Rats

Well, I've lived here for three years now, so I supposed I've done well. Spotted a void under the skirt of the run for the 5 hens and sure enough, there seemed to be a distinct rat trail into the run. This was confirmed a few days later when one morning, waking up before dawn but with the poultry lamp still shining red into the run, I spotted a rat making regular trips to and from the hens grub bowls. Was it one rat going to and fro, or was it a series of rats. Initially I thought it was a single rat taking multiple trips, but when I looked, there was simply a route under the eglu into the run - there wasn't a rat burrow, so I now think there was a series of rats attracted by the food.

So, I bought some more bait. However I know from chatting to a pest controller that rats are very intelligent and take ages to become confident in a new bait box. So I did the most sensible thing. I moved my five hens into the eglu cube on the patio next to the three sabelpoots in their eglu. Then I removed all the food from the end of the garden. So there is now nothing more to attract the rats.

After a few weeks I will fill in the entrance run and see what happens. I expect all rat movement to reduce and for them to move on to where there is more food. I may well keep the hens on the patio. At least the rats cannot get anywhere near the food and therefore will not be attracted and will not breed!

In some ways it is a shame. Rats are such intelligent creatures. But they have no place here as they breed really quickly so it is up to me to make sure that they don't have access to enough food to make their numbers grow.

Winter weather is here

Spend a lovely 3 hours today pottering in the garden sorting out the chickens. I'm now down to 7 - Maud and her little trio of bantams, Lulu, Velvet (silkies) & Vera (wyandotte) in the large walk in run. Then in a separate run on the patio, I have my lovely babies Mapp & Lucia (lemon sabelpoots) * Porsche (porcelain sabelpoot). I keep them on the patio because they have very feathery feed.

Last weekend I spend an amusing hour or so washing their feet one by one. They had got all clogged up with poop which had solidified in globs on the feathers. I didn't want them to get poorly feet so carefully washed each one and dried them with the hair drier. I then popped them all in the pink eglu 'hospital' run which is also on the patio.

Then I moved their eglu cube and swept and shovelled everything away to the compost, moved it to a new position on the patio and today restocked it with wood chip.

This morning it was slightly frosty. The patio run water had a small crust of ice - easily breakable, but the big run water was more frozen. So - today I did a full clear out of the big run with my new rake - restocked with clean wood chipping, changed all the water and poopy trays and installed the infra-red poultry heater for the big run.

Snow is forecast overnight. I'm a little worried about my new chickies, but I've shut their door and will check their water first thing. I am wondering about buying some heated pads that you warm up in the microwave and which purport to last 10 hours. I have only one poultry lamp, so the little cooks are at risk of frozen water. However being nearer the house seems to keep the water warmer. I'll see how it is tomorrow.

I sometimes marvel at how much fun it is simply letting all the hens out to run loose in the garden whilst you potter about. Maud seems to get on really well with the newbies, so I could probably put them all in together if the weather gets really cold.

Lyra RIP

Sadly little Lyra was dead this morning (13 December) when Popins came to check them. She seemed a little subdued before I left for Holland for the Xmas markets, so I spent some time with her handling her and making sure she was eating and drinking. She was, but obviously my instincts were right. She's was always small. Lasted less than  2 years. Owner has hatched lots of eggs she had sourced on the internet so goes to show the importance of getting hens from reputable breeders. Still, she had a good life while it lasted.

Beautiful Hens

I'm getting a regular 3 eggs per day from my bantams. Lyra is broody so this is from Vera, Lulu and Velvet. Velvet (black bantam silkie) and Vera (gold laced bantam wyandotte) have always been the most stand-offish of the hens. I have only once managed to have Velvet eating out of my hand - she generally waits for the slippage from the other greedy girls to fall to the floor and hoovers that up. This means that it is particularly difficult to get a good photo of Velvet and Vera. However on a lovely sunny Sunday in the garden, I spotted the sun slanting through the late afternoon sky into their pen so I went in with then and waited patiently for them to look photogenic. I think I succeeded. Here are the results:

Maud, imperious as ever

A rare photo of Velvet

Vera, my last bantam wyandotte - gold-laced and handsome

Lulu looking fluffy

Booted Sabelpoots

It was my birthday on Wednesday, and my daughter came round last night for a girlie barbecue and then today we went to The Barns near Moggerhanger to buy some new hens. Last year I lost Nutmeg, Agatha and Amber, then with Buffy dying this year I was down to 5 hens.

We spent a lovely time wandering around the breeding pens looking at all the chickens. Then we walked around the sale pens shortlisting our favourites. It was hard. Eventually I settled apron the bantam sablepoots. There was a big cage of new arrivals aged 12 weeks near the front. But which ones. We had seen a breeding trio of lemon sablepoots which were gorgeous, but the variety in the mixed cage was very tempting. There were a couple of cages of 6 week old bantam lemon sablepoot chicks which we really fell for. In the end I chose two lemon and one bantam porcelain sablepoot. Porsche is the porcelains and Mapp and Lucia are the baby lemon sablepoots.

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It will be interesting to see how they cope with their ever growing feet feathers.

Three booted sabelpoots

So, my birthday treat to me. Three lovely new Sabelpoots. Mapp and Lucia, the lemon sabelpoots, and Porsche a lovely porcelain sabelpoot. So young! The two lemons are only just out of the barn, at about 6 weeks. Porsche is 8 weeks. 

Buffy RIP

Something of a rapid decline. One by one all my hens became broody except for Buffy and Maud. For a week I was getting just one egg every few days from Buffy - Maud has always been a reluctant layer. A week or so ago she stopped laying and I didn't pay any attention. I've been working hard on all hens, trying to pick them up every day and handle them. I've been hand feeding them to get them really tame and then picking one or two up. With four broodies, I've literally had my hands full, picking each one up, giving her a little cuddle and stroke then putting her outside to encourage her to forage and maybe forget about being broody.

With all these hens to handle, I'd not been picking Buffy up. I spotted her in with the broodys and thought she was joining in the broody fun, but when I picked her up, she was ever so thin. And so quickly. She'd been looking a little pale for a while, but apart from giving her tonic and chicken spice I'd not really thought it worth worrying about.

Now that I looked at her, I could see Maud pecking her, which Maud despite being much bigger doesn't generally do. She was either poorly, or Maud was bullying her because she was the only other hen around (as the other four were broody).

I moved her to a separate eglu and gave her hanging hentastic treats which she pecked at with enthusiasm. She had her own water with tonic in it and chicken spice layers pellets and I just waited. She seemed to be rallying round. Her comb became more pink and I thought she was recovering. After four days on her own, I decided to give her another couple of days to be sure she was better and then if the others went for her when I reintroduced her, I would select one to put with her and then reintroduce them as a pair.

This morning saw a dead Buffy. I was so surprised. She seemed so much better. Maybe there was an underlying problem. I guess there isn't any more.

I think perhaps I'll consider getting another couple. With four broody hens and Maud, I have to buy eggs.