in February which stops me posting much. Starting to see some of the chickens come back into lay now, good old Thuringians were the last to stop and have been the first to start back up.

 

[Marigold]

I'm really fed up with buying eggs, whilst still cleaning up the poo and buying sacks of food to keep my hens eating their heads off whilst not producing any eggs. Surely they should be working for a living by now, if they're going to? Even a token egg now and then would be welcomed. Am seriously thinking about culling the lot, giving the run and coop a massive spring clean, and then going shopping. ATM I have 2 hybrids aged 3, one aged 4, one aged 6, and little Nutmeg, who is a 7-year-old purebred CLB kept for sentimental reasons. Getting about 2 per week from the younger Leghorn hybrid ( the one with the pooey bottom problem) and nothing from the others. Yes I expect there will be a few more eggs within a month, but I do need a steady 3+ per day, preferably not misshapen from ageing hybrids! I've always tried to manage a small flock of up to 5-6 hens by getting a pair of newbies every couple of years, hoping one or two will die naturally over the winter to compensate, but they seem to live such long and healthy lives that inevitably I get stuck with a flock of useless pensioners. Being a useless pensioner myself, I sympathise. Trouble is, I make up my mind to the sensible course of action, then go down to see them and they're all looking so pretty and happy and healthy that my heart relents... Somebody please give me some good bracing advice on this one!

 

[chrismahon]

We're struggling with eggs as well Marigold. We started buying from a local farm but they keep French Cou-Nu which feel the cold and stop laying over Winter. Tried Bio (organic) from the supermarket but they were terrible quality, so then went to 'Label Rouge' free-range eggs which are expensive. The French hide cage eggs well- they only need to put a tiny no.3 on the box which I certainly can't read without glasses. 0- Bio, 1- Free Range, 2- Barn and 3- Cage if anyone comes over for a camping holiday.

So from our remaining 20 hens we are now getting one every three days from 'Sweetie', a French buff orpington and one every 4 days from Daisy, a brown English Leghorn bantam we bred- that's it! Miranda, our last remaining Marans stopped crowing and laid three eggs between Christmas and New Year, then stopped and started crowing again. They are all 'pets', so no issues of 'abattage' here.

The chicken poo is an essential element here. The land is terribly depleted due to cropping hay for 20 years and putting nothing back. I've been digging out brambles and thorny bushes for months now. The chickens generate 2 tons of compost a year which we will spread- hopefully in a few years the land will be good enough for grass cutting sheep. The area the chicken were going is so bad that we can't put them on it- needs rotorvating over repeatedly and then seeding.

 

[rick]

I thought you got a Whitestar not that long ago Marigold. But then time flies...
My Blacktail (3) is sitting on the nest daily so there must be some eggy sensations gong on but has not laid one since October. The young CLBs have been giving us 2 a day between them for the past month. No action from Bonnie the Orp except eating.
Really noticing the change in daylight hours now in the morning - and we have a bit of sunshine, mixed with gales of freezing sleet!

 

[Evie]

Eight 2-year old bantams in the garden of which 1 or 2 already laying again.
Twelve 2-4-year large fowl hens on the field of which half already laying again. Actually, make that more than half as one is a cockerel :lol:

Very happy to keep my hens if they stopped laying, they've done their bit, I've always kept my older girls until they dropped off their perch or became seriously ill and were given a gentle helping (relieving) hand. A friend of mine has an 11 year old hen, which I take as a challenge to see if I can keep one going (in good health) for at least as long 0

I check the forum every day but have nothing to report :?: I read some facebook groups, too, but some of the stupidities on there are just beyond belief (e.g. I know you can't eat a hen's first eggs, so from when can you eat them? :mrgreen: h)

 

[Hen-Gen]

I hate to tell you how my hens are performing in these cold, dark northern climes but would like to say two things.

1) the relevant thing in my experience is day length.. Hens seem to be totally unconcerned about weather or temperature when it comes to laying.

2) I can't stress enough the importance of roof lights in a shed or coop. I don't know whether it's moonlight or whether hens are sensitive to light at very early in the morning before our eyes can detect it. (By roof light I mean like Velux windows, not electric lights).

But my hens are laying, and have done at 66% of normal rates all winter and I stress hens not pullets. Now I must confess to a re-enactment of The Island of Dr Moreau in that my hens are tri- hybrids derived from a fusion of Columbian Wyandottes, Australorps and Barred Rocks. This is why I am critical of most modern breeds and the associated inbreeding that underlies them.

 

[bigyetiman]

Having had the privilege of meeting you Marigold you are anything but a useless pensioner
Our girls are laying well even the older ones came back into lay early January. We had a hailstone blizzard just before 5pm most unpleasant did the girls want to go to bed no way, it's very exciting watching a human shivering and wet whilst you hunt for a grub or 2.
February can be one of the worst months of the winter I find. But at least on a sunny day the skylarks are in full song and a few other birds are getting into spring mode.
No strange tales from the bus, so I must be due a good story soon, especially as it's half term this week.

 

[Margaid]

For purely personal reasons I don't like February, at least not until after St Valentine's Day, and this year has been true to form! That's why I keep looking on the forum - in the hope I'll find something to interest or amuse me. I don't necessarily expect you all to be out pottering around your hens, but no bus stories BYM? Sorry to hear of all your hassles Chris - why does everything go wrong at once? I'm glad in a way that circumstances forced me to give up poultry keeping after only a couple of years so that I was never faced with the "cull or not to cull" dilemma - and I wouldn't describe you as a useless pensioner either Marigold!
At least something's going right Hen-Gen 17

 

[Evie]

How about we all post some funny stories to take you through February, Margaid?

