Let Hatching commence - Croad Langsham and Wyandotte

4 Silver Lace Wyandottes and 2 Croad Langsham

I have been a little quite on the hatching front recently. Probably because the little darlings have caught me off guard. The eggs started hatching 26th Feb, two days before I was expecting any action.
The first egg to hatch was a Wyandotte Silver Lace.
On the 27th Feb, we had three more hatches with another Wyandotte and two Croad Langsham chicks.

As at 28th Feb at 8am the tally was seven. One Faverolle hatched over night and is still in the incubator drying out. The other 6 chicks are now under my brinsea brooder that has capacity for 20.

Wyandotte Silver Lace

I am now waiting on the two Wyandotte eggs that when I candled at day seven I though were not perfect, one owl beard and one salmon faverolle.

Fingers are still crossed especially for the faverolle and the owl beard!

I will be updating the blog with more photos of the chicks soon and some information on integrating new hens with your existing flock.  Watch this space!

Croad Langsham chick

Thanks for reading

Proper Eggcited! - Day 18 of incubation

It's Sunday and I have just realised that it is day 18 of the incubation period!
I'm as excited as a puppy dog, as I have just turned off my auto turner on the corti 25 incubator, removed the dividers and added water to try and increase humidity.
The gauge is currently reading 40% so as a minimum ideally it need to rise to 60%.

I'm paying the waiting game now for about 30minutes to see if the water and dropping temperature by half a degree helps.

At the first and only candeling of this hatch 11 out of 12 were developing. That's 6 silver lace wyandottes, one owl beard, two salmon faverolle and two croad langsham.

I really hope they have all made it.
Only time will tell now. Hopefully in two days I might start to hear cheeping.

Chickens on allotments - 1950 Allotment Act

Recently I wrote an article about keeping chickens on allotments and recapped my experience with my local association.  When I first requested to keep a few chickens they refused.  So I decided to do a little research.

My article was published Country Smallholding in the January 2013 issue and I hope it was an interesting read. 
I doubt many will have seen it so here is a little about the law surrounding chickens and allotments.

The 1950 Allotment Act allows the keeping of hens and rabbits on allotments and is viewed as an allotment holder’s right, so long as they are for your own use and not for business or profit. It is worth checking your tenancy agreement if you have one.  Some private landlords may have included a clause preventing the keeping of animals. 

The Act allows for any animal to be removed from the allotment if it is deemed to be a nuisance, health hazard or their well-being is being affected.  Cockerels are not permitted.  This is certainly something to remember.

Allotment Act was enacted to assist post second world war with families producing their own food that was in shortage.  It is still in effect today, however there are some conditions you must meet.

• It appears to apply to Council owned/run allotments or allotments that were previously council owned and then transferred into private ownership.  If you are renting land from a farmer I doubt you will be able to rely on the Act.

• Welfare is paramount - you must have the correct housing and the animals must be well looked after.  Welfare codes enforced by the RSPCA and DEFRA should be followed.

• As mentioned earlier due to noise cockerels are not permitted.

So if you are considering keeping chickens and your back garden is not big enough or suitable, try registering for an allotment, preferably with a local authority. You can grow veg and keep a couple of hens for eggs or even meat.

Thanks for reading

British Meat

British is best so why buy the rest?
It will not go away, in fact do we want it to go away.  Consumers questioning the quality and content of their meat is a good thing surely?

Leading supermarkets having discovered there is horse meat in their value beef burgers, lasagna and other ready meals.

It has caused uproar.  Is the backlash due to improper labeling or is it the fact that it is horse or potentially containing harmful drugs?  Maybe it is simply because it is Tesco's.  I'm not sure all consumers are that concerned in the current economic climate about animal welfare!

Whatever the reason for the outcry I think there is a significant opportunity here for the government to review what meat is imported and consumed in the UK.  It is often said there are more regulations on ingredients that go into dog food than into human food.  Let’s take the opportunity to strip out the cheap and nasty meat and encourage the British public to buy British!

Everyone is pointing a finger towards meat suppliers based outside of the UK in the EU and a recent article on animal welfare in the Herald Scotland by Rog Wood interested me.  Apparently 40% of the EU bacon and pork sold is illegal and the butchers selling it are not aware of this.  This is specifically linked the EU Welfare legislation that came into force on 1^st Jan 2013 making it illegal to keep sows in individual metal cages.   

I would add that UK farmers have apparently been compliant since 2009 (legislation introduced by a former government).

So welfare issues, meat content and harmful substances are the issues.  What if the UK taxed imported meats?  Bring them into line with the prices our local UK farmers and smallholders can compete with, who ultimately comply with legislation but are priced out.  I guess you could call it a meat import tax - Ultimately creating a minimum price per kilo but for imports only. 

