Summer At Last!

Well here I am again, late as usual!  Summer is here.  Well it may have come and gone the last 2 weeks, but we have had a lovely couple of weeks weatherwise haven't we?

And now the days are beginning to shorten.  I don't mind actually, because it means I can shut the chooks up a bit earlier as the months go on and perhaps get something done in the house, or even do a bit of cross stitch or card making!

Well so much to tell you, I don't know where to start!

Our incubator arrived on 25th June, and after an iffy start, because the instruction booklet was inside the incubator and we couldn't figure out how to open it at first!  Didn't want to force it and break it, but we soon got used to how it goes!  And the booklet is written in pidgeon English, so it took a while to get set up properly.  the alarm kept going off as teh humidity was too high, so I took out the big water reservoir they send with it and put in a tupperware dish of water and the incy settled down and been going ever since.

Our first eggs are due to hatch on 19th July.  We have some Apenzellars in there, some Rhode Islands Reds and some Light Sussex.  Only thing is, we are a bit worried about the Light sussex and Rhode Islands Reds as we bought 2 young RIR cockerels, or what we thought were cockerels from the same lady as we gt the eggs from, but they have white tails.  Now on investigation, it appears you don't get RIR's with white tails, and plus the fact that they started sneezing the day after they arrives.  So I've got rid of them to be on the safe side and we got some anti-biotic from the vet for the rest of them.  I don't want sick chickens!!!

Still, even if the eggs turn out to be crossbreeds, I can still sell the girls for egg laying!

The last of the Amberlink and Goldline 17 week olds are going now, and the new babies are nearly 4 weeks old.  Plus we have the pure breeds who are all doing well.  the 4 Araucanas, 4 Exchequer Leghorn, a trio of Light Sussex and 5 slightly younger LS and 6 RIR chicks.  then even younger we have 4 cuckoo silkies, 3 lavender araucanas, 2 Appenzellars and A young Welsummer.  the Welsummer is for a man hopefully who wants 4 purebreeds who lay different coloured eggs, so I got her from my friend Debbie who has also started to breed her own.

Hubby has finished the runs for the breeding shed and now the inmates can actually run around outside!  Hubby is talking about making the runs a bit bigger for them, but they are not fully grown yet, so they don't look overcrowded, the 2 smallest runs will be for the smaller birds like the silkies and the araucanas, and the 2 larger runs will be for the Lt Sussex and the Rhode Island Reds.  The Exchequer Leghorns will go into the big ark with an extension run as soon as hubby can make Rocky the Rooster a new house!

It'll take us a while to build up our breeding stock, but we have had several enquiries already for different breeds!!

Well I'm off to bed in a minute, so I'll say goodnight for now.  Will try to get back with more info soon!