17 posts tagged “chickens”
Well for the last 2 weeks we've been on dial up as we had a rather difficult transaction from one broadband supplier to another.
Well since I last posted the garden has been invaded by several Italians and a lot of Japanese.
I think it was 2 weeks ago on Sunday, I had 6 female and 1 male Italian quail delivered from a kind lady in Telford. This will now be my Italian breeding group. Here are the photos. The females do not have names but the male is named Pedro (How Stereotypical! It was Pedro or Francessco)
Aren't they georgeous! One day after their arrival we had......
EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And since then we've had all these............... and 7 more which were rather delicious! :D
Then there were the Japanese! Only 1 egg from these lot so far.
They are in all sorts of shapes and colours, I did have 11 but 3 have now moved on to my Friend Lesley. So left are I think 5 females and 3 males.
The above photo are the males (although we've had an egg from here) :D So we've narrowed it down to 3 males and removed the hen! You can see one of the 2 white ones in there.
Here is one of the hazelnut ones. Doesn't she look beautiful!
The Tesco Crew are doing well also. They are 8 weeks old this Tuesday, so it'll not be long until we get some eggs from these.
I think that's all of the small birds done.
WAIT the little buggars in my bedroom! They're doing ok now and are 3 weeks old tomorrow and Sunday.
Their favourite thing to do at the moment is to sunbathe on top of the feeder however only one can fit on at a time!
Awwww.
That's your lot.
Martin
As some of you know, I was involved with a Battery Hen Rescue in Worcester today. It's been a glorious day, I met the regulars ( 
) at the Stratford Farmers Market and then was whizzed over to Worcester to help out at John and Monica Hall's cottage.
240 hens were rescued today, and as far as battery hens go they were in pretty good condition. There was one that had a tumour so that is now in the henspital.
One person who owns a garden centre had 100 of the hens, so we were down to almost half of the rescued number straight away, this bloke was very ala Jimmy, and is housing his 100 hens with his current 10 in a caravan! 
The majority of people arrived between 12 and 2 as they were told to do so.
Here are some very happy customers. 
The hens laid so many eggs, in the several hours that they were there we had in excess of 50 eggs! I have taken a few home to compare them with my load.
Here are the eggs laid between 10 and 11 am. 
I bet you want to see some hens now.... 
The ones above are about 100 of those rescued today, the ones below are fully rehabillitated ex batts. 
Here are some of the chickens on the trailer. 
That's me and one of the more oven ready folk! 
Martin
There will be no egg deliveries or sales this weekend.
Normal service will resume on Monday.
All enquires or questions to: ffteam@hotmail.co.uk
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Martin
Today I went to the Domestic Fowl Trust in Honeybourne with my family. I had a great day, we went with our grandparents and cousins also. I had a great day, holding chicks, hens and cockerels. Stroking pigs and goats, picking up a lamb etc. It has been a great day. The bonus is that my little cousins have gone away really enthusiastic about chickens. They were really amazed by feathers and eggs. I naughtily climbed over the fence into the Poland Enclosure, to pick up some of the beautifully coloured feathers for my cousins to hold. Being experienced with hen keeping I also opened some of the small coops to pick up eggs and tell them about them, putting them back in the end of course. There were some really nice birds and I am quite unsure how I didn't come back with 2 or 3 more hens. However I have been promised by the family that I can have another chicken later in the year! :D
The first bit of the Domestic Fowl Trust is a museum about chickens! Lol. It's quite interesting though, What's the most amount of yolks ever found in one egg? 9!
Then it moves onto the outdoors, and to the side of you is the hatchery. It was full of day old chicks!
It does say "DO NOT PICK UP THE CHICKS OR DUCKLINGS" but it was quite a low sign and I've seen them being handled before, so I naughtily (I've been very naughty, lol) picked up a chick at a time to show by my cousins. It's been a really educational visit for them with my vast amount of knowledge.
The photo above is my youngest cousin (3) stroking what I presume to be a Cream Legbar chick. I didn't want to let her hold it incase it figited and she dropped it on it's head. So she gave it a stroke whilst it was in the safety of my hand.
That photo, is my oldest cousin (well out of the ones I was with today) with another chook, but I couldn't identify it.
Above from Left to Right: A male Rhea. A goat with HUGE horns and Gertie the pig.
This is a picture of Sean and Amy making a new friend in the shape of a Goat! Lol. I fed it also, it licked the corn right off your hand. It was hillarious, it was probably the frendliest animal there! :D I wish I had room...
