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[chickens galore]

Well done. Did you use the broom stick the second time or some other means? I hope the pullet gets better soon.

I normally love chicken skin but I have to say, having gone to the trouble of plucking and slow roasting my first cockerel, I found the skin to be the most disappointing part. It was so tough! I had soaked the dressed carcass in a salt bath for a couple of days in the hope of tenderising it so maybe that changed the texture of the skin or maybe it was just that the bird was too old... he was about 30 weeks. The others are now about 50 weeks. I might try peeling the skin and feathers off the next one, but I'm a firm believer that meat has little flavour without fat and the skin is the tastiest part.

yes i used the broom stick, it went well,for, me not mr t, hung him all night then went back today to skin him, but he is still stiff as a board, so will leave him a bit longer then try again, the pullet he injured i spayed with purple antiseptic and is in with some 10 week old growers and is giving them hell, so im thinking she will be fine.
thanks for every ones helcarolyn

 

[bradronnie11]

Hi I'm kirsty, I have 7 chickens and a cockerel, have had many in the past and we currently have 4 ducks: a newbie to hatching , just hatched 9 babies ( although one has died on me earlier due to breathing problems )
I'm from Nottinghamshire

 

[chaddyville]

Hi I'm kirsty, I have 7 chickens and a cockerel, have had many in the past and we currently have 4 ducks: a newbie to hatching , just hatched 9 babies ( although one has died on me earlier due to breathing problems )
I'm from Nottinghamshire

Hi Kirsty

 

[KirstieJG]

Hi guys,

I dont think my copper black marans eggs are fertile :-( I know, I know its only day 5 but the little silkie cross egg that I put in with them is showing veins already. These were shipped eggs, apart from the silkie cross, so I know it always a gamble but i'll check again on Saturday

I was looking at chickens (I was going to type chicken porn but it sounded far worse than I meant!) online the other day and saw scots dumpies. I think i'm in love! Does anyone here have any of these? what are they like?

 

[chickens galore]

Hi guys,

I dont think my copper black marans eggs are fertile :-( I know, I know its only day 5 but the little silkie cross egg that I put in with them is showing veins already. These were shipped eggs, apart from the silkie cross, so I know it always a gamble but i'll check again on Saturday

I was looking at chickens (I was going to type chicken porn but it sounded far worse than I meant!) online the other day and saw scots dumpies. I think i'm in love! Does anyone here have any of these? what are they like?

hi dont give up on the eggs yet, if they are dark eggs its hard to see, ive had eggs that i couldnt see anything and later they were fine. The trouble is there is always one more breed id love

carolyn

 

[rebrascora]

@Yorkshire coop

How did your hatch go?
I had given Tasha 11 eggs but one cracked early in the first week (I knew it was thin shelled but took a risk. Thankfully it didn't break) and I removed it, so she was left with10 and has managed to hatch all 10. She has 100% record on her 3 clutches so far, so I absolutely cannot fault her. Lays eggs all winter and raises chicks in the summer.... what more can you ask! All are cross breeds, so it will be interesting to see what they turn out like. They were mostly dark eggs from my marans and welsummer with a couple of olive eggs from my favourite CCLxRIR.pullet... sadly I had a fox attack last week and lost her and my marans. Nothing can replace them in my heart but I'm hoping these chicks will grow up to be pullets and lay olive eggs so I have colourful egg boxes again. ( I lost 5 pullets to the fox). Poor Emma, my remaining legbar died last night. She had a large tumour on her face. She was reasonably active and feisty up until the end and although I should probably have culled her yesterday I felt she wasn't suffering so I made her as comfortable as I could and let her just fade away. So, mixed fortunes in my flock at the moment. Seeing the chicks certainly makes up a lot for the heartache of those lost.

Horses wise, Rascal has been intermittently lame for a month and I eventually came to the conclusion that it must be a abscess. My farrier kindly stopped in on Tues evening on his way past, took his shoe off and the minute he put the knife into the toe, it blew out everywhere... yuk! I'm now poulticing but he's already much happier. Initially I convinced myself it was something major, perhaps to do with the hen feed he had eaten, so I'm hugely relieved that it was something as straightforward as an abscess and the moral of the story is that you should always look for the simplest option first. Thankfully I didn't spend a fortune on vets bills before coming to that realisation!
MeMe's over reach is eventually healing and I've had her out once this week. Been doing a bit of schooling with my sister's help as she was down at a Horsemanship conference/demo at Aintree the other week by the guy who was the inspiration for the Horse Wisperer and came back very enthusiastic about what she had seen and learned. have to admit that after only a couple of session I a finding MeMe even more light and responsive than she was.

