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Hello,
It’s October so that means its Autumn and that means
conker competitions, discovering your favourite jumper
has been eaten by moths over the summer and at the very
end of the month Halloween!
Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year
when the spirit world can make contact with the natural
world and when magic is most potent. We all know
that ghosts can be naughty, so just imagine what they
get up during the “liminal time” but there is a way of
keeping them at bay…glow in the dark pumpkins! So
we thought it would be kind of cool to have a pumpkin
carving competition. The rules are simple, as many
entries as you want, entries via email to johannes@omlet.co.uk
and photographs should include a shot taken at night
with full glowing effect. Deadline is midnight on
October 31st and the winner will receive a £20 Omlet
gift voucher to spend in the Omlet shop. Several
Omlet employees will all be entering too so expect
competition to be fierce!
Thanks to Clare and Kate who helped at the Autumn
show in Ardingly last weekend. It was a marvelous
show because quite unexpectedly one of the last One Man
Bands left on the planet appeared on the Omlet stand
where he delighted the crowds with a rendition of Chick,
Chick, Chicken lay a little egg for me. Those of
us who were lucky to be there will remember it
forever! |
A rare sighting of a one man
band
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This Weeks Star
Photos
The first egg and a double yolker,
it doesn't get any better than this.
Which
chicken laid that enormous egg at the end of the bench?
(sorry Trevor – we couldn’t resist that
one!)
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Barbara's Weekly
Diary!
Creepy
Crawlies!
I check my girls over regularly
for skin parasites and have avoided them….until now. My
hens are all used to being handled which makes checking
for lice and mites really easy. I hold each hen with one
hand and carefully ruffle the feathers against the
direction they grow in to see if I can spot anything
scurrying away. The hot spots to check are round the
neck area, under the wings, the abdomen, breast and
around the vent. Last weekend, I spotted one or two tiny
beige discs the size of pinheads on some of the neck and
belly feathers and as I watched them, they moved! All of
the hens have now had a really good dusting with louse
powder which I’ll repeat in a week to catch any eggs
that have hatched out. Red mites are the most dangerous
because they don’t actually live on the birds,
preferring to hide in cracks and corners of the hen
house. They come out at night and feed on the blood of
the birds and can cause anaemia (often a sign is a pale
pink comb) and lethargy. Sometimes you will realise that
you have a red mite problem if you can see a whitish
powder at the ends of roost bars or tiny blood spots on
eggs. Luckily the eglu doesn’t have any difficult to get
into crevices so doing a thorough clean out is
possible. You can then treat with a red mite spray
or powder which is now available in the Omlet shop.
Northern Fowl Mites are similar to Red Mite but live on
the birds and leave dirty dull looking patches on the
feathers and leave the hen depressed and miserable.
Scaly Leg Mites burrow under the leg scales and cause
horrible irritation. This is easy to cure by dunking the
legs one at a time in a jar of surgical spirit or
smearing the legs with a thick layer of Vaseline.
Be vigilant as a parasitic
infestation can make your hens feel really miserable and
can even stop them from laying eggs – a scenario
definitely worth avoiding!
Barbara |
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Liz Steed has been wondering about
her fussy hens:
"Hi Don't know whether I'm
worrying over nothing but my ladies don't appear overly
interested in layers mix. I've had them just over two
weeks now, and have dutifully only fed them layers mix
in the morning and titbits in the afternoon when I get
in from work. I'm not convinced that the little loves
are eating enough of the layers mix as I rarely need to
add any more (I've measured what's in there today so
tomorrow I'll have a better idea). If they could, they'd
rugby tackle me for whatever I put out later in the day,
and start running up and down the run when they see me
come home. They get to roam the garden when I get in,
until they roost. They love porridge oats, sunflower
hearts, sweetcorn, peas, bread, pasta rice, but turned
their noses up at cabbage (will try lettuce when I have
some). It feels a bit like kids refusing to eat whats
good for them. Am I an overanxious new mum??!!!"
Forum
members offered some good advice to get the
faddy ladies eating properly!
