Hello from the beautiful Isle of Lewis, Scotland

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mm2u said:
Hi everyone ,

I'm from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and a total newbee at having my own chooks. I thought I'd finally introduce myself to like minded people ..... well, here goes.

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Well, I'm not totally new to having chickens around as I was brought up on a smallholding, but this is the first time that I've been able to have my own. I got my first set of 6 Copper Marans eggs to incubate back in July, but due to total incubator temperature failure, not one single egg hatched 😢

My OH saw how disappointed I was and purchased another incubator and 6 more eggs. On the 1st September this year we finally got one successful chick, who is thriving. 6 weeks ago we purchased 2 point of lay hens to keep him company when he's a little bigger and able to stand up to them.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I have 3 altogether just now; 1 cockerel chick and 2 POL hens, and I also have 6 eggs in the incubator which we are hoping will start hatching on Halloween! 🎃

(3) What breeds do you have?
I have 3 Cuckoo Marans chickens (Mr Leekie, Doris and Penny), and the 6 eggs that I have in the incubator are Light Sussex chickens.

(4) What are your favourite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I love being able to watch their progress and see their characteristics evolve, as well as looking forward to the prospect of lots and lots of lovely fresh free range eggs and also further chicks when the time comes.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I love gardening, so having my own chooks will help with soil improvement and hopefully much better fruit, veggies and flowers. I also love cooking and crochet.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
Other animals / pets that I have are: Three 6 month old lambs (1 Scottish Blackface tup, 1 Cheviot ewe, 1 Cheviot /Texel cross wether), 2 cats and 2 working cocker spaniels. My family are all grown up and living their own lives elsewhere in Scotland.

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly impacted on all aspects of life just now. I thank my lucky stars that I fortunate enough, while growing up, to have had my grannie to teach me how to grow my own fruit and veg and how to cook and bake from scratch. This has stood me well in life and never more so than now. Yet another reason for wanting to go to the next level and try to go as self-sufficient as I can.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I came across Back Yard Chickens when searching for information on hen coops and decided that it looked an interesting site with good information ..... and so .... here I am :jumpy

Thank you for reading my ramblings to the end.

Live life and make lots of happy memories :)
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Update: Massive apologies to ALL the lovely members who left messages after my post above, I’ve not been able to reply for some time due to massive personal events during the last year or so, but I can provide an update for you today.

Out of the 6 light Sussex eggs, 3 hatched on the 3rd November: 1 cockerel and two hens (Basil, Sybil and Munchkin). Basil and Sybil helped Munchkin hatch by chirping and assisting her. I’d missed them both hatching so it was amazing to watch Minchkins siblings help during her coming in to the world. Munchkin had to be nursed during the 1st week as she wasn’t feeding, so needed to be syringe fed drops of raw egg yolk onto her beak and also fresh water and also encouraged with some crumb laid next to her on a piece of cereal packet card under the electric hen. After days 3 to 5 of feeding her lots of times a day, and listening to her chattering louder than the others (except when was sleeping), she started to drink on her own and eat her crumb. I continued to feed her egg yolk until the end of her first week, by then she was eating plenty herself, but she was obviously smaller than her sister, and definitely smaller than her brother. Today she is as full of beans and like any other normal chicken laying beautiful tasty eggs, so hard to think she nearly didn’t make it through her first week.

14 months on and sadly I have to report Basil sadly passed away during the night in his sleep. No idea what caused it but the girls are all fine, though all four of them seem a wee bit lost today and are looking for him 😢
 
mm2u said:
Update: Massive apologies to ALL the lovely members who left messages after my post above, I’ve not been able to reply for some time due to massive personal events during the last year or so, but I can provide an update for you today.

Out of the 6 light Sussex eggs, 3 hatched on the 3rd November: 1 cockerel and two hens (Basil, Sybil and Munchkin). Basil and Sybil helped Munchkin hatch by chirping and assisting her. I’d missed them both hatching so it was amazing to watch Minchkins siblings help during her coming in to the world. Munchkin had to be nursed during the 1st week as she wasn’t feeding, so needed to be syringe fed drops of raw egg yolk onto her beak and also fresh water and also encouraged with some crumb laid next to her on a piece of cereal packet card under the electric hen. After days 3 to 5 of feeding her lots of times a day, and listening to her chattering louder than the others (except when was sleeping), she started to drink on her own and eat her crumb. I continued to feed her egg yolk until the end of her first week, by then she was eating plenty herself, but she was obviously smaller than her sister, and definitely smaller than her brother. Today she is as full of beans and like any other normal chicken laying beautiful tasty eggs, so hard to think she nearly didn’t make it through her first week.

14 months on and sadly I have to report Basil sadly passed away during the night in his sleep. No idea what caused it but the girls are all fine, though all four of them seem a wee bit lost today and are looking for him 😢
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Chickens do mourn for their siblings, roosters and other friends. There is no “back To normal”, when we lose a family pet. RIP sweet Basil.
 
mm2u said:
Update: Massive apologies to ALL the lovely members who left messages after my post above, I’ve not been able to reply for some time due to massive personal events during the last year or so, but I can provide an update for you today.

Out of the 6 light Sussex eggs, 3 hatched on the 3rd November: 1 cockerel and two hens (Basil, Sybil and Munchkin). Basil and Sybil helped Munchkin hatch by chirping and assisting her. I’d missed them both hatching so it was amazing to watch Minchkins siblings help during her coming in to the world. Munchkin had to be nursed during the 1st week as she wasn’t feeding, so needed to be syringe fed drops of raw egg yolk onto her beak and also fresh water and also encouraged with some crumb laid next to her on a piece of cereal packet card under the electric hen. After days 3 to 5 of feeding her lots of times a day, and listening to her chattering louder than the others (except when was sleeping), she started to drink on her own and eat her crumb. I continued to feed her egg yolk until the end of her first week, by then she was eating plenty herself, but she was obviously smaller than her sister, and definitely smaller than her brother. Today she is as full of beans and like any other normal chicken laying beautiful tasty eggs, so hard to think she nearly didn’t make it through her first week.

14 months on and sadly I have to report Basil sadly passed away during the night in his sleep. No idea what caused it but the girls are all fine, though all four of them seem a wee bit lost today and are looking for him 😢
Click to expand...
Belated :welcome:frow So sorry about Basil. Good luck with your birds and have fun...
 

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