The Bantam Blog, My Garden Treasures - My Garden Treasures

Dark Barred Plymouth Rock Bantams

18/2/2016

Dark barred Plymouth Rock Rooster with his hens.

Dark barred Plymouth Rock bantams are a favourite of mine. They are very difficult to find. When we hatched a beautiful looking young rooster, that we acquired from interstate, we decided to keep him for a while.

As we live in town and we are not supposed to keep roosters, - we thought to keep him only a short while. In that time he sired 3 lots of chicks for us.

These chicks were from different breeds of purebred hens, yet all the chicks came out looking the same. The only difference was their combs. Those from the different colours of Wyandottes had the pea type comb while those from the Rhode Island Reds had the zigzag comb.

All the roosters have been sold.

Bantam pullets will be for sale in the near future.

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Eggs Hatching in an Incubator

15/11/2014

The time is nearly here. We have four eggs with chicks in them. One has started to chip the egg. You see the eggs suddenly start to roll around. A bit weird. There is a little triangular chip in the egg. I do so hope it escapes and is a HEN. Although a rooster would be pretty, we are not allowed to keep them here in the town.

The last rooster I kept had been ever so sweet from a baby chick right up to when his hormones kicked in. He loved cuddles. Then he decided that he wanted to be top dog and that he was going to bring me into line. He would charge me from behind and attack my legs. So you can see that I am a little wary about keeping another rooster for long. Once they start crowing, well ,,,,,,,,

But for now, let's find what we get from these little bantam eggs and enjoy what is inside them while we can.

Healing Shungite
Whatever comes out of these eggs should be healthy. They have had some Shungite rock sitting in with them the three weeks they have been in the incubator. This helps healing and repels electromegnetic radiation (EMR). The lid of the incubator has a motor in it that regulates the temperature. It also moves the tray of eggs slowly so that the chicks don't stick to the shell. The Shungite will repel these frequencies, so making the chickens stronger.

Egg Laying and Daylight Hours

19/6/2014

Egg laying in hens is tied in with the length of daylight of each day. When the days get longer in springtime and summer, the number of eggs that hens lay increases. As the daylight hours decrease from autumn and into winter, the number of eggs laid decreases.

Here on the south coast of Australia on the eastern side, our daylight hours vary from 9.4 hours of daylight around the winter solstice to 14.6 hours of light at the summer solstice.

The Summer and Winter Solstices
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It is the day with the least hours of sunlight and the longest hours of darkness. This day is about the 22nd of June in the southern hemishpere.

The summer solstice is the opposite to the winter solstice. The summer solstice has the longest daylight hours and the shortest night hours of darkness. This falls on 22nd December. If you live in the northern hemishpere then these times are reversed.

This link is a great site to help you work out the number of daylight hours you have at any given time of the year.

Rose Petals, Strawberries, Grapes and Polystyrene

30/4/2014

Fallen rose petals

Bantam Hens Like... What do these ingredients have in common?
They are all loved by my little bantam hens.

Each afternoon when my hens are let into my garden (which is different to their garden), they make a dash to a favourite rose bush in the garden. This rose, Mary Rose, flowers prolifically and as a result drops many petals.

Fallen rose petals
Yet again, today when the hens got out, they rushed to the petals on the ground . One hen, a little buff Pekin who is eighteen months old and very low to the ground, ate more than a dozen petals. Later I saw her pecking with relish at some polystyrene pieces I had taken out of an old pot plant when I was repotting it.

Here are some pullets eating a bowl full of rose petals Now why do my hens love polystyrene? I have no idea. A few months ago when the pullets moved into their new back garden, a little garden just for the pullets, there was an old polystyrene vegetable box with some plants in it. Those hens attacked this box with gusto each day when they were let out until I finally removed it.

Food for Bantams
You may say, 'Well, why don't you feed your chickens decent food?' These purebred bantams have the best of every world. They have just had a beautiful new chicken shed built just for them. They have mixed grains available all day and they get lettuce leaves and yummy (for them) food scraps each day.

These consist of fermented food, grapes, soaked bread - gluten free and yeast free, strawberries and tomatoes and sometimes some meat or fish. They are really spoilt and yet they eat polystyrene as if it were chocolate.

Rose Petal Eggs

28/3/2014

Backyard chickens

Rose Petals and Chickens

My chickens like to eat rose petals. One of my roses had dropped a couple of dozen petals of one of its flowers as it aged.

These petals lay in a pile under the rose bush. When the chickens came out to play in my garden they found these petals.

Our little black Silkie hen was the first to start on the petals, and in no time, other hens had joined her and the pile of petals disappeared.

