Nankin, Nankin, Nankin

Okay so the Nankin Bantam arrived and was introduced to the Seebright.....

and for once two chickens meeting for the very first time got on at once.

Amazing!

Sorry no pics at the moment I seem to have squashed the connector on the camera / computer cable ....

Pics will follow one day soon.

Oh and they now have names - Nutmeg & Mace.

Nankin Bantam

Gosh can't believe that I didn't post here during the whole of November.

So much for The Chicken "Daily" more like The Chicken Once-in-a-while!

Well the latest news from the Renaissance flock is that we've been offered a Nankin hen to keep our little Seebright Hen company.

Same story as our Seebright really, only one survivor from a clutch of eggs and noone to keep her company so hopefully she'll be coming to us soon.

I'll keep you posted....

really I will!

Good homes wanted

Jane of Snapdragon's Garden is looking for homes for some Light Sussex cockerels, they are free but you'd have to collect from Balfron Station, Stirlingshire, Scotland. If any of you are interested you'll find details here.

Chicken Out

Chicken Out has 166881 supporters at the time of posting,

Renaissance is one of them.

Are you?

Light Sussex

Mother

and

Father

of our one Light Sussex chick.

Barred Rock Cockerel

This is a photograph of the Barred Rock Cockerel who sired our chicks.

At this stage in their life it's hard to sex a chicken, I'm told that if there is

more than one cockerel they often take even longer to show their true colours.

But I have to confess to wondering if any/ or all of ours are going to turn out like their Dad.

Pecked

It's not been a good week for the "Little -Uns" here in the Renaissance garden.

First their was the incident with the rat and now we have injury.

Probably as a direct result of the forementioned incident stressing the birds.

Two of the little Barred Rocks have had their heads badly pecked.

They will be okay but we've had to seperate them from the others for their own safety.

Don't know who the culprit was but I'm hoping we've seen an end to it as things calm down again.

Hens welcome home party

"A woman in Buffalo has just held a welcome party for her chickens after a year of being without them. Monique Watts lost her hens Buttercup, Minnie, Meg, Tilda and Mama Effie a year ago after someone had reported her for keeping them illegally. She hadn't realised that there had been a recent city ordinance banning residents from owning chickens.

Monique started keeping chickens in her backyard as she was conscious of where her food came from. She was upset to have them taken away from her and decided to fight for a change in law and to get her pets back. With the help of her councilman she managed to get a new ordinance passed allowing residents of Buffalo to keep up to five chickens as long as their neighbours agree to it.

After welcoming her hens back Monique plans to continue her fight as she believes the ordinance is still restrictive. She believes that everyone deserves to have fresh eggs and she wants keeping hens to be completely legalized."

Extract from Omelet Uk Newsletter 23rd September 2009

Rat Update

Okay just a quick update on yesterday's post, sensitive souls should turn away...

The rat got into the caged pen with Plum and chicks, they were terrified as was the rat who had somehow managed to get in but couldn't find a way out.

I had to evacuate the birds all the time keeping an eye on that rat.

Then I called my husband and asked him to come home and get rid of the rat, he told me to shoot it.

My response was that I didn't trust myself not to miss so he came home and shot the darn thing. A quick, clean kill but still horrid.

A Mischief of Rats

One of the downsides of keeping poultry - rats.

I saw one in the garden yesterday evening eyeing up the chicks (who aren't really chicks anymore but more like minature chickens).

I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to this, the cats don't seem to be doing their job.

Introducing - The Kitchen Garden - Francine Raymond

UK Hen keepers and readers of Country Living will need no introduction to

Francine Raymond of The Kitchen Garden

But did you know she has a blog? Find it by clicking on Diary at her website.

Go to work on an egg

It's 50 years since the Little Lion on eggs was launched and as part of their

celebrations the British Egg Marketing Board is giving us the chance to watch

the orginal Tony Hancock "Go to work on an egg" advertisements.

Take a look here

Aracauna Cockerel

Cute huh?

Don't forget you can join us on a "virtual" apple pick, we're posting photographs from the orchard on our website over the next few days, you'll find them in theWhat we are doing section

Araucana

We're still fully occupied with apples, the chicks continue to grow at an astonishing rate and I'm rather taken with this little Araucana Bantam hen ( the lilac grey bird) belonging to a friend of ours. I'll show you the little cockerel another day. In the meantime don't forget you can join us on a "virtual" apple pick, we're posting photographs from the orchard on our website over the next few days, you'll find them in theWhat we are doing section

Harvest time

It's harvest time and the apple crop seems to have disrupted posts on The Chicken Daily.

