Part 0800.0005

[goodinparts]

Being a vicar, weekends are a bit busy - so Friday is my day off & now the children are all at uni OH and I have adopted a policy of going somewhere together one Friday a month...Today was the first trip, and I got to choose - so we went to the Domestic Fowl Trust at Honeybourne.

It was hen heaven!

I felt like a school kid in a sweetshop - there were so many many beautiful birds wherever I looked...Part of the plan was to show OH some of the breeds I like, and hopefully get him a little bit excited about expanding the flock in the spring...so I had a list of hopefuls to look out for but instead of being able to cross a few off once we'd seen them in the feather, so to speak, my I think the list has pretty much trebled in length.

The most amazing thing was that OH - who has a very resigned "They're YOUR pets" attitude to every animal and bird in the family, actually fell for something....to whit, a black frizzle So suddenly bantams are OK (Phew! I was going to have some anyway...but he'd been a bit rude about tiny eggs before) and we've agreed that I'll get him a black frizzle the day that I get my Partridge Pekin (which I've wanted pretty much all my life...). The whole set up was just lovely... to play with and a friendly goat who liked having his ears stroked as well as all those wonderful poultry...and a good shop too, where I managed to persuade him into buying an eggskelter, which was going to be for Christmas til I pointed out that we currently had 18 eggs waiting at home...

I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed that we couldn't get my til next weekend....There were some beautiful birds for sale, and it was very hard not to look too closely at them...

And all this wonderfulness is only about an hour up the road.

Took dozens of pics - but I'll spare you those for now!

 

If our other Fridays are half as much fun as this, I'll be a very happy chicken mum!

Sorry to go on, but reckoned you lot would understand

[madchickenlady]

Aw, sound slike you had a great day I have a partridge pekin, and she is adorable Soooo, how many extras do you think you might aquire?

[goodinparts]

Well, I've GOT to have a salmon faverolle & a buff Sussex - and possibly a wheaten Maran (I really want some dark brown eggs) to join my happy hybrids when the cube arrives...

Then there's OH's frizzle, my Pekin, a bantam Orp or 2 and maybe an Araucana or a gold laced Wyandotte...and that's without even looking at the list!

The only thing I've decided rather sadly is that we can't manage Cochins...but there were so many exciting possibilities I'd not even considered...so I'm sitting with the dog on the kitchen sofa dreaming chickeny dreams

[Redwing]

Wow that place has such a bad reputation in the chicken keeping world... It sounds like maybe they are turning it around now - if thats true then that is excellent news

 

Glad you had a good day there

[daxigirl]

Sounds like the pair of you have had a grand day out. Glad your OH has found himself a type of chicken he could love.

 

I keep looking at more (got the names picked out for just in case) even though I've got enough going on with them at the moment. (Sunday is much better and everyone seems to be doing ok on the coxid stuff). You def. need an Araucana, Paxo's blue eggs are devine to look at. Some one near me has some brahma x barnevelder babies for sale may have to make enquiries even though I want something white.

[goodinparts]

Redwing...All the birds looked happy, the runs were reasonably spacious (and the girls could and did indulge in some spontaneous free ranging - lots of lovely field space for that) & definitely clean - I'm no expert, but I really did think it was OK. I'm worrying now that I was so overexcited by the beautiful girls that I missed something awful. Do hope not.