We then went for a spot of lunch, Amy was not hungry so had a play on the playground.
Picnic
Farmer Giles.. I mean Amy!
My cousins insisted that I take a picture of this peacock, he was a very lucky hen. There was a ratio of 1:30(approximatelt) male:female.
Here are some thumbnails of my brother and cousins with 2 young sheep and a kid goat.
Well that wrapped up our day at the Domestic Fowl Trust, it kept us entertained for severall hours. All 3 of them are now enthusiastic about my feathered friends. I also gave them a bantam egg each to take home as a treat.
I wrote both their names and the names of the chickens who laid them onto the egg, and they will have them for breakfast at their house.
Well I've had a great day, and I plan to do a garden update ASAP. I bought a few more strawberry plants and they are ALL now with straw under them as flowers and small green fruits are starting to appear.
Since Friday 6th April, I've had....
34 EGGS!
Thankyou very much for dropping by,
Martin
Spot the chickens - Big girls and little girls free-range in harmony together! :D
Also.....
A five egg day!
Back Left - Poach
Back Middle - Lesley
Back Right - Carly
Front Left - Scramble
Front Middle - Hardboiled
Sorry to be short. The pictures say it all :D
Martin x
Big family = Lots of chocholate and presents.
We went to the garden centre...
... and came home with Leroy the carp for our pond. :D
Went on a walk with the family and dogs.
The bantams free-ranged for the first time with us.
I am so tired, I was up before 6am to go to Jimmy's Farm!
It was a mini Omlet get together. The main reason we was there was to promote the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (www.bhwt.org.uk) I got a sticker and one of those things you see on princesses, or prom queens (not a tiara) it normally says something like "Prom Queen 2006" well mine said "Battery Hen Welfare Trust" :D
I went around the farm with my family as last time I got caught up with my Omlet Buddies, and didn't spend much time with them.
We arrived at Jimmy's at about 9o'clock, and went straight into the farm shop. Last time we came (Christmas 06) by 10o'clock the que was out of the door and there wasn't much stuff left. So we went straight into the shop. We bought 2kg of Classic Essex Pig Sausage. 1.5kg of Farmhouse style sausages. 0.5kg of Pork and Apricot Sausages. 0.5KG OF Gluten Free sauasages. 0.5kg of Beer sausages. Not all of these sausages were for us, they were also for people who we'd told how lovely all Jimmy's sausages were. We also bought 2 Carrot Cakes, Vegetable Pasty (for sean) and 2 pork joints for easter dinner (my grandma had one of them and we had the other!) My Grandma Alcester, also bought me the Jimmy's Farm T-shirt. Total cost of all this: £107.90 LOL!
We had so much shopping already, that Mum and Dad took it back to the car.
This gave Sean and I the opportunity to take some photos. Jimmy had displayed lots of the newborns by the car park for the public to see.
Essex Pigs - they're lovely.
This black Highland cow also had a calf- which was suckling at the time of photo taken. They were both lovely!
In the background is the old barn and in the foreground is a little monkey!
After the market browse and more money leaving our pockets, we decided to visit the Nature Trail. We also went on the nature trail last Christmas, it was muddy, messy, slippy, flooded etc. So it would be interesting to see how it is in different seasons. Well only one word can describe the nature trail - beautiful! Bluebelles galore, wild garlic! Fantastic. It's a real haven. Below will be several pictures of the trail....
Georgeous aren't they!
Well after spending a good amount of time at Jimmy's we decided to seperate. Mum, Dad and Sean went into Ipswich shopping, whilst I stayed at the farm to socialise with my friends from the forum.
I arrived at the BHWT stall and I was stopped several times "Are you Martin?" Which was quite funny! I hadn't got a clue who these people were at first! Lol
Well the BHWT stall really has moved up in the world.
Below is a picture of the stall in December...
.... and here is the stall as it was today...
How good does it look! It's superb!
At that point I decided to hand Buffie my donation. £31 - It should pay for a crate which can be used to save 12 hens at each new rescue. Money well spent.
That's me with Jayne Cox (Hidden Egg Detective) and Sarah (Sussex Co-ordinator)!
Jimmy Doherty is a patron of the BHWT so he was only more than happy to pose for a photo! :D
Notice that I am taller than him! :D LOL.
So a really good day, one of the best highlights was seeing Dolly again. He was letting people stroke the sheep and I got to hold one, so Sean and I petted it. It was so cute, I wanted to take him home! :D
The top one - Left to right - Dolly - Martin - Jason the sheep - Sean
So overall a memorable day, was great so see various people and meet lots of others.
