Moving out

 So we hatched  some chicks , and moved from from the incubator and they have continued to grow, adn the weather has improved. So its time they went out into the big world. 

 

We've found a sheltered spot, moved the henhouse there, put up some netting and then added the chicks, 

The mesh can be moved around so they will get different ground to scratch  on .   

New additions

 

so some buff sussex chicks that have been hatched in the incubator. 

To be hired out (or sold)  Easter amusement for young children.

10 so far. 18 eggs to go . 

The shed

 its a good job we have a big shed. 

The chicks (which we started here ) and then  moved out the incubator to the run indoors  are growing and have been moved on again . 

Its still  cold and windy outside ( after all , its only March)  so weve set up a run in the shed . 

When they outgrow this one , they will be moved outside 

 And the  young rams aren't doing too well in the bad weather. 

So they are inside again 

If you are  interested ( and you might not be) , the problem could be coccidiosis

See - the mucky back-end of one of the lambs. 

So he is inside, been treated and getting  rehyrdated with easy access to water and some ovein build-up (beet nuts) 

And again.

19 which includes the one with gastroschisis,  out of the  the first lot of chicks has hatched and the remaining 18 are growing . 

and so off we go again . 

 

 

Watch this space in 25 or so days. 

A surprise

 I went to give the hens some food. 

And i saw this 

Egg prodcution goes down at this time of the year anyway . And the hends are getting elderly , so we assumed that one missing had been got by an otter, or stoat, otr just died in the undergrowth somewhere. 

But  she hadn't. There were  4 chicks with her.  ive had a hunt and cant find the nest and broken shells.  So its nowhere really close to where they were found/fed. And we assume more than 4 hatched but they succumbed on the way - fell down a hole, or into a stream  or got lost in the vegetation . 

Survival  chances wouldn't be great this time of the year - there are plenty of predators around and chicks arent well-endowed with intelligence. 

So we rounded them up  and brought one of our chick runs back into action  and mother and 4 chicks are protected and doing well.

 

moving out

The Buff Sussex chicks that we started in the incubator in March  have continued to grow and are not out in the big wide world.
They are still in a run , but out on the grass.
We will need to sort out the males and females  in due course

6pm update

And a short video

Coming soon

Hopefully.

Some chicks

We take the automatically rotating thingy out of the incubator a few days before they start to hatch .

And there is an egg that rattles when its shaken, which indicates its not got a chick inside it

And the rest are just waiting .

New additions

So we decided we were a bit short of hens at the moment - we sell eggs  and need a few more chickens .
So we have an incubator an d some eggs and some hatchees.

But without a broody hen to look after them  and keep them warm,  there is a heated plate that they get under

Null Chicks

We decide to sit one of the broody hens, on previous experience a good broody,  on a clutch of eggs
the hen was rehoused  to give her more room and make it a bit more strightforward to keep her topped up with water and feed.

But we found eggs abandoned in the run - and broken shells. And the 12 eggs were eventually reduced to 2, that the hen continused to sit faithfully on .

And we got to term + a week, and something  wasn't right.

And we found the hen with a broken, partially developed chick under her.

 and another one in the run

We think there must have been something (? a rat)  that has been getting in the run , stealing eggs abd frightening the hen off the eggs , so they got too cold, and the chick died.

Its unlikely we will get another hen going broody this late in the season ,  so it will ahve to be next year when we try again if we want more hens

For sale £8.50

More information is here 

incubator update

there was a good reason why the  remaining chick hadn't got out of the egg. whilst under the broody. ive no idea what it might be, but even with us breaking the shell  a little to help it out , it was unable to get out of the  shell and died.


the other one similarly struggled. And something isnt right - there was still some of the yolk sack  remaining in the shell .

 Usually chicks come out in a few hours. this one has taken 24 hours to exit the shell, and still hasn't fluffed up , dried off and stood up.

