First view of The Rock Chicks - Ruby, Garnet, Topaz and Amber. I'm sure some fellow pedant will be dying to point out that Amber is not a rock but a resin, but for the purposes of Precious Treasures it is near enough for jazz!
We set off this morning and went to the little North Lincs village of Ealand by way of the North Cave Wetlands - blogged about previously on Vegetable Heaven (http://vegheaven.blogspot.com) to see if the sand martins had arrived. They have - and the avocets. We then went straight on to visit Shaun at Outgate Poultry as we were too excited to postpone the moment any longer. I was impressed straight away by the invitation to dip our shoe soles in a disinfectant bath, and by the lack of smell in the poly tunnel that housed several pens of pullets. We had opted for the Rangers as they are reputedly the friendliest and there are 2 grand-daughters who will want to befriend them.
Shaun said that the pullets are 17 weeks old today and had just been moved into the pen this morning. Bearing in mind that they will have had 2 changes in one day, he suggested that we leave them in the house with temporary food and water containers in there, for 3 - 4 days to allow them to recognise the house as their place of safety. To do this, he suggested that we temporarily cover the pop-hole with wire mesh so they have light during the day but can't leave the house. He also suggested at least 2 weeks in the run before they get out to explore the garden further. I'm happy to go along with expert advice. Himself found a wire grid that covers the area well and still allows the pop-hole to move freely.
There will be more pictures later in the week.
3 comments:
Wonderful, wonderful! So glad to see Les Girls finally in residence at Beak House. No way you'll keep them penned in for 3-4 days (har har har).
more pictures later in the week , good grief Flummery, you can't expect us to wait that long - tomorrow morning would be very acecptable, thank you muchly!
huggles from Bag End to all the new members of your family, xx.
Fantastic, Flum! I look forward to seeing more of these little beauties!
I'm sure I should know this, but at how many weeks will they start to lay?
I am determined to do as I'm told with the chickens Bilbo - I know, first time for everything! Shaun knows his stuff about chickens and says there are more casualties at this age from stress than anything else and 2 moves in a day is big business for a chicken sized brain. They are very happy this morning and didn't flap when I reached in to poo-pick and change water and food.
I would imagine it'll be mid May before we can look for an egg Hazel, though at this time of year the odd one might start to lay early because of the increasing light levels.
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