CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Tuesday 15 December 2009

nearly xmas already!!!!!

Wow, I cant believe how the time has pasted me by, Ive not updated this blog before now because i just havent had the TIME!!. I now work 3 days a week so trying to fit in my allotment, the gardening, the animals ect is really hard. I also have taken on some land with my friend Tracey so we can either breed Poultry or set up a Poultry sanctuary, we havent yet decided which, we are just waiting for the land to be cleared and dug over.
Since my last post, i have incubated a further 6 eggs, having 3 hatched. Also "Dusty" went broody so i brought 6 eggs off ebay "silver spangled hamburgs" and "Merrydales" gave me 1 of thier eggs they had spare a "partridge pekin", 2 of the spangles & the partridge hatched. Dusty looked after them very well but unfortunately 1 spangle died, think the wind blown the door on it therefore killing it :(
December the 12th i treated Tracey to some duck eggs for xmas,(from ebay) I let her borrow my incubator so she could hopefully watch them hatch, will let you know how she got on in the next update.
Yesterday I brought 6 silkie chicks (3 white & 3 blue) from a young girl that has hatched them herself from her own silkie chickens. It was great to see a young girl of 12yrs old having a great interest by keeping, breeding and selling her own chickens.

Saturday 1 August 2009

2 Were Fertile!

Well 2 of the "Japanese Bantam" eggs were fertile on day 4, the other 1 I binned. They were growing great but on day 12 when i candled them i couldnt see one of the chicks moving, so im thinking its died, but i still leeft it in.
Last night I candled again and couldnt see any chick moment in any of them :( so im thinking i have lost them both, I still have them in the incubator and will till the 6th of August when they are suppose to hatch just in case, will update then.

Also 2 weeks ago Mags my magpie went for a wonder and never came back, the kids were devastated :( im just hoping he/she has found a mate and will live a happy life. We keeping calling and hoping.

Friday 17 July 2009

Started incubating 3 Japanese bantam eggs

well yesterday at 11-30am i put 3 "japanese Bantam" eggs in to my "forced air" incubator, im doing this for a friend as he wants to know if his cockeral is fertile, the cock and hen are just over a year old,
Temperature is 38 and humidity is 44%
I will update when i candle them on day 4 ;)

Wednesday 15 July 2009

My Chicks and Mapgpie update

Well its been along time since ive been on here, thats because Ive been soooo busy with the allotment and all my animals...lol, below are some updated pics of the chicks which are 14 weeks old now and also some of mags my magpie.








Saturday 9 May 2009

My Baby Magpie... "Mags"

Well I only have 1 magpie left :( The 2 others died last week, havent a clue why but at least this ones still alive and he's doing really well. Im trying to get him to walk/fly so every day just letting him out on my mat or on the grass, he seems to really enjoy it and def knows who i am :) Ive decided to cal him "Mags" yes I know its original but its easy and it suites...lol ;) below is a video ive uploaded to you tube....

Friday 1 May 2009

My chicks are now 3 weeks old

My chicks are now 3 weeks old, they have grown soooo quickly, here are some pics of them...

just look at those feet!







This is Buttercup

And this is my 2 week old "Lucky"

Thursday 30 April 2009

Magpie chick pictures

Here are the pics of the Magpies that i was given to look after, as you can see they have grown quite a bit and have started to get there feathers.

heres when i first got them 26th April 09




And here they are today, 30th April 09, they are quite a bit bigger and have some feathers, all ive been feeding them iis chick crumb mashed with dog food, seems to be working great.




Monday 27 April 2009

Ive Aquired Magpie chics!!

Apparently some boys had wrecked a magpies nest and dumped the chics, so my daughters friend brought them to me, they look as if they are about 4 or 5 days old, i've put them in the incubator and am feeding them chic crumb mashed with water. i will add some pics soon, so watch this space

My little hatchling

This is the one & only chick that i managed to hatch, Ive called him/her "Lucky", Incubating & hatching was an amazing experience and am really glad I had a go. Below are some pics of Lucky...









Below are the other chics thaat I brought from "merrydales", these were 2 weeks old last friday being 24th April. Lucky was put straight in with these and was perfectly alright, infact Lucky became the boss!!...lol









Thursday 23 April 2009

I've Hatched a chick

Well out of the 4 eggs that were in the "forced air incubator", that i brought, only 1 managed to hatch last Saturday 18th April at 3 in the morning, 1 did live till day 23 but the incubator went wrong and started flickering, making a loud clicking noise and didnt keep the temperature so i was very dissapointed with it! But the chick that did hatch is beautiful, I think he/she is a "blue Lace", Ive decided to call him/her "Lucky" as its the only one thats survived...lol..I have some pics but havent uploaded them yet but will do it in a few days so you can see it. The other 4 chicks that I brought will be 2 weeks old tommorow being Friday, they have grown sooooo much and already are getting feathers, their wing feathers came first, they are scratching around and love to jump on and over the small branches i put in the brooder, they are now in a "Dog Crate" brooder as they out grown the hamster cage brooder. Ive also put the little one that I hatched with them, hes/shes a week younger than them but seems to be copying everything they do, its great to watch! watch this space for the pics

