Recent content by LuckyJim

  1. L

    Broody hen abandoned most of the eggs - can we introduce eggs?

    I hoped I wouldn't need to do this as I don't have any equipment for brooding - no incubator, heatlamp or thermometer. I managed to cobble together a way of keeping the eggs warm using a desk lamp. It has a 150W halogen bulb where the brightness (and heat) can be adjusted using a variable...
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    Broody hen abandoned most of the eggs - can we introduce eggs?

    We have a 1st time broody hen that was sitting on 8 eggs. Yesterday we discovered that 2 of the eggs had hatched and the new mother was running about with 2 chicks following her. I felt the other 6 eggs and they were fairly cold, so we took them into the house and warmed them. There are signs...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    I've sized the coop for 10-12 chickens, so plenty of room for flock expansion. We have added another 2 Lohmann Brown hens that are close to point of lay (roughly 18 weeks). We are also looking for 2 Silkies, 2 Potch Koekoek and 2 Australorps to complete the flock. One of our neighbours has...
  4. L

    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    I'm not sure what the names of all the raptors are in our area. We've definitely seen African Harrier Hawks and Spotted Eagle Owls in the garden several times even before we had the chickens. I'm not that worried about the Owl, as we hear them calling after dusk when the hens are their coop...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    We have had the original 4 chickens for over 1 month now and are pretty sure we have 1 rooster and 3 hens. They have now virtually stopped coming out of their enclosure free-ranging in the garden. 2 of the hens haven't escaped at all in the past 3 weeks. The rooster and his favourite hen were...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    It amazes me how clever some of the chicken breeders are when coming up with sex-link and auto-sex breeds. I'm new to the chicken keeping game, so don't know all the terms but knew that there were a few breeds where the males and females had different colours or patterns at birth. We are...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    It looks like I will need some luck with the local hawk population. The amazing thing was all the chickens darted for cover and I really had to look closely before I could see even one of them. They are brown and blend in well with the earth and our neighbour has said they have had a few...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    Funnily enough when we arrived at 10:00 on Sunday the neighbours were in the bushes at the corner of their garden with a net because the birds had decided to escape before we arrived! They did say that they were free range in their ad, but we are hoping that we can persuade them to spend a bit...
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    A new chicken owner from South Africa

    Hi everyone, I'm originally from Glasgow but I've been living in Somerset West in South Africa for over a decade now. My wife and I have 11 year old twin daughters and they are crazy about animals. They have wanted hens for a few years and I finally finished a chicken coop for them earlier...
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