Saturday 3 September 2011

Clipping the Wings and 300 eggs!

As I mentioned in my last post, Custard our Alpha Chook was discovering the fun of flying! Unfortunately our fence is quite low, and she had been spotted perching on it. Not good when we live close to the road, and next door have got a nutty Dalmatian called Inca. Not that she'd know what to do if she caught a chicken, and I'm sure she'd come off the worst, but we don't want to risk it... So my soon to be Father-in-Law clipped the wings. He's much more confident at handling chickens that me or my other half, and got the job done almost before we knew it. Managed to get a few photos though... And I was Googling again (after the event) and found this interesting site, which explains how to do it, what you need and discusses the ethics of chopping feathers, and I must admit I would prefer not to have clipped wings, however, it is really down to health and safety and for the girls own good. We do have plans to build the girls a big run, rather than having them taking over the whole garden, as my baby is an almost toddler now and I really don't want her playing with chicken poop. Not for a few years at least when she can clean out the coop! ;-) So when they are in the run the fence will be too high, and possibly have a lid on so their feathers can grow back and they'll be able to flap again in there.

Custard showing off her liking for heights, And she can get much higher...

Before...
During...

And After.

And celebrating 300 eggs this week. We have had one loss, where a broken egg was snaffled by Bennie in the coop before we could remove it. Hoping she doesn't make a habit of it. So here is the egg usage graph for eggs laid between the 15th May when they arrived, until 31st August 2011.