chicks, big and small

Last weekend saw our second blue marans hatch – this time twelve. Little disappointed as we set twenty four eggs – never had such a low rate – but we were breeding from a particular breeding group and eggs were limited, and we did set some eggs that were on the old side… maybe that was the reason?  The fertility was high, but they didn’t pip.  We also invested in a turning cradle, as turning the eggs five times a day is a bit of a commitment and makes going out for the day difficult.. so maybe it was that?  Dunno yet.. but twelve is still a good crowd.

Thankfully, we had a broody hen (well three  - like buses they call come at the same time), and we slipped the twelve chicks under our tried and tested broody who accepted them as her own – once again she sat on a plastic egg for a week and hatched 12 offspring and is sure she is very clever!

I do like seeing chicks being raised by a hen, she is so careful with them, taking them inside when it rains, and scratching the ground for worms, with a well practised routine she steps forward, the chicks rush away, she scratches the ground, finds some worms, they all rush in an scoff… and repeat.  These chicks are on a high protein diet thanks to her.

Meanwhile the first hatch are looking good and like mini chickens at at seven weeks, and very happy in their large grassy run.  In this hatch we have two gold tops, which we are naming Enid and Edna as this year is E and we plan to keep them.  The reason we have these is for broody hen futures, my old broodies are knocking on and I am told a Goldtop – which is a gold silkie x light sussex is a good bet for a broody – The silkies are notorious for their brooding, but crossed with a larger hen, are a more sensible size with more sensible feathers etc…

I’ve never seen the attraction of silkies – I like ‘proper looking chickens’ – but actually these goldtops are great looking, and very friendly, so I might be a convert.

With so much more going on for us this year, we decided on just one hatch, so obviously the second hatch is a figment of our imaginations. As is the third in the incubator, the duckling situation, and the meat bird chicks on order. Obviously….

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first hatch of 2013

Over the weekend we had our first hatch of chicks; 18 in total.
This hatch is mostly blue marans, but we also bought in some gold top hatching eggs, as I am told that these, a light sussex silkie cross, will make good broodies
Gold tops are also sex linked I.e.

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hen jokes

Ha, ha.  Yes, very funny.  Now concentrate on what you are doing, girls.

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auction

Other people who rear poultry are hoping for pullets and bemoan the arrival of cockerels – but we are the opposite.  We  are rearing for food, and cockerels weigh more.

Obviously we also rear to replace our laying hens, the new girls join the flock and older hens, whose laying days are over, move to the freezer. The hens are identified by colour or leg rings, and I keep a spreadsheet.  I record the good broodies, the parentage, weights of culled cockerels and costs of rearing. Oh yes, I love my spreadsheets.  nerdy huh.

So each hatch results in more pullets than we need – and we sell the surplus.  We have sold some via word of mouth and advertising this year, but with this summer being very busy for us, I have been slack about advertising more  and still had some pullets to go. So we thought we would try the auctions, this time as a seller. We figured if we shifted them and had the experience that would be good.

There is a lot of chance at auctions.  What other lots are also going, who turns up to buy etc,  Then there is know-how.  What time of year, the weather on the day,   which pens the birds/livestock are in,  and where they are in the order of bidding…   know-how we don’t have – but we didn’t have to fret about which pens to choose or where in the order we should place them, as there were only the three pens we needed left when we got there at 8.30.

We installed the birds, set up their water, and went off for a mooch around town, before coming back to note the price the pigs and sheep went for, and then see how our our own  lots went.

We knew (from my spreadsheet nerdiness) how much we would need to get to cover our costs, and silently cheered (obviously bad form to accidently bid on your own birds in your excitement!)  when we passed that point and went further. We were pleased with our prices.

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not flooded

A few people have kindly checked in on us as the South West has been in the news with lots of flooding in the area.  We are fine – it’s all a bit soggy, the chickens are paddling and we have had July’s rainfall overnight, but we are fine – unlike other poor folk lower down.