Rog Wood suggests consumers pay lip service to welfare of animals.  Not all of us but ultimately vast majority of the UK population will shop with price in mind rather than the welfare of the animal.  A £3 chicken vs a £6.50 chicken on the supermarket shelf is for some a step up in price too far.

Unless we remove the supply of the cheap meat, it will still be consumed and ultimately produced.  The meat tax could go some way to achieving this, in conjunction with other legislation and grant funding to give UK farms and even smallholders a fair chance of supplying the quality local meat.

This is perhaps controversial, but I feel we should be doing more to support our local farmers and smallholders.

There are however implications such as our relationship with countries to whom we export meat, would they impose similar a tax?

I do appreciate incomes are being hit at present with the economy being in such dire state, but what is preventing families cutting the consumption of meat on a weekly basis to afford the slightly more expensive product.  Especially as there appears to be issues with health, one less meat meal could assist in cutting the nations waist line, but the monetary saving could be used to purchase quality humanely reared meat.  

I believe it is worth discussing the principal.  It gives the local farmers in the UK the opportunity to supply the meat and to achieve a fair price for animals kept is humane conditions.  It would help us become less reliant on imports and therefore consume less illegal meat, but ultimately mean that the UK could be leading the way and standing up for the farm animal such as the pig to ensure its life is a pleasant as it can be for the short period it is around.

Perhaps it is worth discussing regulation of the large supermarkets who ultimately drive the price down and then the quality and welfare of the animals?

Rog Wood's article 

www.heraldscotland.com/business/farming/buy-british-to-pay-the-price-for-better-animal-welfare.19889882

Thanks for reading

Chickens on the allotment - Work begins!

My plot - the good half approx 2 summers ago

Where are all the chickens going when they have hatched and grown?
I don't have a back garden big enough to house all 12 chickens once grown (assuming all of them hatch), but I do have my allotment and I have spent an hour or so the last two days, clearing the over grown land and starting to build an enclosure.

One sheet of glass

It was hard work, with brambles at least 7 foot high, and enough rotten wood to fuel two large bonfires.  I have emerged relatively unscathed which is quite impressive as I was also moving two sheets of glass (6x6 foot) that the previous tenant decided to use as shelter for his chickens on top of his run.

What I had to work with!

The good thing is that I have a plan and the area is clear, but it will take some managing through the year.  I have Japanese knotweed in this corner of the plot.  A very difficult plant to kill.
I have encountered it several times, most of the time as a surveyor managing commercial property.

Japanese Knotweed - from Wiki

One thing is clear, it is very costly to remove, and from a development site point of view quite often the only sure way of removing it from site is to dig it out dispose of all soil and refill.  Very expensive but a lot quicker than injecting it for 3-5 years to kill it off.

Now I am not in the position on my plot to dig out or inject the plant.  But I have discovered a week killer by roundup, called tree stump killer.  It does in fact work on Japanese knotweed and brambles.  I will need to be very careful spraying close to the chickens.

My chicken enclosure - wont win any style awards

I have taken some photos of the enclosure to date.  There is a long way to go and plenty of fox proofing to be done, but I'm hoping to have it finished by end of March latest.

The pen is currently 12 x 12 foot.  I will be covering the top with a heavy duty plastic mesh.  It has big holes and again was left behind by the former tenant of the plot.
I have a hen house and run (cheap version) in my garage at he moment, so will be moving his down to the plot, but will also be splitting the area in to two breeding pens eventually.

Having such a variety in the incubator at the moment means the chickens may have to live together for a while until I establish if they are good enough breeding stock and find cockerels or hens to go with what I have hatched.  I'm starting to think it would have been easier to have bought 2 trios, but hey, where is the fun in that! :-)

To protect against Mr Fox around the perimeter I am digging the fencing into the ground by about 6 inches and then using chicken wire to create a further barrier underground. On top of the chicken wire will go the soil and then some slabs I have that will hopefully prevent any digging.

You can just see the wood in the right of the photo!

I mentioned earlier the top of the enclosure will be covered with some heavy duty plastic mesh, secured with heavy duty cable ties.  You can see it in the photo on the left.  It had to be cut out of the brambles.


I am still working on the door into the pen.  I'm considering using some old pallets I have on the site or an old wooden front door that, yes you guessed it, the previous tenant was trying to use as a door to his shed. (the shed did not have a roof, but he had a lovely solid house door for it!)

In fact that is a very good point, I do need a dry secure place for the feed and bedding.  As the roof on my shed has blown off twice in the last month, I can not rely on it, so will need a solution, perhaps a plastic container in the pen!

