Turkeys

Back at the farm today :)

It was really cold and snowing! All the turkeys are weighed, boxed up, and labelled to allocate it to a customer then put in the fridges in alphabetical order. The customers come with their ticket and we get the turkey.

Quite a bit of waiting around for people so we got some turkey feed bags, filled them with straw and went up one of the fields and went sledging!


There were 7 of us there in the end and we all got soaked and really cold!

Splashing about

Jemima + Geraldine have been out in the garden again and actually went in the paddling pool today and had a good splash!
They're really loud when they have something to shout about! They make the chickens look quiet.

I think they look like campbells, but they're meant to be aylesbury crosses. Apparently both females, but one has a quieter quack so could be a boy? :/

Ducks

I think the ducks now have names ... Jemima + Geraldine.

They were out in the garden earlier while I sorted out their hutch and then clipped their wings. We got a little paddling pool out for them and they wouldn't go near it, but then they saw the hose and couldn't get enough of it!

Not sure what they'll live in long-term, either in the wooden coop with the chickens in the new walk in run, I could move the little chickens in with the big ones and the ducks have the eglu, or I could get a new eglu 'Go' without a run and do some swap arounds.
I wouldn't normally keep them together but they've always been kept with chickens at the farm they came from and we can't have 2 WIR's ... I think they'd be better in a WIR rather than an eglu run.

Surprise! ...

Surprise!
My friends bought me 2 white ducks for my birthday :D
A few people mentioned it and one person said she needed to "phone the duck lady ...... for her friend", so I kind of guessed, but they're still good!
Not sure what breed they are, I think maybe campbells, they said they're just 'generic ducks' and because I didn't know before, I didn't speak to the breeder.

They're in a rabbit run overnight until I can sort them out with the hutch :)

National Poultry Show 2009

We (me + Mom) went to the National Poultry Show at Stoneleigh, Warwick and it was really good!
We met up with a few (well, about 20!) Omleteers there so was good to meet new people :)
I think it converted mom because she was wandering round adding breeds to the want list and saying we need to get more housing first - I said we need either a cube or Go and a new WIR.
We saw a WIR panel company but they were quite expensive so didn't get one, but the idea is there. I've seen some closer to home for about £240 all built.

Mostin after a flock of banties:

My favourite chicken at the show! A tiny black frizzle pekin thing:

Belgian quail bantam

Another one on the want list, call ducks, we would get some if we had more room for another WIR and a little pond!

Call duck - it was more green in 'real life'

Mothers favourite, Modern game bantams - he looks like Malfoys dad out of Harry Potter!

Another ballerina chicken, Modern game

A giant cockerel, can't remember the breed! (Edit: Malay! - Laurie's got some now)

A few 1000 chooks, ducks, geese and turkeys!

Another one for the want list: chamois poland (frizzle)!

We got a few free pens, squeezy flubenvet eggs, keyrings and samples and entered some competitions!

Really good day out, bought some coop cups and an egg skelter in creme to match the kitchen.

Some photos I stole off Debs:

Me + Ruth

Koojie + Deb

Mother + Ruth

Me + Debs showing off t-shirts :P

Gerbils

We went to see the gerbils today - they're really cute!

Dad saw the photos and said he didn't the black ones, but I did.

When we came out he said the black ones were the cutest

We've ended up getting 3 males! 2 black and one agouti :)

Gerbilarium

Well I've bought a gerbilarium :D

The original one, the seller dropped it and her partner cut his leg! - I felt a bit guilty but couldn't help it :/
I've bought one online now, should be on its way tomorrow, and we're either going to see them tomorrow night, or Friday :)

Omlet calendar

I got my Omlet calendar today - Mr November! :P

Mom wants one aswell, so we might buy another one and have 2 - just to be extra cheesy!

Gerbils ...

Nathan (my brother) wanted a hamster for Christmas ... we've had loads of hamsters before, went to the pet shop to have a look and they had degu and gerbils!

Its now turned into getting 2 or 3 gerbils, so I've been looking at cages and 'gerbilariums' on ebay and online and have found one for sale in London that I'm looking at getting posted :)

I've also found a breeder 15/20 mins away and she has a few for sale ready for Christmas. They are agouti (brown) and black ... we may get 2 or 3 boys or a pair.

A few photos:

School Open Evening

Purkinje + Theodore have been to school for Open Evening again. I made some posters about battery hens, their food (and took some of all the food and grit with me) and about the chicks and how we hatched them, to put on the table. The one that got most people talking was the one about how much space a battery hen is given - 450cm2 (an A4 piece of paper is 650cm2!)

I took Theodore because the other chicks we hatched have gone to the farm, so just so Purkinje didn't scream all night looking for another chicken! For most of the night Theodore stayed in the run eating sweetcorn and I walked around with Purkinje.
When I wasn't holding her she just sat on the table and let people stroke her and didn't try to run away.

