My Abacot Ranger Ducks have started laying and this year I have a German strain that I imported to breed from. I’m getting the odd egg from my Copper Black Marans and Cream Legbars and I know it won’t be long before my incubators are full again.

Last weekend I decided it was time to separate the breeds back out again, ready for the breeding season. I like to leave the cockerels in with the hens at least 3 weeks to settle in before I test for fertility. My guess is that most of my birds will be laying by the end of February which is in 5 weeks time, enough time for them all to settle into their new homes and runs. I will start them on breeding rations at the end of this month, they are more expensive but do result in healthier / stronger chicks.

This year, I have decided to sell a few surplus eggs on Ebay. I don’t normally do this since I hatch most of my own eggs and by word of mouth have sold on any surplus birds but I’m thinking of hatching a little less this year to allow me to spend more time concentrating on hatching some goslings.

I’m often asked how I manage to keep a run of cockerels together because cockerels will fight. It’s straight forward enough if you keep docile breeds and providing you don’t hurry things too much and follow a few simple rules.

• First of all, cockerels are territorial, they will protect their ‘territory’ (usually their run) from others. Secondly, they are competitive so if there are hens around, they will compete with one another. I remove the hens so that they are out of sight, then I decide which house and run the boys will end up in. This has to be a run that hasn’t had any of the boys in recently – in other words, it is neutral territory. I open the door to this run as well as the door to the boys runs. They can slowly leave their territory and go into the neutral territory and meet. There are usually a few squabbles but often, they will stay in their own territory and providing there is sufficient space, ignore one another in the neutral territory as they explore it, they are fine.
• They still get fed and watered and continue to sleep in their own house, but there is food in the new ‘neutral territory’ run too. After 3 or 4 weeks, I find they are tolerating one another and will come for food together in the new run and I stop feeding them in their own houses.
• After another couple of weeks, I transfer them at night into the new house together and shut their runs so they are now all together in the new territory. The next morning, I always make sure I am there at first light but more often than not, there aren’t many serious squabbles. This house is neutral territory so none of them feel they need to protect it as their own territory.

The smaller ‘summer’ runs now get to rest for a while and with luck, the frosty weather will kill off any worm eggs or larvae that are living in the ground. Hopefully before we get any frost, the grass will recover a little, ready for late winter / early spring when I re-populate the runs. That is if I can keep the rabbit numbers down but that’s another story!

S has always wanted chickens, which was first randomly announced when we bought our first house together 5 years ago, in an area with restrictions that categorically stated no livestock! Wind on to last year and we got the keys to our new home. We’ve spent the last year bashing the house around and rebuilding it and generally making it our own and now its time for chooks!

Back in March I went to see J the chicken lady (as she is referred to in our house) and met her chickens. I initially decided on two Sussex and two Brahma but then decided that I’d prefer two Welsummer instead of the Brahma (I got worried about their size).  So we can look forward to brown (welsummer) and white (sussex) eggs.

Our chickens weren’t even eggs back in March, but they have since hatched and in a few weeks I’ll be going to collect them! They just need to finish feathering.  Their ride home will be in a… card board box with some newspaper in and air holes?  Will that be OK?!  Forum post coming up…

Since March we have been busy. S has built them their house or the “Palais de Poulet” as it has been nicknamed and he has also built their run. We’ve vermin proofed it as best we can by digging chicken wire into the ground and then stainless steel plate as well, and a net will shortly be put over the top of the run to prevent the wild birds getting in.

I’ve bought a feeder and drinker, food, grit, lice powder, dust extracted shavings, blue egg boxes… the set up for these hens can be pretty expensive if you let yourself get carried away!  In a nod to recycling though, the nest boxes are going to be lined with shredded paper.  My place of employment generates black bags of the stuff almost daily, and I hope it’ll keep them nice and warm and be nice to make nests in.

Then there are the gadgets – pop hole openers, timers, solar lighting systems…  I thought this was quite a low-tech goodlife kinda hobby?  But in all honesty, it does seem to be that it can be as simple or as techy as you want to make it!  My biggest worry / ambition is that the hens we have are happy and healty.

As our chooks are going to be quite young – about 10 weeks old and another 10 weeks (fingers crossed) away from the first very much anticipated egg, we’ve bought growers feed for them.  We’re using a brand that is manufactured in our county of Norfolk and available from a feed merchant who is all of 5 minutes drive from my place of work.  We’ll switch to layers pellet when they get to the appropriate age of 16 weeks.  Is that right?  It’s what it says on the feed sack…  Hmm, another question to the forum…

We should be expecting our first eggs in August /September, and hopefully we’ll continue to get sporadic eggs throughout the winter with our girls hitting their stride next spring!  At least the egg boxes will get some eventual use…

All I’ve got to do now is come up with some names for them…  Any suggestions?!  S has suggested Paxo, Sage, Onion and Roast.  I like Wilma and Wendoline for the Welsummers and Shaz and Sheila for the Sussex.