I almost came home with more bantams, Jimmy was selling off surplus Point Of Lay bantams for £3.50!!!!
Whilst at Jimmy's I was constantly noting ideas etc. The garden was never too far out of mind. I even bought some pumpkin plants which are now in the greenhouse. They were £1 for 3. I have some Pumpkin seeds but they shall be planted when I actually move up to the lottie.
As I wasn't here during the day to do any gardening, I was outside at 9pm in the dark, stocking up the compost heap with teabags, cardboard and fluff. I gave it a good mix, and stir up. Then I got the bantams out for a stroke, whilst they were tired and docile. It's the first time I've properly handlem them, I had to catch poach and scramble the other day because they escaped whilst we was moving the run! They are so cuddly, a ball of soft feathers. A complete cushion if you like! :D Lol.
We had another 3 egg day, 2 eggs from the big girls and Poach laid again! Good Girls. Will just go and fill in the sheet now :D LOL
Well tomorrow is Easter and I think Breakfast will be exciting Poach's eggs and of course Jimmy's sausages.
Thanks for dropping by,
Chat soon,
Martin x
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BANTAMS POST PLEASE SROLL DOWN. THAT IS THE FIRST BIT. :D
Well as you know the bantam babies are here. Since they have touched the grass in my garden I have been outside watching them, giving them corn and preventing hassle from their canine friends :D
Well sitting on a deck chair is a little bit boring so, I decided to give the garden a bit of a tidy up. I've brushed all the gravel back onto the car port. The chooks dig it out every day and it gets all over the garden. So today I swept it all back to it's rightful place. Our compost that we put on the flowers in the beds was also spread around by the chooks. So I also swept all that back into it's rightful place. I was having fun watching the banties and also doing gardening at the same time.
I'm really getting into recycling. Seeing as the Council are rubbish and only take recycled paper, I am collecting jars, pots and cd's. The jars and pots will be for putting preserves into. The CD's, are the the ones you get in your Sunday papers. "Ronnie Barkers all time hit comedy" "Get fit with an unknown celebrity" those ones, also the disks that Broadband companies give out as a free sample. With a bit of string these useless CD's will become bird scarers! They will keep the birds off my precious crops.
I phoned up the Allotment secretary last night, she was in a hurry, but however she said I am on the list and she will give me a ring shortly. Fingers crossed everybody. However, if I do not get a whole allotment plot, my grandad's friend Doug who has 2 of the plots at the local site said that I could have part of his! :D He used to have 4 of the plots, but he is now 80 so is having to cut down the workload. He's still as fit and healthy as ever though.
The big way I am recycling is by using food.
My Grandma has had family round today and she put on a buffet meal for them at tea time. I went round and this lot was about to be thrown away. I said "NOOOOOOOOO!" I asked for the lot and she gave me it.
So I came home.
The top layer was bread and potatoes...
The dogs had a bit of bread but the rest was fead to the.....
COMPOSTER.
Next layer was Chicken. I fed that to the.....
DOGS!
Next was quiche.
I fed that to the....
CHICKENS - BOTH BIG BIRDS AND BABIES
I never knew how much bantams loved quiche!
The bottom layer was SALAD. I fed that to the...
RABBITS.
I came home with a bowl full of food, and none is left and all the animals have full tummies! :D When that food has passed through the rabbits and chickens there will be lots of poop to put on the composter! Everybody is a winner! :D
We've not had so many germinations today, just a few. First of all, we welcome the cucumber plant to the greenhouse, I'm so chuffed that it has finally started to come through. Our first cucumber plant! :D
The cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce seedlings are coming on well...
Look at the strawberry plants. I only bought 3 last year. I have 4 huge pots like the one below full of them now. They are in their second year so I am expecting an even better crop! :D
These two pictures, are of my home seedling shelf (The ones that are doing well but are surplus) and a Bay tree. Also one of them is the germination shelf in the greenhouse! :D
It's been a really nice day today. Lots of sun and lots of fun! ;D
It's Jimmy's farm tomorrow, so even more to write!
