Chicks, Ducklings etc

Here some pictures of the babies in our house at the moment.

UK Ducks, Geese and Poultry Group

I have been a member of a number of US based groupds for a while, and I decided it was time we had a UK group.

Pontefract Freecycle

I have just approval for a new Freecyle Group for Pontefract, if you ae in the area, please join nd pass on the groups details so we can make it succesful.

E Petition

Not something I often do, but I was sent this link by a friend, pass it on. Thanks.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/allotments/

First Bath

The ducklings enjoyed their first splash in the bath.

Cute Picture

A Basket of Ducks

Ducklings

Heres a picture of our newly hatched ducklings, loads more pictures on the hatching blog

All our Birds

Just taking stock of what we have got.

We have 5 White Silkies (1 Cockrel and 4 Hens) George, Purdie, Cutie Pie, Pecker and Swimmer, and 1 one little Chick.

3 Khaki Campbells (2 Drakes and 1 Duck) Dive Bomber, Donald and Molly.

5 Indian Runner Ducks (1 Drake and 4 Ducks) Mars Bar, Galaxy, Rolo, Blondie and Brandy and 3 Little Ducklings (So Far...... Watch our hatching blog for more news)

1 Aylesbury Drake Snowball

1 Crested Duck Lady

2 Muscovy Ducks (1 Drake and 1 Duck) Henry the eighth and Catherine the sixth

1 Emden Gander Goosy

9 Quail (unsexed)

and oue Silver Appleyard has now gone to live with a new family and 5 female runner ducks

Muscovy Ducks

Yesterday we picked up a pair of Muscovey Ducks, and what a lovely pair they are.

Quails, Chicks and Ducklings

Well the last few weeks have been really busy with lots hatching. Have a look at our other blog for pictures.

Henry and Rosie

Henry and Rosie are in Decembers Practical Poultry, along with Henry's Silkie Swimmer.

Also I've just had a phone call from Practical Poultry to say that I have won Novembers competition as well.

Swimmer

Swimmer has a scabby shoulder.

Rosie was fussing swimmer last night when she felt waht she thought was dried poo, turned out it is a very crusty dry scab. I popped some wound powder on and have spent the last few hours trying to get hold of a vet, but no luck.

George

George has had to be locked in the garage at night now, as it is the only way to stop him crowing at 4am.

Duck Eggs Fertile

The 5 Runner Ducks eggs set last week are all fertile and seem to be developing nicely, so hopefully on the 21st November we will have 5 more runner ducks runing around.

Cutie Pies still broody

Cutie pie the broody hen is still sat happily on the 12 eggs I gave her plus another 7 that she pinched from the others.

Sadly one fell out the nest and got cold, it was one of our bantams eggs and had started to develop, so George is obviously more active than I thought.

We have now managed to move her to a Rabbit hutch, which she is none to impressed about.

Quail, no 14 days old

The quail are still growing fast. They are now 14 days old.

Quick Update

Haven't posted for a week as we have been so busy, and I have now succomed to Jamies Flu.

Quail, and more

Sadly the little poorly Chick gave up on Saturday, we were taking the kids to visit family and when we returned we found him dead, not a great surprise but still a little upsetting.

The others however are growing fast, and are now getting wing feathers.

Poorly Chick

The second to last chick to hatch is still a lot waeker than the others last night I had to seperate him from the others as they are fairly rough with him, This morning he is back with his siblings and seems a bit stronger.

The Quail

10 quail hatched, 1 dead in shell and one infertle, not bad for a first attempt.

No names yet, but a few ideas being discussed.

Pictures of Lady

Lady seems to have become very friendly with snowball.

6 Hatched

6 Hatched 1 more on the way

Eggs Pipped

Eggs started pipping last night.

Lady

Well Lady arrived last night and she has settled in well, after a bit of feather pulling and pecking by all the ducks. She is now settled next to Snowball the Aylesbury Drake.

Thank you Helen.

Drunks

Well last night or rather early this morning at around 2.15 am we had a call from the police to tell us there had been some damage to or property.

Getting up we saw 2 Police Officer standing outside our house next to a large hole in our fence. Some idiot drunks had decided to try and steal our For Sale Board, a bit of a local hobby, they then decided to pull the fence apart instead, and try and steal the Wheel Barrow, Luckily a neighbour called the police, though they had gone when the police got here.

Luckily other than being a bit spooked the Birds are all fine.

Seed Catalogue

Just been through the the seed Catalogue, making my selection and it came to £114 ooops may have to reconsider some choices.

Netto Fruit Trees

Managed to get an Apple Tree today from Netto, just £3.99. Shame it was the last one or I would have got some more.

ebay plants

Well my first ebay plants have arrived, 2 Rhubarb plants, can't wait to get down the allotment now and plant them.

