I can't believe it's been 5 months since the last update :O

 As the titles say...5 months!!!, I don't know where the time has gone.. Well I do actually, We we moved here, we decided that this year we would concentrate and making the facilities better, so we're ready to hit 2014 running. 

We have built a new hatchery and brooding shed, which is also doubling up as winter breeding pens for some of our bantams. 

We also invested in a new incubator to improve hatch rates and numbers of eggs set at once, so now we can set up to 100 eggs at a time plus 20 duck eggs in a separate incubator. Although in reality, we will probably only set up to a maximum of 50 eggs per setting.

we have also built 3 roofed pens, which can be divided to a maximum of 6 pens to house our growing stock.

We have also started to take a very keen interest in ornamental wildfowl and now have an area to accommodate our pairs of Mandarin, Carolina, Ringed Teal, Red Crested Pochard and Fulvous Whistling ducks, which we hope to breed from this year.

Everything is now set up and we're all ready for 2014, having plenty of stock available for the spring orders. All we really need now is some of our ducks to start laying, so we'll have some ducklings available too.

I have just updated the website www.petersfieldpoultry.co.uk with our latest list of available stock, which I aim to update as often as needed.

 

There's no really much more to tell you on the poultry front, but my wife has had an extremely successful year with her writing, which includes a number 1 best seller with "The Lust for Blood" and the first in a series of historical vampire series "Vampire - In the Beginning" of which the second novel of the series is due to be published in the first quarter of 2014.  For more information on Charmains working, please visit www.charmainmariemitchell.com which I shall be updating in the coming weeks.

Al that is left to say is a big thank you to our customers and friends and to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a hatchingly good new year :)

More babies

We have had some eggs hatch, so far in incubator 2, we have had 5 Buff Pekin, 4 Silver Dutch, 4 Gold Millefluer Sablepoot and 1 Friesian Fowl.There are still another 6 eggs to go, which I have moved into incubator 1 with the remaining duck eggs. We have only managed to hatch 1 Call Duck and 1Saxony so far, although we have another Saxony pipped and one more with movement. The Miniature Silver Appleyards were due on Friday, but nothing yet and can see no sign of life, but will leave them for a few more days. The Khaki Campbells are due on Tuesday and we have 3 that are still going.

We also have some new arrivals in the shape of Black Tailed Japanese  Bantams. We managed to get a lovely pair of them along with 7 chicks which are in the brooder with our new hatchlings. Thanks Sarah!!! Also along with the Japanese, we have 2 new young Lavender Pekin boys, one straight and 1 frizzle, so when our babies grow, we'll have an unrelated group, as this is one of the colours of Pekin Bantams that we have decided that we will keep, along with Chocolate (we have 2 frizzled Chocolate boys) and not 100% sure if any of the others are girls yet, if so, we'll be keeping them.

Our Silkie finally began to lay just over a week ago, so we now have her eggs in the incubator along with some of our Silver Dutch and 4 Buff Pekin eggs (but they are 2-3 weeks old, so not holding out much hope for the Buffs). They are due on August 10.

I don't think there's much more to tell at the moment?. We have some Warrens for sale and 1 Runner Drake who is available for free. We also have the Blue Fawn Call baby available too. The younger ducks (now 5 weeks old) have been living outside for a week and are now integrated with our other ducks.

I'll update if I remember anything else worth mentioning

update and catch up

Well, I have finally got around to sitting down and updating the blog!. Life's been pretty busy over the last few weeks. I'll start off with the hatch, last week, we had 30 Pekins, 2 Porcelain Sablepoots and 2 LF Brahma's hatch, the Pekins are Millefluer, Chocolate. Buff, Lavender and Blue. All are doing well in the brooders. Our East Indies, Runners and Call Duckling are now spending the day outside and will be moved out permanently in a week or so. I have also vent sexed them and have a pair of East Indies, 2 Runner Girls and 1 Call boy.

 

The Call Duck that was sat on eggs, decided to give up (I'd guess at about 2 weeks), so I have put her eggs in the incubator and the seem to be doing ok. I couple stopped developing, but the other 7 seem to be growing.

We also have the following eggs set in incubator 1, which is due from the 18th July: 6 Khaki Campbell, 6 Miniature Silver Appleyards and 6 Saxony. All fertile and developing well :). None of the eggs I got from the market were fertile, but it was worth a try!.