Normal service will resume shortly in the meantime if you'd like to join us on a "virtual"

apple pick you'll find daily photographs from the orchard on our website you'll find them in the
What we are doing section

Oh by the way chickens love windfalls!

Little & Large

Chickens' Love Pasta

Did you know that chickens' love pasta?

Well ours do and we like to give them some as an occasional treat.

You do have to be a bit careful though, because they can become so partial

to carbs that they won't want to eat their layers pellets and egg production

will go down. So it's a good idea to give each of them a handful of layers pellets

in the morning before serving treats.

Of course this doesn't apply to the chicks who will be on chick crumb.

Light Sussex Chick

Not so shy

Camera Shy

New Chicks

Mother & Chicks

Quail on The Chicken Daily

We are waiting patiently to see if our second broody hen

manages to hatch any of the eggs she is sitting on.

We should know after the weekend.

In the meantime here is a photograph of our quail.

Sunbathing Chicken

Apple one of our Amber Stars enjoying the all too infrequent sunshine.

Chicken Dust Bath

Chickens love their dust baths and of course they are essential to their wellbeing.

They bathe in dust to rid themselves of any nasty parasites

that may have attached themselves to their feathers.

Would you like to see your chickens on this blog?

My friend also keeps Wyandotte Bantams, pretty aren't they?

As I uploaded this photograph it suddenly occured to me that

it might be nice to feature some of your chickens on this blog.

A sort of Readers Hens!

What do you think?

Leave me a comment and let me know please.

Someone elses chickens

Isn't he gorgeous?

Everyone who sees this juvenile bantam cockeril falls in love with him.

Not only is he handsome but he has a nice personality too.

Here he is with his harem - don't you just love that topknot?

Chicken Treats

Your chickens will love you forever if you give them the occasional foodie treat -

a favourite with our lot is sweetcorn, you can buy a large bag of the frozen stuff for around 60p.

Leave it to defrost and serve!

Broody Hen

Plum the broody Amber Star looking rather unkempt after a dustbath.

Our Chickens

Our little flock consists of two Black Sussex and two Amber stars who were purchased from http://www.cambridgepoultry.co.uk/ and a rescued battery hen.

New Eggs

Another of our chickens has gone broody.

This time we have been given a selection of fertile eggs

by a friend who keeps several flocks of different breeds.

These include some Black Rock eggs.

We've set up a broody box and made a neat little nest.

This evening Plum will be placed on the eggs and be given the opportunity to sit.

Breakfast with Mother Hen

Lots of gentle clucking noises

as Bramble encourages her chicks to eat.

One can almost imagine her saying,

"Just do as I do".

Proud Mother Hen

Chicks - First photographs

Bramble eats her breakfast in bed,

only allowing the little ones out when she thinks the coast is clear

How many can you spot?

Birth Announcement

It wasn't my imagination.

I definetly heard a cheep.

We have a chick, I've seen it's little head.

Mother isn't ready for a photo call.

Waiting patiently

Or in our case not so patiently.

Have they hatched or haven't they?

We just have to wait until Bramble is ready to show us.

Did I hear a tiny cheep or was it wishful thinking?

Will they? Won't They?

Broody Hen

Bramble during one of her breaks,

all fluffed up like a feather duster

and giving me the evil eye.

She really is quite fed up with me lifting her from her eggs

although it is essential otherwise she wouldn't leave them

and might actually starve herself.

Still sitting tight

Bramble is still sitting tight,

bantam eggs have a gestation period of about 18 days

so she hasn't got much longer to wait.

For more information on Renaissance,what we are doing,the Renaissance Newsletter,our other blogs and our shop,please visit our website.

Silver Lace Sebright

The Sebright Bantam comes in two colourways,

the Golden Lace as in the picture from the previous post and the Silver Lace as above.

We didn't have a preference to colour and just bid on the the

first lot of Sebright hatching eggs we found.

Sebright Bantams

Our broody hen Bramble is sitting on eggs from Sebright Bantams, this is the photograph from the ebay auction that we won the eggs from.

"The Sebright is a breed of chicken named after its developer, Sir John Saunders Sebright. Created in the 19th century through a selective breeding program designed to produce an ornamental breed, the Sebright is a true bantam, meaning it is a miniature bird with no corresponding large fowl to which it is related." from Wikipedia.

.

First Post - Broody Bramble

Our Black Sussex broody

seen here sitting on a batch of Sebright Bantam eggs

purchased from ebay.

For more information on Renaissance,what we are doing,the Renaissance Newsletter,our other blogs and our shop,please visit our website.