UK Scottish borders

[Rileys chooks]

Any one else from around here?

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome from a little further south.... not often I get to say that!
I'm right on the Durham/Northumberland border.

What sort of hens/poultry do you have?

I have a mixed flock of hens. I currently have a broody with 8 2.5week old chicks and another that started hatching her clutch yesterday. So exciting when new chicks are hatching. I also have a few adult chickens and some juveniles. It started with a trio in January and is fast getting out of hand!

What are your interests? Egg production, breeding/showing, just pets or meat?

There are a few UK member threads on the forum, so that might be a good place to look for people closer to you or do a search on Scottish borders or perhaps your home town even. The more info you put into your profile, the easier it makes it for local people to find each other, so you could start by putting your location in your own profile and then it shows next to your username and avatar each time you post, so other people can see where you are from next time you post on a different subject. Hope that makes sense.

Regards

Barbara

 

[Rileys chooks]

Hey at the moment I have 8 ex bats one aracuana cockeral and 4 of his offsprings they newest addition is 23 day's old and in my house as her mother lost interest. also have a barbu d anvers little girl that I found other day in a car park, very tame think she was a very loved pet so cannot put her with mine or they would Bullie her badley but no one has come to claim her as of yet. Just in for the eggs and the fun company they keep Me entertained lol

 

[rebrascora]

How strange to find a hen wandering in a car park, but great that she found such a good home with you. Do you have both the young abandoned chick and the Barbu D'Anvers in the house together and if so, how are they getting on?
Did one of your ex battery hens go broody? If so, that's pretty unusual. Are your chicks araucana x red sex links then? How did they turn out? Do you have any photos? I believe the blue egg gene is dominant so hopefully your pullet chicks from the Auracana will grow up to lay blue, green or perhaps olive eggs. That will be interesting! Do they have moustaches(tufts)? All of my araucana cross chicks have them.

Tasha, who is hatching my current brood was bought at auction as an araucana, but she doesn't lay coloured eggs, so obviously not full araucana. She's a tremendous broody hen though. She hatched 14 out of 14 of her own eggs from the cream legbar rooster in her first clutch and she had accumulated another 14 in her secret nest for her second brood, but I wanted more exchequer leghorns because a dog had just killed my leghorn rooster, so I gave her 10 leghorn eggs to hatch instead this time. There are now 9 out but the last egg hasn't pipped yet, so not sure if it will hatch. It's only day 22, and she is sitting tight still so it has every chance.
This is how the "chicken maths" gets so totally out of hand though!..... 3 broods this summer and 30+ chicks to show for it! My winter feed bill is going to be enormous!

Anyway good to hear more about you and your flock.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Rileys chooks]

[/IMG] this is daddy and his 3 young 2 hen and one cockeral who I need to rehome

 

[rebrascora]

He's a bit of a show off isn't he! I don't blame him either, he's gorgeous. Is he considered to be lavender?
My Tasha is white with flecks like one of your pullets (I think it's called splash). Are they hatched from your ex battery hen eggs? And are they red sex links? I would have expected more colour to have come through if they are. They look well though and perhaps they will develop more colour as they get older.

My final egg has still not hatched but she is sticking with it. I still haven't seen all 9 chicks but I can't feel any dead ones underneath her, so I'm guessing that one is just a bit shy. I made a platform with their food and water in front of the nest and they have been in and out all day, with a maximum of 8 at any one time, but Tasha is sitting tight, so I'm guessing that last egg is viable. I have every confidence in her natural instincts to know what is right. She must be sick of me interfering by now though because I've had that egg out twice today to check on it and of course I've been handling the chicks. She growls and pecks me, but it's very half hearted, so I think she realises I won't hurt them.

Anyway, lovely to see your pictures. Thanks for posting and good luck finding a home for your cockerel.

Best wishes

Barbara