Incubator 2 is set with (sorry, can't remember exact numbers). Buff Pekins, Buff Mottled Sablepoots, Silver Dutch and a couple of Light Sussex. Most have candled as fertile, but there is still a good dozen or so that I'm not sure about yet. They are due to hatch around the same time as the ducks.

Our Friesian Fowl has gone to a new home thanks to my friend Tom, so that has freed up space to bring another group in if/when I find something I like.

I have also made a new small coop and run, which I plan on making more of and using them as breeding pens for our small ducks and broody coops. 

I got a pair of Muscovy ducks with the money from my in-laws for my birthday. The Drake is chocolate with lavender in him and the duck is lavender. They have settled in well and I am really enjoying having them around :)

We are also looking at a possible expansion plan at the moment, which I can't say much about, but if it works out, we will also have a new premises with space for Pigs, Goats, Hybrid Laying Chickens and Geese. It'll be a long term plan, so we don't expect to have any livestock there until next year, but will be a very exciting time for us if we can make it happen. As they say "watch this space"

I guess that brings everything up to date for now. Oh yes, I have also updated the website with our current stock for sale. please visit www.petersfieldpoultry.co.uk

It's been too long

I've not had time to update the blog over the last couple of weeks, as we have been busy decorating and all that "just moved in" stuff.

Following on from the last post, we managed to hatch 5 Runner Ducks, 2 Call Ducks and 2 East Indian Ducks. Sadly one of the Call Ducks had very badly splayed legs and was constantly shaking, so with no improvement after 3 days I sadly had to dispatch the poor thing. We also lost one of the Runners a couple of days ago, no reason why?, was just weaker than the others. 2 of the Runners have been sold, so we now have 5 ducks in the brooder.

Both incubators are due to hatch over the next week with incubator 1 going into lockdown tomorrow. Between the 2 incubators, we have around 50 eggs developing, mainly pekins in Lavender, Buff, Chocolate, Millefluer and Blue, we also have 3 Porcelain Sablepoots, 3 Buff Mottled Sablepoots, 3 Lemon Pyle Brahma and maybe a couple of others I can't think of right now. We also have a broody Call Duck sat on 9 Call Duck eggs, so will see how they go. 

I have already sorted out eggs for one of the incubators, I have ordered some Miniature Silver Appleyard Ducks, Khaki Campbell Ducks and some Saxony Duck eggs. I also bought 6 Duck eggs from the market today, so will throw them in and see if anything happens..if they're all clear, I've only lost £1.80.

Need to get some chicken eggs sorted out for the other incubator now, we have a few Buff Pekin and a couple of Light Sussex from some birds I bought at the weekend and have sold on.but could do with 18-24 more eggs.

As I just mentioned, we bought some birds at the sale at the weekend, we managed to get a nice pair of Silver Dutch which we plan on keeping for breeding and also some very very rare Red Blue Yokohama's, which again, we plan to keep. Also got a couple of Pekin Bantams and a few other chickens plus 12 2 week old Pekin Bantam chicks. As for the ducks, the prices were beyond us, we only ended up with 1 Mallard Call Duck, which goes perfectly with our Mallard Call Drake :)

Yesterday, I converted one of the old Pekin houses into a home for the cockerels to go into at night. They had previously been kept in pet carriers, but I think the plastic sweats and unless scrubbed out every day, became very smelly very quick. So now they're in a nice wooden house which sits perfectly under the worktop in the shed and seemed to work great yesterday :)

Finally, here's a list of all the birds we currently have for sale:
2 Creole Araucana Bantam pullets
1 Levender Pekin Hen POL
Pair of Friesian Fowl POL
Pair of Friesian Fowl growers
2 Pairs of Runner Ducks
2 1 week old Norfolk Black Turkey Poults

Please visit our website at www.petersfieldpoultry.co.uk for details

The first ducklings are here :)

We've had the arrival of 3 ducklings so far today, first was a Runner, then followed by 2 Call Ducks. At the moment there are 2 more Runner Ducks pipped and an East Indian Duck currently zipping it's way around the shell, so hopefully will be out tonight. Most of the others have internally pipped and we expect more to hatch over the next couple of days. One of the Turkey eggs has also pipped.

