Particular breeds wanted (Poultry)

Eo1n8wrd

Looking for breeders of Barnevelders and Welsummers.

I am looking to replace my stock as i got cleaned out a couple of years ago (vermin) and only now getting the heart to re-stock.

I would like to get some nice dark egg layers, kept Welsummers before and thought they were beautiful big friendly birds, Have never gotten Barnevelders but would be interested in hearing from people who have them.

And out of curiosity, does anyone out there keep black Sumatras or Araucana? love these little birds and would like to see whats out there!

Very interested to hear from those of you who keep/ kept/ have any of these breeds for sale!!!

Matt Care

Hi

I am new to this site and only now finding my way around. Am I right in thinking it's not very busy, or am I just not looking in the right places?

Meanwhile, does anyone know where I might come by a few (a dozen, maybe) Light Sussex hens plus/minus a cockerel. I am in the north of Co Roscommon up by Ballaghaderreen.

Cheers
Matt

mountainy man

Tis a we bit quiet in here a the mo, Not sure if this is of any use to you but there is a poultry sale in Florencecourt near enniskillen on sat 5 comming, was at one there last year and was great lots of diff breeds inc light sussex, its a National trust property and you could make a day of it.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/florence-court/things-to-see-and-do/events/

Will be going myself as my sister is after a couple of Orpingtons and the cake is excelent in the cafe:D, very nice gardens too. Its about a 40 min drive from where I am so would be about 1h30m ish for you.

You could try donedeal as there are some local sellers who use it.

Matt Care

Thanks for that, Mountainy Man. Would almost certainly have gone to that, but unfortunately we have house guest. Will keep looking. Matt

Matt Care

Yeeee hah! Off to the Roscommon poultry sales today, see if we can track down those Light Sussex POL's. 10 o'clock onwards opposite the cattle market.

Matt Care

...mildly amused by the rule that reads "sturdy boxes and crates only! No bags or sacks, please". Visions of slightly disreputable folk shuffling to their cars with wriggling sacks slung over their shoulders....... What's in the bag? Nothing Officer!

Matt Care

Rosco came up trumps yesterday when we found five beautifully clean, healthy Sussex, 22 week old at €15 a piece from a guy called Tom from FreeRangePoultry.ie over in Athenry, Co. Galway. I have no vested interest in bigging this guy up but his was the best 'stand' at the sale, with a clean van and a nice neat row of well labelled crates each containing no more than 5 hens, all labelled for variety, vaccinations etc. He was helpful and brilliant. I am happy to reccommend this outfit to anyone interested.

It's started!
Matt

EGAR

Matt, are you sure they are Sussex and not Sussex Ponte?

Matt Care

Mmm. Have to confess to a degree of ignorance on that one. Are Light Sussex and Sussex ponte not one and the same? And if so, what's the difference? These were actually labelled as Sussex Ponte, I just did not know there was a difference.

EGAR

No, the Light Sussex is a purebred bird. The Sussex Ponte is a hybrid/utility bird.

Matt Care

Thanks for that, Egar. I have now done some mooching around Google and discovered that Sussex Ponte are indeed different from Light Sussex, being a hybrid with Rhode Island. No problem, they are still good strong healthy birds who will do eggs and meat, so that suits me fine. I have to confess that I have no particular expertise or preference for Light Sussex specifically, only a liking of the name "Sussex" in there somewhere, as I come from that county myself. They are settling in well, all be it too lazy to leave the barn and go free ranging up to now. Seemed to take one look at the rain and decided to do "barn-reared" for a while yet.

Thanks for that spot,
Matt

EGAR

I find the temperament of most hybrids, including the Ponte, a lot better than most purebred birds apart from Brahma's. My Light Sussex can be quite vicious and the hybrids are placid and can be picked up and petted.

Matt Care

Well, these gals are definitely placid. Even when they were very new to the place and didn't know my wife and I from Adam, they still let us approach and handle them.

Is it safe to assume from your 2000+ posts that you are one of the more frequent flyers on this forum? Have you lots of breeds and birds? A breeder, even, maybe? Where in the country are you?

EGAR

No, I do not breed, I run an animal rescue and chicken are my hobby.

Matt Care

OK. Thanks for that. Catch up with you again soon. Matt

Matt Care

In case anyone is interested, the small holding where we went on the very successful, fascinating and informative goat-keeping course, has dropped me an email to say

"We have two courses in June (2-3 June - Introduction to running a

smallholding, 16-17 June - Poultry keeping for eggs and meat), if you know

anyone who might be interested I would be grateful if you could let them

know please"

They are Harmony Farm near Boyle (Co Roscommon) and www.harmonyfarm.wordpress.com

Cheers,Matt

fendt

Hi All,

Question for ye.....every morning when I let out my hens and ducks the eggs have been cracked open and eaten by something!!!The house is well sealed so it not crows or magpies, have ye any idea what this could be?


Thanks

willfarmerman

fendt wrote: »

Hi All,

Question for ye.....every morning when I let out my hens and ducks the eggs have been cracked open and eaten by something!!!The house is well sealed so it not crows or magpies, have ye any idea what this could be?


Thanks

RATS....

Iyaibeji

Are they eating the eggs themselves?

fendt

Iyaibeji wrote: »

Are they eating the eggs themselves?

This I don't know.....if they were eating them themselves why would they be doing this and how would I get them to stop?

fendt

willfarmerman wrote: »

RATS....

Maybe....haven't seen any around tho!!

Iyaibeji

Once they get the taste of eggs they cant resist!
Could you let them out of the coop earlier, so that they are not locked up there with the eggs for any amount of time?

You can get fake eggs and put them in the nestbox.
Supposedly they try to crack them and soon get fed up and dont bother again.
I think some people use golf balls as fake eggs.

aonb

A rat would tend to take away the egg rather than break/eat in the coop with the hens there. I think it IS the hen(s) eating the eggs.
Hens LOVE to eat eggs. once they start to break eggs and eat them its a pain to get them out of the habit.
Why did they start eating them in the first place? Have you got a hen/hens laying soft shelled eggs? (This can be caused by calcium deficiency or an older hen can lay soft eggs. If this is the case, you can fix this by giving them Limestone flour in their feed every day for a week or two.
If the shells quality is fine, then a hen has discovered that she can break/eat the eggs. as Iyaibeji suggested, let them out earlier so they are not tempted by eggs in the coop.
You could DARKEN the coop so that they arent too active waiting to be let out
You could fashion a roll-away nest box - look it up on the internet - the nest box is tilted, so that the laid egg rolls to safety in the back - out of egg-eaters sight
You could also feed them back finely broken up shells - take the broken eggshells out of the coop, and any eggs used in the house, keep the shells, rinse and put in microwave for 2-3 mins to harden, then break up small, and give to the girls - calcium.
Theres nothing so irritating as having the hens eat their own eggs :mad:

Farmer Pudsey

Two ways to stop them eating eggs one is to remove you eggs early in the morning and get a plastic or ceramic egg and leave in nest. this may discourage it.

The other way is to put a small hole in an egg, break up yoke with a knitting needle or small stick and remove egg this way. Now get mustard and and put a good dollop in the egg. This has been known to work. You may have to repeat.

Also make sure hens have access to grit (limestone preferable) as this will stop any calcium defenciency