Mus

iTrader: (2)

hi guys

i have had hens for the last 5 months and everything seemed brilliant till last week, i currently have 4 rhode islands and one sussex light. i have been getting between 3-5 eggs a day but the last two weeks ive been lucky to get one a day one of the ****** have been going in there and eating all the eggs. i bought a rollaway nest box i covered in hay and left it there and all i seem to get there is poo no eggs. i cought the the ****er in the action and obviously cant train it. is there any other method or tips to prevent this from happening.

many thanks in advnaced

Coffin Dodger

Easy, figure out which one is doing it (web cam?), ring the ******* neck, and that's next Sunday's roast dinner sorted

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I didn't understand a word of that!

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

As you say, you can't train it so wring its neck and get another. They're not expensive.

Mus

iTrader: (2)

my mrs would ring my neck she's given the ****** names already lol beside they are a year old so there meat will be tougher than old boots.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Been there - done that- eaten the result - and you're right. Tough as old boots

PaulC72

Can you not pen each one of them off so you can monitor what is happening?

We recently had one of our hens go broody, a couple of nights on her own sorted that out

For some good advise you could try http://www.downthelane.net/index.php it has a wealth of information.

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Not expensive, you seen the price the garden centres charge for Hens now ?? our local Dobbies sell them at £35 a pair and its company policy to sell them in pairs ie. no single replacments !!

Rapid17

If you wish to replace any of your hens or buy more, why not buy battery hens due for slaughter ? I've heard they can be bought cheaply and in a domestic enviroment are good layers.

Geoff.

Mus

iTrader: (2)

I don't think I'll be buying anymore hens, I've been doing some reading and it stated on one of the forum that I should empty out the contents of an egg fillet up with mustard and leave in there and apparently it has worked for some people, give them milk for a few days which I find weird but I think I'll try the mustard idea first and go from there. its really bizarre as they have a very good balnced diet of layer pellets, crushed oyster shells, boiled veg peel and plain rice and pasta.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

The ONLY way is to cull the little b*gger. Once they get a taste for it...........

Their brain is about the size of a small pea, so training them is nigh-on impossible.

Coq-au-vin, makes even the toughest boiler edible

Mus

iTrader: (2)

what's coq au vin is it like a pressure cooker?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

coq = chicken
au = in
vin = wine

Traditonally the chicken is cooked in the wine. But drinking a few bottles beforehand generally makes you not notice how tough it is

Mus

iTrader: (2)

thanks for the info guys

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Coq au vin is traditinally FOR the boilers, the tougher chickens. It's cooked slowly, so a slow cooker would do it.

Google it for recipes.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Well if you go to an expensive source you expect to pay dearly.
Go to a your nearest egg farm (google is your friend) and ask if you can by a couple of laying hens.
They'll probably charge you less than a tenner.
Paid £3 each for my last lot a few years back.

Look at it this way.
The productive life of a laying bird is generally reckoned to be 13 months.
Do the maths, 1 egg per day, 30 days (say) per month, 80% productivity, gives you around £60 of eggs @ approx £2/dozen for each bird.

Even taking feeding costs into account even £17.50 a bird isn't dear when you think you're getting fresh eggs and you can always sell them on.

Join the Good Life, the scoobynet way

Wagon Gaz

iTrader: (18)

Ex battery hens make the best layers, they are bred to lay and are usually laying at 80% when they are culled. As far as the egg eater goes you need to get to the egg before she does, it is habit forming we have one that has just started this I need to modify the nest box so the egg rolls out of harms way. Winter job when its too wet to mess with the Scooby

Dr Hu

We have 2 hens - luckily neither of them are 'eaters' although its fairly common, but difficult to stop once started.

We paid £7 each for our Hens from a chicken breeder/egg farm place....

One was poorly a few months ago.. wife took it to the Vet - after £20 worth of Antibiotics etc etc it was a bit better then two weeks later i found it stiff as a board in the nest box..... into a shoe box, straight down the tip, called back into the chicken farm on the way back in the car 1 x £7 later..... jobs a good 'un....
Cheaper than than the Vet....

Can't beat them wandering around the Garden.... its great, the Eggs are a bonus too!

BlkKnight

Might get a couple to keep the fscking cats away.

Dr Hu

Yeah - they do that, most cats are **** scared of them..... 1 'top cat' tried in on on our Hens, Chickens hunt in packs and the cat was pinned into a corner for 1/2hr before it plucked up the courage to make a run for it

We generally dont see any cats now.... our two chickens annililated a pigeon once too - plucked it near bald..... missus (soft!) took that to a Wildlife Rescue Centre.... who tried not to laugh too much, then said euphamistically... 'It may not make it thru the night....'

Leslie

Doubt that it is easy to train a hen, they aren't all that sharp off the mark.

Best way is to remove the offender.

Les

fitzscoob

roasting would be the best option here.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Where we live, in France there are hens at the bottom of our garden, owned by the French farmer's wife.

There is also a "show hen, and it's cockerel", the latter which crows at odd hours and is damned aggressive...........though not with me, it's more scared of me

Anyway, I'm down there one day having a fire and along comes farmer's wife. I say to her, "I'm terribly sorry, there has been an awful accident. I'm afraid the **** got out and jumped into my fire and is all burnt up, nothing left".

"When did this happen?" She asks, to which I reply, "Tomorrow!!!".

She laughed, but is apparently now suspicious that I WILL try to get ruid of it. LOL

Mus

iTrader: (2)

I put in a rollaway nest box and the ****** just poo on it, I'm going to separate the offender tonight and see what happens as I think another one has started. I have had 3 eggs all this week total loss of 18 eggs I'm so pissed. I want to double check it's the ***** I caught doing it the other day.

any of you guys located near london can you recommend a good farm, as I don't fancy paying another 20 quid for another hen. my mrs is away for a week tomorrow so If all the eggs are ok while I got the ****er in isolation then I will definitely been having it for a Sunday roast.

Nate

iTrader: (2)

Ask this question on a dedicated forum mate ..... You're not going to get any sensible or 'common sense ' answers on here.

PaulC72

We have 22 hens and they are funny as anything i have seen before. we got 3 given us and have paid from 8 to 12.5 for them.

if you try that link i posted earlier you may find your answer there