Been busy this weekend helping to lay carpet and decorating our bedroom as well as making a gate to the garden. As it was, it meant having people traipse through the house, so we thought it would be better to have direct access to the garden. Which also helps alot when mowing the front garden and getting any big items into the garden.

We still have more decorating to do throughout the week, but once that's done, hopefully we can relax a bit.

I have also put another 6 eggs in incubator 2. 6 Buff Mottled Sablepoots from a very kindly neighbour and chicken friend of ours. so it looks like we'll be having a week long hatch at the end of the week.

Day 24 and cheeping from the Call Duck eggs

 We have cheeping coming from one of our Call Duck eggs in incubator 1 and lots of movement in others, I'm trying to leave the eggs alone this time, so hopefully we'll have a successful hatch, along with Eat Indies and Runners and of course, we have 4 Turkey eggs due too.

Not been doing much with the birds this week as we've been busy laying carpets etc and besides, I've not got many birds to look after at the moment :(. It's definately the lowest number of chickens I have had for years, including youngsters and cockerels, we only have 12 chickens at the moment. Hopefully that will increase on the 15th with the sale at Salisbury.

The Runner Ducks have settled in well and grouped up with the Cayuga's, and last night for the first time I managed to shepherd them into bed instead of having to catch them all!.

Incubator 3 has now gone back to it's owner...thanks mate!, so the eggs I had in there have now been put in incubator 2 along with the rest of our Lavender Pekin, Buff Pekin, Millefluer Pekin eggs and some Blue Pekin and Chocolate Pekin. I have also added 6 L/F Brahma, 6, Poercelain and 6 Le Fleche eggs, which are currently double stacking incubator 2, but will go into incubator 1 once the duck hatch is complete. Incubator 2 is due to hatch on the 23rd and 24th of June with the 18 going in incubator 1 due on the 25th (my Birthday)

Incubator disaster :(

We seemed to have a spike in the temperature on Saturday where the incubator reached 42 degree's. We have no idea what caused the spike, but anyway, cracked open the eggs that were due today as we'd seen no progress since lock down and all 22 of the eggs remaining in the incubator were dead :(. Needless to say, I'm a bit pee'd off!!!

We set incubator 3 yesterday with just a few eggs: 5 Buff Pekin, 4 Lavender Pekin and 9 Friesian Fowl, but if there is space, I shall put them incubator 2 when I set it again tonight.

We said goodbye yesterday to our lovely Lavender and Millifluer Pekins and my favourite Yokohama

Bantams, as they've all gone to their new homes in Kent. I was hoping to raise some of the Yokohama chicks from incubator 2, but that's now gone out of the window :(.

I managed to build a feed shelter for the duck enclosure today, as we have the Silkies roaming around in there too, we thought we better try to keep the food dry, as they're not keen on soggy pellets!. Talking of Silkies, I witnessed something I didn't think possible yesterday, as I was moving by the pond, 2 of the Silkies jumped straight in and swam to the other side!!!. I had to fish them out as they couldn't quite make it, but both sat in the corner of the enclosure looking rather wet and feeling sorry for themselves for the next 2 hours!. They're both dry and absolutely fine today, although I don't think they'll be going for another swim any time soon!.

Had a lovely day out today and came back with ducks!

We had a lovely day out at Manor Farm today. We went there last year, but the weather was rubbish so didn't get to enjoy it so much, anyway, this time, the weather was wonderful and it was great to see all the animals, especially the pigs with their piglets.....if only we could've smuggled one out. We did end up leaving there with 7 Runner Ducklings though. We just couldn't resist them, in fact, we would've had 9, but they wanted to keep a couple for the visitors to see.

When we got back (after a little lie down), I had a bit of a sort out. I have increased the duck pen by 20 x 14 feet and let the Silkies roam around in there. I have also put the Serama's into the hutch that the Silkies were in because they kept jumping out of their pen and hiding everywhere I can't find them. They seem to like their new home though :).

Tomorrow is a bit of a sad day for me, as we'll be saying goodbye to our Lavender and Millefluer Pekins and our Yokohama Bantams. On the plus side though, I got a letter from the council planners to say that what we had in the garden when they visited and our plans for it were all ok. So we could've kept all that we had, but we both feel that the time is right to move on our breeding groups, just buy eggs in to hatch and concentrate on our ducks. We plan on building new covered pens and fencing it in more, so can't be seen by the neighbours, then we'll gradually introduce some new breeding groups and see how it goes.

