then plan is for eggs not to eat them!!

well they are here

here are the girls. sunny , shelly and yokey

Look healthy, thought most battery ones looked like something you would see in Africa during a famine.... featherless and scrawny........ your lad looks fascinated in em

cheers tony h wont leave them alone, and as of ten mins ago we have had 4 eggs in 2 and a half days!!!!

you gonna give them any toys...... they showed on TV where they gave them balls to play with.

yep we have a small rubber ball, and jamie is making a shine'y danggly thing for them to peck at

A farmer's wife went to her doctor, and asked for help. "It's my husband, he's insatiable," she said,"Yesterday, I was inspecting the chickens, and he just lifted my skirt, and took me from behind." "There's not much I can do," said the doctor, "I can only suggest that you change your routine, and deny him the opportunity." "Already done, we have to shop in Sainsbury's, not Tesco, now."
Edgar

cool thread

all the best with your chooks

they are easy-ISH to keep, but there are things to watch for, mainly red mite (sadly, have heard egglus especially good breeding grounds for them...)

we have 5 Light Sussex which are fun, although not prolific layers

your birds looked in very good nick for ex-batts

my friends have kept ex-batts for a while and they have taken in some shockers - without wishing to preach, if you see how these birds are kept, you will NEVER buy and egg or eat a chicken that is not free range again

believe, i used to eat Nandos 3 times a week, but will not touch it now i know how / where their chicken is reared

all the best

Nick

PS although there are a grillion sites on chooks out there, this is the best i have found, and also useful if you are into growing your own etc etc
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/rule-roost/

thanks guys

ok we got back to day to find a letter form the RSPCA in the letter box and the chicken coup tape up and a busness card taped to it €( ok now set the sceen 3 scrawny chickens just rescued from the trust rspca inspector gets a tip[ of of chickens misstreated } they broke in to my gardento check on the birds but....... they are in top condition pleanty of food and clean (a friend also a chicken keeper has been looking after them) so when i phoned then they were fine when i explained everything ) so my neighbour ................


she has never liked us and i think this was her attmept to get rid of the hens as she was herd tuting when they arrived!


anyway for really bad kept hans while we were away we had 7 eggs!

Theres always some bum hole who has to interfear in other peoples buisness personally id egg the bitch but you are more sensible than me. Im glad you got it sorted tho mate i hope your chickens go shit on her washing

Russ

An envelope full of chicken shit through the letter box will sort the bitch outLOL

PS. Only joking.

hmmmmmm sounds like you need more Chickens Mark, or can you borrow a noisy roster for a couple of days

Good idea Tony, but I have in the back of my mind,an idea that there's is a ruling about roosters in urban areas, something to do with keeping them quiet before and after certain hours.

I would knock on her door with a free gift of half a dozen freshly laid eggs! Bet she won't tut and refuse them.

Thats why I said borrow for a couple of days, by the time she has complained again and the RSPC etc have been round again it would have gone home and as chickens dont coocadddooooooodddaaaallllll doooo they would start to see her as unreliable.


Edit......

RSPC a typo....... Royal Society for the Protection of Chickens

I NEED HELP, my gilrs have been laying 2-3 eggs a day since we got them, then yesterday nothing, this morning i caught them eating an egg the shell and everything it was gone without a trace in about 1min. how do i stop them doing this!! i have but a rubber egg in in the hope when they realise that cant eat it they will stop but i thnk this is a long shot

Make sure they have enough grit - it might have been the shell that they are after. When I had chickens as a lad, we had to buy grit at the same time as the food, from the farmers' merchants. If it’s not that, try varying their diet. We fed ours on a hot oat mash in the mornings, and scattered grain in the evenings, with the grit as well. I don’t claim any special knowledge -- this is what the chicken-keeping farmer we asked recommended, and certainly, back in the 70s and 80s, it was all available as standard by the kilo from the agricultural suppliers and feed merchants in my little Cornish village, so I don’t think this was in any way an unusual diet...

HTH

bestest,
M.

