The Hen House
Glad you could drop by.
I have had a lot of pleasure from my hens and ducks over the years. I love breeding them - you never know what colour the next chicken is going to be - it's always exciting when the next lot of chicks are about to hatch. We have had a lot of good mother hens over the years. They do a great job. Collecting eggs is another exciting time of the day. It's always a lovely surprise to see what your hens or ducks have rewarded you with for the day. Home grown eggs also have a very rich yellow colour - all natural - when they eat plenty of greens. They love to get out into the garden to eat the insects, weeds and grass. They also love it when you feed them lettuce, silver beet or other greens. Long Lived Pets Chickens and ducks can live a long life. Our oldest dear, a lovely grey hen, has just hatched a clutch of chickens at the grand old age of 14 or 15 years. For some reason, a grey colour in poultry is referred to as 'blue'. My dear Duckie who was a great character, died at the age of nine and Goldie, my tiniest bantam hen was 12 years old when she died. When Duckie was out in the garden for the day, she would not go back to her pen on her own. She would come to the glass door of the family room, peering in, and quack repeatedly, telling me she was ready to go in. I had to go outside and walk her down to her pen. She was quite happy to go in when she was ready. Each hen and duck has their own personality. Taking time to get to know them is a well rewarded pleasure. |
The Old Brigade   Coloured ChicksOur new batch of chickens are Pekins and a Silkie. From a dozen tiny bantam eggs, the tiniest I have seen, hatched 10 little chickens - 5 a light apricot colour, 2 cream with a large brown stripe down their back with a thin black stripe on either side of it, 2 black chicks with a cream chest and 1 cream chick. As they grew and their down disappeared and their feathers formed we had 5 buff chicks, 2 black, 1 white silkie chick and our 2 cream brown chicks that had looked identical as babies turned out quite different. One is a grey speckled with white and the other has turned out mostly white with some grey.
   Determining the Sex of ChicksThe next thing we wait to find out is their sex. Very quickly we could see we had three pullets and one cockerel. The sex of the others is in abeyance. I am hoping for a few more pullets and like my chances at this stage.
   PersonalitiesFrom a couple of weeks of age, we could start to pick the chickens by personalities. The little silkie was very nervous and stayed well away from me. As they grew older the 5 buff coloured chicken were hard to tell apart at first. At seven weeks of age the two pullets are obvious by their smaller and paler crest and wattles and their timid personalities. The obvious buff cockerel is the boldest of the lot. Two chicks that are hopefully hens - some of those in abeyance - come close for hand feeding and don't mind being picked up for a cuddle at all.
   Chickens having BreakfastHere is a short video of my chickens having breakfast. The mother hen is not the chick's biological mother but has done everything else for them. We bought purebred fertilized eggs and put them under our clucky bantam hen. She had found a spot in the flower garden under some large hollyhock leaves. These protected her from the rain. Six chickens hatched, two Rhode Island bantams and four gold pencilled Plymouth Rocks. They are four weeks old here.
Here's a lovely video that tells you just why free range eggs are good for us.Perhaps you will get some hens for yourself and enjoy the benefits too
Here's another video showing some beautiful hensThese are spectacular
Here are some North Holland BluesThey remind me very much of Barred Plymouth Rocks. I haven't seen them in Australia.
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