Hey all, several years since we last had chickens as we were abroad, then moving around for a bit, but we'd promised my youngest we'd start up again with a small flock on his 5th birthday this April now we have settled.
Hoping to have a mini flock of 3 or 4 max rather than the 30 we used to have, as we just have a regular smallish UK garden now, no orchards any more sadly. Really would have loved lots of different pure breeds (I miss my cuddly Bluebells & Buff Orp etc) for a rainbow of eggs but there wasn't much choice.
Instead we have added a long run to an old Eglu (used to be our broody pen) and that gets moved to fresh grass daily, as well as them being allowed free roam if 1 of us is with them, as our friendly cats let all the neighbourhood cats play in our garden & the fox family come out in daylight.
Typically Covid got in the way, & chicken frenzy hit the UK, so the rescue hens we'd planned on were fully booked and not even adding to their waiting lists.
As we are shielding we ended up hatching posted eggs instead of collecting sexed day olds (they were mainly sold out anyway too). Worst hatch ever, 1 survivor from 12 posted from 2 different breeders. I've always hatched from locally collected or our own hens before, so won't try posted again.
Scored 3 emergency companion chicks from a local-ish farm as our wee all-black Chickum was very lonely. They were allegedly mixes of speckeldy etc but all 3 had a pale head dot which I seem to recall was an auto-sexing thing for boys?
I've never bothered sexing chooks before, we used to have a huge long private garden away from houses when I collected rescue hens/ dumped pet hens, and then later lived on an isolated farm, so the roos didn't disturb anyone & it didn't matter. This time we have a small garden in the city so I will have to rehome roos asap.
Anyway, this is them, at only 6 weeks old the ginger Charmander 1 is definitely crowing but not every morning - 3 out of 4 this week and yes I was down glaring at him at 5 a.m. to see who it was! He has the thin spiky neck feathers I'd expect on a roo too.
We'd always thought the gigantic grey was roo as it was so much bigger (breeder said they were all similar age hatching, but I do now wonder if grey Stormy is just older), and its comb/ wattles are really similar to Charmanders'. It's also usually the boldest/ most aggressive and chest bump/ fights the others. But its neck feathers look pretty rounded so I'm not so sure now.
Bumblebee the paler spotty 1 was tiniest of the companion 3, wattles etc ore orangey and neck feathers only just coming in. Unsure on sex...
Original black Chickum I think might had been Auracana, posted eggs weren't labelled... No combs etc of any sort and a slight head pompom. It's the shyest/ quietest even though its 1st week it was alone and would only sleep on us.
So hiya, & thanks, I've been lurking brushing up memory on chicken things!
They have been a fab distraction for the kids during all this and will be much more of a pet than previous hens have been. Who knew there were chicken toys & swings etc, they love them, spoilt by kids! Looking forward to the eggs again too...
I'll be posting more pics in the sexing section too, any help appreciated before the neighbours complain.
Cheers, cat
Hoping to have a mini flock of 3 or 4 max rather than the 30 we used to have, as we just have a regular smallish UK garden now, no orchards any more sadly. Really would have loved lots of different pure breeds (I miss my cuddly Bluebells & Buff Orp etc) for a rainbow of eggs but there wasn't much choice.
Instead we have added a long run to an old Eglu (used to be our broody pen) and that gets moved to fresh grass daily, as well as them being allowed free roam if 1 of us is with them, as our friendly cats let all the neighbourhood cats play in our garden & the fox family come out in daylight.
Typically Covid got in the way, & chicken frenzy hit the UK, so the rescue hens we'd planned on were fully booked and not even adding to their waiting lists.
As we are shielding we ended up hatching posted eggs instead of collecting sexed day olds (they were mainly sold out anyway too). Worst hatch ever, 1 survivor from 12 posted from 2 different breeders. I've always hatched from locally collected or our own hens before, so won't try posted again.
Scored 3 emergency companion chicks from a local-ish farm as our wee all-black Chickum was very lonely. They were allegedly mixes of speckeldy etc but all 3 had a pale head dot which I seem to recall was an auto-sexing thing for boys?
I've never bothered sexing chooks before, we used to have a huge long private garden away from houses when I collected rescue hens/ dumped pet hens, and then later lived on an isolated farm, so the roos didn't disturb anyone & it didn't matter. This time we have a small garden in the city so I will have to rehome roos asap.
Anyway, this is them, at only 6 weeks old the ginger Charmander 1 is definitely crowing but not every morning - 3 out of 4 this week and yes I was down glaring at him at 5 a.m. to see who it was! He has the thin spiky neck feathers I'd expect on a roo too.
We'd always thought the gigantic grey was roo as it was so much bigger (breeder said they were all similar age hatching, but I do now wonder if grey Stormy is just older), and its comb/ wattles are really similar to Charmanders'. It's also usually the boldest/ most aggressive and chest bump/ fights the others. But its neck feathers look pretty rounded so I'm not so sure now.
Bumblebee the paler spotty 1 was tiniest of the companion 3, wattles etc ore orangey and neck feathers only just coming in. Unsure on sex...
Original black Chickum I think might had been Auracana, posted eggs weren't labelled... No combs etc of any sort and a slight head pompom. It's the shyest/ quietest even though its 1st week it was alone and would only sleep on us.
So hiya, & thanks, I've been lurking brushing up memory on chicken things!
They have been a fab distraction for the kids during all this and will be much more of a pet than previous hens have been. Who knew there were chicken toys & swings etc, they love them, spoilt by kids! Looking forward to the eggs again too...
I'll be posting more pics in the sexing section too, any help appreciated before the neighbours complain.
Cheers, cat
Glad you joined.
