More Chicks

We had another batch of chicks due to hatch this week, 6 eggs shared under our 2 broodies Gloria & Grace…

I bought the hatching eggs off ebay at the same time as the other eggs that hatched last week and I have had a real poor result only 2 hatched out of 6 eggs… the other eggs had nothing inside but yolks/whites so take it they were infertile ones.

That aside we have a lovely little black chick and the other I think might well be partridge.. here they are…

Its really hard to get a clear picture of them as they never stay still … this one is a bit blurry but at least it lets you see the wee black one..

Layers & Growers Pellets

 

Still on a quest to source poultry feed locally, I was surfing the net yesterday at work (during lunch 🙂  ) and happened to find this place  R H Miller, Agricultural Merchants and Traders, Dalkeith, Edinburgh & Lothians.

I gave them a call to see if they supplied poultry feed… and they do! wooohoo 🙂

Its approximately 24 miles away from where I live, so in theory can be classed as “local” as its within a 30 mile radius.

My daughter and I set off at 10am to drive over to their warehouse and pick them up… and that particular branch stocked everything equestrian too!, it was fantastic wandering around their shop looking at all the horsey stuff, I was in horsey heaven and I only went there for chicken feed lol.   I will def. be taking a trip back over there, they had a sale on and had some great fleece’s boots and jackets.

They didnt have any organic growers pellets for the young pekins, all they had was Dodson & Horrell, so I just took what they had… it was £9.35 for a 20kg sack.

    

They had plenty of the Organic Feed Co Organic Layers Pellets and  20kg sack was £14.50

We Finally Picked a Name…..

She has been introduced already, without a name… , now we know she is a girl we have decided to call our beautiful wee black Pekin Bantam GRACE..

We all agreed, because she just has this gracefullness about her and holds herself well.. Grace it was 🙂

They’re Crowing and Fighting !

Oh dear…. I went out to the cheeps this morning, only to find big partridge pekin’s comb and wattles bleeding, and hanging onto white silkie cross’s neck,  the two of them running around the coop fighting one another, with Big PP having a distinct advantage….

BPP’s wattles and comb covered in blood….

So I dug out the old rabbit hutch and seperated him, putting small PP in alongside him for company, these two seem to get on and have not fought (yet)! … then Big PP started to crow! abeit a squeeky baby version of a crow… it really sounded a bit like the character Anne from Little Britain! 🙂

My son seems to think that small PP might just be a girl (he is hoping) but apart from their size, they both have similar colouring… my friend over on Neepsthat I bought them from advised that a good way of telling the sex with partridge pekins is… males have a copper/chestnut plain breast feathers and females have lighter lacey coloured breasts.   I’m sure they’re both boys…

Unless I can find new homes for them… time is running out for the PP’s.

6 Weeks Old Pekin Chicks…

Here are my cheeps… they are now 6 weeks old, and my friend has helped me to identify the sex of them.

First picture is our black pekin, this wee one really holds itself well and has such a lovely nature… and as I predicted it is a wee girl Yipeeeeee…. I can now pick a name for her 🙂

Then we have a lovely pair of partridge pekins, unfortunately they are both boys, and I am in the process of finding them a new home/s.  I’m quite sad, because they both come to the front of the coop to meet me.

Last but not least Punk Chick.. I literally had to pin this one down to get a picture, it squawked and struggled like hell, i’m amazed I managed to get this picture.. no ideal of the sex yet, but i’ll hazard a 99.9% bet that its a boy too.

 

Meet the Cheeps Punk Chick (Silkie-X)

Meet Punkie our little silkie cross chick, we always said that we wouldn’t give names to any of the cheeps until we knew what sex they were….

This little one is the exception… it’s wee feathers stick out all over the place and is a mixture between a bundle of fluff and feathers 🙂

My other half is convinced its a wee boy and calls it Sid (as in Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols) because everytime he looks in on the cheeps to make sure they are all ok… punkie is chasing all the others bossing them around and squaring up to one of the partridge bantams..

I’ll post regular updates on the cheeps and take regular photographs of punkie/Sid to chart his/her progress

Meet the Cheeps…

Today I drove up to Perth to meet with Sue and Phil and pick up “The Cheeps”.

Last night I just couldnt sleep, it was like christmas eve lol, I was soooo excited.

I dropped the kids off at school, filled the car up with petrol (£1.18 a litre here now – it’s scandalous!) and then set off for Perth.. Its about 35 miles away from where I live and should only take about 30-40 mins at the most to get there, I left an hour and 15 mins early, just incase 🙂

We still have to pick out names for them, so if you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them.

This above picture is the 4 of them in their wee chick transit box 🙂

We have 2 Partridge Pekins, 1 Black Pekin and 1 White Silkie Cross

Once they settled in … they tucked into some chick crumb and had a wee drink of water

 

Then retired to the back of their new home…..

……was it something i said lol 🙂

Chicken Little’s Gone Broody!

Our wee Bantam “Chicken Little” has gone broody, she is quite happy sitting inside the Eglu on the nesting well…, in the last 2 days I moved her off to lift the eggs..   Today I posted a thread on the forum  www.neeps.co.uk asking what normally happens when one of your chookies goes broody on you, just to find out what I should do etc etc..

Now, as a result of this post, (and Julie’s reply 🙂 )   We have decided to buy some hatching eggs and put them under Chicken Little.   My daughter and I had a browse through ebay today and I have let her pick the breed and I’ve put a bid in for some …… now bearing in mind she is 15 and likes all things girlie… she chose these………. because they were white and fluffy!!

 Miniature White Bearded Silkie’s 

I’ve ordered chick crumb, and growers pellets and i’m looking to either buy a 2nd hand coop, aquire one through freecycle (a long shot) or make a small poultry arc myself.

The kids are going to love it 🙂  not told my OH yet tho LOL – he’ll be fine about it i’m sure 🙂

 

Another Chicken Feed Order…

I placed another order online today for my organic layers pellets and mixed corn, as i’m down to my last back of the layers and i’ve only got a quarter of a bag of mixed corn left…

I’m pleased to report that the price has come down since the last order I placed in Feb 2008!

For a 5kg sack of organic layers pellets it is now £3.52, they were £3.79 so a small saving of 27p

The 5kg super mixed corn is now £3.47, they were £3.49,  a tiny wee saving of 2p.

I also bought a 5kg sack of Chick Crumb @ £3.85 and a 5kg sack of Growers Pellets @ £3.65 (Another post to follow to explain why!)