On Oct 24, 9:06*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
"Judith in France" wrote in ...
On Oct 23, 5:39 pm, "Christina Websell"



wrote:
"glasgowdan" wrote in message

...

In terms of feeding, my 3 get kitchen scraps. They love raw spinach,
pomegranate and carrot gratings. They will eat apple if it's finely
chopped. They do turn their noses up at quite a lot though!

I hope this is addition to their correct diet of layers pellets and not
instead of!

Their pen area is unroofed and mainly stone chippings with some mud and
grass.

Mud is not good.

There is a large space under their coop where they settle if it's

raining. And damned if I can't get them to lay their eggs in the egg
box! They are always inside the coop in a really hard spot to reach.,
Must get a fake egg or three and start to teach them where to put
them!

They were starting to slow down their egg-laying up until 2 weeks ago
when I installed a timed light in their coop. I was getting 2 eggs a
day from the 3, now I seem to be getting 3 eggs 6 days a week and two
one day a week. They are great wee layers and don't demand much once
you have the basics sorted.

You don't sound like you have the basics sorted to me, tbh. If I
understand
you right, you feed them on kitchen scraps, let them out on mud and they
do
not like their nest box. Must try harder.

I am relieved that mine came home today Tina after staying out all
night, bad girls!!! *I moved their Egu (Yes, I heard you cuss and the
quick intake of breath:-)), just a few feet away, the silly things
didn't like the move. *I called them this p.m. and they scuttled
across the field to me like little old ladies, running, they got
double helpings of food tonight.

---------

You were lucky that you got them back, if any of mine were out overnight
that would be the end of them, down the throat of Mr/Ms Fox. *I don't know
if foxes are such a nuisance in France as they are here though, they didn't
seem to be in Germany.

It's impossible for me to free range mine now as foxes come in the daytime
too. *Once it was perfectly safe as long as I made certain I shut the huts
up at dusk. *Now it isn't.
I'm reduced to keeping my poultry in huts with runs attached made of
weldmesh with concrete slab floors and a roof on.
It worked for ages with no roofs on, 6 feet high, but then one fox managed
to climb in and kill one of my favourite hens along with her 6 14 week old
pullet chicks.
Yes, all pullets! *Wasn't I lucky? *Until that moment.

None of them had been taken for food, they were all left in the run with
their heads off. *7 bodies and 7 separate heads. *I wept when I cleared them
up.

Tina

Oh dear, Tina, I'm sorry, how awful!!!!! I lock the Eglu at night but
they are totally free range during the day, I have been out walking
and often walk into them coming back to the village. I am down to 1
egg a day now, the weather has really picked up and was so warm today
that I was in tee shirt and leggings. Will they continue to lay do
you think whilst the weather is warm.

My neighbour has a lot of hens, last year the fox got into the hen
house one night, he killed all the chickens, about 20 or more, and
left them as you describe, bodies and heads. Why do foxes behave that
way, killing one and taking it away to eat, I understand but not
wanton slaughter.

Judith