yep, first things first, winner of the name the fifth Goddard chick competition is Claudia. Adult votes were more inclined towards Kiev or Nugget but Davies and Scarlett were unanimous in their decision of Rhonda. Of course, much though we might pretend we can tell the difference between the three yellow chicks we can’t, so currently Freddie, Punzel and Rhonda are pretty much interchangable. Feathers is very distinctive with his single wing and is rather smaller than the others, which means Wobble is unique too for now. The decision to keep any hens is pretty final, we would keep one cockerel only so I hope there is only one among them as rearing extra ones to eat is above even us ;).
I’ve worked today, it’s been a good day aside from being told I’m too nice and need to work on my bitching 😆 I heard today that there is a plan afoot to use a mobile library van as a touring winnebago and set ourselves up as prostitutes should the library ever look in danger of closing. Everyone has roles, some of them are on the administrative / cleaning / driving side rather than ‘active service’ but I was told I could go straight into money making and to give some consideration as to my ‘speciality service’ to discuss with them next time I’m in 😆 Workplace discussion of which borrowers are likely perverts, who should win The Apprentice and what films to borrow next abounded, the day went pretty quickly. 🙂
I got home to find both my parents here, chick worshipping 🙂 I actually thought our plan to keep chickens would be categorised alongside some of our more wacky decisions such as not sending our children to school, confessing to having two tents, getting £60K odd into debt and not going to university but no, they are fully supportive of this idea and Dad was casing up the garden in search of likely sites for a coop while Mum was trying to persuade the children we only need four chickens as there is four of us and she should have the fifth one (honestly, she was the same when we got Malice and Candle trying to persuade me she should have Candle instead :roll:). I let them all have cuddles, which I think they’d been desperate for but restrained themselves, Mum had brought posh M&S biscuits so that was nice. 🙂 Dad left, Ady came home, Mum left, we had a bit of a free range session with the chicks let loose in the lounge (lots of chick poo and cheeping!) and the children went off to bed.
We were supposed to be camping with Chris and Julie this weekend but various contributing factors meant it was cancelled so a pretty quiet weekend lies ahead with not a lot other than chick bonding on the agenda. Perfect 🙂
I look forward to your blogs when the neighbours start complaining about a cockerel crowing at 3am in the summer. Have you really thought that one through? You want to check your house deeds too many areas have bye-laws preventing people keeping cockerels for just that reason.
one cockerel max 🙂 which is still very much subject to how many there are in the group anyway. Nothing on local byelaws or house deeds, but as the proprosed chicken siting is underneath *our* bedroom window and therefore we would be most affected it would be something to give proper thought to certainly 🙂
there were lots of amazing chicken coops at the county show today, I saw them and thought of you 😉
Aw Claudie will be delighted 🙂
I like the Flickir pics of Feathers/Punzle/Rhonda exploriing your cleavage 😉
If you keep a cockerel does that mean the eggs they’ll (the hens, obviously!) lay will be fertilised? (see there’s still a bit of squeamish vegetarian in me 😉 )
i’d love to keep chickens and desperately jealous of hatchwatch! i wouldn’t have a cockerel though. lots of basic cheap coops on ebay.
anyone I know that has had a cockrel, has lost it fairly quickly. Unless you’re planning on starting a chicken production business, I think they’re more bother than they’re worth.
Yeah, there is a good reason why most small chicken keepers don’t keep the cockerels. Though the eggs being fertilized (which wouldn’t always be happening) doesn’t really matter Layla, you can still eat them (probably not so nice if you’ve been incubating it for a while though…)
Must say I’m somewhat disappointed with the ‘squeamish carnivore’ bit though Nic ;-), it’s a funny old world when a veggie is less squeamish about killing an animal for food than lots ofl you meat eaters out there 🙂
Aren’t the chicks supposed to have a little lamp set up to keep them warm? whenever I’ve seen chicks raised they have a lamp set up shining down to give the chicks somewhere warm to go, since they don’t have a mummy chicken to suggle under.
The more we say having a cockerel is mad the more she’ll want to do it 😉
I’d be quite content to raise a chicken to eat. I would get someone to kill it (gaffer) because I could. I’ve seen gaffer pull the head off a pigeon before so I’d know he’d do it.
I guess it depends why you keep chickens in the first place. If they are pets then I guess killing and eating them would be a bit weird.
Yeah, I could breed animals to eat – Ady used to work in a slaughterhouse so would be able to look after all the messier bits – but I wouldn’t go watching them hatching and letting the children name them if they were intended to be eaten. These were quite specifially pets if we were going to keep them. I really hope there are no cockerels in there but if there was one as they are intended to be pets we might keep it.
Yeah we have a lamp / brooder set up for them, they seem to be fine having a little run around for 10 minutes or so a few times a day before going back under it again and particularly like snuggling down in cleavage 😉 – Chris with your rabbit rearing background you are far from the usual veggie! 😉