We have our Call Ducklings :)

Anne very kindly brought our Call Ducklings 'round today :), well she did pick up some eggs and the Sebright girl, who I hear is already a smash with her new husband :)

I had to move the duckling within an hour of getting them as they were bigger than I expected and, boy do they make a mess!..They gone through almost 6 litres of water since they arrived!..My first job tomorrow after letting the birds out will be to clean out the ducklings, and I think this will be a daily chore for the next few weeks.

Not really been out to do much with the chickens today as the weather is back to it's usual crap. So all I've done is move the 7 week olds into the outdoor grower pen, cleaned out there brooder and put the ducklings in it and cleaned out the Lavender Pekins.

On the egg front we've had:
1 Call Duck
1 Turkey
1 Friesian Fowl
1 Lavender Pekin
1 Buff Pekin
1 White Crested Poland

Busy day, duckings back on and good news :)

Where do I start today??...Well, first off, the bad news. Sadly our Silver Sebright Boy passed away during the night. Given that he had a bright purple comb, I'd suggest it was something to do with his heart. Good news. The person I was getting the ducklings from is after a Sebright girl, so have arranged a swap :). So will now be getting 2 ducklings.

I have now moved the Buff Pekins into the run that the Lemon Cuckoo Pekins were in. The Lemon Cuckoo cockerel is now keeping the Siver Sebright and our Silver Partridge Pekin girls company. This move enabled me to take down the Buff Pekins pen and houses, so have spent the day taking nails out of wood and salvaging what I could. I have also taken down the run that the Black Motted Pekins were in, which was made of 6 x 3 run panes, so they will be very handy in our new place :)

As expected the remaining 4 eggs in incubator 1 showed no further signs of development, so it is now sat empty until Saturday when I set the final lots of eggs before our move.

One very good bit of news is that Charmain has been invited to submit her anthology "The Lust for Blood" to a big publisher in London :)

On the egg front, today we have had:
1 Turkey
2 Buff Pekin
1 Friesian Fowl
1 Yokohama Bantam
1 Red Pekin
and 1 of the Lavender Pekins looks like she's laying now (she also laid one at about the same time last night)

I thought I'd post a photo of the kittens, who will be 4 weeks old on Sunday and they are starting to be right sods now lo

Incubator 1 - Hatch day 2

The rest have hatched :), since my post yesterday, we have hatched the following: (according to the shells)

4 Silver Partridge Pekin (at least a couple are Polands)
3 Gold Partridge Pekin
1 Freisian Fowl
4 Red Pekin
2 Lemon Cuckoo Pekin
1 Buff Pekin
1 Cuckoo Pekin

So that's a total of 27 out of 31 eggs, The remaining eggs are 1 Buff Pekin, 1 Silver Partridge Pekin and 2 Yokohama Bantams. I think they're all DIS, but will leave them overnight just in case.

The Yokohama Bantams are proving to be a bit of a challenge to hatch, I've only managed to successfully hatch 1 chick out of 3 attempts and about 10 eggs. I've got another couple to go in again this weekend though.

I did manage to get everything done today that I had planned, so I cleaned out the Friesian Fowl, Millifluer Pekins, Old English Game Bantams, Brooder 2 and the 6 week olds brooder.

We also sold our Black Mottled Pekins and our Blue Pekins today, so over the next couple of days, I shall have a bit of a move around so I can take down another 5 pens. Then, that will be all the pen taking down until the week before we move. I have also sorted out, photographed and advertised all the youngters we have for sale today, you can find them all on Fridayads and Preloved. I shall update the website later with them too.

Was hoping to pick up the Call Ducklings today, but car trouble has meant that we've had to pass on them :(, so no new ducklings for us and even greater hope now that some of the 12 we have in the incubator will hatch next week.

I have also sorted out which eggs we will be setting at the weekend to go with our Turkey eggs, so will be listing the other eggs we have on ebay tonight.