I think the funniest thing my husband ever said about the chickens is that since we have meat birds and I like breast meat, we should have all female chickens :mrgreen:
The only other hilarious comment I've heard of was made in response to a friend of mine posting a photograph of a boiled egg online (enjoying their first egg of the season, sort of thing). The comment was "you are eating a chicken's period!!" :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I don't have anything as daft to tell like some of the bus stories but there are plenty of stupid comments from our neighbours, e.g. in order for an egg to have a really dark brown shell, it must have come from a really dark brown hen... That's after seeing my fluffy silkies (who don't lay fluffy eggs), our green and blue eggs (without there being any green or blue hens), the multicoloured speckled hens laying plain white eggs etc... But then again my neighbours are p.r.o.p.e.r.l.y stupid :roll: 10

 

[Marigold]

Husband has listened to, if not shared, my current dilemma about flock reduction. He came into the kitchen at the weekend, just as I was getting our lovely Waitrose organic roasted chicken out of the oven.
'Who are we eating today, then?'

 

[MrsBiscuit]

08 Most eggscellent stories!

I don't really have anything to post, life is quite quiet. I don't miss having poultry at one level as I'm not mentally or physically prepared for how to keep them comfortable in the extreme temperatures we get in the summer. I do miss them really, but I know my current life (on the move a lot) precludes any livestock or pets. I cheer myself up by knowing at some point in the future that will change, and in the meantime I live vicariously through other people's animals.

I quite like February; with the snowdrops its the harbinger of Spring. I dislike November intensely, all those fallen leaves and grey skies, but I have to say Portugeuse autumns are a dream, lots of sun, but cool enough to work and grow stuff.

The only remotely amusing thing I can think of recently is a) I fell off a toboggan in front of a crowd of people and b) that a neighbour is very proud of his wine this year. Apparently 3 of them drank 5 litres a few days ago with no ill effects. 'Its all pure, you see, all natural' says the neighbour. 'True' says OH, who helped with the grape harvest, and then watched the neighbour clean out the machinery with a filthy rag 'Its full of bird sh*t, dirt and dust from the yard, and its been mixed together with A's mother's walking stick which has been everywhere the dog has been....'

I had better not tell you about our own olive oil. Have you ever seen a sack of olives which has been left 3 days whilst you carry on picking? The sacks are clear plastic and become very humid when full. Last year we had an infestation of olive fly (I am sure it has a proper name, its pretty common) and the warmth brought out the maggots. It was like looking at something out of Dr Who....

But we live to tell the tale

 

[dinosaw]

Not sure it's funny, beyond the nowt funnier than folk angle, but this is something that always causes me and Mrs Dinosaw to shake our heads at each other in puzzlement.

At our local Caffe Nero they have decided that they only want to attract a certain type of customer, to drink there you must pass a test to show a minimum level of intelligence and perseverance. This fiendish test takes the form of.......... a door with a slightly sticky latch. We often sit and watch the prospective customers as they try and navigate this colossal challenge to their brain power. The devious secret to entering the promised land of large americanos and almond croissants is to pull the handle ALL THE WAY DOWN and then PULL. Boy does this stump a lot of people!. You get the easily discouraged who limply pull the handle down, fail to open the door and then walk off. Then you get the people who walk off, have second thoughts and then come back for another crack, this time pushing at the door and causing another failure, they then walk off. You get the folk who put their shoulder right into the door trying to ram it open and others who lean back with all their might, trying to pull it off it's hinges. Many times they will put their faces up to the window and look inside in wonderment at the geniuses who have managed to gain entry. Normally they are put out of their misery by such a person who waltzes up and enters with no problem, as they have the secret knowledge of how to use a door handle. They follow them in, smiling sheepishly, I now know why an increasing amount of people leave doors open.

Our wine is drinking now, 16 months on and it's surprisingly good, English red!, who would have thought it. I'm in the opposite boat Mrs B, wish I could travel but can't because of the birds, can maybe do a maximum of three nights away.

 

[Evie]

You'd expect Caffe Nero to fix that handle, then, as it's clearly not working as it can reasonably be expected to... 19 Breathing in caffeine particles all day doesn't appear to encourage the staff's thinking skills?


We've had trouble with our neighbours and called the police a week ago. Since then, our neighbours close their curtains in the evening when they switch their lights on, they never closed them before but since the police visit they clearly don't want us to be able to look into their home when it's dark.
Not that it helps much, they're net curtains... :mrgreen:

 

[Marigold]

Go on, do tell - what did they do????

 

[dinosaw]

You'd expect Caffe Nero to fix that handle, then, as it's clearly not working as it can reasonably be expected to... Breathing in caffeine particles all day doesn't appear to encourage the staff's thinking skills?

It's been like that for three years, so in some ways your right, the staff must have seen people struggling. On the other hand, it's been that way for three years and 8 out of 10 people seem to manage to gain entry at the first attempt, so how hard can it be?. They've probably called out a locksmith who is one of the 8 who has no problem opening it.

Go on, do tell - what did they do????

Yeah, you can't just leave peoples imaginations to run wild, especially on this forum!!

 

[bigyetiman]

Well I got accused of sexism today, a woman telephoned the office to make a complaint about me all because one of our lady drivers forgot to take her duty box with her after her meal break and I yelled out "Precious you left your duty box behind" She deemed that to be sexist and no way to speak to a lady, most disrespectful
I would loved to have seen her face when they told her that is the drivers name. She thought it very amusing as it is a common African name.

 

[Hen-Gen]

Love the anecdote, bigyetiman. I always used to say that political correctness was just good manners but no longer think that. It's now about conforming to some crypto-fascist dogma.
There was a weight lifter years ago called Precious McKenzie. I bet if you met him in the street and shouted out 'how are you, Precious' it would cause a stir!