| News from the fields, 18th Nov 2008 |
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It's so much quicker to get round when you're not slippin' and aslidin' around, trying to protect the eggs from a shower or a fatal fall. Life is a joy for man and hen, (they're dust bathing again!) While they relax, I've been able to get back to building the new hen house. It's a big mother of a hen house, being 7.5 x 5m and a payload of 225 birds. The baby birds are now nearly 7 weeks old and my dear wife promised me ( or was it the other way round?) it would be finished and lived in by week 8. Which is Friday next week. I've got a fair bit to do to have it finished by then and can no longer blame the weather!! I reckon there's another 100 or so hours to go and at present I can give it about 25 hours a week so those babies may be in by the time they're 12 weeks old. They're the fifth flock reared by us and we've learnt that the birds' development is set back when they move into their laying house, and the later this happens the bigger the knock-back. For us, the ideal time is 14-16 weeks but the commercial world dictates that they move at week 18 to minimise the unproductive first few weeks. I'm sure that a white coated 60's Ministry scientist worked out that birds kept indoors gave a few extra eggs over their year of life when moved at 18 weeks, and it's still recieved wisdom even in the organic world. But for Mandy and I, that sets them back at least 4 weeks as a new shed, pasture and pecking order definitely upset them. We want to move them earlier and give them time to check out the new pad, settle in and establish their hierarchy way before the messy business of oviation (is that a word??) starts. AJ |
