Best liner/ bedding for drop tray

[dance in the dark]

OK, so I have been hanging around on these forums for months and though I'd share some photos of my lovely ladies out and about. Please do excuse the mess, with the weather I haven't had an opportunity to tidy in a few weeks.

 

I have never posted pictures before so I'm giving it my best.

 

My original girls: Enid, Edith, Ethel and Edna (speckledys and bluebelles)

 

 

 

My cream legbar babies who I got in June and are about 18 weeks now: Hetty, Hannah and Hilda

 

 

 

Lavinia my lavender araucana who was a breeder so still regrowing her feathers from all the treading

 

 

And finally, my four hybrids having some corn with Lettitia, my young araucana, who hops around like a lunatic, but it very sweet.

 

 

 

Hannah, hanging out by herself on top of the run

 

And this is all of them together, it took lots of gentle introduction to this point (lavinia has some violet spray on her, to help her recover from the treading since she had a couple of little wounds.

 

 

I am very excited for when my younger ones all start laying (next Spring I should think) I will have lots of and very exciting!!

[MedusA]

Lovely pictures of lovley girls.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

I have a lavender Araucana and she is the most useless of my hens, never lays any eggs, but is still very sweet.

[jackian]

Well done with the photos , they are lovely girls ..What mess It is no different to mine, shows that your girls have a greatlife.

[Egluntyne]

Lovely pictures.

[Purplemaniacs]

They are lovely girls.

 

Well done for posting photos, I am afraid to say I have not mastered that yet

 

Chrissie

[Plum]

Thank you for posting they are a lovely flock and look so healthy. Hetty has interesting plumage.

[Duncan08]

Hi There,

How are you finding your Cream Legbars?

I have 3 hybrids, over the winter I am looking to pick up a Cube (heavily hinted christmas present) and want to expand our flock.

Because of the shorter life expectancy of the Hybrids I want to mix them up a bit and add 2 or 3 Pure Breeds. But what to choose.

I have really fancied having some blue eggs and have been looking at the Cream Legbars, but some say they are not recommended for back gardens as they can be flighty.

 

Would you mind telling me how you find them and whether you would recommend them. The Arucanas look lovely too!

 

Thanks

Sue

[chestnutmare]

Lovely photos, thanks for sharing them. You have a lovely set up for your chickens - and a lovely garden, no mess from what I can see!

I like your cream legbars too. Reminds me of my Willow but my Willow is skittish.

[Chortle Chook]

I couldn't see any mess either. How do you come to have so many girls and so much grass?

[dance in the dark]

tI have to say actually it doesn't look too bad does it, is the photo was taken slightly to the right you would see devastated grass, but I guess the major reason I have so much grass is cos I just gave them a big old patch to begin with, and to the right, round the side of the house these is loads of soil which has huge great craters in it from many a communal dustbath. Also, it's not too clear, but if you look at the bottom of the dogwood in the back of the group hptos you can see all the perforated leaves, up to about chicken height.

 

 

And Duncan08, I am loving my cream legbars. Mine aren't particularly flightly as I had reared them, so I made sure I held them lots, although they aren't very easy to catch, they are perfectly happy to come up to me and eat out of my hand. As for actual flying, that was a bit of a problem actually, they have quite big wings for their size and we had a couple of escapes over the omlet fence, but whenever they did they just panicked trying to get back in and never tried to run away. and so I clipped their wings, which was really easy and now the don't try flying at all, but they can run at a real pace. They run around like show horses at great speed, hopping along with their heads held high, they are great little chickens. Plus, cos they are autosexing you can buy girls as day olds and be absolutely sure.

 

As for the araucana they are great, don't eat much, don't stray far from the coop, don't make much mess compared to my hybrids and they are quite small but do decent sized eggs (Lavinia's are normally about 65g and beautiful porcelain blue) but they are so much harder to sex so you need to get them when they are older, if you care about what genders you get. But they are very characterful and friendly with people.

 

 

Sorry to have gone on so much, but I could talk forever about chickens and I think everyone at home is sick of it!

[Duncan08]

Brilliant, and thanks for the quick reply, I am going to wait until the spring again, so will have more time to get to know them. I think I may well give them a go. My dad is building me a WIR for christmas and the girls also have use of the "paddock" was supposed to be a raised flower bed but is now fenced off with omlet netting so I think I would definitely need to wing clip.

Thank you again for the reply, it was really helpful. Now to find a breeder near the Wirral so I can put an order in.

(oops... Had better wait and see if I get a cube for Christmas )

[Chortle Chook]

Sorry to have gone on so much, but I could talk forever about chickens and I think everyone at home is sick of it!

You've certainly come to the right place dance in the dark

[chestnutmare]

Sorry to have gone on so much, but I could talk forever about chickens and I think everyone at home is sick of it!

You've certainly come to the right place dance in the dark

Agreed!!

[WitchHazel]

lovely pics of gorgeous ladies. Thank you.

[Seagazer]

Lovely photos and your ladies look lovely.

[Diana1]

What beautiful hens - why have some got rings on their legs btw?

[dance in the dark]

I do have leg rings on my legbar babies, only because when they were littler, and still occasionally, I find it harder to tell the difference between them all and I like to make sure I'm keeping proper tabs

[jennym]

Gorgeous, thanks so much for pics. You've reminded me that it's been a long time since I posted any on here, I shall have to get some more and share them soon!

[JS1]

I have really fancied having some blue eggs and have been looking at the Cream Legbars, but some say they are not recommended for back gardens as they can be flighty.

 

My two cream legbars freerange within an electric fence in the garden and haven't tried to escape yet (had them since Feb). They are lovely and lay the most beautiful china blue eggs. They are a bit wary and hard to catch but no problems with them at all. They've stopped laying now - one is moulting and I think the other has just decided it's too cold and wet to make the effort Similarly, I have two lavender araucanas and they laid reliably over the summer and haven't tried to fly over the fence either. The larger one is our stupidest hen, however, and can't even be controlled with food as she just ignores treats! The smaller one is one of the brightest, however (and is our second favourite )

[Duncan08]

Thanks for your reply JS1 a I think I am going to have some, we are in the process of building a walk in run, will wait until the spring now I think though so I have more time to play with them. First time tonight they were in bed before I got in from work.