New Hens

After a few abortive trips to poultry shows and sales to source some traditional utility breeds, I found a place in Canterbury, Kent, who could supply me with some new birds. It was only a two hour drive and the weather was kind so apart from a few erm, domestic issues it was a pleasant journey through the Weald.

Perched on top of the North Downs, the farm had over 300 breeding birds of all different types, but I chose 3 Welsummer hens (2014 hatch) and 2 Buff Sussex pullets at 8 weeks old. The hens look a bit ragged having been in the breeding pen for the last couple of months but I'm hoping that with some grass and sun on their backs (that won't happen today, looking out of the window!!) they'll feather up and get some colour back. Henry the Welsummer cockerel seems rather nonplussed at his sudden increase in harem, especially as he seems to have the hots for nextdoor's Amber Star hybrid who shamelessly flirts with him through the fence. Anyway, I'll be looking to hatch some eggs as soon as I have a broody hen so that I can sell the pullets or keep some as replacements. Eventually I'd like to have only traditional breeds rather than hybrids so that's the master plan. I also collected some Light Sussex pullets and a cockerel for my friend who lives up the road so there is the potential to swap boys to disperse the genetics a bit.

Buff Sussex pullets in the puppy crate

Welsummer hens

Fermented Feed for Chickens

Recently I've been discovering the benefits of cultures and after reading this blog - naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.co.uk - I thought I'd expand the fermenting residents of my kitchen to include some corn and mash for the hens.

Basically, I had a couple of spare calf buckets (I have an obsession with buckets) so I put a couple of scoops of mixed poultry corn in one, standard layer's mash in the other and filled them up with tap water. I gave them a good stir about 5 times that day. The following day the water was cloudy so I gave it a stir whenever I walked past and by the fourth day the corn and mash buckets looked cloudy and foamy respectively. Both smelt vaguely sweet and sour which is the classic lactic acid bacteria aroma so I felt confident that the buckets were preserving the contents well.

Using a plastic sieve for each feed, I use a portion of the mash in the morning, mixed with dry layer's mash to form a crumble, and in the afternoon I feed a portion of the fermented mixed corn again, mixed with a bit of dry mash to soak up the excess liquid:

Mmmmm (if you're poultry)

Well, the hens go mad for it! They are tucking in really well in the morning and afternoon and are rather snooty about eating the pellets which I give them in between times for ease and in case someone else needs to feed them (should I do something radical like go out for the day) so I've been really pleased. I top up the buckets with corn or mash and water and the mixture perpetuates itself. As long as there's always a layer of liquid over the feed it will not go off as the population of good bacteria keep the bad ones in check.

A word of warning: I discovered my dog rather likes the liquid so I have to keep the buckets covered with an old plate rather than the tea-towel I was originally using as he could push that out of the way and get his nose in.

I also feed it to the ducks and although they don't quite know how to handle mash as they dabble in their water bowl then back to the feed bowl and I end up with two bowls of slops...

The next thing I want to try now that the weather has warmed up is some sprouted greens as being on mulch the hens are reliant on their daily leg-stretch in the garden for some greenery.

Mouse Nest

Rodents are proving to be a bit troublesome this year. It was warm enough (about 15°C) to properly take the lid off of the hive with the mouse nest and remove the squatters. They'd made a lovely cosy nest on top of the crownboard in the WBC:

Two mice were in there but they skidaddled off having given me a bit of a hard stare for destroying their home. The weather is good enough now though and there are plenty of other places for them to live so I wanted to see what damage they'd done, having not had this issue before. Thankfully they don't seem to have ravaged their way through the hive:

The bees didn't seem remotely perturbed by the mice and apart from giving me a bit of a talking to about taking the hive apart they carried on calmly. I've clearly forgotten how to keep a smoker alight  over winter which didn't help! Having left all the honey on after taking a  bit in July, there was still loads of food which was great to see and hopefully will give the colony a positive start to the season.

I blocked the entrance with some bits of frame that were lying about (doesn't pay to be too tidy) but I'll get some proper blockers for this hive. The bees happily carried on bringing in pollen so I'm hoping the mice won't take up residence again...