Incubator 2 is now on lock down and due to hatch on Monday and I have moved the Turkey eggs over to incubator 1 with the duck eggs.

Long time, no post!

Well, it's been a while since the last post. We have been busy sorting the house out, so not

had much time online.Last week we had a visit from the council planning department saying that they have had a complaint about our chickens. He had a look around, took some photo's and said he'd be in touch, as he needed to seek advice as he had never dealt with something like this before. So we have decided to preempt them and sell off our breeding groups and our Turkeys So far our Turkeys have found a lovely new home and we'll be getting eggs from them every year to hatch. The White Pekins have gone too and someone is picking up the Millefluer and Lavender Pekins on Sunday. We also have a deal in the pipeline for the Yokohama Bantams and Friesian Fowl, so that will leave just the Buff Pekins. We are going to keep the Silkies and our young Serama growers, but for other breeds, we shall be buying eggs in to hatch and raise. We still don't know who complained and why?, we had only been here a week and a half before the man from he council came round. We keep the cockerels in a soundproof shed until at least 9:30 in the morning, there is no noise heard from outside when they are in the shed. I guess some people are just miserable!

We are also going to concentrate of breeding ducks. We have not decided which breeds yet, but we're thinking about 5 or 6 different breeds. We have our Call Ducks. have Runners and East Indies in the incubator and got a young trio of Cayuga's today

Incubator 2 is due to hatch on Monday, I candled the eggs last night and there is 24 looking good.

 

We also have the following birds for sale

6-8 week old Pekins in Lavender, Buff, White, Gold Partridge and Cuckoo

6 week old Legbars

10 week old Lemon Millefluer Sablepoots

POL Buff Pekins

3 Call x Ducks

New website address is up and running

Our website is now set up on it's new url http://www.petersfieldpoultry.co.uk

As you can imagine, I have spent most of the day getting that sorted out, editiing and uploading the website, listing it on other sites and running through everything to make sure there are no mistakes (but I I missed something!).

Not really been out much with the birds today, but have let the White Silkies out to wander the garden today and they seem to be enjoying themselves. I have also had to cull a few young boys today. 4 Pekins in the brooder, 1 Serama and 1 Yokohama Bantam.

Needless to say there will be more coming up in the next week or 2 as the youngsters in the brooder start showing more signs of their sex.

The eggs we've had today are:
1 Turkey
2 Buff Pekin
1 Lavender Pekin
1 Friesian Fowl

Turkey eggs are fertile :)

 I candled the Turkey eggs this morning and all 4 are fertile :).

Also this morning, I made up another pen and separated our White Call Ducks, with the plan on being able to have some pure white eggs to put in the incubator after this lot have hatched.

I finished tidying up the shed today, so apart from putting up some more shelving and making new brooders (when I have the materials), it's all done.

I have some poultry bits that I'm not using anymore now we've cut down on the breeding groups, so I'll be listing them on eBay tonight


As for eggs today, we've had
1 Turkey
2 Lavender Pekin
2 Millelfluer Pekin
1 Friesian Fowl

Incubator 1 candled

 I candled incubator 1 tonight and am very pleased with the results. 12 out of 12 Runner Duck, 5 out of 6 East Indian Duck and 9 out of 10 Call Duck eggs were fertile. One Call Duck egg was cracked too, so now down to 8 Call Ducks. Extremely happy with the Ebay eggs :)

Apart from cleaning drinkers and feeders today, I've done nothing with the birds as We went to a family baptism this afternoon with a bit of Karaoke afterwards....and yes, I did get up and sing (well try to lol).

Eggs have been thin on the ground again with just
1 Turkey
1 Millefluer Pekin
1 Buff Pekin
1 Friesian Fowl

I've not seen a single egg form the ducks for a week, so I think they're probably laying in the pond...I'll have to keep them shut up for longer in the mornings.

Brooder is complete and incubator 2 candling

 I finished making the brooder yesterday and the chicks seem to love it. I was so knackered by the time I finished everything yesterday, I just ended up going straight to bed.

Been another busy day today with sorting out the shed and putting a couple of shelves up in there. Still want to put more shelves up but will do that another time.

