NannyP's Hens

So, here we are. We left the UK on my birthday in July, rented a house for a few months.  We found this house after just a month, and moved in in mid-November.

In a couple of weeks time, I hope to have 4 chickens, my good friend Mojo is saving me some, to go and collect over the Christmas period.  There are 2 sheds just off to the right in this stitched photo, ideal for chickens, as they used to house pigeons. They need cleaning and disinfecting, knocking through a connection from one to the other and I'll have a dark coop shed, and a lighter run shed for when we're not here and can't risk them free ranging. I'll need to add some roosting bars (will look for a couple of old, wooden ladders) and some carboard boxes for nesting in. Having learnt what works and what doesn't, I've realised that walk in coop is good, disposable and free nesting/laying boxes is good and easy cleaning.  The sheds are concrete and roof tile, there is some wooden shelving, so will still have to watch for red mite, but I think it will be easier.

So, watch this space.

Lucky me, Phil's cleaned the sheds, he makes it look so easy!

Now all we need to do is use our new pressure washer to do a thorough clean, make some perches,

knock through the breeze block to join them and find some crisp boxes for nesting.

Et voila, the hens are here, along with a cockerel.

Unfortunately, the cockerel decided I was one of his girls and each morning would attack my leg as I walked off. This was not nice, especially the first time as he drew blood.  This made me wary when in the garden, so after failed attempts to let him know who's boss, we decided he'd have to go.  Luckily for us, my neighbour agreed to do the deed. I went with him, to see what he does and to see whether I would be able to do this......

Not sure, watched him begin to do the plucking too........again I can't imagine doing it.

They found a great place to dustbath, in fact there is an even better place at the

end of the back garden which they found a few weeks later.

I've begun to think about growiing some chickens specifically for meat, as chicken is

expensive in France.  My friend Mojo has agreed he will do the culling etc when the

time comes, and I will pay him in birds.

I'm preparing a site down at the bottom of the garden that was once a pigeon loft (they're

everywhere in this garden).

As you can see, there is quite a lot of clearing and cleaning to do. I'm thinking

that behind this rusty gate is secure enough to keep 10/12 birds, allowing them

to free range in the bigger enclosure during the day. I will add some more photos

 of the progress as we go.

Well here I am in warm, sunny France.  I'm on Dial Up , bet none of you remember the misery of that!!

So, I sat here a week ago and spent 2 hours updating this page with photos of eggs in incubator, hatched chicks blah blah blah 

The page wouldn't save, and all I had done was lost......of course being the patient type...I just said...oh well, never mind 

These 2 photos are of our latest chicks, hatched on Saturday

Cute yes? 

Hen

Cockerel

The Cream Legbar hen in the photo above died at about 8 weeks.  She'd had something wrong with her legs, and just didn't get right somehow.

I hatch a few more CLB eggs which Mojo had given me and had 2 hatch (not good at all) one of each again, and the hen died within a week.

Such a shame, so all that we have are 2 CLB coqs.

This is Parker, the first coq

We'll be keeping him, and hope that next year we can hatch or obtain at least one or more females, so we can finally have blue eggs.

This is Billy no mates, he'll be going to the abattoir with the new table chicks in mid March (but don't tell him I said!)

Poor boy is a loner, and hangs out all day in the front garden, crapping on the doormat 

About 4 months ago, Mojo gave us a gorgeous Brahma hen.  It was at the same time as he and I had culled to Sasso's,

so by the time he was offering, both he and I were shattered.  Mark loves brahmas, so we accepted this gorgeous bird.

It was less than 24 hours later, when it occured to me that this was not a hen but a cockerel.  I chatted to Mojo who still insisted she was a she, so we bet 5 euros on it as I recall.  Well, about 3 weeks ago, this beautiful cockerel started crowing!!

This is Trousers, and his crow doesn't quite match his stature. He's a very gentle, inquisitive bird and he comes and watches what we're doing when we're in the garden.  Won't let us get near him though 

Hopefully we'll find him a hen next year, or at least get some hatching eggs to start a whole new brahma flock.

Finally, the SassoX coq, looking very regal I think.