Couldn't the chickens become dog food, once passed onto the big chicken coup in the sky?
Asks Mr. Never had chickens... nor dogs.
I hope LD doesn't spot that, it would be quite the scoup.
As a general rule of thumb, if the gardener shows no interest in eating something then I don't risk feeding it to the dogs.
He's never yet eaten one f our deceased chickens and so they've all been given a good, Christian (Buddhist?) burial.
We have very fertile ground.
I checked on the new family this morming and there is only one chick. I had to help it out of the egg last night using a cocktail stick as it was having trouble breaking the membrane inside the shell and luckily it has survived. As the other eggs are showing no signs at all of hatching, I fear this chick will be an only child and the since the weight of the other eggs suggest that they contain chicks, I also fear that I will find a dead, fully-formed chick inside of each egg. That's never nice to see, but I'll give them a couple more days first before checking. The mum usually denotes when there is no more hope by getting up off her nest to take any chicks out into the big wide world.
Maybe the extreme heat has called a problem as I would have expected at least three chicks from four eggs? Maybe she isn't a very good mum? It isn't as easy as just sitting on the eggs for three weeks... you have to regularly turn the eggs, and then stop turning them for the last few days. All that should be instinct, but who knows?
It looks like a little boy to me and I hope that he survives or mum will go broody yet again.
Of course, I have to consider the appalling possibility that unlike his namesake, Nelson isn't doing his duty?
Luckily my big white cock is always ready to perform, if needed.
After a couple of days with no further eggs hatching, the mother came off her nest and brought her chick out into the big, wide world.
I'm pretty sure it's a boy, and it was great to help him out of his egg, but by the time I get back from my upcoming work trip I know that I will have forgotten all about this little episode and he will be yet another juvenile among the flock.
After mum came off her nest I checked the remaining eggs of the clutch and they all just contained a fowl () smelling liquid, suggesting that they weren't fertile.
This obviously raises some questions about Nelson's performance, because the virility of my big white cock is beyond question.
^ She looks like she's getting some good use out of your cock, Mendip... I wonder if the youngster will become a sea captain?
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