Three new chickens later….

My good friend "the Muminator" had asked me, on behalf of a friend, how to source chickens. Having described the various ways you can get hens, I found myself returning to the idea of getting some more myself. I've become really fond of my three beautiful Wyandotte bantams - they get every more beautiful the older the get. I have always fancied some more pure breeds…..and  my eglu total soon to be 4, it seems a shame to have too many eglus lying empty!

I started simply browsing my favourite breeds on the internet I was beginning to think about some Frizzles, then I ran across the PreLoved website. In it there was an ad from a lady who had hatched some eggs from a breeder and who had a range of lovely looking breeds (no Frizzles) and who wanted to sell them to start getting her garden in order with a view to moving house. She said that she was selling them for a low price because she wanted to ask questions to ensure they went to a good home since they were, after all, her pets. This sounded like just my sort of chickens. She was based in Basingstoke, which is quite a way from where I live, but guess what, I was visiting my friend "the Muminator" who lived closer than I do, so I could swing past Basingstoke on my way home.

After a lovely long chat and a coo over some gorgeous chickens, I settled upon a couple of bantam silkies. As I was leaving I said that I would stick with two as this would give me room to get another two bantams should I find some Frizzles which I had originally been looking for.

It must have been fate, because we were walking past a shed full of Frizzle's as I spoke. All bar one were already spoken for, and this poor little baby Frizzle was stood alone. When I picked her up, she was so cute and showed a bit of feather damage where she had been bullied. I figured that as all the rest were going elsewhere, wherever she was homed she would be on her own, so on a whim I took her as well.

Apparently, when introducing a new chicken to a group, if you do it at bedtime and wipe all the chickens over with a damp cloth soaked in a vinegar solution (I used apple vinegar which I have to hand as a drink supplement) then when they all wake up, they won't detect that one of them doesn't belong because they will all smell of vinegar. I tried this last night when I introduced them to their new eglu. Fortunately it was dark, so nobody was able to see the odd sight of me crouched down with a chicken on my knees, carefully wiping a damp, apple vinegar scented cloth in her armpits and all over.

This morning they all got up. I've named the white one Lulu - she is apparently the top chicken. The little Frizzle spend much of the day running around hiding - she is smaller than the others. The black one seemed to peck at her more than the white Silkie. I've found that it is often the 2nd in command who will do all the pecking. Nevertheless, very minor stuff. I feel fairly sure that within a couple of days they will be fine together.

Here are some photos of my current flock arrangement. I've moved Nutmeg, Maud and Amber back into the big walk-in-run with the red eglu and just a 1m attachment. It works better I think than the 2m tunnel attached to the WIR and I've used cable ties to ensure a good fit.

Here's a little gallery of my new run layout and hens :)

Below is Lulu at the front, a white bantam silkie, black silkie at the back and my little grey Frizzle bantam in the middle.

Below: Agatha, Vera and Buffy, the beautiful Wyandotte bantams

Maud, Nutmeg and Amber, my medium hybrids. Nutmeg still seems to have puffy cheeks, and I've added citricidal to her drinking water. She seems none the worse for it though, no sniffles or behaviour change so I'll just leave well alone.

Here is the red eglu, converted into a chicken eglu and attached to the WIR with a 1m tunnel. I needed several cable ties and a brick to raise the back up off the ground to ensure a good connection. But it works well.

Worming again

Just worked the chooks again. Looking at the dates, it has been a full year since I last wormed them. Despite checking their droppings carefully, I could find no sign of any worms. I measured the flubenvet out very carefully, mixing 6g with 2kg feed very carefully, so I'm confident that I got the dosage correct. I can only assume that they were worm-free which is very encouraging :)

It took some research to find a supplier. In the end, I was able to obtain flubenvet from farmandpetplace.co.uk . They were very assiduous, and phoned me before despatching as it is a medicine, to make sure that I knew how to use it and not to eat the birds during treatment. The flubenvet arrived promptly so I shall definitely use them again.

Worming the chooks

Just a quick post to note that all seven hens have been wormed between 1st and 7th April.

Chicken Dates and lifespan details

Having just lost four hens, I decided it would be interesting to make a record of when I got each chook, anything distinctive about them, such as ex-batt or bantam, and how old they were when they died, to get a practical idea of lifespans.

NB: I left my flock of 7 with my ex-husband in 2011. Unfortunately, he neglected them and then had our local farmer kill 4 of them before I was in a position to re-house them :(

7/8/2007
First Hens bought from Omlet and delivered by the Omlet Chicken Chauffeur:
Saffy - ginger ranger - died summer 2008 aged 1 year. One morning couldn't stand, looked like a stroke. Dead next morning.
Patsy - ginger ranger - killed by ex May 2011 aged 4 years

7/4/2008 Two hens bought from Adam and Anna of Cambridge Poultry 
Amber - Amber star, lovely sweet natured hen - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Nutmeg - Maran cross (I think). Tendency to be broody during 1st couple of years. Top hen. Still alive (4Apr13) now aged 5 years. 15Feb14 Badly swollen cheeks and lump on head and on neck. Not responding to Tylan (antibiotic) and metacam (anti-inflammatory). May try stronger antibiotic. Seems well otherwise.
23Jul14 died aged 6 years. Not a bad innings.