Mark, do the girls get out of the eggloo? they get easily bored and maybe thats the issue. Our 4 rascalettes are allowed out in the garden once a day - had them for about 3 months, like yours rescue hens but looked oven ready when they arrived. Now they are in fine feather.

Regards

David

I hope you cut the power cord off it


http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Chickens-from-...-Their-Own-Eggs

I was thinking when you first posted the pics that it looked a little small to spend your entire life in. What do the Egglu instructions recommend?

I would have thought unless they were free range battery chooks, the room they now have is positively luxurious,

Like the idea of the rubber egg, though they may be a bit chewy at breakfast time , are you hoping they will bounce back ??

see the link I posted above, I always thought it was a calcium deficiency thing..... the ultimate in recyling though.

Oh now this is going back a bit. When I was at school in the early 70's I used to help look after the schools chickens and I seem to remember that if they ate thier eggs it was because something was lacking in thier diet, it may have been grit but I can't remember what it was now. Sorry.

Hi Mark.
Keep the shells from the eggs that you get from the hens and crush them under a rolling pin.
Feed them back to the hens by scattering in the run. This gives them something to scratch for, and provides them with calcium.
Had this problem myself years ago when we kept hens and bantams at home.
Let us know how you get on with them.

Chris.

That's only relative. There's quite a lot of chicken coops just up the road from me and they're generally fifteen or twenty feet square, with a bit of cover inside as well as the sleeping quarters.

thanks chaps i think the grit idea is a winner, although they had some they now have more, the rubber egg appears to have worked i watch them pecking at it since we poped out and now we have a normal egg with the rubber one

the eglu is designed to hold 4 hen's and we have only 3 and we also let them out for a couple of hours a day to eat the dandilions (they love them) in the grass

thanks again

more problems

ok now i thought this would be easy, but no, oure lovely neighbour was not content with complaining to the RSPCA (and getting nowhere) she has now contacted the local environmental health service who has surved us with an investergation notice and a warning that is we were found guilty we would havew to remove the hens! she has complained that they are noisy ans smelly and directly affect her

now are other neighbours are closer and have no problem with them (infact the husband didnt know we had any) the hens are asleep by 9pm and wake at 7am ans the only noise you have is when they have laid an egg they 'coo' to tell you

they funny thing is where we live, the other side of her have dogs who bark all day and 400meters behind us is a dariy farm so on hot summer evening all you can smell is cow Sh1t, even more ironic is that 500meter as the crow flies the other way is a chicken farm


does anyone know of any legislation that helps me, im thinking of complaining to the council that she is harrasing us

any ideas

mark

I would phone them and ask what the probs are, let em come round and see them, also let them know what the RSPCA said........ failing that have you considered getting a nice litter of pigs?

Might be worth a call to the RSPCA who dealt with the first, I would imagine they could give you some tips / advice.

My previous neighbour had chickens and geese for years and no-one complained about them, in fact it was pretty cool and unusual to see chickens and geese in the back garden of a terraced house! No-one interfered and got on with their own daily life, minded their own business. I'd tell her to piddle off and/or harrass her back.

What can you say eh? Some women just don't like cock.

You could always borrow a dog, preferably a noisy one. See if she'd prefer that?



Jamie

spoke to Environmental health this morning oh and the police, Eh were great she had no concerns but said the it was the complanee's job to produce evidence or persistant and disruptive noise / smells, obviously she cant so the EH woman said dont worry about it. the police are going around to speak to her and warn her to stop harrasing us! so hopefully job done!

Some people need to get a grip and pay more attention to their own lives rather than try to disrupt others'

I'd just tell her to cluck off.

Get the chickens to invite her round for a "bit of a do"......

She might feel better after being to a hen party......................

Dick

Pop round, tell her you are going to have a voodoo ritual tonight which will involve the slaughtering of chickens and the smearing of blood, also ask her politely if she by any chance has a cut off sample from one of her dresses for the doll you are making.. and if she knows where you can purchase some hat pins