I candled the eggs in incubator 2 and have take out 10. 6 of the Millifluer Pekin were clear (probably their first eggs), 2 unmarked and 1 Lavender Pekin were also clear. I Yokohama Bantams was clear and 1 had a blood ring. All the others seem to be doing ok. The Turkey eggs are still to early to tell

I also had a peek at incubator 1 (the ducks eggs) and it's looking promising, I'll candle them properly tomorrow.

New brooder is work in progress

Shed before I started today

I have started work on the new brooder. I started to making a 7 foot long worktop to go in the shed and have made the frame, back and sides for the new brooder, which measures 4 foot by 2.5 foot. This will be the second stage brooder, where I'll put the chicks from 2-3 weeks old and will have raised platforms for feeders and drinkers and some low perches for them to hop on and off. I plan on attaching a first stage brooder next to it. But that will have to wait a while, as I'll need to buy materials for it. This will be followed by breeding cages/off heat brooders underneath.  I also need to think of storage, so will be putting shelving up on the other side and ends of the shed. Other than that, I have cut the grass in the front garden and plan on taking down the horrible blue fence around it tomorrow morning before finishing off the brooder, then tidying up the garden.

Eggs are still a bit thin on the ground but I did have the following today

1 Turkey

2 Lavender Pekin

1 Millifluer Pekin

1 Friesian Fowl

I don't know if the ducks are laying, but I haven't found an egg yet

Shed when I finished today

We're back :)

The move went very smoothly, although very tiring and time consuming. It took us 3 loads of the van to get all our stuff to the new house,  but by Sunday evening, everything was moved and the birds were in temporary pens. We've now managed to get downstairs sorted out but we still have the childrens things to put away and outside needs some work.

The ducks love their new pond, but sadly we did have 2 casualties of the move, both our Mandarin girl and our Lemon Millifluer Sablepoot girl have past away due (we think) to the stress. The other birds all seem to be doing fine and we're getting a few eggs.

I plan on building my new brooders in the shed over the next few days, which will be much better, as they'll be more spacious and tidier than the dog cages and rabbit hutches we have been using.

I do have lots of plans for the garden with all new pens and housing, but this will have to take a back burner for a few weeks whilst we ger the house sorted. The birds seem happy enough in their temporary homes, so there's no panic to get things done.

I did manage to get incubator 2 running on Monday and Incubator 2 on Tuesday
Incubator 1 has the following eggs in it:
12 Runner Duck
5 East Indian Ducks
10 Call Duck

Which are due to hatch on June 11

 Incubator 2 has

11 Yokohama Bantam
3 Friesian Fowl
8 Millifluer Pekin
10 Lavender Pekin
2 Buff Pekin
1 Black Pekin
5 Pekin eggs from our birds when the girls we're kept together on Saturday

These are due to hatch on June 3.

 We also added 4 Turkey eggs to incubator 2 on Tuesday, so they will be due to hatch at the same time as the ducks

A blustery day and a cat burglar!

 My wife and I got woken up at 5 AM this morning by the boys running in the room, both holding feeble bits of wood to tell us that "A cat has broken in and fighting with our 2". So downstairs we trundle, front room is a right tip (wasn't too tidy anyway because of the move) and the kitchen was upside down with the taps running on the sink!. The cat burglar had got in through a window in the pantry that we had left open and had obviously left the same way too. Anyway, we shut up the window and went back to bed, when we got up in the morning to get the kids up for school, Gyspy decided to think that I was the other cat coming down the stairs and started to growl like a tiger!.

It's incredibly windy today, 3 times it has blown the roof of my triple hen house!...In the end I managed to find some bungee cords to hold it down, as there is no point screwing the hinges on it now only to take them off again on Saturday to move it. It's also ripped some of the felt off the shed. Needless to say, I'm not too fussed about not fixing it :)

We've had a bit of a busy day running about getting things today. My B&Q Vouchers came, so I managed to get a new drill and circular saw, which I'll be needing to make the new set up and brooders :). I have also ordered 12 Runner Duck eggs and hope to order 6 East Indian Duck eggs later tonight, so they can all be sent on monday and hopefully have Incubator 1 up and running by Wednesday with these eggs and we'll filll it up with eggs from our Call Ducks.

This may be the last proper post until Wednesday, I don't know what the mobile blogger is like, but I'll try to let you all know what's going on over those few days.

Eggs have been rubbish today, maybe due to the rain and wind??. We've only had:
1 Call Duck
1 Turkey
1 Friesian Fowl
1 Millifluer Pekin