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.