Friday 10 April 2009

We Have Chicks

But we cheated, yep the 1st batch of eggs that were in the borrowed incubator didnt hatch, and the kids were sooooo dissapointed. I took them with me to "merrydales" in Enderberry, (a lovely, friendly place which you can visit here.... http://www.merrydalepoultry.co.uk/ ) to get some grit, oh boy what a mistake to take them with me, as Merrydales had day old chicks for sale! well my daughter Paige and my son Connor just fell in love with them and literary begged me to get some!!! so we ended up with the minimum that you can buy which was 4. I really shouldnt have but what do you do when you see your kids sooooo happy...lol... ok ok yep It didnt take much persuading..hahaha.

One of the chicks is a beautiful yellow,, just like you see them on the TV, he/she is a lemon cuckoo pekin, and Paige has namned it "Buttercup", the other we yet have to name, and to be honest forgot what they are...oopps! All we have to wish for now is that they arent Cockerals!!!! just my look for them all to be..hahaha. Below are some pics of them in our brooder set up, which is by the way a hamster cage.

















Saturday 28 March 2009

Another incubator...lol... am i addicted???

I visted a poultry place near me and they said that eggs had to be at a temperature 0f 37c well the borrowed incubator was set at 35.6 so ooooops was tlold they might not hatch but to leave them longer and see. Soooooo i went on ebay and brought a "Forced air incubator" which is really cheap (just £21 +P&P) and people have said it works, ive pinched the picture of it for now till i get my camera out.here it is

You can find them on ebay here....
I have put 2 "Blue lace pekins" and 2 "Lemon Pekins" in there and have made sure its 37C...lol so watch this space and see if i have any success ;)

Thursday 26 March 2009

I thought I had a BROODY hen!

I thought I had a broody hen as she seem to just be on the nest all the time, so I thought hmmmm i will get her some eggs to sit on, so I ordered some fertile eggs they are"Pekin Batams" from ebay, anyway I jumped the gun far tooooo quick because apparently she wasnt broody :( so I was left with fertile eggs and no broody hen! Well my friend shaun came to the rescue with his friends incubator, The eggs went in to the incubator last thursday being the 19th, so hopefuully they will hatch by the 8th of April. Below is a pic of the eggs in the incubator.

Thursday 19 March 2009

2 New Hens

On Friday the 13th I brought 2 new hens, we called them "Macey & Lacey". Macey is the brown one and Lacey is the Grey one. Im not sure what breed they are, I think Lacey is a "Maran" and Macey is a "Welsummer" here are a couple of pics of them....



Thursday 19 February 2009

The coldest February for a decade

Well This February has been the coldest in 10yrs!, we have had quite a bit of snow too. the ponds have been frozen over for most of the month and I think the chickens are fed up with the snow too. The bird feeders have been emptying pretty fast, and have had daily visits from the Long tail tits amongst the regulars. Yesterday being the 18th Feb I took a look around the garden as all the snow had gone :) and i noticed the snowdrops are just starting to flower, which is quite later than the last few years. I have set some seeds in the plastic octangle greenhouse, they are tomatoes,raddish, global artichokes,coz lettuce, broadbeans and peas.Hopfully not sown them too early, but couldntn wait.Im fed up of eating shop brought dalad and veg, this year i hope to grow enough to last the winter too ;)

Friday 16 January 2009

SAD DAY TODAY

Today we lost "Dolly" the Hen, remember the one that had all her tail feathers pecked out, well she managed to grow more but was never a really healthy hen even though i tried everything i could. 2 days ago i noticed she was very fluffed up and wasnt sure if it was the very cold weather we were having, anyway yesterday she was just standing on the coup floor all on her owwn fluffed up and didnt even flinch when i picked her up, she just kept shutting her eyes, so i put her in the dog crate i have with some hay and food and brought her in home, hoping the warm would help her, but sadley it didnt and today she died :(

Thursday 8 January 2009

Happy New Year

Well the start to the new year has been very cold... as cold as -12 in some places of the UK, Not sure if the chickens are happy about it as 2 of them are almost oven ready with their moult, What a silly time of year to moult!! Mind you Molly is being a real pain by keep pecking what feathers they have out! So im having the run extended the other side so I can seperate her until she gets out of the habbit. Im still getting atleast 3 eggs a day though so thats really good. The Rabbit is enjoying hiself with them too only i think hes feed up with them pinching his food..lol. Not much happening in the greenhouse, I have got some seeds ready to sow but waiing till it warms up a bit. My garden seems to be looking a bit tatty this winter not sure if its cause the chickens ran riot around it in the Autumn. Looks like a couple ofr magpies have started their nest building in next door but ones garden. The usually birds are flocking in too for their daily meals.