Thanks for visiting,
Martin x
| I woke up today at 6.00am. I was so excited, and I couldn't really sleep. My Dad got in from night shifts at 7.30 for us to go straight around to grandmas to get her larger car to put the eglu in. It was a 90minute drive down to Meggan in Bristol. But it wasn't too bad and the exictement kept me occupied! We arrived at Meggans bang on at 9am, which was the time we stated. Meggans OH was taking apart the run for ease of transport. The run has really weird clips, like springs. The ones on my mk1 were clips, it must have been a change along the line. However I find these springs easier to use and more convinient. When we got home it took us 5 minutes to assemble the run! It normally takes 20mins with all those stupid plastic clips. The banties were silent all through the journey, and hadn't been out all day. So when I eventually opened the eglu door into their new home, they were more than pleased! It was the also the first time I got to have a proper look at them. They are such beautiful girls. The grey one is hardboiled and the other two are almost identical. However you can tell them apart because Poach has a larger comb and Scramble has 1 white feather on each of her feet! After Jess started to get used to them. I let the big birds out to try and get them used to the newbies also! Carly (big chicken, head chicken) and Poach (little chicken, head chicken) had a sqwaurking contest to see who was the loudest! I hope the neighbours don't complain. Carly had lots of poos near to the bantams so I suppose she was just marking her territory! However, once Carly stamped her authority on the little chickens, Lesley made a last gasp attempt to become new head chicken. It was a proper big scrap. They were stretching wings, puffing up and pecking each other. At one point Carly took a huge amout of feathers from Lesley's vent!  Carly won! Would teach her good to loose something. Well all is quiet for the first time in the day! I think I am going to go round to the neighbours in the next couple of days when I have enough eggs to explain the situation! Action packed weekend. I wonder if I'll have more than 5 chickens when I return from Jimmy's! ALSO! Poach laid an egg, it's so small compared to the usual from Lesley and Carly (3 EGGS TODAY!). I was overjoyed!
They've settled in now, and all the animals are getting on which is a relief! I've been sat out in the sun most of today watching them, they're so georgeous! Here are some more pictures for you to look at....
The whole kit. Thanks again Meggan. We are using the spare purple grub and glug because I personally don't like the peanuts. Will keep them anyway, incase the big girls need more feeders or for when we go away! |
How many eglus in this picture? 2! How many chickens? 5! How many humans 1! How many Dogs? 2.
How many eglus in the garden? 3 How bigs the garden? Small!
From Left to right - Scramble, Poachy, Hardboiled!
How cute!
Right!
I'll be back in a few moments to right about garden duties. We have guests.
Thanks,
Martin x
Can you see the little green shoots coming throught the soil? How cute are they. They look so fragile. They are all leeks and have come through over night much to my surprise. Leek is such a georgeous vegetable, it tastes unlike anything else!
Today I also sent off various seedlings to people who don't have greenhouses. They were sent early this morning so hopefully they will be in depot tonight and delivered on Saturday when post resumes!
The chickens have had about 6 hours of free-ranging time, they normally get 3 or 4 but they had extra long today. I don't normally let them out until they've both laid or their laying times have passed. I had 2 eggs, very early today. By 10o'clock. I put them both in a jug mixed them up and made 2 mini omlettes. They were lovely. Still warm before I put them on the pan!
Today's egg box was BLUE! The coloured egg boxes bring smiles to the faces of my customers. I try to change the colour each time they buy eggs. The customers usually say "What colour have we got today?" I bought the green, yellow, blue and pink egg boxes from Lesley who had surplus ammounts. They cost £4.50, but the egg sales paid for them in very quick time.
Anyway the chickens themselves, had a nice day. Today was officially the hotest day of the year so far! It's been baking, it's still quite warm now!
The last one was taken as the chooks spotted me coming near to the door, they expect a handful of corn every time! You can see the chooks running towards me, and the reflection of my England Cricket Shirt in the french doors! I quite like that picture!
The other animals were also out and about. I've been filling up my composter with all sorts recently, and Jess was more than interested to find out what all thos smells were all about!
I think this dog, who would eat anything would turn up her nose at this feast of rotting organic material.
Fancy a slice?
Mia, who is Jess's Bichon sister (not biologically) is very jealous if you are stroking Jess and not her, so I decided to take a cute picture of her, to ensure she doesn't get jealous that only Jess is in this post! :D
Cute!
I also cleaned out Kev today, his rablu is sparkling clean and looks like it has just rolled off the production line!
He's come to say thankyou!
Well HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! My Dad is 36 so I am leaving a picture of him on here to embarass him! He is eating all the birthday cake! That is ok though, it is his birthday! :D
And a bit of BREAKING NEWS before I go. I am not the only peson who owns a pair of crocs in my family! My Mum and Grandad do now also! :D If you don't know what crocs are... www.jellyegg.com
Well have a nice day,
Martin