Incubator 1 hatch day 1

OK, first thing....I got my dates wrong! Incubator 1 was due to hatch on the 10th, not the 11th, which explains the early hatching much better!. Had one little Lavender Pekin hatched when we woke up this morning, it's now been joined by 10 more. So far, we've hatched:

3 Lemon Cuckoo Pekin
2 Lavender Pekin
1 Cuckoo Pekin
4 White Pekin
1 Buff Pekin

With another 11 more already pipped or cheeping in their shells. I'd say we're on target for atleast 25 out of 31 hatching. But one of the eggs was obviously incorrectly marked, as we have a slight bigger, clean legged chick in the incubator, which to me looks like a Friesian Fowl. The only clean legged birds we put in the incubator was the Friesians and Yokohama Bantams, but it's too big to be a Yoko. The only other possibility is that it was a Light Sussex Bantam Egg, that I got mixed up when collecting the eggs?, I should be able o answer that in a few weeks.

The first 10 chicks are now in the brooder, as we'd never get to sleep tonight with so many running around and cheeping in the incubator!

Not done anything else with the chickens today, as we went to view our new house again and start to make plans on how to lay things out (including the chickens). The big bonus for us is that it has a very big and deep pond, which is in an ideal place to pen off for our ducks. Also being such a deep pond, it will enable us to get more ornamental ducks (especially divers) at a later date.

On the egg front, today we have had a quiet day with just the following
2 Call Duck
1 Turkey
1 Lavender Pekin
1 White Crested Poland
1 Friesian Fowl

No major work planned for tomorrow, but I do have to clean out the Friesian Fowl, Old English Game Bantams, Millifluer Pekins and the 6 week old growers.

Incubator 1 lockdown and cheeping already

Incubator 1 is now on lock down and there's quite a few eggs cheeping already, so could be welcoming some new chicks into the world a bit earlier than expected.

I have had quite a productive day today and managed to get done everything I had planned. I also cleaned out a few houses and the bonfire is all ready to be lit in about an hour or so.I have also neatly stacked up all the wood we are keeping and covered it, as we've got rain due tomorrow. The electric fence has also been moved as last time I had a bonfire, the heat melted some of the tape and the end of the garden is now clear of pens.

Had an egg from one of our Blue Pekins today, lets just hope they lay a few more before they're sold.

Talking of eggs, today we have had
1 Blue Pekin
1 Silver Partridge Pekin
1 Buff Pekin
1 Black Mottled Pekin
1 Red Pekin
1 Lavender Pekin
1 Poland
1 Friesian Fowl
1 Turkey
1 Call Duck

I also candled the Call Duck eggs today as they are now on day 18 and all 12 look to be developing well with a correct sized air sack, so fingers crossed that we'll hatch some this time :)

Duck eggs playing hide and seek?

I cleaned out the duck house today and thought I'd drain the pond and clean it too (well babybath!), I found 3 eggs in the pond and 2 under the duck house!..that's on top of the 11 in the duck house too!. I think from now on, I better look carefully when I'm checking for eggs!

I have mainly just been sorting out the wood and wire in the garden today, I've managed to rescue quite a bit of weld mesh :) and I've taken apart a couple of portable runs that I used to use for the chicks when I put them outside for a couple of hours. I've got a couple more of them to take apart tomorrow and light the bonfire before the rain comes in on Tuesday. Then there's no more taking apart until after the weekend when I'll be moving the Buff Pekins and taking their run and the 2 houses in there down.

On the egg front today we've had
1 Call Duck (in the house)
1 Lavander Pekin
1 Silver Partridge Pekin
1 Buff Pekin
1 Red Pekin
1 Friesian Fowl

Lockdown day on incubator 1 tomorrow, so on Thursday should have another 25 or so chicks in the brooder and also hopefully we will be picking up 3 Call Ducklings this week too :)

Finally, a day gone to plan, Turkey eggs set and Incubator 2 candling results

Well, the weather has been lovely today, so I've managed to get out and finish off taking down the double house/run and another small house/run. Now I have a big pile of wood ready for a bonfire tomorrow evening:

I have just set 3 Turkey eggs, which I've put in with the Call Duck eggs for a week, until I set incubator 1 again and I'll put the week old Turkey eggs (assuming they're fertile) in with the chicken eggs, so that all hatch at the same time.

I have candled the Call Duck eggs under the broody and all 7 are fertile and developing. I have also candled incubator 2 and we have a definite 53 fertile, I took out 1 Gold Partridge Pekin, 1 Silver Partridge Pekin, 1 Buff Pekin and 1 Friesian Fowl as they were all clear. It also looks like the Polands are clear, but I'll give them a couple more days.

 Hopefully, have a bit of a rest again tomorrow, as this winter has seemed to have left me rather unfit and I'm knackered after all the work I've done today