Theodore did jump out of the run at one point but I grabbed her and it was all fine :P

Bit of an update!

Just a bit of an update ... has been ages!

Purkinje has grown up a lot since the last photo - 15 weeks old now!

The Pox, Nugget + Purkinje:

The eglu has some new LED solar lights on and a clear shower curtain to keep out the wind/rain, which you can kind of see in the photo.

I knew Pox wasn't a Speckled Sussex bantam but couldn't remember what the breed was - they had a few at Ash End with a label up on the pen with stuff about the breed then yesterday it clicked ... Ancona! Matilda + Theodore are finally laying again after a moult, Theodore looks surprisingly like a cockerel! She looks huge compared to Purkinje!

There's another Open evening at school on Wed so Purkinje will be going in, and maybe Matilda or Nugget aswell, have got a load of facts and pictures ready to take in to put out.

Bantam egg!

The bantams laid their first egg today!
Its a tiny little pure white egg and it came from the Buff Rock.
I've red mite powdered them, clipped their wings and nails and will worm them to make sure they're fine to go in with the others. The buff rock has slightly scaley legs, so I've put vegetable oil on both their legs just to be sure its not scaley leg mites.

New bantams

I went today and re-homed the cockerels :) They'll be living in with a flock of ex-barn hens and when they're a bit bigger I think they'll be sold on as breeding cockerels.

I picked up some new bantams while we were there - a Speckled Sussex, a Buff Sussex and 2 Buff rocks.

Speckled Sussex called Pox:
Buff Rock:

They're in a rabbit run next to the Eglu with the Brilley chick in it, and in a few weeks they'll be integrated with her, then a while after that they'll be integrated with Matilda + Theodore.

The Buff Sussex and 1 Buff rock have gone to live with my Aunt + Uncle - their first chickens :D

More Doves

Its all starting again.
The last chicks were around for a week, and then one morning I came down and one had died, later on the other died aswell - I think they were too cold because they were big and only had 1 adult sitting on them.

Judy has laid another 2 eggs ... again, they are fertile ... again.
I like having her hatch them, but if they keep dying I might have to start thinking about taking the eggs away as its such a shame to put all that effort into hatching the chicks and then abandoning them :/

We'll see what happens this time!

Home & away

I've managed to find someone that will take all of the cockerels and he has some bantam hens for sale :D

He has a chicken rescue place and they'll eventually be sold on to people that need a cockerel and hopefully they'll be bred from still.
He has some light sussex, speckled sussex and buff rock bantams all for sale, and I've reserved the 3 sussex' and may ask my aunt + uncle if they want the buff rock bantams. I wanted bantams rather than large fowl because the Brilley chickens are classed as LF but are small, so will suit bantams, and being younger the bantams will be a similar size to her.

The chicks (or some of them) are going into school today for open evening, it'll be interesting to see what people think because they haven't seen them since they were a week old!


Now I'll have to juggle intro's with the Brilley Chick and the bantams.

4 cockerels

I've just found out the 4 Cream Crested Legbars are all cockerels :(
They all have big combs coming through, I can't believe I didn't notice it before.

I'm going to have to find homes for 4 now instead of just Fry.
I'm hoping to get some hens to integrate with the Brilley White chick so she isn't lonely before she is integrated with Matilda + Theodore.

Chicken Dispatch, Gut + Bone course

I went to Banbury today on the train on a course to learn how to Dispatch, Pluck, Gut + bone chickens.
It was a good day + good course, I was in the first group, then stayed to help out for the rest of the day.

We had to dispatch a chicken using the broomstick method, which was quick and easy to do, then stop the chicken flapping by holding it close to you. I thought it was all done in a really good way, and Alison explained everything properly.
We then plucked our chickens sat round the table and once they were done, put away for me to do the rest at home.
A Blue Peter moment and we were all given chickens that were dispatched and plucked on Thursday. We learnt how to gut a chicken which was ok, then how to bone it.
I was rubbish at the boning, so probably won't do it again, but it was good to see how you do it.

Watching people gut and bone on the courses after us was really helpful to watch, to remember how to do it all and take it in properly.

At the end of the day we went to the pub for a meal to meet a few Omleteers :)It was quite strange to recognise people all day that I'd never met before and feel that you 'know' them.

Raising meat birds would be something I want to do - but Mom + Dad aren't sure because they think I wouldn't do it and they'd become pets. I really like the idea of knowing exactly where your meat has come from and what has gone into it - as long as we didn't name them, it should be ok ... and we may have a spare eglu next spring ;)
Thanks to everyone - especially Clare for ferrying me around all day!

Nearly 5 weeks old

The chicks are nearly 5 weeks old tomorrow and they're looking like proper little chickens now!!
Fry is getting wattles + has a big comb

I'm still not sure if the Brilley chicks is a boy or a girl ... no comb as

yet but sometimes stands like a boy. Purkinje's comb is quite big, but still pink.