The river is ferocious, and the riverbanks have been reshaped and a few trees that were on the sides, now find themselves as islands. The debris shows the water level was at least a metre and half higher overnight. But we are fortunate in being fairly high up here.  The height often makes things different for us – often we still have snow when everywhere is green again.

I fret about the chickens- damp conditions are ideal for myco – so far they are ok.  And the ducks – the ducklings and their mum are still indoors, we keep going to move them out but then the forecast is bad again and we delay.  The other duck is sitting on her second clutch of eggs – the last lot died, dead in shell and I am sure it was the heavy rainfall and cold that did for them – so.. I think the same will go wrong this time.  The nest is a hollow in the ground – in a shelter – and that much rainfall must mean the ground is damp

Either way, the older ducks will have to move out of their warm indoor home to make way for potential new arrivals – if we get any they will be smaller and more vulnerable. It doesn’t seem right that we have to take such precautions against bad weather in July.

 

 

 

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chicks in a trug

A few days ago we had our second (last?) hatch of the year, 15/16 – and they fairly charged out of their eggshells, unlike the last hatch which was a bit slow and troublesome.  This lot are crossbreeds, all from the blue marans cockerel, and crossed with welsummers and welsummerxbuff leghorn.

Partly I just wanted to see what colour combinations we got – I spend a fair bit of time playing with this genetic predictor program - I could get very nerdy and into chicken genetics…     and partly the ongoing quest to find the best combination to get replacement laying hens and decent weight cockerels at 20 weeks.  A lot of the heavier meat birds seem to need a big longer, but 20 weeks is our limit on listening to multiple cock crowing.

I was cleaning their box out today (lack of broodies means these will be hand reared), and put them in the trug on the windowsill whilst room service was going on, and they looked so cute peering out  at the world, that I could not resist taking a picture.

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first hatch

We had figured on our first hatch of the year being muscovy ducks. But the due date came and went.  It is a bit tricky to decide when they start sitting, as they seem to sit some of the time for a while before getting on with it properly. But we are a week over now.. and doubtful of a happy outcome now.  The problem is poor Chloe chose a really difficult time for her brood – she was laying the first of the eggs in the heat wave, and since then we have had all weathers thrown at us – and if the due date was right and it was last week, that was when the Westcountry had floods, the rain was a downpour, and maybe too much wet and cold got into the nest?  We did some egg post mortems – two were bad, and one had a fully formed duckling.  So.. we might have commited duckicide.. or it might have been doomed by the weather.  We are giving her a few more days.

In happier news, the first chick hatch of the year is here. After waiting and waiting for a broody, I finally gave in and set some eggs in the incubator, all from my blue marans crowd.

And just in the nick of time Ginger-Whitey became broody – I was dubious about trying to foster onto her as she had only been sitting tight four days when we slipped 15 chicks under her, but we used her as a broody last year, so I knew she was fairly reliable and  as soon as the first had rummaged under for the warmth, she was clucking at it and giving us a hard time for touching her chicks!. She has been out in today’s sunshine with them today, and they are adorable as always.

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Easter cupcakes

Hope everyone is having a good Easter weekend

We are currently rebuilding the floor in my son’s room – it having rubbish joists and rubbish floorboards, and therefore a worrying feeling my hulking great teenogre will appear downstairs the fast way one day.

But it is Easter and Easter is all about spring and fertility and eggs, so I was obliged to make chocolate cupcakes – recipe courtesy of Nigella, with symbolic eggs (oh deary me they appear to be chocolate).

We had boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast, and will have creme brulee for pud tonight, after the roast turkey (I butchered a turkey and the crown, which is huge., is roasting under a covering of home cured bacon as I type).

All this egg eating is not making much of a dent in the egg mountain, despite lots of pre Easter sales in the week, so tonight our blue marans eggs  will go into the incubator. It seems apt on this day.

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