May 2011

4 May

The first young are away and feeding themselves, i wean them on newspaper which i change every morning. One thing i've done for the last couple of years is pop an egg food drawer half full of water for the first few days of weaning, that way if a bird doesn't find the water drinker straight away it means that they're less likely to get dehydrated.

6 or so hens are laying at the moment, with 3 more mating up and due to lay in the next couple of days. Round one is coming to a conclusion and although you always would like more i'm pleased with what i've got and the pairs i've got them from. My approach of priority pairs appears to have paid some early dividends and the young that are away look, at this stage at least, to have the qualities i want, there is of course a very long way to go.

The warmer weather has been both a help and a hinderance, despite extensive treatment i've spotted some mite in a couple of the cages, thankfully early enough to (hopefully) nip it in the bud and without any casualties. It's helped bring some of the birds that weren't in condition forward a little more too. I've ordered my rings from A C Hughes and I'm just waiting for them to arrive.

I've bred another couple of young the same way as the varigated buff hen on the home page of the site, they're away now and look to have the same kind of quality as she did early on, I've put that pair together again and i'm just waiting for the hen to lay. the vari buff hen has reared two of her own chicks, again i'm pleased with them. She was very keen to go to nest again (I'd left the cock with her to help with the rearing), I took the eggs as i would normally do but didn't replace them with dummies as i hadn't had the opportunity to replace the nest pan. I decided to set those eggs under another hen who's been sitting for a week now, i haven't checked them yet but will do in the next day or so. The varigated buff hen has now built up and laid her third egg today - so all being well they'll be full and by the end of the month i'll have had three rounds off her with her only rearing two.

The cinnamon plan i'd set myself is off to a mixed start, I have one lightly variegated cinnamon hen and another two variegated cinnamons in the nest, but the other 4 cinnamon hens i have are still to produce, I've run normal cocks with 2 of them to produce some carrier cocks for next year. 1 has laid and the other is starting to build up. It's a work in progress and i wanted to make sure i had the right birds to work with for future generations - as with all plans patience is going to be key!