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[Yorkshire Coop]

Hope everyone has had a good weekend?

@rebrascora

Hi Barbara

Hope your week and weekend have been good? Did you get out riding anymore? If so I hope you avoided that boggy area? Had a fab weekend with Harry, we tackled a stubble field for a steady canter and it was great!! He behaved well and we managed to stop without doing loads of circles
We were with his field pal Branon and they did try to race each other a bit but we managed to keep it under control.

Hope Cora and your other beasties are all doing ok? Did you bite the bullet and let them on that other grass?

Hope the fox/foxes are staying away from your birds
Charlie and his Dad have just gone out again on the hunt. Charlie has taken up some of the driving now there are a few more stubble fields about. Only the barley and rape have been harvested down here though so as soon as the wheat and oats are in there should be more places for them to go looking. Right now it's cat & mouse as the foxes can nip back into the crop as soon as they see you

My hens are having battles at the moment, not sure why but they keep getting a bee in their bonnet about something. All is good then they decide to gang up on one. A few weeks back it was one hen and this time it's another hen getting it in the neck. Think they are getting moody in their old age! Even out in the garden when they have plenty to do they are still at it. I guess time will tell and harmony will resume nice more.

Think that's about it for now but I will probably think of something else!

Have a nice evening and catch you soon.

Kim xx

 

[rebrascora]

@Yorkshire Coop

Hi Kim

Afraid I don't deserve any flags as I haven't ridden recently, but that may change tomorrow. My sister is coming over and I can assure you we will be avoiding all boggy ground!
Cora is making me tear my hair out! One moment she is standing on her own in the middle of the field with no sign of the others and clearly not happy and hobbles over to me when I call her, then a few hours later she comes galloping across the field with the "youngsters" when I call them, sometimes even leading them! I did bite the bullet and have opened up the bankside and sometimes she just hangs about in the top field which is flat or in the yard in the hope I will give her some hay or grass cuttings and other times she has gone down with the others. She is on a VERY expensive Glucosamine supplement as well as 1 sachet of bute a day. I should try to bring it down to a half a sachet but I'm a bit reluctant. Perhaps half one day and one the next will be my next move and I'm doing a bit of gentle stretching of her back legs and hocks each day in the hope that will help.
Well done for getting out on Harry and especially having a blast in a stubble field. Whoo Hoo! Bet Harry enjoyed it!
My friend and I are making enquiries about having a side saddle lesson. Have you ever tried it? It looks so elegant and I have always fancied trying it but never done anything about it until my friend has motivated me. There are now 5 of us wanting to give it a go. It looks like we may be going up to a riding school in East Ayrshire which looks really good. It's a bit of a trek up there but it will make a great girly trip out!
I think I've had one more fox attack since I last posted but it's been quiet for nearly a week....touch wood. Someone said there was a dead one on the road about half a mile away (road kill) so maybe that was my problem, but no doubt there will be others.
Strange that your girls are getting grumpy. I've got a couple started moulting and they were getting a bit of a hard time off the others in my main flock that are still safely penned in my neighbours garden, so I moved the two back into my yard to free range....it may be the end of them if the fox comes back but it's no life being bullied and so far they are staying quite close to the buildings through the day and locked up at night of course.
Think that is all my news. Hope you get out on Harry again soon.
Have a relaxing evening.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[newchickmama91]

Has anyone on here rehomed ex battery hens? I've just signed up to rehome a few as I have plenty of room for a few more and it will warm my heart saving a few from being slaughtered just wanted to know if I need to do anything different or keep them away from the ducks etc. Thankyou

 

[rebrascora]

If you have drakes, you will need to keep them separated as they can cause damage to the hens if they try to mate them owing to different physiology.... and if you have adolescent drakes they will almost certainly try to mate them.
Otherwise, they will probably be very wary of the big outdoors and may take a while to venture outside.
Good luck with them. They are usually lovely hens with great personalities and of course excellent egg producers.