Cracked Egg

I was turning the quail eggs earlier today and managed to crack one, Arghh, My book says to piant nail varnish over the crack. I have done this and popped it back in the incubator.

They are due to hatch next Monday/Tuesday.

Plants

I have decided to order some plants from ebay to get us going on the allotment.

Asperagus crowns , Onion sets and am now looking for some more.

Trains I hate them

Ok bad day, didn't get to Selby thanks to the stupid trains.

First 3 trains cancelled, next one late, conection cancelled (take another 2 hours to get there), Ticket office said they couldn't give refund only the ticket man on train as he had sold me the ticket, got on train to come home also late ticket woman wouldn't give me refund as she said the ticket office should have. Arghh.

To Selby we go

Henry and I are off to Selby today to see this other Poultry Auction.

Picture later.

Try again

There we go, its worked this time. That blurr is a clutch of snail eggs in the fish tank.

Eggs, yes more eggs

Well they are eggs but of another type, not Bantams, not ducks, nout any sort of bird.

No, they are Water Snail eggs. Yes the pair of little water snails that live with the goldfish have mated and layed eggs on the side of the tank. They can just be made out in the above picture a blur on the side of the tank.

Henry and Swimmer

Henry has enjoyed a cuddle with Swimmer his Bantam.

Ducks

Rosie has managed to catch all the new ducks today and ring the runners who look very similier at a glance (Well they do to me).

Our Harvest

Just Some of todays harvest, our slightly bent cucumber.

Some of our beans and peas

and our only red tomatoe

Allotment Trip

Well today we spent several hours on the allotment digging, weeding and harvesting, yes Harvesting.

About 4 lbs of Potatoes

2 lbs of Beans and Peas

1 Red Tomatoe

1 Cucumber
and several beetroot

Plus a sack full of dandelions for the ducks and bantams.

Henry helped with the compost by compressing it in to the Compost bin. Rosie picked Beans.

On the way home Henry was to tired to walk so had a ride in the cart.

Henry

I managed to get Henry a little boiler suit.

Opps More Ducks

Well we went to Thirsk Auction Yesterday. Sadly we had missed the Poultry Auction, looked good as well some really nice birds.

Decided to visit the cahp we had purchased our runners from. Well I got the 2 more runner female I wanted, as well as a male runner , and a Aylesbury drake , and ohh a Silver Appleyard Drake. I also feel in love with a Muscovy drake called Henry (we may yet be going back for him).

We have decided not to kep the Silver Appleyard and so are now looking for a really good home for him with other ducks.

Ducks

Still need some more ducks, and not having much luck finding any.

Rain, Rain and a bit More Rain

Well its raining, hard, I wanted to go out to the feed merchant and get some more wheat for the goose.. May go out later when it stops.

We need more Ducks and a Goose

We need more ducks, Brandy seems to be getting broody.

And Goosey needs a friend.

Goosey

Well Goosey has well and truly settled in, happily munching the lawn, and nibbling my plants.

Red House Stables Car Boot

Sunday we went to Red House Stables car boot sale, interesting sale with a Carriage driving theme.

Loads of carriages, horse riding equipment.

Selby Auction

Went to Selby Auction on Saturday to buy some new female ducks, need more eggs.

Sadly they didn't have any, they only ducks they had were a drake, 2 young drakes and 2 cages of very young unsexed khaki campbells.

We werre just about to leave when the girls saw a late lot arriving a lovely friendly goose. Well what could I do it looked so lonely and the only other chap interested was buying it for the oven. So I bid.

Any way we now have a very firendly goose, well gander. He loves the kids and follows them everywhere.

Incubator

Set the incubator up and started off the first lot of eggs.

more on my new hatching blog http://hatchingeggsandchicks.blogspot.com/

Bantam Eggs Again.

Above are the pictures of our first Fried Bantam eggs, should point out that this is a very small frying pan.

Also above a picture of Cutie Pie laying an egg in the back garden, she was busy picking up twiggs and leaves to camoflage her self on her little nest.

Auction

Off to Auction on Saturday to buy some more ducks, can't wait.

George has found his voice

Well looks like George is now all grown up and will need locking up at night. 6.30 this morning he started to crow, a little rather squeeky Cock-a-doodle-do.

3 Eggs

Yesterday we had 3 Bantam eggs in the end, they really seem to get the hang of it now.

Eggs again

Well two Bantam eggs today and two yesterday. No duck eggs yesterday, but one today.

Andy sold our first box of Duck eggs yesterday. And agreed that we need some more ducks.