It's difficult  planning these things, hard work implementing them, but ultimately the end product, being able to keep pure breed rare poultry will make it worth while!

Thanks for reading.

Incubating Eggs day 7 again!

Pair of Wyandottes creating a heart shape!

Well I have been away for a few days in London and that meant leaving the incubator running without any monitoring for 3 days.  I did realise this would happen when I set the eggs back on 7th February, I knew it was a bit of a risk, but I was impatient probably due to the failure of the last batch.





Today, Valentines day, is the 7th day so I have been candling the eggs to check for development.  The great news is that at present 11 out of the 12 eggs I set appear to be fertile.  The one egg that appears not to be developing is unfortunately the Cream Legbar which is a shame however it does mean that there is potential for Croad Langsham, Owl Beard, Salmon Faverolle and Silver Lace Wyandottes hatching out in around 14 days.

What did I do differently to my first batch?
Well I'm not going to take all the blame or credit here as I have had loads of useful advice from Andrew from Slate House Farm and from Norfolk Bantams on Twitter, in fact, without their help I may have delayed my next hatch for some time.  There is also the consideration that maybe the eggs were not quite ready as it was so early in the year.

I think I took the instructions with the incubator quite literally with regards humidity.  It stated that one water trough should be filled and two should be filled at day 18. The instructions did not mention anything about ventilation either and I don't recall reading about this, but it is crucial when controlling the the humidity. Ultimately I think I drowned the chicks or prevented them from developing properly which is very sad and a mistake I will never make again.

Secondly, I did not monitor humidity, I had no way of knowing what the relative humidity percentage was at any time.  But again looking back I think levels were far too high.  The condensation on the roof of the incubator was a big sign that I totally missed.

To correct both of these major mistakes I have bought myself a reptile humidity gauge for £5.99.  Why these are not fitted or provided when you buy a Corti incubator I have no idea, but it is an essential piece of kit in my opinion.  I have also worked out how to open the vent holes in my incubator.

You do learn by your mistakes, and it has been a big mistake and quite a large learning curve.  It is almost addictive, learning and putting into practice what you have learnt.

Before setting my current batch of eggs, I ran the incubator for 2 days monitoring humidity.  I ran it initially with no water.  Humidity was as low as 10%, so there was no chance of adding the eggs without water.

Once one water trough was filled the humidity increased, first to 30%, then a few hours later 40% and the next morning it was stable at 50%.

The incubator has continued to remain at 50% with a full water trough and vents fully open.  11 of the 12 eggs are developing so its good news for now.


I will be monitoring carefully and will post more updated soon.


Thanks for reading.

Quail Photos

I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce my Quail.  They are the Japanese Common quail.  Great at laying up to 300 eggs per year given the right conditions.

They are lovely little things, they chirp quietly and the males have a lovely call.  It actually fills my back garden with some lovely bird calls adding to the wild birds already out there.

I had an unfortunate start and lost one female with a prolapse and egg bound issue.  We managed to remove the egg down the vets but there was nothing we could do.  I do however still have 10 healthy birds.
Considering the cold weather and their recently move, we have done quite well with 12 eggs so far.

I think the only way to get them laying more is to use a heat lamp to increase the temperature. I will think a little longer before doing this.

I am planning to have eggs to hatch and eggs for sale to eat as soon as production increases.  I have the boxes and have designed my own label to ensure I comply with regulations.  

I will write a little more a out what is required shortly but thought you may enjoy some of the photos I have managed to take.

The Next Hatch - Poultry

So after the failure of the Silver laced Wyandottes, I have decided to try again.  It didn't take long, in fact I think I was plotting my next batch before the Wyandotte batch had come to an end.  This time I have a mix of breeds and I have doubled the number of eggs in the incubator.  Hope the wife is not reading this!

The incubator was set up on 6th February in the morning.  I will be leaving it for 24 hours before setting the eggs.  This time I am trying the dry incubation method.  Something that Norfolk Bantams on twitter (@norfolkbantams) and several other people have suggested as a good method.

I have to be honest I had never heard of the method and assumed that every hatch needed water.

From what I have been told, this is how it works.
Incubation from day 1 to day 18 there is no water in the incubator.  Humidity levels in the UK are apparently high enough that water is rarely needed.
It will be interesting to see the results.  At day 18, you add some water to increase the humidity.

