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Hello everyone! I haven't been on this site for so long but came across some emails on an old address which reminded me! I completely forgot about this thread and then remembered I'd even started it! I'll have to change my signature as things are so very different to all the info on there!
I got up to around 30 chooks, including way too many roosters, at one point, they were feral, sleeping up trees etc! Ended up having a nightmare with foxes and dogs and had to get rid of many of the roosters and just poodled along with sub 8 chooks for the last few years. We had a huge weasel attack in the coop a18 months ago which was very sad and there was only one poor chicken left the last of my breeding line (to make coloured eggs nothing very fancy!). That night we ran to the shop and I bought 2 ready to lay hens so she wasn't alone (first time I've ever done this!). I also grabbed all thier eggs (most had just started laying sadly). I can't remember how many I incubated but 1 little one hatched so we had 2 from out breeders. Sadly they both died from heat (I think, they were both black and last year in the summer my son was a bit late opening them up and we found them dead, very sad). I then got a few checks born at the same time and brought them up together. We currently have 4, after the neighbours f&^*&(%^^ dog (they aren't fenced!) got Daisy 6 weeks ago. We are now down to just 4 girls, a Marans (grey), a Sussex, an Azur (this is a mix of leghorn cross arucana I beleive) and a Wyandotte. Daisy went broody last autumn but none of the others did I'm hoping one of them does this spring as 4 is not quite enough, when I had around 6 - 7 this was enough to sell enough eggs to cover thier feed and for us to have all we needed. 4 has been a bit limited over the winter especially.
Now that I've refound the site I hope to be on a bit more in 2025!
I got up to around 30 chooks, including way too many roosters, at one point, they were feral, sleeping up trees etc! Ended up having a nightmare with foxes and dogs and had to get rid of many of the roosters and just poodled along with sub 8 chooks for the last few years. We had a huge weasel attack in the coop a18 months ago which was very sad and there was only one poor chicken left the last of my breeding line (to make coloured eggs nothing very fancy!). That night we ran to the shop and I bought 2 ready to lay hens so she wasn't alone (first time I've ever done this!). I also grabbed all thier eggs (most had just started laying sadly). I can't remember how many I incubated but 1 little one hatched so we had 2 from out breeders. Sadly they both died from heat (I think, they were both black and last year in the summer my son was a bit late opening them up and we found them dead, very sad). I then got a few checks born at the same time and brought them up together. We currently have 4, after the neighbours f&^*&(%^^ dog (they aren't fenced!) got Daisy 6 weeks ago. We are now down to just 4 girls, a Marans (grey), a Sussex, an Azur (this is a mix of leghorn cross arucana I beleive) and a Wyandotte. Daisy went broody last autumn but none of the others did I'm hoping one of them does this spring as 4 is not quite enough, when I had around 6 - 7 this was enough to sell enough eggs to cover thier feed and for us to have all we needed. 4 has been a bit limited over the winter especially.
Now that I've refound the site I hope to be on a bit more in 2025!
That is right where my eldest lives with his gf, in Limburg - Reuver.
I've done it a few times with great success! I always do it at night and by the morning they can't remember how many chicks they had!
I hope you have a better chicken experience going forward.
We cleared all bushes around the run and made it safer with hwc. 
