UK Member Please Say HI

[rebrascora]

Hi, thanks for your replies

@ hllewellyn

I had to google Ko Shamo as I had never heard of them, so thanks for causing me to broaden my knowledge. Interesting breed but people seem to be split about their aggressiveness although most reviews suggest they are great with humans. Pretty impressed that you keep one as a house pet! Does he crow much. I would imagine it might cause problems with neighbours even if you love the sound. It's really sad that you had to part with your flock. Were they also Shamos too?

I had chickens about 10 years ago but the fox picked them off one at a time (through the day, occasionally even when I was there to give chase!..... they were locked away at night) and they were so used to free ranging, I didn't have the heart to pen them in. It was soul destroying slowly losing them and there was little point in replacing them. I hadn't realised how much I missed them until I got somemore earlier this year and "chicken fever" took over!
Thankfully, no problems with foxes this time so far (there is a shooting syndicate nearby and I think they are shooting a lot of the foxes to protect their birds) so keeping fingers crossed that the problem doesn't reoccur.

@ Limeflower (lovely username by the way!)

It is a bit nerve wracking introducing new chickens. I built a large cage in a corner of my hen house for the new chickens, so that they could get to know the others for a week or two without too much risk. It was still scary when I allowed them to mix and I ended up intervening on more than one occasion when blood was being drawn on combs, and put them back into the cage. With hindsight I should have held my nerve and let it run it's course as each time I intervened it meant they were back to square one and .the pecking order needed to be re-establish and the fights just started again. It calmed down after a day or two of scuffles. My silkie is bottom of the pecking order and she knows it and is content with that, so she just runs when one of the higher ranked hens moves towards her. It's when you have two dominant hens that they fight.
I was worried about how I would integrate my chicks, but because the mother hen is low in the pecking order, she taught them, at a young age, to avoid trouble and it is all going pretty well at the moment although I do still occasionally intervene if an adult hen is giving one of the chicks a hard time..... roosting time is when most aggravation occurs as the babies keep getting moved by the adults when they get too close or are in a favourite perch spot. It's like being a new kid at school and every desk in the classroom seems to be taken even though there is plenty of room.

It's also good advice to quarantine any new chickens for a couple of weeks before you introduce them to your flock. I wasn't aware of this and was lucky to get away with it, but would have been gutted if I'd brought in a disease and lost them as a result. Also important to be aware of rats. They will turn up sooner or later, no matter how scrupulous you are, so be prepared with traps/poison. I prefer traps (they can't resist peanut butter) but make sure you put them somewhere your hens can't get at.

What breed do you have at the moment and have you had any eggs yet?

Best wishes

Barbara
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[rebrascora]

Hi Shanenetchucks

You seem to be the closest to me in Derbyshire.... I'm coming down to Brinscall Hall in 10 days time for a natural beekeeping conference. Do you know it?

What breeds do you have? How many? Do you free range? How long have you been keeping chucks?

If we are going to develop a community, it's helpful if we share information on our interests and practices, not just our location. Tell us more about yourself and your hens?

Regards

Barbara

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Suffolkchick

Good to hear that you have legbars too. I remember the intolerable wait to see that first blue egg. I was soooo excited when it happened. I already had hens laying white eggs and brown eggs of varying shades, but that first blue egg was just really special. If you think it's shallow choosing the breed because they look pretty, which they do (my cockerel isn't called handsome Harry for nothing), I'm worse because I chose them for their egg colour! Sadly the eggs get paler as the season progresses so you have to hold them next to the white eggs now to notice the colour.

I lost 2 of my original 3 legbar pullets (I died of impaction of the gizzard..... I psyched myself up and did a post mortem so that's how I know.... and the other was killed by someone's dog) which was really upsetting, but I now have some legbar chicks which my sister out law very kindly incubated for me to replace them.

Anyway, just wanted to make contact and say "hello.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Limeflower]

@rebrascora
Thank you so much for your great advice.... The girls are so happy they are giving us four eggs everyday. I think for now as we have only had then such a short time, we are just going to let them relax and enjoy.
I have two light Sussex called Bell and Rhonda a speckled rock called Zoom ( she's very fast ) and a beautiful hen called Betty not sure what she is as we rescued all of them from an old couple who couldn't keep them anymore. They are all pure breeds. There is a picture of Betty on my profile page would be most grateful if you could tell me what she is. They are all about 8 months old..... Just love them to pieces x

 

[rebrascora]

@ Limeflower

Hi again.
It's great that you were able to take over these hens when their previous owners were struggling to look after them and that they have found such a caring home with you. So pleased that they are rewarding you with eggs. I had to wait weeks and weeks for my first eggs!
Unfortunately your avatar photo isn't big enough for me to see much detail of Betty other than that she is white. And of course you are holding her which obscures quite a bit of her. What colour eggs does she lay? What sort of comb does she have? If it's a big fleshy comb that flops to one side, she might be a white leghorn. Afraid I'm no expert, so even with more detail I might not know, but most definitely there will be someone on the forum who does, so why not post a better photo of her on a separate thread of your own, maybe in the breeds section for someone to identify.