Recommended relative humidity (RH) levels for chicken eggs in the incubator vary but it appears sensible to run with 30-40%.  During the hatching stage, 18th day onward, it should be around 60- 70%.
The humidity in my house is currently 45%, so very close to the required level.  When the temperature increases in the incubator this RH will drop in theory. My incubator was continually gathering water droplets on my last hatch that failed which suggested humidity was too high.  So I am feeling confident that this hatch will be more successful.  
My newly purchased humidity gauge from the local reptile shop will hopefully help.  At £5.99 I think it is a bit of a bargain and will assist a great deal.

After 3 hours the incubator is showing 49% humidity without water.  Amazing I think, but then with all the rain we have had in Wales recently I should not be surprised.

What am I attempting to hatch?
A really great  selection and very exciting.  I have another 6 Silver Lace Wyandotte eggs and thanks to Andrew at Slate House Farm (www.slatehousefarm.co.uk) I have the following :

Two Salmon Faverolle, Two Croad Langsham, One Ownbeard and one Cream Legbar.

Photo from Brockabye.com
Salmon Faverolle

Photo from Omlet.co.uk
Croad Langsham

Photo from Slatehousefarm.co.uk
Owlbeard

Photo from Slatehousefarm.co.uk
Cream Legbar

Thanks for reading.

Quail & hatching update

I have been working on a website for my little poultry adventure.  I would love some feed back on the temporary site at www.andrewspurebreedpoultry.co.uk  There will of course be more information in the full site but at least there is a basis to work from.

If you have read my blog before you will probably know I am little obsessed with chickens and have been keeping them in my back garden for four years.  I have recently ventured into the world of quail keeping.  The Japanese quail arrived on Sunday 3rd February.  9 females and 2 male.

They seem to have settled well into their coop/ aviary.  Although I am surprised how startled they are when I walk up to them.  As explained in the books I have read, they fly directly upwards when scared and usually smack their head off the ceiling of the coop.  Fortunately it is a plastic tray about their head, so I hope it will cause little damage to them.  It does however concern me they do it so frequently, and I think it would be useful if someone could design or breed into the quail some form of helmet device!

They are lovely little birds and have produced 8 eggs already in less than 2 days, however temperatures have dropped and the winds have picked up, so I expect egg production to be limited in the next few days.

My recent attempt at hatching silver laced Wyandottes was a failure.  2 of the eggs were fertile but died at around 16-18 days I think.  I think the humidity may have been too high.  Something I will be keeping a close eye on when I set my next batch of eggs in the next week or so.

Keep tuned in to find out what I will be hatching next using a dry incubating method. ;-)

Thanks for reading

Day 24 of hatching and a review of incubating

It's day 24 of the silver Wyandotte incubation period.  Despite checking three or four times a day, there is no change.  Not that it will make any difference how often I check.

I am starting to think that the remaining two eggs are not going to hatch. It could be a variety of reasons, so i thought it may be useful to write about some of the factors that can affect a hatch in an incubator.

• Time of year - hens will not naturally sit or go broody at the moment, spring is on its way, so hopefully a later attempt in middle of February will be more successful.  There is of course the possibility that the cockerel is not quite firing on all four cylinders, he may of course still be in hibernation mode.
• Quality of eggs - there is no doubt in my mind that quality at this time of year will not be as good.  The shells can be quite porous due to the feed being eaten being used by the hens for heat and new feather growth rather than producing eggs.
• Temperature of incubator and position - I have been told and read that even half a degree can result in late hatching and it could even result in a failed hatching.  It is also important to consider the location of the incubator.  If kept in a drafty position or somewhere that temperatures and humidity can fluctuate it can put strain on the incubator and even though they are designed to keep a constant temperature, it could result in subtle drops in temperate for short periods inside.
• Calibration of the thermometer - this is something I have not checked.  One way of checking you thermometer is working is removing from the incubator, and putting it in a bucket of ice.  This way you can check if it is reading 0 degrees.  If not, you can adjust your setting to reflect this.  The only problem with this method is that my incubator does not have a full thermometer in it so it would not work in my case.  I will just work on the basis it is set correctly.
• Humidity - in the UK it is certainty more critical in the last 3-4 days to get this correct.  I have recently heard of dry incubating, where the eggs are set without the use of water as we have high humidity in the UK.  Water is only used in the last 3-4 days when he increase in humidity is required.  I used water all the way through my incubation.
• Frequency of turning - I have an auto turning incubator, but if you don't and need to manually turn the eggs, its critical to turn at least 3 times a day, most suggest turning 5 times a day.  If you turn manually you need to ensure you mark the eggs so you know they have been turned.

Of course you can avoid all of this by using a broody hen, but who knows when a hen will go broody, and you are limited to 6-8 eggs depending on breed type.
Plus where is the fun and learning experience!

Thanks for reading