At the end of October we put six fertile eggs underneath our broody Bantam hen and a couple of days ago they started to hatch.
We ended up with three of the six eggs hatching – they’re all Black Australorps. We’ll have to wait a couple of months before we can confidently tell which sex they are.
The chicks we incubated are now seven weeks old.
It looks pretty clear to us that the two Black Australorps are Males while the Blue Australorps are Female.
The Males are for sale or swap if anyone is interested.
We let the chicks outside again today. We managed to find a number of worms while gardening and it seems the chicks definitely have a taste for them.
We wrapped some chicken wire around our outdoor table and let the chicks out today.
They seemed to enjoy themselves. (more…)
I never realised quite how fast chickens grew. This is only six days since my last post with a picture of them!
Our four chicks have been in a cat carrier cage for the first 10 days of their lives. They grow like crazy and it was soon time to move them to a bigger home.
I made up a 1500 x 900 x 600mm (5′ x 3′ x 2′) frame out of some 50 x 50mm (2″ x 2″) timber and covered the sides and top in chicken mesh. We placed it in our basement on a cardboard and plastic floor (cardboard for insulation).
Have you ever tried to get four baby chicks to pose?
We ended up getting four chicks from the eggs we purchased.
We purchased 12 eggs, here are the stats: (more…)
We picked up some hens on the weekend, the first of our farm animals (we only had a cat up until now) – does that mean we’re farmers now?
We’ve got some Black Australorp Eggs in the incubator, but it’ll be around February 2012 when they are ready to Lay (provided they’re not all Roosters), so we picked up three Hens which are already laying – It was a random mix, two Anconas and a black Bantam.
Over the weekend I managed to line the Hens end of the Hen house. This was done for a number of reasons, mainly that the building is clad with treated plywood and it’s best for the Hens to not be in direct contact with it. I also did it because I didn’t want the Hens pecking at the steel framing and to make it a bit easier to clean.
I’ve installed a sacrificial plywood floor. This is on top of the treated 19mm plywood floor – Hopefully if this floor fails, I can replace it easily.
We’ve created four nesting boxes and installed two perches – all out of untreated pine.
Check out the funky door locks
I managed to finish the eaves on the hen house over the weekend and fitted the doors and their hinges.
The latches for the doors are pretty simple, they’re just a cam made out of ply which you turn to lock the door. They seem reliable, but I can imagine the screws holding them getting tight, or the bits of ply expanding in the wet, so it’s not an ideal long term solution.
Doors fitted
