[joyfull]

I have 3 silkie crosses who each keep going broody and so far have managed to stop all 3 so far this year. Well yesterday I noticed Danni had succumbed yet again so this morning off she went to the silkie sin bin squawking and screaming (her not me  ) and then I turn around to see Claudette rosey away to herself and being told off by the others.
Now the rosey away is a sure sign she is talking to her eggs that she has left whilst grabbing a bite to eat and drink and the being told off is the others telling her to hurry up and get back to raising the next generation. Well I watched then all of a sudden she made a dash for it, crawled through the hedge bottom and ran off into the field. I watched her disappear until I could see her tail bobbing along no more.
So will she be bringing me some more silkie crosses back, araucanas, keets (especially as I don't know where the guineas are laying or even what sex they are - suspect they are female but never found any eggs) or araucana crossed with absolutely any of my other girls? The farmer has sprayed the field in the last 2 days but obviously missed her and her eggs luckily. Oh well time will tell what we have got 

[Casey76]

lol!

didn't Claudette do this last year too?

[joyfull]

no it was another one who bought the chicks back but didn't know what to do with them after that - Danni raised them for her. Claudette sat on some eggs down the bank at the side of the beck but whatever eggs she sat on didn't hatch so she gave up after 5 weeks.
I really didn't want to raise any chicks this year and least of all by Claudette as she is my original tree dweller and all her chicks have followed her into the trees (which is why I have 14 greet me every morning already up and about  )

[ANHBUC]

I really didn't want to raise any chicks this year and least of all by Claudette as she is my original tree dweller and all her chicks have followed her into the trees (which is why I have 14 greet me every morning already up and about  )
[/quote]

How high up do they roost Joyfull?  One of my black Rocks - Little Miss Sunshine flew up to a branch in our Silver Birch tree.  When I measured it - 7 feet high, hope she does not get into the habit of it. 

[jinty1911]

Aww so sweet.  Mine were both doing the soft cluck cluck last week when they were broody but they didn't have anything to sit on.  Strange.  They must go broody and then think they have eggs to talk to.  If humans went on like that, they would be considered mad     

[joyfull]

The guineas roost in the cherry trees about 20 feet up, two others a lavender araucana and red/black cockerel sleep in a field maple together about 10 feet up and the rest are in the laurels about 15 feet high. They stay out in all weathers even appearing in the mornings with frost on their backs 

[ANHBUC]

I thought they weren't meant to be good flyers, I hoped the 7 foot lowest branches would be too high.  Then again I want them to be able to aviod predators so I am confused as to how I should feel.   :blink: 

[Casey76]

I thought they weren't meant to be good flyers, I hoped the 7 foot lowest branches would be too high.  Then again I want them to be able to aviod predators so I am confused as to how I should feel.   :blink: 

Do they have any launch pads near by?

If you clip a wing they shouldn't be able to get up that high (but where chickens are concerned... who knows  )

My pullets became more ameanable to staying in the copp once they started laying, if that's any help... also because I started poking them out of the tree with a broomstick  :blink:

[hillfooter]

My pullets became more ameanable to staying in the copp once they started laying, if that's any help... also because I started poking them out of the tree with a broomstick  :blink:

You should take lessons from Joy and then you wouldn't need to use your broomstick to poke them you could fly up to get them
HF

[Casey76]

 

[joyfull]

no launch pads - they just get up on the lowest branch and work their way up (all of them are laying - some in the coops and others in lorry cabs, on top of stacks of bricks or in the fields). I did try trying to get them out by using Grannie Annie's keep net which has a 6 foot pole but this drove them higher so now I leave them, one of them is a goldline who isn't a small chicken - she sleeps on top of an engine  .
The guineas before they fly up just stand there eyeing up the tree then they dip their necks and just fly right up - no hoping from branch to branch for them  .

  @ HF

[Lindeggs]

Aww so sweet.  Mine were both doing the soft cluck cluck last week when they were broody but they didn't have anything to sit on.  Strange.  They must go broody and then think they have eggs to talk to.  If humans went on like that, they would be considered mad     

Ah but if we don't have any babies to talk to, we talk to our chickens instead!

And have you ever seen a woman in a supermarket daydreaming and rocking the supermarket trolley back and forth like it's a pram?

I think you're right.  We should all be in the mad-house. 

[alancane]

Could you not round up the local children population on Easter Sunday to scour the fields, bushes, woods for eggs? It seems they will be ripe for the job on the day!
Shame they won't find chocolate eggs though, but will be fun to see how eggs come back from everywhere. 

[ANHBUC]

I thought they weren't meant to be good flyers, I hoped the 7 foot lowest branches would be too high.  Then again I want them to be able to aviod predators so I am confused as to how I should feel.   :blink: 

Do they have any launch pads near by?

If you clip a wing they shouldn't be able to get up that high (but where chickens are concerned... who knows  )

My pullets became more ameanable to staying in the copp once they started laying, if that's any help... also because I started poking them out of the tree with a broomstick  :blink:

No launch pads, as I said just took off like a harrier jump jet.  The lowest branch is 7 feet high.  Don't really want to clip their wings.  Two have yet to lay their first eggs so I was hoping that they would be a little heavier and less likely to fly so high when they start laying.   

[evie2]

. . . I really didn't want to raise any chicks this year . . .

Unless they're Lemon Millefleur Sablepoots