Hi from Skye

Hi all,

My partner and I live on the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland. Neither of us are in good health but somehow we manage to look after a flock of pet chooks which started out as a 5 hen hobby and has grown over the last 7 years until we now have 127 hens/cockerels and 3 geese!
We have quite a few breeds. We have: brown hen hybrids, Bovan Nera, Marans (including some large utility versions), white and black Silkies, Lavender and Black Araucanas, Wyandotte bantams (silver lace, buff lace and golden lace), Light Sussex, Spangled Hamburgs, a Belgian Bantam and 18 Brahmas that are eating us into bankruptcy.

We sell the eggs to local B&Bs and some private homes. In the summer we can't produce enough but in the winter we have to throw some away which we consider a crime but can't think og anything we can do. There is only some much baking you can so and so much lemon curd you can make.

We have about an acre of partially reclaimed heather and bog. we have been planting a lot of trees many of which are now at 15 ft providing a haven for wildlife and lots of undergrowth for the hens to explore and hide in. There must be about 30 or more cockerels and the various flocks have to come out in the garden on a complex shift pattern to ensure that incompatible boys do not meet each other. On the whole though peace reigns. We have lost only 3 hens to predators over the years, two wyandottes to a weasel which the cat caught the next day and another wyandotte to a mink which we caught in a trap the next day.

We get all the usual health problems with the flock and have become more expert I think than the local vet with hens but there are often problems that defeat us. One of the geese has an inoperable tumour and is losing weight but while she seems happy we will keep her going ( poor Biscuit). During the first few years we had a lot of prolapsed oviducts and we got quite expert at putting them back but the last 4 years we haven't seen a single one. I wonder why.

A tourist path passes very close to us on the way to the Island of Oronsay and we have lost count of the times we have had to provide hen tours for the children. I sell landscape prints of Skye under my username here and have recently been doing a fine line in poultry fridge magnets that I sell at monthly craft fairs. Neither make any money but it keeps me busy and makes friends. My partner designs websites locally on a similar financial basis. We will never be rich!

Quite a long intro

Best Regards

Brian

 

I don't know what picture limits are but here are a couple of our setup last winter.



Brian