Ascott Order

My Order from Ascott Smallholding Supplies just arrived.

3kg of Rusk
100 yards of Hog Casing
2 Spare light bulbs for the Incubator.

Elderberries, Black Berries, Haws and Rose hips

Saturday we went Hedgerow Harvesting. Huge quantities of Berries were picked sorted and prepered.

We now have a very large quantity of Elderberry Rob, Blackberries in the freezer, RoseHip syrup and Haws in the freezer.

Potatoes

Went to the allotment yesterday and dug up the rest of the potatoes, half a sack full.

Mad Ducks

Sunday we had the Ducks and Bantams out in the back garden, when the time came to put them back in the front garden they decided they didn't want to go.
Rosie chased them and that was it, straight in to the Garage, Argh, they were every where, suddenly 5 ducks seemed to turn in to 20 ducks. Managed to grab one, while Rosie ushered one in to the front garden, two dived through the open back door, and ran into the living room. One on the coffee table one in the cats food bowl. Managed to get them out and in to the garden. So 4 ducks, 3 bantams in the front garden, 1 duck and 2 Bantams in the back garden. Last duck, 3 poeple to catch it, He was in the house, under the car and finally in the background.

Eggs, Eggs Nad More Eggs

Well the Bantams seem to have got the Hang of Egg laying.

Thursday 1 Egg (Laid by Cutie Pie)
Friday 1 Egg (Laid by Swimmer)
Saturday 2 Eggs (one first thing in the morning, one later on)
Sunday 2 Eggs ( One from Cutie Pie, and one later on in the Garden by Purdie)
Monday 1 egg (so far in the nest box)

Ducks still averaging 2 eggs a day.

First Bantam Egg

Thursday morning Cutie Pie was acting a little odd, spending time alone in the nest box after the others.

Half hour later they wetre all outside and there in the next box was a perfect, clean warm egg.

The incubators here

The incubator has arrived, just signed for it from Parcel Force. Just going to read the instructions with a cup of tea, and then put the plug on and test it.

I can't wait to get some eggs now.

Harvest

Been to the allotment or the weed patch, as it is sometimes known.

What a harvest, Potatoes, Carrots, Cabbage, Radish and Beans and also some onions from Eddie and Frank.

Backgarden Free Range

Have had the Bantams and for the first time the ducks out in the back garden free ranging, glad to say the amount of weeds meant they left my flower beds alone.

Sunday - Festival of the Plough

Sunday off we went to Lincolnshire, for the Festival of the Plough, and what a lot of ploughs.

It was great to see Houses ploughing as well, not a sght seen very often these days.

Oh and of curse the kids had to have pony/ donkey rides.

Nice little poultry show, with some lovely birds. And some great collections in the tents.

Saturday - Cannon Hall Farm

Saturday we decided to finally visit Cannon Hall Opne Farm.

They have a nice selection of Poultry, sadly didn't seem to be kept very well, nest boxes not being emptied often if at all. One Trio we saw had 15 eggs that we could see, anouth Trio had 14, the eggs were not on nests just scattered around the nest boxes.

The ducks a pair on Indian Runner had no water other than a drinker, I know ducks don't have to have a pond but they are happier with one. The 4 Baby runner ducks were lovely. especially the grey one that was catching flies.

The Guinea Fowl had all escaped from their pen and were wandering around, the pen that claimed to hold Peacocks actually had Turkeys and several people thought they were peacocks.

I also think they need to learn to Sex their Rabbits and Guinea Pigs as there was hundreds of them, and no sign that they were rehomeing any.

Loads of pigs and piglets, rather sad to see one litter with no mother, and surprised that they allowed the piglets to be strocked, even the week old ones.

Loads of goats too, pygmys, nubians and several heavily pregnant ones, Rosie especially loved being able to feel the kid move in the pregnant pygmys tummy.

The girls feel in love with the miniature donkeys.

Incubators

Well I've certainly been biten by this Poultry keeping bug, On Thursday I purchased an Incubator fom ebay, just witing for it to arrive now.

Got to say I can't wait,just don't know what to start with.

Eggs

We are still getting an egg most days from the ducks, though nothing from the Bantams as yet.

Free Range

The last couple of days we have been letting the ducks and bantams free range in the rest of the front garden. They seem to really be enjoying the extra freedom, bugs, dandelions and grass.

Ducks, Bantams and Frogs

This morning the ducks found a small frog, within seconds they had killed it, but then none of them could swallow it whole, despite Blondie really trying, in the end tthey ran around trying to get hold of it off each other, and pulling it like a tug of war.

In the end the Bantams got it hold of it.

Not sure who finally finished it off but they did between them.

Not the best photo as it was still darkish and taken through double glazing.