UK Member Please Say HI

Hello all the snow has gone I'm sulking all gone back to slop and sludge but this morning it had frozen over which was bliss
I cant wait for one of my chickens to go broody in spring/summer as my ducks will be laying an hopefully they will be fertile get me hens to raise some ducklings then I'm gonna buy some fertile chicken eggs and let them hatch!!!!

@rebrascora there is no sign of any early appearance yet however when I went for my last scan nearly 2 weeks ago they said she was very long and broad and already weighing around 8lb 5oz the midwife spoke to this male consultant who said he was quite happy or me to go up to 2 weeks overdue, however the midwife disagreed and has said if things have not happened by 1/2/16 ive got to go back and thy will give me a membrane sweep:'( this is very painful and only has a 60% chance of working,I'm feeling sorry for myself now I can hardly move I'm so uncomfortable-(-(-(

Anyway if ive already old u this I'm sorry but I couldn't remember!

rebrascora said:

Hi Kim

Yes, all is good here thanks. That high pressure that brought us a bit of cold dry weather and even a glimpse of sunshine was so VERY, VERY welcome. Being able to walk on top of the mud instead of ankle deep in it was bliss!!

I've been having problems with the site again recently (it's good at the moment) and I lost a great long post on this thread a few days ago that took me ages to type because of the problem (apparently it's to do with the video ads that pop up) and I just haven't had the heart to recompose it.... so I've been sulking a bit ... hence my absence.. I've still been browsing and offering advice where I can and the computer will allow but just haven't felt like being chatty.... sorry.... I can be a bit antisocial at times I'm afraid.

Hope all is good with you ......

...... and welcome to all the new members who have joined the thread in recent days.

GGBEAR I hope you are still holding up and that baby makes an early appearance. Great that all 3 of your girls are laying... lucky you. I've got a long way to go before I get 100% production from my flock. The more hens you get, the harder it is to achieve.... especially when you have older ones and broody hens..... there's always a few with a good excuse or doctors note...

Anyway, good to see a few more people active on the thread and I hope that some of you are able to set up the egg swap. I will follow with interest.

Best wishes to all

Barbara 

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Hi Barbara

It's sure has been great with the cold weather and hard ground but now it's back to mud and slop again!! I read you had been having trouble with BYC and the ads Thungs are not bad here just the same old same old, I took Harry off the cortaflex, buteless and magnet boots to see how he would get on. Needless to say after a month I've put him back on them all. He became uncomfortable without so I'm thinking they are working when he's on them. Other than that pretty quiet, I've been naughty again and not ridden for a couple of weeks but with the weather as its been I've really not felt like it

Don't be worrying about being anti social, I don't think you are!! Not everyone feels like it all the time Just like to know that your ok

philyc said:

Evening all.

Managed to get away from work a bit early today so spent a bit of time with my girls outside. Also made some curtains to put over their best boxes and rearranged their roosts. I have been rearranging the hens every night so far to get them out of the nest boxes at night but it's not working. Hopefully the curtains do the trick and i still haven't had any eggs!

As for the egg swap, sadly i have been told i am limited to 4 as i can't have a permanent co-op due to moving a lot. Good luck with it though and if my situation changes in the future i may have to get involved!

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Hope your curtains work I had trouble with pullets once insisting on sleeping in the nest boxes I resorted to cardboard over them in the end to stop them getting in. After a few weeks they got the hang of it and started using the roosts.

Hope you are able to get hatching in the future it sure is fun and great for kids to watch them hatch

malkered said:

I would definitely be interested if I can find good homes for two of my Cockerels otherwise I will have to set up a batchelor area and won't have enough space.

These are my two. Terry, a red leghorn and Matt who appears to be an Icelandic. Anyone interested?

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I'm afraid not as I'm on the hunt for a Tolbunt polish cockerel for my girls. I've had no luck so far I'm starting to think I'm going to have to buy some Tolbunt eggs and hatch them off myself to get the boy I want for breeding next year.

Good luck in finding new homes for Terry and Matt

GGBEAR said:

Hello all the snow has gone I'm sulking all gone back to slop and sludge but this morning it had frozen over which was bliss
I cant wait for one of my chickens to go broody in spring/summer as my ducks will be laying an hopefully they will be fertile get me hens to raise some ducklings then I'm gonna buy some fertile chicken eggs and let them hatch!!!!

@rebrascora there is no sign of any early appearance yet however when I went for my last scan nearly 2 weeks ago they said she was very long and broad and already weighing around 8lb 5oz the midwife spoke to this male consultant who said he was quite happy or me to go up to 2 weeks overdue, however the midwife disagreed and has said if things have not happened by 1/2/16 ive got to go back and thy will give me a membrane sweep:'( this is very painful and only has a 60% chance of working,I'm feeling sorry for myself now I can hardly move I'm so uncomfortable-(-(-(

Anyway if ive already old u this I'm sorry but I couldn't remember!

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Sloppy sludge here again too

Hope your hatching plans go good! It's great seeing a hen raise them, I loved it last year with mine.

