Cute Little Quail

Just hatched a few quail for us at home .. how small are they compared to the day old silkie hen!

White Stars

We have a limited number of white stars coming in next week. Lovely white egg layers.

Geese eggs? We haven't the room

Everybody is waiting for the first orpington and legbar chicks, (and our incubator is bursting at the seams), but a friend of ours has asked if we've any space for 9 geese eggs.

Now we've been promised we can keep a couple if they are fertile, so we have to do a bit of juggling around and candling of the eggs to see if we can squeeze them in. Now I'm not even sure what we are going to do with the geese once they have hatched ... it just gets crazier by the day

Ordering pure breeds for 2010

Last year, Dave & I had a complete nightmare trying to accomodate everybody for pure breeds. Hybrids are fine as we buy these in and are in constant supply. However we hatch all the pure breeds ourselves and as we are only a very small setup, have a limited amount of eggs & incubator space.

This year, to be fair to everybody, we are going to do a very strict 'first come, first served' basis. If you would like to place an order for an orpington, silkie, cuckoo maran or pekin then please email me with a phone number and your order and we will put you on the reservation list. We will then give you an email when we are close to getting you your birds.

I know its a bit of a pain, but it is the only way to be fair. If you can get your request in before Easter then you shouldn't have to wait long xx

Good poultry dealer in Yorkshire?

A lady came to mine this afternoon all the way from Whitby. She had spent 8 weeks trying to find a poultry breeder in Yorkshire. Luckily a friend of hers in Sheffield gave her my number - but it was a 4 hour round trip just to buy 2 hens.

If there is anybody in the York/Harrogate area thinking of selling some chickens, please do - apparantly there is nobody up there who does. I don't mind missing the odd few people 4 hours is a long way to go for a couple of hens (hope they settle in OK Yvonne!!)

Bi-OO-Cyst - The New Great Coccidiosis Fighter?

With the UK hatching season just beginning, I thought I'd let you know of a new product that is said to be 'The future of Coccidiosis Control' (if you believe the hype.)

As many of you many know, Coccidiosis is a terrible condition that young birds can catch. The cocci parasite can be ingested by wild bird droppings or chicks can often be born with it. For the regular hatcher it can be a problem.

I've just been recommended a new product to try called BI-OO-CYST I have just bought a litre bottle to try and I will let you know how I get on with it ... All the blurb from their website is below..

Bi-OO-Cyst is the first disinfectant designed to be a powerful, DEFRA approved virucide, whilst also being effective against endoparasites especially OOcysts. Bi-OO-Cyst is the most versatile disinfectant currently available and has been designed specifically to meet the exacting demands of today's modern livestock industry. Its broad spectrum of activity is effective against endoparasites including OOcysts, viruses, bacteria, moulds and yeasts. The versatility of BI-OO-Cyst offers farmers the first product that will not only disinfect but at the same time control coccidiosis all in one simple operation.

Our first chick of the year.

Our first chick has finally hatched - after a couple of weeks of infertile eggs, it looks like the season is finally kicking off (albeit, a little slowly) We put 10 red silkie eggs, 3 cream legbar and 7 pekin eggs in our incubator 29 days ago. Only 5 eggs were fertile (all the pekins) and this morning we found this lonely little partridge pekin.

We have some more eggs in the incubator that are fertile so she won't be alone for long. Hopefully the next lot of eggs will be all fertile, including our 1st 2 partridge orpington eggs.

Spring is Coming

It definately seems warmer the last few days - infact I have noticed that the cream legbar & partridge orpington hens have been a lot more chirpier than normal. Imagine my relief and surprise when I looked in the next box and saw the 1st cream legbar egg of the season ...Hooray. Now we just have to wait for the partridge orpingtons!

We are pleased to discover that we will have a pretty much constant supply of assorted point of lay hybrids this year. Last year saw us low on bluebelles and black rocks, due to a commercial breeder retiring. This year we hopefully will have a constant supply as well as a very pretty new introduction - A 'sussex'. This is a hybrid version of the popular Light Sussex. A very pretty and friendly white bird with a black neck, that lays over 300 eggs a year.