When I went into the garden later, I found that the hens had also eaten half of another one of my roses.

Ah, well, we are in for some Rose Petal eggs in a few days. I wonder if they will be any different? Will they taste of rose petals?

Chicken Combs

12/3/2014

What is a Chicken Comb?

A comb on a hen or rooster is that red protuberance on the top of their head. It can be different shapes and sizes and even different colours.Today we are just talking about the shape.

The rooster's comb is on the top of his head.

With a glance at this magnificent creature you can see why it is called a comb on the top of his head. It has all the teeth on it, just like a comb we comb out hair with. Roosters have a larger comb than hens do.

The hen's comb is smaller. When it is nice and red you know that there are eggs on the way. The chicken is looking very healthy.

Peacombs and Rosecombs

This little hen has a different sort of comb. It is called a Peacomb. It is short and stumpy and a little bumpy. It stays low to the head. Peacombs are good for very cold areas where it snows. Because the comb is short and close to the head it is less likely to freeze.

A Rosecomb is a variation of the Peacomb. The comb is a little larger and a little different shape.

Photo Gallery of Chickens

6/3/2014

In the last few months my chickens have grown and, hopefully, there will be eggs from the new pullets soon.

Here are some photos of them and their new home.

Chickens in the Garden

3/3/2014

What is a Pullet?

A pullet is a young hen in the first year of her life. She is a first time layer. When a pullet starts to lay her eggs are smaller than an adult hen's eggs.

Our young pullets have just turned twenty weeks old. Now the books tell us that they can start laying any time from now on. We will watch and wait. The pullets from last year were about ten months before they started to lay.

First Big Afternoon in the Garden
A couple of days ago the pullets were allowed into the back garden for the first time. They have their own run and this was their first time out into the big garden.

Plan of chicken house and run

I had planted silver beet plants around the outside of their house and they had to pass this to get into the garden. Yes, you're right. They didn't get too far into the garden. And yes, you are right again. There are no leaves left on my silver beet plants. However I had harvested most of the bigger leaves for ourselves first.

Today I let the little hens out again. They took a while to get out their gate but as there were no silver beet leaves left they moved on into the garden for the first time.

Can the Pullets Find Their Way Home? Expecting the pullets to find their own way back to their shed, we kept peeping out to see if they had gone in for the night. It was 8.15pm and almost dark when there were still two of these little creatures wandering about.

One of them was on the back doorstep. We could not understand this then realized that they could not find their way back to their house. Poor little creatures. They had been attracted to the light of our living room.

Chickens Cannot See in the Dark Now, chickens cannot see in the dark. This is why they go to bed with the evening light. They are different to ducks and geese.

We used to have geese who wandered freely. They were especially active at night on the full moon. They honked under our bedroom window all night long as they grazed on our front lawn. (We lived on a farm in those days.)

Ducks can also see at night but not chickens. However chickens are 'up with the birds' in the morning. Remember how roosters wake everyone up at 5.30am?

Home at Last We went out and guided the pullets back to their shed. They quickly jumped up into the box where they all sleep together and peace reigned.

Five Good Reasons to Keep Chickens

1/2/2014

Feeding the chickens is a great job for children

1 To get fresh eggs from happy hens. You know that your hens are nor cramped in tiny cages but have room to flap their wings and perhaps roam in the garden.

2 You receive free manure to fertilize your veggies and flowers. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen so is especially good to make leaves grow. Try the manure on your green veggies or flower garden to get things growing.

Chicken manure is best left to dry before being put in the garden. However if the hens decide to deposit themselves it will save you the work. Thank them and move on.

3 Chickens will get working for free. They will catch nasty insect pests in your garden, cutting the number. They delight in catching any small flying insects, creepy crawly bug and even a worm or two after they have distributed the topsoil for you.

4 They will gladly eat your leftover food, and you will not have to throw it in the rubbish. Your hens will thank you with great excitement and see your leftover food and great delicacies. You could try them with your cooked veggies, rice, watermelon, soaked bread or anything else you have.

5 You teach the next generation how to care for animals and birds. You teach them that every creature is special. Children find that each hen has its own personality. You teach children that these birds depend on them for food and water.

Chicken's First Day Out

27/1/2014

Here's a little snippet of my chickens venturing out into the garden for the first time. They were very apprehensive.

Author

I'm a mad chicken lady - had them for over forty years. We've always had bantams until this year when we have added some standard size chicks. Never again. I also love gardening and painting. Oh, and writing.

We live on the south coast of Australia on the eastern side, 5800 kilometres from the South Pole.

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