Remembering to put the chooks to bed!

OK, so I don't lock all my chooks up every night.

In my main run, where we have two large coops, one broody coop, and one small isolation coop (this is for a broody and her young chicks before they get let loose with the grown ups, a way of introducing the little ones so the resident hens are used to them and don't bully them when they are let out) - we currently have 10 hens one brood of 3 youngsters that are now around 12 weeks old, one brood of 5 that are around 9 weeks old, a brood of two that are around 4 weeks old, and a another brood of two that have just hatched out.

This run is a very large area, about 50 metres by 30 metres, and has a 4 foot high fence with a single strand of electric fencing running along the top and another running along the bottom. It is a main unit so there is a good wack if anyone or anything touches it (it is not mains electricity, it is a small DC current, run off the mains) and gives a constant level of power as opposed to a battery operated unit that gets weaker over time.

This has been in place for two years and just once over that time have I lost any chickens, and that was on a really wet and windy night, when my llamas were sheltering in their shelter, oh yes, my llamas have access to the next field and guard the fence line on two sides, the two sides where predators, mainly foxes are likely to approach my land.

In this run, I do not go down and lock the chooks up, I leave the guarding to my llamas.

This year we decided to breed a few pure Light Sussex, I had 11 chicks hatch out and they are now around 12 weeks old, we think we have 7 pullets (females) and 4 cockerels which have been split up into two groups. The 7 pullets have had a refurbished coop, and a 6' high enclosure built around them, they too have llamas guarding one side, but as they are youngsters and not wise to the ways of the world they need shutting in at night, no electric fence up there as way too far away from any power.

The 4 cockerels are also in a coop away from all the others and only has a small fence but are closer to my office and have goats on two sides (not sure how effective they'd be against a fox, and in any event they are all locked up at night.

So, a new routine, these two sets of chooks need locking up at dusk, and whilst I have remembered most nights, I have forgotten once when a glass of wine seemed to ruin the memory, luckily nothing happened but I must not forget again, must I?

Another broody!

Yes, we have another broody!

This is our 4th - the first successfully hatched 3 chicks, the second 5 chicks and the third just two.

In between times we hatched out a big batch in the incubator. 15 hatched, and 11 have survived so far!

Trouble is with broody number 4 is that our eggs are no longer fertile as we had dispatched the cockerel, so a quick shout out on our local Devon Smallholders Facebook group and I found someone local who had some hatching eggs. So, a quick dash up to Woolsery and I bought 5 french maran eggs. The lady I bought from said that a broody will sit on an odd number of eggs, so I couldn't have six, I had to have 5 or 7, so 5 it was!

Who knew!

Oh what a mess!

Last month, I fired up the incubator to hatch some new chooks!

We keep a few hens, we have 11 at present plus a cockerel, we are getting 6-8 eggs a day which is quite good, we sell what we don't eat to friends & family, and that just about pays for a bag of feed every month, but hens get old and need replacing.

Of our 11 hens there are two real oldies that are probably not laying but I am not one to cull, I am quite happy for them to enjoy the rest of their lives with us, we also have 3 or 4 that will be oldies next year, and we have 5 youngsters who were hatched out last year.

To keep the supply of eggs coming we do need to add new hens and that is where the incubator comes in. Another disaster for us this year, a crow has been nipping in to the workshop and eating the cats food, and on day one of the incubation the crow had a go at getting to the eggs and smashed them and did its best to break the incubator.

The incubator is fine albeit very messy with eggs inside the workings and as it is an old incubator I am not sure it will be re-usable. The good folk at Brinsea have sent me instructions on how to take it apart and put it back together again, so another chore added to the list of things to do.

Thanks to nature though, we did have a hen go broody, and she is much better at the job than I am, and we have 3 very healthy baby chooks running around in their little pen.

I think you can just about see them!

Our hens are starting to lay again!

We have a small flock of hens, plus an obligatory cockerel.

Actually, it's not obligatory to have a cockerel, but when you hatch your own, you are nearly always bound to have at least one. At the moment I have 17 hens and a cockerel (hatched last year, along with 4 hens - a good ratio methinks as it could have been the other way around).

The winter months have been quite scarce for eggs, we would be luck if we would get 2 a week, but with the new hens plus our oldies chipping in we are getting anywhere between 6 & 9 a day now.

We sell the surplus at the "farm gate" for just 10p an egg, or £1.20 a dozen - I know we could get more, but most of our buyers are friends and/or neighbours.

In the mornings they all come to greet me at the corner of their run to see if I am bringing any tidbits - which I never am. I feed the hens plain layers pellets that they have access to all day, and then in the afternoons they get treated to a handful of mixed corn.

My job in the morning is to give them fresh water, but I do throw out a few layers pellets for them to scratch around for. The cockerel, being a young chap is very wary of me, checking to make sure I'm not going to harm his girls.

It will soon be time to see if the cockerel has been doing his job, and to take half a dozen eggs and get them into the incubator - it will be good to get some youngsters into the flock for next winter - we might just get more than 2 a week then!