Chickadees have arrived!

Today we went and collected two lovely little silver laced wyandotte bantam hens for the back garden. Well, we know their mother was a silver laced wyandotte, but it is suspected from the deviation in colouring that daddy was the cockerel in the next pen who jumped the fence! Nonetheless they are two very pretty little hens and Gabriel has been utterly fascinated with them since we got them home!

Poultry Breeders Listings

We are hatching some of our own this spring (and I’m hoping that maybe one of the two new girls will go broody this summer to hatch too), but we decided we really wanted to get back up and running as we have missed our girls so much since moving. These little ladies will be staying in our garden (with maybe another 2 bantam editions later in the Spring), whilst our larger breeding plans will be carried out up at Fron Dirion – John & Val’s Smallholding.

I checked out our Poultry Breeders & Live Egg Suppliers and saw that there was a breeder just up the road from us in the same village. If you live in the Gwynedd area and are looking for a poultry breeder with well cared for hens try out Graig Farm Poultry in Carmel (Nr. Caernarfon). Not only were all her birds looked after meticulously, Janet was ever so friendly and helpful and would no doubt be a great source of advice for the first time keeper.

Settling the New Hens

Bantam Hens

The two girls are now settling into the shed and are currently in a pen in there while they get used to their new home. Once they have settled they will be in their moveable coop and run in the garden so they always have plenty of fresh grass to scratch around on.

We are using an omlet moveable fencing system as well as a mesh fox proof run attached to the poultry house. The plan is that if we are out and about they will be in their safer covered run and when we are home they can have lots more space to explore, but still be kept off the veg beds and flowers. The entire set up is movable (including coop) and I’ll post some pictures when it isn’t so foggy and grim outside so I can get some good ones!

Chicken Names

Having had so many cats, rabbits, chickens, quail & ducks over the years it becomes harder and harder to pick a name for the new birds and I’ve already made the mistake of using some of my favourite children’s names on cats, which meant when pregnant I found it very hard to pick our sons’ names!

I’ve left it up to my husband, Gary, to pick this time. Hopefully the two little no-names will soon have names and be enjoying themselves scratching around the garden.