Regards

Barbara

 

[Limeflower]

Fab idea Barbara, my profile picture is of my beautiful daughter and her chook Bell she is a light Sussex. I will post a picture of Betty she has colouring like a cockerel, reddish brown and green.

Kind regards

Donna.

 

[hllewellyn]

Hi Barbara

My old flock was a mixture of many breeds but mainly Transylvanian Naked Necks and Barbu d'anvers. I have also had terrible luck with foxes, and a horrible bout of Mareks last year so am excited about starting with a clean slate! It's horrible trying to recover the flock from something like a persistent fox or disease, where you just end up fighting a loosing battle.

Charlie, the O Shamo, is my first Shamo and I haven't really kept game before so am excited to learn from him! He's only a month or so old right now so won't be crowing for a while! I never planned on getting a cockerel (because of potential neighbour troubles) but had my eye on a hen in the RSPCA and when the man said Charlie was due for a chop I couldn't say no! O Shamos are extremely difficult to keep as they take about 3 years to fully mature and end up being over 2ft tall, and over 12lbs! They can be very aggressive with other birds but as long as they're handled regularly make great pets - they can even be trained to use litter boxes and 'sit'! I'm excited to see Charlie come on as he looks so sickly at the moment.. I'm not sure whether he's suffering from from a Cocci infection so has just started on Corid.

Sigh

Keeping hens is definitely a big which we all seem to have been bitten by!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Donna

Sorry about the confusion. I went to your profile page and that was the only photo I could find.
You are right about your daughter..... she is exceptionally beautiful.... and it's so wonderful that she can grow up learning to care for chickens and have some sense of where her food comes from.

I wish I could post photos but I haven't got the equipment or technical skills. I'm a bit of a technology dinosaur! I love looking at photos of other people's chickens though and I learn to notice more about mine from studying photos of different breeds and picking out specific traits or characteristics. It's amazing how different they all are once you start really looking.

Anyway, I will look out for your post and photo to see what breed people think she is.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[hxgumdrop]

Hello Im Heather and Im in bristol.
I have 8 chickens I started with three day old chicks a year and a half ago and the brood has just kept growing! My first three are two white sussex ( Clarissa and Cluckles) and a speckled sussex (Charlotte) then Clarissa hatched 5 out of 6 silkie eggs two of which was roos so dad had them! the other three are beautiful hens ( Sally, Scrambles and Stubs named as when she was a chick she fell out of the nest box and damaged her legs so she walks around like she has no legs!) then about 4 months ago a local school hatched some eggs so I took two of their chicks in to save them from going back to the farm. Sally was broody so she raised them then by the time she got bored of raising them Stubs and Scrambles had gotten broody so took over the looking after of the newbies! The two newer ones are some sort of red sex link and called Babs and Ginger. Clarissa has just started her molt so she a bit grumpy!
Its so lovely to walk out into the garden and be greeted so lovingly and be followed around! ok so usually its bcus they want more treats but I can pretend its me they want really!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Heather and welcome

What a lovely story about how you came to have your current flock. It's hard to imagine life without them once you start!

Do your silkies make a funny noise? My Dippy makes a very distinctive and decidedly cute "woop" noise instead of clucking.
I had problems with her going blind a few months ago. I actually called her Dippy because I thought she was slightly retarded, but it looks like it's actually her sight which is defective. When she went totally blind I thought I would have to have her euthanased. Thankfully a friend told me that it would help to bath her eyes as his silkie had similar problems. It turns out under that pom pom, both her eyes were matted shut and because she was so shy I hadn't been able to get near enough to notice. It took a week of gentle daily bathing with warm salt water and cotton buds, but hugely relieved that it was successful. Her sight is still not right but she can see through both eyes enough to get about (they free range) and eat and drink and we have developed a bit of a special bond as a result of the daily bathing..... which she did not like one bit I should add.... but she appreciated the treats afterwards and will now come when I call her. Anyway, I thought I would share that story just in case your silkies develop eyesight problems too.

Best wishes

Barbara