Lots of Hope she makes an appearance soon so your not as uncomfortable

how is everyone up north doing? my wife has just gone up to york to look after her mother for a month and says its been very windy (same as down here) but our weatherman said the north and west are going to get a huge amount of rain :S

on another note, just went to check the chickens and all but one of them are happy on their roosts instead of the nest boxes, yay! 1 month in and still no eggs though.

Hi.

Sorry to hear that your girls are not performing yet. The wait for that first one is a killer but well worth it. For some reason that first egg could be made of solid gold and you wouldn't be happier. It's mostly what we keep chickens for and yet it seems like a miracle when they lay one! I'm averaging about an half dozen a day still. I had hoped some of the older girls would start laying but it's still mostly the young pullets doing the work at the moment. I have another 4 pullets that are getting close to point of lay but not quite there yet so I'm quite excited about them. They should be more blue/green egg layers. I've got 3 brown egg layers, two or 3 green and two olive.... one of which has very attractive speckles which will be the welsummer cross..

I found my old RIR trying to cook an egg last night. She hasn't laid an egg since last spring and has never been broody before although she has shown more of an interest in other hens chicks the last couple of years that any other hen. She's top of the pecking order, so it would be good if she did decide to go broody, particularly at this time of year as I normally have to wait until June for my hens to go broody. Unfortunately she was on one of my "sneaky" nests in the tractor shed which isn't secure, so I had to move her last night and that seems like it might be enough to discourage her. She had plucked her breast, so it wasn't just that she had got caught out on the nest when it got dark. She was eating normally with the flock this morning.

The weather isn't too bad here in the north east thanks. It's blustery and showery but nothing desperate and just at the moment the sun in shining, so I'll take that and not complain.. Feel sorry for people in the north west though. Hope things are Ok where your wife is travelling to and that her mother's health improves.

Oh and congrats on getting your girls to roost. I have just taken on my neighbours two light sussex and I've made them a nice low roost but it's been a week of lifting them onto it and I'm not seeing any sign of success yet. Arrgh!

Regards

Barbara

@ Yorkshire coop

Hi Kim

I hadn't ridden out for ages either but we got them all out on Friday. MeMe got to go out twice this time. She was pretty flat the second time which was just as well because Reb was hyped... I got two massive bucks off him going up the road. Rasc had a loose shoe clinking from the start and lost it about 100 yards from home. The blacksmith is due in 2 weeks and I was going to ring him and see if he would stop in in passing to tack it back on, but I'm now thinking that it might be best to just wait as Rasc's hooves are pretty poor and another set of nails through them for the sake of a couple of weeks is probably only going to make them worse. Reb and MeMe manage fine without back shoes but Rascal just can't cope with being ridden barefoot, even when it's just one back one. I could do some long reining with him though and that would be good for me and him exercise wise and not having that back shoe should settle him down and make it less dangerous for me walking behind him!!

As I said in my previous post to philyc, I've taken on my neighbour's two light sussex, to give them one last chance.... they were for the chop but I'm pretty sick of eating chicken at the moment and had the thought that I could breed some sex links if they ever got around to laying eggs. Unfortunately one of them appears to have ascites. Her nether region feathers were filthy and it was too cold to wash her, so I decided to trim them back and that's when I discovered the problem. There is a good tennis ball sized pouch between her legs and that's obviously why her feathers were caked in mud and poop. She has also picked up IB from my lot, which seems to go round every once in a while in my flock. although it's usually no more that sneezing and the very occasional bubbly eye and raspy breath but they get better without treatment. Anyway, I'm assuming that the fluid is putting pressure on her lungs as well as the IB and I know I should cull her but for some reason I want to give her a chance. Have you ever dealt with ascites? I don't have a needle to drain it and wondered if it can be done with a razor sharp scalpel? I really need to do some research on the emergencies and diseases forum, but just wondering if you had any personal experience I could tap into?

Hope everyone is well in your household and Harry is being a good boy as always and that you are getting a few more eggs now.... Have you figured out the source of the crowing yet?

Fingers crossed, you are experiencing the same mild form of this storm that we are.

Best wishes

Barbara

GG.... are you still fit to burst? Maybe you should go sing the egg song with your girls and see if that pushes things forward a bit. Thinking of you and really willing your little girl to make an early appearance. Have you decided on a name for her yet?

philyc said:

how is everyone up north doing? my wife has just gone up to york to look after her mother for a month and says its been very windy (same as down here) but our weatherman said the north and west are going to get a huge amount of rain :S

on another note, just went to check the chickens and all but one of them are happy on their roosts instead of the nest boxes, yay! 1 month in and still no eggs though.

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I'm not too far form York really, it's just up the A19 from me. Yes it's been pretty gusty!! Showers too but all in all not too bad. Still plenty of mud and slop to get through. Maybe a frost tonight so that should make things a bit better.
on more eggs for you soon! I've got 4 laying at the moment, one just started up again today Still have more free loaders than layers out there!!
Good going on the roosting

Hope your mother in law feeling better soon.