Building work starts on my stables next week, so that's exciting. The roof and quite a large section of the back wall have to be removed and rebuilt but it will be a relief to have it done and know it is safe. The stables are old stone farm buildings so it is not a cheap job unfortunately.

That's all my news.

Welcome to the new members

Regards

Barbara

 

[hensanity]

@KirstieJG
Definitely do not give up on the Maran eggs yet. We rarely can see the veins on our maran eggs, but they always hatch fine!

@rebrascora
I am so sorry about your loss, I have lost so many to the foxes that we finally spent the extra money on an electrified netting. Once we put that fence up, we stopped losing chickens!

Hi to all the newbies! We've had so much going on here lately. We lost my husband uncle last week and with funeral and memorial services to plan it's been a bit chaotic. We did set some eggs in the bator yesterday, trying to see how well our cockerels are doing mostly. So we'll have chicks in a few weeks! Still working on getting our new pens up as well, but it just feels like everything is moving in slow motion lately. Hope everyone is doing well!

Val

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi all and welcome to all new members

@KirstieJG Certainly don't give up on those eggs yet!!

@rebrascora Hatch went well Thankyou!! 26/27 hatched on Friday/Saturday. I'm afraid though number 26 didn't make it, was weak when it hatched and it was way late compared to all the others. Could not get it eat and drink so rather than prolonging things as was suffering and not happy the other half knocked it on the head for me. I'm still a whimp!! Other than that they are all good and coming on well.

Have got the little polish hen still sitting on day 11 now hope she is a as good as Tasha!

Got to go be back soon to finish this post!!

I'm back!! So sorry Barabara about the fox attack and losing Emma It is so sad losing them like that. I had a fox attack once killed all 6 and took 5 away leaving poor Amy on the decking dead. It was bad finding them all gone barring Amy and the carnage in the run was horrid. Hope you are able to get the you know what. Other half shot the one that got mine. The cheeky thing came back several nights after. Other half was on fox watch, caught it coming back in the garden and shot it. Glad he did too as one night we heard noises in the garden (before he had shot it) and saw a fox out the front of the house. Well needless to say he leapt out of bed got the gun out of the cabinet still in only his underpants and was stood out in the garden like that waiting for it to come back. It was quite a sight him in pants waiting to shoot it

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Here I am again on a new post. On the edit it's not quite the same. Hope things do pick up for you and you enjoy those new babies!!

Onto Horse and well abcess too!! I've ridden this week but to be honest Harry has had a few weeks off again. Not due to him but me. I had horrendous tooth ache Felt poorly for a week and then the tooth ache started. Seriously like giving birth it was on that scale. Was necking every pill I could to stop the pain!! Thank god the dentist got me in and took a look. Had a dodgy wisdom tooth and she said it had to come out last time but I put it off, naughty me. This time it had to come out and when it did there was an abcess under it. What a relief it was, I can really feel for Rascal and I'm sure it's a relief for him too. Face was like I had been whacked up the side of it with a shovel. Really swollen and could not open my jaw very far. Lips in a morning looked like I had lip fillers in them, such a weird feeling it all was. You wouldn't think a tooth could cause all that.
Glad it's turned out ok with him and no vet bill!! I'm wary of foot abcess now since a friend down the farm lost hers to one. Not straight forward though for hers as the abcess came out of its coronet band. Boy it was bad never seen anything like it before. By the time the vets got the horse in and did X-Rays the infection had spread up to the knee. So pleased you got Rascals out the bottom of the foot.

That's great on MeMe and the horsemanship. Glad it's working for you. And the over reach, have you got some new boots for it? I'm guessing she has not caught it again? Such a pain are they not in a spot like that. Stone stables, that does sound expensive but I'm sure we'll worth it. Knowing they are safe makes all the difference. Did you gat a new phone to do pics? Or figured out how to do pics?

Any how's that's about it for me now, hope your all having a great evening

 

[KirstieJG]

Hi guys,

well, thank you all for telling me not to give up on those eggs - I candled again yesterday evening and its looking a lot more positive; at least 4 are showing obvious dark shadows inside, the shells are quite dark so its difficult to be sure. I am a little concerned because a couple of the air sacs arent nice and tight, there are signs that they have come away from the sides a little. Does this mean they will die? has anyone managed to hatch a chick from an egg with a detached air sac?