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.