Chicken Life

[White Star]

Ok.. until the last few weeks I was under the rather cosy "city boy" illusion that the only kind of chicken in this world was well.....a chicken. How wrong.....since deciding to share our lives with four of these delightful creatures I have learned;

1. There are different breeds, they are not just different coloured chickens.
2. They lay different coloured eggs. (They are all the same colour at tescos.. )
3. They are bossy, pushy, and wonderfully in charge of me. They have identified my wife as the "Alpha Human", will line up like soldiers for her and are putty in her hands. For me it is like "Yeah whatever" cue banjo music and catch us if you can.
4. They are most obliging and respectful in the presence of the Alpha Human. In my presence they bully me for tit bits, and one of them in particular has decided that my bare toes remind her of worms on sticks. (Chickens do not peck gently.. )
5. They have reduced our large and now somewhat bemused Tom Cat who bears the scars to prove he is "Top Dog...er..Cat" round this neighbourhood to a skulking nervous wreck in his own garden.
6. The sight of our dog trying to do his business in the garden whilst looking over his shoulder in terror when the "Girls" are enjoying a bit of free ranging is heart rending.

BUT....They do lay a nice egg with sometimes a double yolk....

Blessings from the Grove of the raptor chickens.

[treegod]

It's an interesting experience. Hope it's enjoyable for you.

My flock has lost all concept of breed, we've got a real mixture of colours, sizes and shapes. That goes for their eggs too, I can usually tell which egg has come from which hen!

Is it just hens or have you gone for cockerels too?

Got pictures of them?

[White Willow]

Yes we have got pics of the girls and here they are:

Dora (grey) & Ginger (black & copper)

Dora & Ginger.jpg (228.38 KiB) Viewed 3547 times

Queenie (brown) & Dolly (white)

dolly & queenie.jpg (143.35 KiB) Viewed 3547 times

I adore them but they are terrors x

[treegod]

Wow, beautiful hens you have there We have a Ginger too lol

What breeds are they?

[Claer]

Welcome to the rather addictive world of chickenkeeping. May your ladies bless you with many lovely eggs!
I have kept chickens for many years now and the enjoyment has never worn off, nor the excitment of egg collection.
I have a small flock of rare and native UK breeds, and breed them (responsibly) as part of conservation projects for their breed. I have Cream Legbars (blue eggs), Welbars (dark brown eggs), Old English Pheasant Fowl (cream eggs)and Speckled Sussex (pale brown eggs). This year I breed the Cream Legbars and hatched out some of their chicks. We also incubated some Red Dorking eggs (a very old breed - said to go make to the time of the Romans), and so have a new breed to learn about this year. Also have quail tooSome picks of our chooks are below.

Chicks 2 day old 1 web.JPG (28.18 KiB) Viewed 3536 times

Outside 1 web.JPG (44.61 KiB) Viewed 3536 times

Cream Legbars 09B.JPG (32.26 KiB) Viewed 3536 times

Wishing you and your birds well.


I've recently wondered about the idea of a pagan poultry club!

[Jake]

These are wonderful pictures!

Claer, is that an Eglu? I'm officially seething with envy. Are they as expensive in the UK as they are here (about $600 US)?

[treegod]

I've recently wondered about the idea of a pagan poultry club!

That does sound good, if there isn't already one.

I'm on a board for chicken lovers and I did find a thread to do with Pagans that own chickens lol

BTW, how are your chicks Claer?

The two chicks I have are now mixing with the rest of the flock, though still to perch and find a way of jumping over the barrier to get outside. Last night I put six eggs under a broody hen (one that was hatched here last year, so proud ), so another 21 days...20 days now...of waiting.

[Astrid]

*looks on in envy* I miss having chickens! but they are just not very good appartment animals

[Corwen]

Kate's friend Liz kept a chicken on her 40' narrowboat, along with 2 dogs, 4 cats and 2 African land snails.

The chicken was called Chucklin, she had a hutch on the front deck but other than that used to wander around, up and down the gangplank and around on the towpath. She liked beer and used to steal things from the barbecue if you weren't watching. She sang along when she heard a saxophone playing. Luckily she was quite buoyant and if she fell in just bobbed about happily until someone fished her out!

We used to have chickens here, everyone's favourite was Pidg (short for Pidgeon) who was tiny and grey, some sort of Belgian breed I believe. There is a lady checkout operator of a certain age at our local supermarket who bears a striking resemblance to Pidg the chicken, so we also call her Pidg!

[Womble]

Your post really made me smile, White Star, but do watch the cat if you ever have duckings. My friend was devastated, two weeks ago, when a neighbour's cat killed every single one of her ducklings. She didn't particularly like cats in the first place, but now she yells at every single one she sees in her yard

[Lily]

When I was a small kid, we lived next to a guy who had chickens.
Matilda was the smartest. He'd sit her down and ask, "Matilda, what comes after N?", and she'd go "ooo".

[Aurora]

ohhhh they are so pretty makes me a little envious as i'd love to have a few chickens but i'm a renter at the moment and it's hard to find a landlord who will let you have a dog or cat let alone chickens. But one day i will have some

[Claer]

Hi Jake,
Yes, it is an Eglu. They are very expensive over here too - and I only have one because I was very fortunate enough to kindly and generously be given one by Omlet for the conservation project, breeding of rare chicken breeds, that I work on. They are very good if you only want a few birds (upto 3), and have been useful for the growing chicks. However, because we have a few more birds than that, we only use it as an isolation unit or to introduce birds to the outside after brooding. They are quite funky and easy to clean though.

Treegod,
Fingers crossed for the new lot of hatching eggs. Our chicks are doing well, and growing fast (the latest lots are in the second pic of my previous post). Some will be going to new homes next week end, but as it is only next door then I will still get to see them!

My lot were free ranging at the weekend, and unfortunately broke into the veg patch. No spinach and beans left, but one patch is very nicely weeded and fertilised!

[treegod]

Treegod,
Fingers crossed for the new lot of hatching eggs. Our chicks are doing well, and growing fast (the latest lots are in the second pic of my previous post). Some will be going to new homes next week end, but as it is only next door then I will still get to see them!

Wow, I though they were different ones, I wasn't looking properly but now I see it they are young lol.

I'll have to take some new pictures of my flock I think. Well, I'm attaching one I have of some of them dust bathing last year.

My lot were free ranging at the weekend, and unfortunately broke into the veg patch. No spinach and beans left, but one patch is very nicely weeded and fertilised!

There are good and bad sides to almost everything I suppose lol

[Jarvisfamily4]

We've had chickens before, and after a four year reprieve, started up again this year for meat and eggs.
This is the first year we have had turkeys, though, and I must say I am in LOVE with the turkeys! Sooo sweet, so gentle, docile. They aren't skittish like the chickens, the follow me around the yard cooing. They eat the weeds. I LOVE the turkeys!

You can train the chickens to come to their pen with a bell, just like Pavlov trained dogs. Simply ring the bell and throw give them their food then, or scratch, or some treat like watermelon or cherry tomatoes (they adore red food). I recently picked up some free roosters from someone who had the chickens trained to a bell. It was pretty awesome!

Looks like you have a nice variety of hens there. Congratulations!!