But it it still making an effort ,so we will keep it  warm in the incubator and see what happens.

And the remaining 4 eggs are coming to nothing . No cheeping from inside the egg. We  will have a look later today.its our first venture with  an incubator , so we suspect  there are some subtleties to doing it right that we have missed. probably the eggs got too hot or to cold sometimes over  the last 3 weeks.

But another hen has gone broody , so she is sitting on some eggs

chick update

  10 it is.

1 remaining chick has started to peck through the shell .

It has been transferred to the incubator  to see  how it will do .

Mother and 10 chicks doing well so far, and transferred to  a chick run. So we expeect them to be out and eating tomorrow

Update from the incubator later.

Animal woes

We have a hen sitting on some eggs as shown here. The hen is in a broody box , ensuring that she doesn't wander too far and forget what she is there for .

But there are problems - there isn't a lot of room and they sometimes end up standing on the eggs before settling down over them .  And we found a cracked egg.  As the chicks aren't due to hatch for another week  or so  the chances of survival are slim - it went in the incubator
but after a few hours it was clear that the chick hadn't survived .

  And one of the ducks didn't look right. We managed to catch it and have a look.

 I imagine it cant see much out of this eye. But it is still active, going round with the others and  eating anything that is in its way. So for the time being we will leave it with the rest of them


And we've got a guest . A limping pheasant

this pheasant has been hanging around for a few days. It limps, but can still fly away if you get too close to it. So its harmless and we will leave it hanging round .

Burnside Poultry

Much more eloquently than I could

http://burnsidepoultry.blogspot.co.uk/

Limpy the chick - Update

There was a concern that the limping chick  might have Mareks Disease .
if so , that would have been bad news - its a virus that kills young poultry and could have effectively wiped out most of the flock.
But we have been watching him and the limp hasnt been getting worse  and he, or any of the others, haven't developed any of te other signs of infection .
We couldnt see any problem when we looked at his foot.
So we think it must just have been that he got trampled on , or got his foot stuck in  something

Anyway , limpy the chick is improving

Limpy the Chick

The first lot of chicks, born a few weeks ago , over a couple of days  are still in a run  to protect them from predators















But one of them  has developed a limp - hence limpy the chick. 

 

weve left him in with the hen and the others - he gets trampled on from time to time, but looks like he can still get about to feed, so we shall wait and see what happens.

there isnt much we can do to improve his chances , so he stays where he is .

Pullos explorare

So we have 7 chicks , from the 11 eggs that she originally sat on.

They have been moved outside and into a 'hand-made' (!) run to offer them some protection from rats and hoodies that could take them , at least until they are a bit bigger.  And when there is no obvious threat the chicks are our exploring their new environment and getting the hang of this pecking business.


And Nick has been out exploring as well

 Pullos explorare. latin for chickens exploring  .

Gallussian resuscitation

The latin name for the domestic fowl is gallus gallus domesticus

its time to move the mother and the chicks to the outside run. So 7 have hatched. And when we looked ,the last one was half in and half out of its shell. 

What to do ? Put it on the grass and hope the mother would  keep it warm whilst it escaped from the rest of its shell and  then look after it or help it a bit. So we decided to help it a bit. 

In a plastic bowl floating on hot water ( to keep it warm) , gently removing the rest of the shell and then keeping it warm whilst it dried out.

And then successfully resuscitated  it was returned under the hen and , at the last look, was  starting to explore its new home  .

2pm update : 2 so far

Its all a bit late this year. We've had one so far  a cockerel who hatched in May .
And the 2nd  hen  to go broody  is sitting on some duck eggs and they incubate for 4 weeks , so it will be another week or so before we see if we have some more ducks .

 And the 3rd hen to go broody has started hatching . 2 so far .

the remaining eggs are in the nest

 And it looks like there are at least another 4 that have started to hatch.

 
 In the meantime she goes back in the box, with the chicks and we'll check on them a bit later