Feeling Guilty

Weaning the Ducks and Chickens

When we took over here at North Wald Self Catering on Orkney I had all these great ideas about how to look after chickens and ducks but very little (if any at all) experience.  I did have the internet and that was intended to be my main stay of inspiration. Now if you have every tried to research anything on the internet you will already know what a mine field it is. “Do this”, “Don’t do this”, “You must”, “You must not”, “You will”, “You wont”. Most ofter these snippets of information all apply to the same thing. All you can do is to follow the majority and hope for the best. Anyway scratch feeding in the morning and afternoon was suggested by a number of sites and people – so this is the road I went down. In hind sight I now know I made a rod for my own back – as the expression goes. (Angela and Rod are allowed to add smiley faced comments to this post as they will be well aware of what I mean)

Feeding Frenz

It was great at first. I would go out with a bucket of food and shout and all the chickens and ducks would come running, waddling, flying, stumbling, cart-wheeling towards me. It was fun – It was! It gave me a chance to look over them and count them to see if any were missing and generally just enjoy them. Especially when the ducklings came along. To see those little balls of fluff scurrying about, tumbling over each other to get to the food would bring a smile deep into any ones heart.

Over time the fun aspect dwindled and the routine began to wear. Both the ducks and hens began to feed less and less from the feeders and also did less and less grazing and just sat about the farm yard waiting to be fed.  I had hoped that my feed bill would reduce over the summer when the hens are supposed to find most of their food outdoors. Being pastured, ie they can roam anywhere they like no fences to keep them in, only ones to try and keep them out of the garden (Ha! - I wish) they are supposed to be able to more or less feed themselves on bugs and grass, as any natural bird would.

This was not the case. At about 9am every morning they began to congregate at the house. They would line the window sills and rap on the glass. They would follow me from room to room banging on the windows! Getting out of the from door was a nightmare. They would besiege whomever opened the door in the hope of food. Another very unpleasant result of all this feeding near the door and in the yard was the poop. It got so bad at the door that I was having to scrub the doorstep on a daily basis just to make it safe to step out side – Chicken and duck poop, besides being smelly are very slippery when fresh.

I decided I had to do something about this as I didn’t want to go flat on my face while stepping outside to get coal on a dark winters night. Since setting up the new hen house I have been cutting back on the amount of food they get as a scratch food and putting more and more inside the hen house. That in itself made a difference to the safety aspect at the door. Much less obnoxious substances graced the step. Then I added a big feeder, instead of trays into the hen house. There is already a big feeder in the yard. From a couple of days ago  I am no longer feeding a scratch feed at all – with the exception of a small handful here and there while filling the feeders. It has made quite a difference. There are still a lot of ducks and chickens around the farm yard at times, as there should be, but the rattling of the windows and the mass assaults seem to have dwindled significantly. I tested it and they still come running if I stand there with a bucket and shout them so this will still happen on occasion, but only when I have some extra food I wish to feed them. Maybe some warm mash on a cold day, or something else specially prepared for them that would be unsuitable to put in the feeders.

They still seem happy at the moment as they are laying quite well. I collected a whole dozen eggs yesterday. I was amazed at the amount. Haven’t had that many in a long while. Mind you two of them are now laying on the floor in the little hen house. I just can not get them to move into the big one. Most eggs though are being laid in the big barn.  I will just need to monitor things for a while and see how they go. At least life will be less rigid for me. I won’t have to be out there at 9:30am and 2:30pm in all types of weather, no matter what I had planned, feeding the scratch feed. I can now just top up the feeders any time and collect eggs while I am at it.

Ant in better days

I have to add we are a little worried about Ant. He has been top dog now for almost 2 years but has recently lost his rank. He hasn’t just slipped a little in the ranks he has been demoted to the very bottom.  I feel so sorry for him he has to wait to the end to get his food and is not allowed any where near any of the other cockerels. Even his brother Dec now bullies him. He still has a few of the old girls around him at times but you often see him out in the front field foraging on his own. Sad.