"As a chicken expert (ha
ha) of 4 months I have found chickens to be exactly like
children rufusing to eat what is good for them. When my
girls first arrived I couldn't wait to give them extra
treats, mostly to get them used to me and tame. One day
I would give them sweetcorn, the next grapes and oh
tomorrow we are having curry and there will be rice
left. In the end I realised that they were not eating
their pellets but waiting for their afternoon treats
because treats probably tasted nicer than the pellets.
Well I have now stopped this. For one week they only
got pellets. They didn't starve to death because they
soon realised pellets was all they were getting.
Now
I give treats two or three times a week. I hang greens
for them everyday. (my girls do not free range in the
garden, but they do have a large run).
Layers mash
or pellets should make up the bulk of a chickens diet.
They have all the necessary nutrients needed to keep
chickens healthy and for them to produce their lovely
eggs. Hope this helps" – Ali-S
"We stopped all treats for
10 days when we realised that ours were ignoring their
layers mash. It does work and then they seem to realise
that they eat that and then get treats!" –
Lesley |
"They can be dumb
sometimes but not that dumb when it comes to food. Once
they get into the habit of eating mash or pellets in the
early part of the day they seem to stick to it, even
though you do introduce the afternoon treats back in." –
Trish
"Maybe you are expecting
the chickens to eat more than they should: they are
quite small animals under their feathers. Omlet say that
a fully-grown chicken will need 120g of layers
mash/pellets a day. In a measuring jug, 120g of pellets
only comes up to around the quarter-pint mark. If your
chickens are young, they won't even need that much. On
the other hand, if you gave me a choice between a bowl
of dull layers mash/pellets and bowl of porridge oats,
sunflower hearts, sweetcorn, peas, bread, pasta, and
rice, I know which I would choose -- and I think
everyone else on this forum would do the same!" –
Gallina
"My 3 chooks aren't that
keen on their pellets either. I only have to the refill
the peanut feeder once a week. I still have a third of
the pellet bag left after 2.5 months. But they seem
healthy and as they are eating some pellets, snacks
(favourites - porridge, sweetcorn, bread, cabbage,
pasta) and freeranging for a couple of hours a day, I'm
quite happy that they are getting a fairly balanced
diet. Hope yours start to eat them soon" -
Jacqueline
Trial Access To The
Forum
If you are an egluowner then you can
access to the forum. Evening if you haven't got chickens
yet you can have a weeks trial access to the forum by
clicking this link here -> forum
Don't forget
Barbara
Remember that Barbara is always on
hand to answer your question about chickens - just pop
her an email to barbara@omlet.co.uk |
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Two Egluowners of
the Week
Victoria
Tebbs
Age:
38
Occupation:
publisher
Where do you
live? Peterborough
What
pets do you have? 9-month old Parson Russell
terrier, Sydney Dylan.
If you were
stranded on a desert island what luxury item would you
have? chocolate and Jelly
Bellies.
How many chickens do you
have? 2
What breeds are
they? Pekin bantams - silver partridge and
porcelaine - beautiful!
How old are
they? 10 months
What are
your chickens called? Sybil and
Margot.
How many eggs do you get a
week and what is your favourite way of cooking
them? On strike at the moment - we've had about
30 eggs from them since April. Favourite way of cooking
them is eggie bread or in cup
cakes.
Do your chickens have a
party trick? Eat single seeds from my fingers,
sitting on my knee - only Sybil though. Margot's having
none of it. Sybil's also good at pecking our puppy. They
also answer back when spoken to and perform the most
fantastic two-footed bounce.
Would you like to be egluowner of the
week?
Each week we will be featuring an
elguowner of the week. If you would like to be
featured then read our questionnaire here
and email your answers to james@omlet.co.uk .
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Helen
Cowmeadow
Age: 26
Occupation:
Copywriter
Where do you live? Raynes
Park, London, SW20
If you were stranded
on a desert island what luxury
item would you have?
A pillow!
How many rabbits do you
have? 4
What breeds are they?
Blue French lop doe, Orange dwarf lop buck, 2
black butterfly dwarf lops (m/f)
How old are they? 1+,
1.5, 2+, 2.5 yrs
What are your rabbits
called? Sylvia, Oliver, Humphrey &
Tilly
What are your rabbits favourite
food? Spring Greens! |
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