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girlypants

New to keeping chickens

By girlypants, in Chickens, Eggs and Hatching

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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Hi all, big thanks to the Omlet forum team for allowing me here, just a short intro, i think its good manners to, as im new round here.

Ive wanted to keep a few chickens for quite some time, finally i get a chance, just bought 3 Buff Peking bantams, 2 Black Cochins, 1 Blue Cochin, 1 Partridge Cochin and a Partridge Cochin Rooster, i hope i got the breeds right, paid £25 for them all, at the moment they have a large coop but are free to run round my garden, just in the process of building them a run as my poor lawn is taking a beating, no biggy tho, so far im getting 2 - 4 eggs a day, alls going well, i even call them "my girls" hahaha, loving the whole experience of keeping chickens as is my wife a 4 kids, hoping to get an incubator soon, just to see 1 hatch, maybe 2, but thats all as i have more than enough to keep us in eggs ect, anyway, im loving this very informative and kind natured forum, thanks for reading

 

Nathan

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Beantree Chicken Addict

Beantree

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Hi Girlypants and welcome to the forum. Sounds like a very good price. Pekins are a 'true bantam' with no large fowl version. Cochins I think have a bantam version, so I presume that's what you have? Yes, chickens are great at trashing a garden and also good for keeping weeds down. I'd hurry along with the run though, because foxes are an ever present danger.

 

My advice would be not to attempt incubating at this stage. It will be (was for me) a very stressful experience and you will probably have cockerels to deal with. Unfortunately they are very difficult to re-home and you won't be able to put any in with your existing flock. Also adding just one pullet would be incredibly difficult and not something we tackle unless absolutely unavoidable.

 

You would be best having a second coop and run before you get an incubator. Useful for various reasons.

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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Thanks for the welcome :) Beantree, your right about the trouble it would cause me on hatching my own, very wise move to perhaps buy a few fertile eggs from a breeder, dont want no linebreeding going on, the gene pool would become weak, as i will be only doing this the once, any roosters i get i can release on farmland that i hunt rabbits on, thats something ill be doing later in the year tho.

I should have this run sorted in a week, dont worry I have 2 very well trained jack russsells that would see off any fox, funny, i thought the jacks would have been trouble, they ignore them completely, still i keep an eye on the chickens, all the while they are out their coop, we like watching them scratching about, the coop is fox safe, so will be the run, ill add some pictures later

 

nice chatting to you all

 

Nathan

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Cat tails Passionate Poultry Keeper

Cat tails

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I think what Beantree was trying to say, was not incubate at all at this point. Either with your own eggs or bought eggs.

 

Personally I think it's rather a weird thing to say, that you'll just release the cockerels on a plot of land. You're in a sense just making them into fox bait. If you can't bare to dispatch any cockerels and are not bothered to rehome them, then you shouldn't hatch in my opinion.

Those birds won't last long in the 'wild' if they were raised in a garden.

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Chickabee Chicken Addict

Chickabee

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Welcome to the forum sounds like you're enjoying tour little flock.

 

I agree wholly with cattails. You must be prepared and able to despatch the cockerels correctly. Leaving them to their own devices and as possible bait for predators is unethical. Just think if one got injured and had to die slowly :(

 

Can't wait to see pictures they sound lovely, and it's great you're getting eggs do soon

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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think you misunderstood, the farm has a few chickens on, which roost in a large barn thats totally fox proof by night and are free to roam about the grass and cow yard during the day, nor will be they end up on the table, tho i have no problem with that, anyway no need to worry, the farmer knows what hes doing, sorry i thought by saying they would go to the farm .... , no worries, alls good

I have no idea about loading pics here so ill send a link, hope this works

 

http://s777.photobucket.com/user/nathan231076/slideshow/Chickens

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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thanks, thats very kind of you all :D

 

so i bought these chickens and was keeping them in my newly built summer house (shed to me) had put wood shavings and hay down, rearranged an ikea ottoman for a nesting box, hazel branch for a perch, they loved it in there, straight away they walked in as the sun went down and the wife and youngest locks the door, any way last week my new large coop arrives, i mean im not going to let them dirty my shed, well it seems my chickens didnt like the move as much as us, so now im putting the chickens in manually, tho their egg laying talent is still there, every morning 2 - 4 eggs, i read up that they will call it home soon and will go in on their own accord, so i suppose its a case of hang in there, any advice that you think would help would be greatly recieved

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Luvachicken Chuckling Chook

Luvachicken

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Welcome from me too.

There are lots of fab people on here to talk to.

Everything sounds like it is going well and your girls and cockerel all seem very happy.

 

I'm sure there is somewhere you can rent incubators from with some eggs and then you get to hatch them and keep any chicks that you want to.

I know we did that at a pre-school I worked at and it was very good - except they hatched on my day off :roll:

But even so, the tiny chicks were fab.

 

Let us know what you decide.

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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the chickens seem to have accepted their new home, still getting eggs from the girls, tho have notice 1 of the girls has been pecked on the top of head, slightly bald, ive put some sudocrem on the patch, ill keep close eye, it looks to me like its the male pecking her there while hes doing his business, shes fine tho, i was just having a clean up of their coop today when she laid an egg in the nest box, which was very cool to watch

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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Ill find out their age on friday when i collect the panels for the run, he did tell the age of them too :roll: , all i remember is they had just started to lay eggs when i purchased them so they be close to a year old now.

I just told the wife that she needs a little bonnet :lol: have no worries tho the chickens mean a lot to us, not just for the eggs, they have become part of the family now

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girlypants Freshly Laid Egg

girlypants

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Hi Nathan. What an absolutely beautiful flock. Especially your cockerel. I'm glad you're enjoying your girls.

 

Thanks mullet, the cockerel and the blue cochin give me a good laugh in the mornings, its the way they come running full speed to my kitchen door to be the first for a treat, followed by the rest of the girls, oh they make chuckle :lol:

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