Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[JillM]

My 2 Miss Pepperpots (Esme and Magrat) and 2 Gingernut Rangers (Gytha and Agnes) had their first taste of freedom today since their arrival last Saturday, and they really enjoyed themselves - although my cats were sorely tempted!

 

One of the reasons for getting the chickens was to encourage me to spend more time in the garden - and that is definitely working. So I guess the disappearance of what was once a lawn is a small price to pay for the rest of the garden being sorted (and hopefully some veg will be grown at some point). Eggs will be good too when they arrive.

 

On the egg front only Magrat is showing early signs: her comb is growing and getting redder along with her wattles. I also noticed that she looks a lot broader across her bottom (from the back) than the others now and tends to eat more of her greens than the others too...I guess I won't have to wait too much longer.

[Random_Girl66]

Hi Jill, we seem to be going through the early stages of chicken ownership at the same time! My four arrived last Saturday too and also had their first trip out yesterday!There was lots of running about and flapping of wings once they gained some confidence outside the run. In fact, they took off a couple of times (sort of) which was a bit worrying as I have clipped their wings. And they spent literally hours rummaging about in the piled up leaves kicking them up over each other in their search for bugs. Really funny to watch I'm not sure how they will handle it tomorrow when I go back to work and they have to stay in .

We've had some very small eggs since they arrived - one light brown egg nearly every day and then a darker brown one on some days. When I cleaned out the Eglu yesterday I found about 4 soft shells so I guess the second layer is still a bit immature. Plenty of time - they're only 18 weeks old.

Fingers crossed that Magrat starts the ball (egg) rolling for you this week

[percy049]

I'm dreading clipping thier wings incase we do it wrong. I'll get my grandad to help us (as he's used to clipping budgie wings), but we'll have to let the new girls get a bit more used to being pciked up (instead of running around the garden!) I'm sure my sussex's comb/wattles have got bigger/redder from when we got her yesterday....

[tracyann]

I haven't been brave enough to let my girls free range yet. Picked mine up on 8th Feb. My bluebell has the reddest and largest cone/wattle closely followed by the Magpie.

 

Mine are 19 weeks old this week, no sign of any eggs.

[Random_Girl66]

It is a little bit scary - I wasn't sure how I would get them back into the run if they didn't go themselves. But as it turned out they wandered about for an hour or so and then came back into the run by themselves (and it wsan't bedtime). They were out for much longer today and all came back to the run every couple of hours for a drink and more mash (which surprised me as they must have eaten their own in bugs during the day!!). They already know to come to me for treats although aren't keen on being picked up - I need to practice that one.

 

I think usual egg time is about 20 weeks isn't it? Sounds like yours may be getting close?

[percy049]

I think I'll shut them up in the run for a bit more today, to try and get them to go back there more. We also need to try and lure them with treats (even though i chased them away from a feeder with corn [for the old girls!] and bread, because i want an !)

[JillM]

They were only free ranging on the grass today, but as I get the rest of the garden sorted I shall extend the netting to cover a larger area - which is going to be even more tempting to both my cats!

 

I was told mine are about 16 weeks or so, but I don't know how acurate that is. I suppose it doesn't really matter as they will do what they want when they are ready (although it might make a difference when I'm trying to integrate the cream legbars I have on order).

 

Percy I just leave a small amount of corn in the cube for when they go to bed as a quick supper on these early bedtimes. The girls had their wings clipped when the man from Omlet brought them last weeknd, unfortunately I had to leave before that bit so he showed my 17 year old daughter how to do it. So next time they moult she will have to show me...

 

Lucky you, Random ... Eggs already! Congratulations Mine had a bit of a flap about too, I wondered if they were going to make it over the netting despite having clipped wings!

 

Tracy I wasn't madly confident about the timing, but had been told that they needed 5 days in their run before FRing so thought that if they didn't get out today then they wouldn't have the chance until next weekend, and that's a long time to be cooped up. Do you have some netting to use?

[WitchHazel]

Love the names. I was originally going to call my first 4 hens the same names

[JillM]

Ah ha! You can spot a Pratchett fan at 20 paces - we're the only ones who don't think the names are odd

 

Funnily enough my next two might well be Esmerelda Note Spelling and Perdita X.