16/1/2010 Three ex-batts collected from RSPCA centre at Potters Bar
Butterly - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Margot - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Flora - died summer 2012 aged 4 years

July 2011 Two hens from Ann at The Barns poultry centre (POL - approx 14 weeks old)
Amber - Amber star from the Barns died 14/12/14 aged 3 1/2
Maud - Grey, lays blue eggs. Breed to be added when I look it up

9/7/2011 Two Silver-Laced Wyandotte bantams from last years' hatching bought from Ann at The Barns poultry centre. Lovely lady and great centre. Both about 1 year old
Daphne went back to The Barns next day and despite antibiotics was dead within the week. New Daphne arrived 10/7/11, died 13/1/12 aged about 6 months having, I think, had a stroke
Agatha found dead one morning, peacefully sitting outside the eglu on 23/10/14 aged about 3 1/2 yrs.

Agatha - very friendly, already following me around after a couple of weeks
Daphne - rather featherless around the bottom and suffering from runny poos so maybe give her less treats. Not as brave as Agatha, but beginning to come over.

14/1/2012 Two lovely new Wynadotte Bantams - Buffy the Buff-Laced and Vera the Gold-Laced. sourced from The Barns poultry centre. Sadly, Daphne II had to be put to sleep at the vets yesterday. I think she suffered a stroke and never fully recovered. I didn't want Agatha spending more nights alone in this extremely cold weather we have been having.

20th Feb 2012 - I now have 7 chooks. Four medium hybrids and three wyandotte bantams. I keep them separately for the moment.

Summer 2012 - Sadly, Flora died this summer. As the last of the ex-batts, I think she had simply reached her natural lifespan. One day she was looking very peaky and not moving around much. Made sure she was comfortable for the night and found her dead the next morning.  Then there were 6.

5th April 2013 - Still currently keeping my two little flocks of 3 hens separately. I'm a little worried in case the larger hens, Nutmeg, Maud and Amber, bully the little bantams Agatha, Buffy and Vera. However having had them close to the house on the patio for winter, I'm planning to erect the large walk in run so may combine them soon.

11th Jan 2014 - Didn't combine the 6 hens except when free ranging in the open run during the day. Amber in particular beats up Buffy, jumping on top of her if she catches here. Sometimes find them all in the same eglu when they go to bed mind, and I have to move them around. Today I collected 3 new bantams, two Silkies (one black one white) aged about 1yr and one lonely little Frizzle aged much less, maybe just months, who seems to be settling in with the Silkies. Names currently Lulu (white) Velvet (black) and Lyra (little grey Frizzle). They were wormed 5 months ago. Now up to 9 chooks in 3 eglus.

11/1/14

Lulu White Bantam Silkie aged 10/11 months 

Velvet Black Bantam Silkie aged 7/8 months

Lyra Grey Bantam Frizzle aged 4/5 months or 16-18 weeks

23/1/14 Nutmeg died aged 6

23/10/14 Agatha the silver laced wyandotte bantam died aged 3 1/2

14/12/14 Amber died aged 3 1/2

I have now combined my remaining 6 hens in the WIR as I didn't want Maud on her own over winter. They seem to get along OK as Maud never stomped them as Amber did. She is definitely top chicken, and the others are a little careful around her, but they all seem to get along OK. I now have 6 hens: Maud, and the bantams Lulu (white silkie), Velvet (black silky), Lyra (grey frizzle), Buffy (buff-laced wyandotte) and Vera (gold laced wyandotte).

8.6.15 Buffy died aged 3 1/2 

11.10.17 Vera died aged 5 yrs 9 months

a few days after last photo taken on 21.4.2018 Maud died aged 7 yrs 9 months

Spring 2014 - I collected 3 lovely booted sabelpoots from the Barns. Mapp and Lucia are lovely lemon sabelpoots, Portia (or Porsche as I originally called her) a lovely grey booted sabelpoot. I'm not certain when I picked them up as they were listed against

3.1.15 Picked up Two silkies, Lulu (white) and Velvet (black, and a little grey frizzle from a lady near Woking. I had to wash Lulu when I got her home as she was all muddy. What a lovely tolerant chicken she is.

25.3.20 I now have a lovely little flock of 5 hens. The two bantam silkies, Velvet and Lulu, and the three booted Sabelpoots, Mapp and Lucia (lemon) and Porche (grey). Mapp and Porchia are the very friendliest of chickens, following me around even when I've put seed treats down in the run for them.

4.4.21 Realised that my flock of 5 are 6 years (Lulu and Velvet) and 7 years (Mapp, Lucia and Porche) old. This is really good going, but decided to expand my flock with the addition of Buffy II (buff bantam silkie) 20 weeks, Willow (red pencilled bantam wyandotte, 16 weeks) and Cordelia (cuckoo, bantam silkie) 20 weeks.

10.7.21 Velvet died today, aged 8 years 2 months. Fortunately, as with Maud, I got a lovely photograph of her about 3 days before she died. 

30.8.21 Willow died aged only 4 months after a mystery illness and a lot of expensive vet treatment.

16.5.24 Buffy died aged 3 years, having to be put to sleep at the vets as she was just too poorly. 3 years used to seem a good lifespan until I've now managed to get my remaining 2 sabelpoots to 10 years old. Fewer wet treats, like almost none, seems to be the key.

3/6/25 Lucia died aged 11 1/4 years. I had a lovely photo of her from exactly 6 days ago doing what she enjoyed, eating treats directly from the tub as I filled up her little football. She looked healthy and was a good weight, so I guess 11 1/4 years is a good lifespan for a chicken. 

Flubenvet - Worming again

Just a quick note to say that I've wormed the 6 hens for a week starting Monday 16th August.

Worming Time

I've been using Vermex - but I've read that it isn't 100% certain. Now that the newbies are fit and well, I've just started a 7 day treatment of flubenvet, bought from my vets. I made up 12kg of feed. This is enough to fill all three grub containers and the feed bucket. I estimate that this should last 6 chickens 7 days. Making a note of this for reference.