Category Archives: Poultry

A disaster then a new flock of bantams

Posted on March 25, 2017 | 1 comment

We’ve been keeping chickens for some years now, and never suffered serious losses before. But we didn’t padlock one of the doors the other night, and one of the many local foxes took advantage of the opportunity. Foxes can undo latches and shoot back bolts, so by morning only one of the bantams remained. A few feathers showed where the others had met their end. The bodies had been taken, so presumably they’d ended up as dinner for the fox cubs. It’s still that time of year.
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We have some new bantams

Posted on August 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

We went back to the very excellent Orchard Poultry to buy a few more bantams. Not for breeding, just to supplement our ornamental flock. And, after losing our silkie during last winter, we’ve learnt the lesson that the breeds must not be too tender for cold damp conditions.

Here are our five newcomers, getting accustomed to their new quarters before being integrated with the existing birds.

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More Ixworths arrive at the Allotment

Posted on February 14, 2016 | Leave a comment

Our current Ixworth flock is getting on in years, and it seems a good idea to introduce some new blood into the breeding. On the Ixworth Breeders group that we belong to, someone was selling their breeding flock, plus a few not quite so pure bred ones, so we jumped in and bought them.

It took a trip up to North Norfolk to collect them. Nostalgic for us, since we lived in Norwich when our children were very young, and so the trip brought back many good memories.

New Ixworths 002a
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We won superb Blackacre Farm eggs!

Posted on October 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

I entered a competition run by the very excellent Blackacre Farm, producers of fine free-range eggs. And won!

The prize was a very generous six dozen “Waddling Free” duck eggs.

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Ducklings in the brooder

Posted on April 20, 2015 | 1 comment

There’s a parallel with having children here. You forget just how fast they grow!

Only a day or two old, the ducklings are thriving. The pictures are taken a little distance from the brooder so as not to frighten them. The cardboard wall is to prevent too much Aubiose from being kicked out onto the floor!

Maybe if we huddle in the corner and ignore the big scary humans, they'll go away!

Maybe if we huddle in the corner and ignore the big scary humans, they’ll go away!


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The duckling hatch continues

Posted on April 19, 2015 | Leave a comment

It’s now exactly 28 days since the original 11 eggs went into the incubator. Two didn’t develop at all, and one looked infected at around the halfway mark. That left us with eight. As I write, we have seven lively ducklings! Increasing the humidity in the R-Com 20 incubator seems to have paid off.

I caught the hatch of number 4 on camera. The third had just hatched, and her cheeping and movement may have encouraged the fourth to emerge. Here’s the hatch in pictures:

Some pipping action is visible, and as we watch, more holes start to appear in the shell

Some pipping action is visible, and as we watch, more holes start to appear in the shell


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A duckling hatches

Posted on April 17, 2015 | Leave a comment

We’re hatching a clutch of duck eggs for a friend at the allotments. When we last checked, 8 out of the original 11 were still viable. The first surprise came yesterday afternoon, when the three-day hatching phase commenced. A couple of eggs had already started to pip, 48 hours earlier than we would have expected. You can see the first little chips in the shells as the ducklings start to hatch.

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Happy Chickens, and a Happy New Year!

Posted on December 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

The weather’s on the turn, although we got a spectacular show of hoar frost again at the allotment.

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Further integration – and a bantam egg!

Posted on December 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

We took down bowls of warm mash (porridge, cornmeal, and sweetcorn kernels) yesterday evening, since it promised to be a freezing night.

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The new Wyandotte clustered round the bowl with the others, so she seemed to have established herself as part of the flock.
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Frosty start for the new bantams

Posted on December 29, 2014 | 3 comments

We went down to the allotment nice and early, because the drinkers clearly weren’t going to thaw without intervention. Much antifreeze was needed simply to unlock the gate!

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The new bantams were fine, although they still form a little group of three, and haven’t fully integrated. But, thank goodness, there was no sign of bullying.
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