22 March 2008
The Poultry Baroness
Posted by Richard under: Chickens; Smallholding .
We lost quite a few hens to the local fox during a cold snap in mid-winter, and the two remaining hens and one cockerel just weren’t providing enough eggs to keep us happy. The time had come to source some additional layers.
We had spent a good few weeks scouring the internet and local papers, as well as mentioning our search to friends.
We did come very close to getting some ex-battery hens, but the whole cockerel thing would have probably been too much for them - so we decided against it. (they needed some freedom and tlc, not an over-amorous rooster armed with inch-long spurs).
Our friends, who we now have a year-long grazing agreement with, have a great collection of hens - one we have always slightly coverted. They managed to pick them up from a free-range producer who was selling up. The present owner of the flock is the 11 year old daughter of the house, and she is slowly becoming the local poultry baroness of the area.
During some recent conversations, it came up that the poultry baroness had managed to procure herself an incubator for her birthday - and was raising her own replacement stock - so some of last years birds were now up for sale.
It was fair to say that we didn’t haggle too much (she even clipped their primaries for us) and we managed to come away with five new birds - a handsome Welsummer (with dark brown eggs). two Cream Legbars (with sky blue eggs) and two ‘layers’ of currently unidentified breeds (that give peach coloured eggs). These, along with our two white-laying bantams will give us that country cottage picture perfect egg-basket.
It is fair to say that a few feathers flew yesterday afternoon when the new birds were introduced - as the cockerel got ‘acquainted’ with the new birds and pecking orders were ascertained amongst the girls. At dusk, there was some judicious use of a landing net to ensure everyone was locked away.
This morning, things were back to relative normality - and the entire group of hens moved off around the paddock as a single unit - and each came back to lay in the nest boxes (rather than in some random corner of the barn).
9 Comments so far...
uphilldowndale Says:
22 March 2008 at 4:15 pm.
Can you come and teach our hens to lay in the nest box, maybe the poultry baroness, could be the front for a ‘It’s me or the chickens’ TV show
Richard Says:
22 March 2008 at 7:19 pm.
Ours seem to go through phases - suddenly the eggs stop and few days later we discover a little nest in the feed store or the back of the hay barn.
David Says:
22 March 2008 at 9:10 pm.
We don’t have too much trouble with stray eggs - maybe worthwhile either hardboiling and marking a couple or having some china eggs and leaving them in the nesting box pour encourager les autres. You certainly need to break the habit of laying elsewhere…
colour it green Says:
22 March 2008 at 10:30 pm.
cool - we have blue white and dark brown eggs too.. and i admit they do look sooo nice. we have found the cream legbar eggs have bigger yolks.. would be interested if you found the same
WE are not getting any white eggs at the mo as the buff leghorn is sitting on a clutch of eggs. So hopefully increasing our stock soon.
hope your girls (and boy!) settle in together soon.
Jo Knight Says:
24 March 2008 at 3:47 pm.
Just a couple of handy tips we’ve picked up along the way -
next time you introduce any new poultry to the flock, it may be better to put them in with your resident flock at dusk, when the other birds are already roosting in the henhouse. Also, if possible, keep them all in for 24 hours so they ‘imprint’ their new accommodation - thus there will be less likelihood of ’straying laying’.
Also, there should be a bit less squabbling - & the birds will be less stressed by having to be caught with the net (something to avoid at all costs with laying hens, if possible).
Ideally, keep your new hens quarantined for a few days before introducing them to the rest of the flock: that way not only can they become acquainted with the vagaries of their new environment, it’s also an extra level of biosecurity which potentially protects your established residents from picking up any previously undetected ‘nasties’, too.
Richard Says:
24 March 2008 at 5:39 pm.
We did plan to pick the new girls up at dusk and put ‘em straight in the henhouse - but the poultry baroness was quite clear that the terms of the sale included letting them free-range before locking them away. (She was very worried that they would get a battering from the cockerel in an enclosed space) We knew about the issues this would cause (as our last lot of birds were kept in for 24 hours before release) - but a promise to an 11 year old has to be kept. Anyway, forget the stress to the birds - it’s too stressful on me, chasing five hens around a paddock at dusk with a landing-net. Not going to repeat that again. Anyway - they have sorted themselves out now - and put themselves in at dusk….and no straylaying at all.
Fiscal constraints also limit us to one hen house at present (and that is an old garden shed that I embelished with a pophole and nestboxes) - so the biosecurity went out of the window this time. When it comes to sheep, they definitely have two week solitary before flock introductions.
Cottage Smallholder Says:
2 April 2008 at 10:10 pm.
Hi Richard
Good to hear that you have some new hens and that they have settled well with your old flock.
I reckon that you are canny enough to have examined The Poultry Baroness’s kingdom and picked up on any probable nasties.
Great post. Thanks
Jo Knight Says:
5 April 2008 at 12:19 pm.
Yup, I’m sure Cottage Smallholder is right & it sounds like the Poultry Baroness is a wise old bird herself! However, from bitter experience I’ve unfortunately learned you can never be too careful…
I bought some hens from a professional, licensed breeder a couple of years ago & whilst I was confident of their provenance (all vaccinated etc) it turned out they had a virus which was initially dormant (therefore undetectable & not obvious at the time of visiting the premises) but which, once it took hold, quickly spread throughout the flock & killed several of our long-established & much-loved residents, which was so very upsetting & frustrating - not to mention expensive as we then had to medicate the entire flock, & all the eggs (which always sold out) had to be thrown away for the duration of their treatment. So I really kicked myself for not being fully prepared & quarantining the birds properly.
I’ve never experienced a problem with cockerels attacking newly-introduced pullets - in fact the resident hens are the biggest culprits; but so long as it’s done at night & in a confined space when the established birds are already drowsy & don’t have room to squabble on the perch (we have 2xForsham Cottage Arks so the roof to the sleeping area is sloped quite steeply) it’s always worked very effectively. Throughout our time keeping hens we’ve had four cockerels; & never had a problem with any of ‘em - whether attacking hens, humans or other species.
My Dad used to have serious run-ins with an old bird called Frank; it’d wait for him to go past the raspberry canes then attack, & there’d be feet & feathers flying in all directions as they fought. Then one day Frank got an eye infection which needed treatment….& Dad was the only person he’d allow to do it. So Frank survived, & lived to fight another day - as he & Dad were soon back at each other; but more for show than anything else, after all.
Just wish I’d seen you running round the paddock with that landing net, hee hee….!! That said I’ve done it myself & found it one of the most frustrating pasttimes imaginable. The worst experience has to be when we attemped to get our geese to bed for the first time, though - it was pouring with rain & they flew down to the bottom of the steepest, slipperiest field we have (right next to a fox-infested woodland, of course) - I ended up on my backside several times, plastered in mud & cursing they’d both be in the oven for Christmas if we managed to snatch them from the foxes’ jaws! But they’re still with us….though demanding to be herded to bed every night ever since, silly things.
P.S. Might be worth building a small secondary henhouse, ‘just in case’ - that way, if you have anything which gets ill or broody you’ll have backup - or even just for those times when you need to deep-clean, creosote or repair your existing accommodation. You could always build it out of odds n’sods (old pallets etc) - v jealous of that creep feeder of yours btw, ingenious! Do you do commissions….?!
farmingfriends Says:
9 May 2008 at 9:12 pm.
I have enjoyed reading about your new hens and how you came to acquire them. How lucky to be getting different coloured eggs.
Sara from farmingfriends