MJ's little flock

[BY Bob]

Can't wait!

It is the best!

 

[RoyalChick]

This is Tap. She has just lived up to her name and tapped me on my leg after walnuts.
I didn't have any in my pocket and told her as much.
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I couldn't help detect an element of disbelief in this look. Shortly after she goes outside the door and shouts the house down for Treacle.


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Treacle poor chap arrives to find out what all the fuss is about. This is Tap telling Treacle to tell me to give her some walnuts.
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@Shadrach I have to ask you a walnut question .. .. clearly your hens love walnuts and walnuts feature in your posts so I assume you have walnut trees nearby. For the chickens, do you shell the walnuts? Chop them? Or do they eat their way through the fruit without help.
I have a black walnut tree and in October it rains down a terrifying arsenal of walnuts. I am always terrified to walk under it because one of those falling from 100' up onto your head would not be good.
Anyway, the walnuts mainly go to waste because getting at the nut inside is so difficult. I am wondering if the chickens love walnuts whether I would give it a go this year.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mary.

 

[Ribh]

Mary.

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ooooh! Shes gorgeous!

 

[MaryJanet]

ooooh! Shes gorgeous!

She's at her best right now, covered in lovely new feathers

 

[LozzyR]

Mary.

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Gorgeous girl! I hope my Charlie looks that good soon.

 

[MaryJanet]

Gorgeous girl! I hope my Charlie looks that good soon.

She will in time

 

[Shadrach]

How are her legs today Shad? Is the treatment ongoing?

I don't know what the problem is MJ. I'm hoping to get a man I know in the village who keeps game fowl to come up and have a look at her. I don't think there is much about chickens he doesn't know. The language is a bit of a problem though. He speaks Moroccan and a bit of Spanish; I don't speak either. We had this problem with the straw itch mite when I went looking for spiders which is what mites get called here.
My feeling is she has some kind of deformity. That's fine as long as it isn't debilitating.

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach I have to ask you a walnut question .. .. clearly your hens love walnuts and walnuts feature in your posts so I assume you have walnut trees nearby. For the chickens, do you shell the walnuts? Chop them? Or do they eat their way through the fruit without help.
I have a black walnut tree and in October it rains down a terrifying arsenal of walnuts. I am always terrified to walk under it because one of those falling from 100' up onto your head would not be good.
Anyway, the walnuts mainly go to waste because getting at the nut inside is so difficult. I am wondering if the chickens love walnuts whether I would give it a go this year.

We have lots of Walnut trees but they are not black walnuts.
I shell them.....by the kilo.....I do it with a hammer. It takes a while......
I chop/break everything I give to the chickens. I had a hen called Lighting almost choke herself to death eating a piece of bread. She grabbed a large bit and it got stuck. I had to fish it out. Luckily it hadn't gone down far.
I think the chickens here like walnuts because they can access them through a normal course of events. The wild boar here break them open but bits are left behind and the chickens come across them foraging. They are full of healthy fats and oils apart from the protein and are not as hard as say Almonds.
To make it quite clear, a treat is maybe one quarter of a walnut broken into at least three pieces.

 

[RoyalChick]

We have lots of Walnut trees but they are not black walnuts.
I shell them.....by the kilo.....I do it with a hammer. It takes a while......
I chop/break everything I give to the chickens. I had a hen called Lighting almost choke herself to death eating a piece of bread. She grabbed a large bit and it got stuck. I had to fish it out. Luckily it hadn't gone down far.
I think the chickens here like walnuts because they can access them through a normal course of events. The wild boar here break them open but bits are left behind and the chickens come across them foraging. They are full of healthy fats and oils apart from the protein and are not as hard as say Almonds.
To make it quite clear, a treat is maybe one quarter of a walnut broken into at least three pieces.

Thanks. Very helpful. And I heard the message on the amount. I may try opening a few this year and see how it goes.