 

[Hamiam]

we are on north notts south york border. a little village called Langold. 11 (ish) miles south of doncaster and 5 miles north of worksop.
Hello everyone,
just a quick note to introduce ourselves. I am Nick and my wife is Liz. We have been chicken shepherds just over a year. Although my dad has been keeping poultry since he was 13. and hes 78 now. So I'm hoping some of his expertise has rubbed off. Liz became interested in Chickens when I took her to see some of my dads newly hatched chicks. one look and she was smitten. So after a two year wait on the allotment waiting list our own chicken keeping journey began. we started with half a dozen rescue Ex battery hens. We obviously lost a few and gained a few via other allotment holders, Liz went to help at a British hens welfare trust re-homing session and came home with another 10. but the inevatable sickness and deaths Liz decided to move away from Ex batties and keep pure breeds. we still have the ex-battie flock but decided not to replace them any after natural losses. Liz then went to see a lady she met who wanted to give up chicken keeping to consentrate on horses, and had a mealflur ( that may not be spelt right) for sale anyway she came home with about eighteen pikin bantams and another friend gave her what she was told were two more mealflur (?) chicks, one has grown into a beautiful cockrel called Elvis. the other one grew into what can only be described as a cross between a legbar and a T.rex. So We now have a sucsessful ex battie heard of chickens, whos eggs we sell the monies buy the food to feed them all, Liz hopes to start showing some of the pikins especiallyElvis.We also have a small flock of polish ( Pompom heads) that we intend to breed and show. and are in theprocess of gathering some selected legbars in order tobegin a breeding programe hoping to produce somebeatiful Buff and Gold legbars.

Someone may have already asked this.... What do you mean you had to wait 2 years on an allotment waiting list???

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

Not sure if you have allotments in the USA but it is a patch of land usually owned by the council and divided up into small plots (allotments) and rented by people for the purpose of producing food. It was probably part of the "Dig for Victory" war effort and became an institution. The UK is a small place with lots of people (very different to the vastness of Texas), so many people in towns and cities and sometimes villages don't have much garden and therefore allotments were their opportunity to have one and grow food for their family. Of course there are only a limited number of plots and particularly with the revival of interest in growing your own, getting one is like waiting for dead men's shoes....particularly in inner cities where land for development is at a premium! There are long waiting lists, because people rarely give them up.
I hope that explains.

Regards

Barbara

 

[newchickmama91]

If you have drakes, you will need to keep them separated as they can cause damage to the hens if they try to mate them owing to different physiology.... and if you have adolescent drakes they will almost certainly try to mate them.
Otherwise, they will probably be very wary of the big outdoors and may take a while to venture outside.
Good luck with them. They are usually lovely hens with great personalities and of course excellent egg producers.

I have two drakes that aren't sexually active as of yet! I was going to put them in a separate coop for a couple of weeks so they can all see eachother but no harm can be caused and slowly introduce. Shall I not do that? I've heard great things currently there are 140 in Devon that have until the weekend or will be slaughtered so I need to hurry up and phone them

 

[rebrascora]

That sounds fine, but you will probably need to pen the drakes separate when they reach sexual maturity.... they are rampant little oiks and a different species is no great set back to them.... I've had hens raped and pillaged by a young drake and it it's not pleasant and makes you want to lop their heads off, no matter how cute they are.

 

[Hamiam]

Hi

Not sure if you have allotments in the USA but it is a patch of land usually owned by the council and divided up into small plots (allotments) and rented by people for the purpose of producing food. It was probably part of the "Dig for Victory" war effort and became an institution. The UK is a small place with lots of people (very different to the vastness of Texas), so many people in towns and cities and sometimes villages don't have much garden and therefore allotments were their opportunity to have one and grow food for their family. Of course there are only a limited number of plots and particularly with the revival of interest in growing your own, getting one is like waiting for dead men's shoes....particularly in inner cities where land for development is at a premium! There are long waiting lists, because people rarely give them up.
I hope that explains.

Regards

Barbara

Thank you Barbara... Very interesting...are these allotments different sizes? Are they affordable for everyone? Here the closer you are to the city, the more expensive land is. The developers put as many houses on an acre as possible. So if you want to buy a newer house on a lot larger than 10,000 feet, you better have big bucks. Otherwise, like us, you buy a older house on acreage. They still aren't cheap!

 

[newchickmama91]

That sounds fine, but you will probably need to pen the drakes separate when they reach sexual maturity.... they are rampant little oiks and a different species is no great set back to them.... I've had hens raped and pillaged by a young drake and it it's not pleasant and makes you want to lop their heads off, no matter how cute they are.

Oh gosh!! I will definitely pen them when that time comes don't want any harm come to the chickens. I've bought a shed so I'm going to convert that and put the hens in there. They will have plenty of space and more importantly have a chance to spend the day outside