Wyandotte, Araucana Chicks at 4 weeks and quail

 

It is four weeks since the latest batch of silverlace wyandottes and lavender araucana chicks hatched.  11 out of 12 fertile eggs hatched, and so far all have survived.   A great result for me and now I am itching to work out if I have a nice mix of male and female.
I hope I have. It will enable me to match up with the earlier hatches and create one or two breeding pairs or trios.

I do need to get into gear with the enclosure as my current pen is full to capacity. 

But I am also itching to get à trio of Welsh harlequin.  I think I have found a good breeder so really it is all down to how quickly I can create space. I can then be collecting duck, hen and quail eggs.  How lucky!

Talking about quail, I have 24 mixed colour courtnix eggs arriving shortly.  
It is a little unplanned, as I was more than comfortable with the group I have.  
With the loss of two of my hens recently I decided it was time to keep egg production at a reasonable level as we have become quite a quail egg obsessive family since they started laying.  If we were to run out of quail eggs I can see there being a revolt in the household from the children.

Introducing new quail to an existing group is very difficult and many say impossible as the established group will pick on the newcomers and can seriously injure them.  So the hatching of a new group has been something I have been thinking carefully about.  I have allowed for the new hatching's o be kept separate permanently, although I believe with careful management I could integrate two larger groups once the younger birds are of a good age.  Say 3-4 months old.     Watch this space.

Thanks for reading. 

  

Achievements on the plot this year.

I'm already thinking, what did I achieve on the plot this year?

It's only the nineteenth of July and there is plenty of growing time, but I feel I have missed the sowing slot.

I don't have carrots or parsnips, radish or Beetroot.  I can hear people saying what have you got then?

Well potatoes, first early, salad and main crops.  Asparagus, peas, broadbeans, onions, shallots, garlic, runner beans courgette and hopefully butternut squash.  That's not mentioning the rhubarb, apples, pear, gooseberry bush and leeks.

Yet I still feel like I have missed the boat.  I'm still not picking vegetables regularly from the plot.  The chard from last year has bolted, but I have been taking leaves up until June.

I guess I still strive evey year to try and be self sufficient in veg, but how feasible is that?  It certainly has not happened in the 7 years I have been growing vegetables.  

Lesson learnt this year so far?  Sow what youwant to eat.  I say it every year, and I always ignore it. My boys are a little miffed that the carrots are none existent. They do however love peas so I am not quite in the dog house yet.

Perhaps the hatchlings have taken my attention, if I stop and think, within the last 12 months I have hatched 24 chicks that have survived.  A significant amount of time has been spent building the enclosure and the houses.

That said, it is all part of the fun and I am collecting valuable manure for the plot regularly.
Like many people, I find it difficult to get the the plot. I always imagine allotments as a place where carrots, parsnips, potatoes, leeks, runner beans and lettuce are neatly sowed in a row. Certainly not the case at my allotment.  Function over appearance is the only way I would describe it.
Many of the vegetables I am trying to grow are time intensive, require regular weeding and watering to ensure success.  Fruit on the other hand, apples, plums, cherries, pears are, as far as I am concerned, the lower end of the attention scale.
So my plan for next year to help make the plot more productive with moderate attention required, will be to plant from fruit trees and bushes.  Still keeping areas for vegetables, but just enough to keep our interest.

Watch this space.

My first show - Bridgend Country Show

What a fantastic day at the Bridgend Show.  My first poultry show as an exhibitor was a fantastic experience and went well.

I decided to enter one of my Silverlace wyandotte hens into the laced Wyandotte class and one of my croad langshan hens into the rare breed class.

Both came away with first place in their class.  My sons were over the moon and my eldest, Jake, who has very little interest in chickens other than the eggs they produce or any other animals in general, was so excited he insisted on taking the rosette and picture of the of the hens to school to show his class.

It made all the effort of hatching and waiting over the last 6 months feel very worth while, although even if we had not won anything I would still not have changed the experience.

The whole experience was made very relaxing and felt very easy going thanks to the organisers and some familiar faces.  I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.  Not just for poultry but they had a selection of horses, alpacas, rabbits, Pygmy goats along with stalls, rides and a karate demonstration which all three of my boys loved and wanted to copy.

Best of all it was free to park and get in.  Amazing really as so many charge £10 per adult.

The poultry show followed the usual format.  9.30am we arrived on site with the hens.  A quick check in with organisers and explaining we were first timers, they very kindly showed us how to prepare the hens.  Ensuring the feet were clean, a little oil on the comb and legs they were ready to go.

We found the pens and popped the girls in ready for judging that started at 10.15am.

I expected all visitors to leave during judging, but it was a relaxed affair and the judges simply worked between the visitors.  At 3.30pm the presentations were made and all the juvenile entrants received a book on exhibiting poultry. A great way to encourage youngsters to take up showing as a hobby come obsession.

We can not wait for the next show.  On the list is Usk on the 14th September.  I am hoping to have an Araucana ready by then and will try my luck with the Wyandotte again.  I may event try entering a trio.

Thanks for reading and apologies for theformat as I am typing using my phone via the blogger app. A new experience.  One I am not sure if I should repeat.

Hatching success

As if like clockwork the latest batch of chicks have hatched.  All were out within 22 days, and are now in the brooder looking happy and healthy.

It certainly makes a difference hatching at the end of June to beginning of July.  I can see the chicks are happy and certainly not cold or afraid of exploring outside of the electric plate acting as surrogate mum.  A couple of months ago the chicks, now down on the plot living with the other chickens, seemed permanently cold and camped out under the plate.

That is the hatch where I lost all but 4 chicks out of 12.  I was left with 3 male Araucana and one female silver lace Wyandotte.  Sad, but at least some survived.

This time round I have 11 that have hatched out of 12.  Five silver lace wyandottes to add to my collection and hopefully create an unrelated breeding trio, and 6 lavender Araucana chicks, which I really hope will be hens, or at least two of them anyway.

I'm not sure I could cope with many more cockerels, lovely as they are, you only need so many and I'm not yet into the fattening and preparation for the pot or BBQ.

I'm not just hatching again.  I have rightly or wrongly, entered two of my hens into the local Bridgend County show.  One Croad Langshan bantam in the any other rare breed category, and one Silver Lace Wyandotte bantam.

I am particularly interested in seeing how the Wyandotte does.  I know she is not perfect, but there are some nice areas of lacing.

This is likely to be my last chicken hatch of the year.  Don't tell the wife, but towards the end of the month I'm thinking of trying to hatch some silver Japanese quail.  I have only ever seen Chinese silver painted quail, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

I'm guessing they have been selectively bred similar to the Texas white quail you can buy.  Watch this space anyway.

Down on the plot, apart from being behind with vegetable growing, I need to start the second phase of the enclosures.  I still have security fencing left over, but need to think long and hard about what to use to cover the enclosure.  Any suggestions would be great fully received.

Thanks for reading.