New birds in the house!

So, Fresh Start for Hens have collected and re-homed the previous flock; the chicken shed’s had any necessary maintenance, been cleaned and moved to a fresh piece of pasture before being liberally sprayed with special ‘mud’ to protect from red mite… we’re almost ready to welcome a new flock of birds…

First we have to install and connect the feeders, water lines and lighting before preparing the scratch area with fresh sawdust, hay bales and pecking blocks.

Then, just before the birds are due to arrive, we open up the pop holes, set the timers for the lights and make a final check of every water station to ensure that the valves are still working and the birds will be able to take a drink whenever they need to.

Finally, we place vegetables throughout the shed, which gives the new birds - which are still very young at this point - something to ‘play’ with and to peck at with their razor-tipped beaks. Once that’s all done we’re ready for our newest flock to arrive.

Nine months before we need them to arrive, we place an order with our specialist pullet rearers who, like Fresh Start for Hens, deliver them to us in special poultry crates that have been designed specifically to ensure the welfare of the birds during transport.

When the pullets first get to us they’re 16 weeks old and still too young to actually start producing eggs. So the first month or so, they spend getting used to their new home and enjoying the Sussex countryside. At around 20 weeks the first birds will start ‘coming into lay’ but these pullets’ eggs are still too small to be sent to customers, so we donate them to local homeless shelters and food banks.

At around 24 weeks - 2 months after they first arrived at the farm - the first small and medium eggs from this flock will start making their way to our retail customers and then, hopefully, on to your kitchens. So, for anyone that’s ever wondered why we can’t “just ramp up production” when we we’ve run out of large eggs, this may give you some idea - the whole process, from ordering the birds to getting an egg to your table takes about a year. We like to think it’s worth the wait though!

So that's what's going on at the moment: a new field full of birds settling in at Rookery Farm 

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The Curse of the Red Mite...

Something we are always thinking about when it comes to the welfare of our chickens, is predators and, more importantly, how to guard against them!

Foxes are the obvious ones that everyone knows about, but you've also got birds of prey, badgers, even herons.  But some of the worst are Red Mites which, if you don't protect against them, will feed on the blood of the birds.

These tiny parasites start off almost translucent but after a feed swell up into red coloured mites which are still only 0.7mm at their largest, making small numbers of them incredibly hard to spot.  They live in cracks and crevices and can multiply at an astonishing rate, particularly during the warmer months.

While they're not fatal like a fox, they can in large numbers cause discomfort, poor health and ultimately lower egg production.  So taking measures to stop them getting anywhere near our birds is a priority.  

As an organic egg farm, we don't use any chemicals, pesticides or insecticides on our land, so instead we use a diatomaceous earth powder - a 100% natural silicate which comes from the fossilised remains of ancient hard-shelled algea found in river beds. 

This works because at a microscopic level the powder is incredibly absorbent. It attacks the parasite's exoskeleton by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle, effectively causing it to dry out and die. Its sharp edges are abrasive, which speeds up the process and, because it works mechanically rather than chemically, they can't build up an immunity to it.

So, after a shed's been moved and thoroughly cleaned, it get's sprayed to guard against Red Mites.

The powder gets thoroughly mixed with water and then transferred into a container so it can be sprayed by hand.  Any crack or crevice creates an ideal environment for them to lay their eggs, so we go over every inch of each chicken shed making sure that every seam gets thoroughly coated with the mixture.

As well being applied to every nook and cranny of the hen house we also use it in the hen's scratch areas where the chickens take dust baths to coat and condition their feathers.  Usually one application is all it takes, but we're always on the look out and, if necessary, we sprinkle more powder in the nest boxes which usually takes care of the problem.

It's a messy, messy job which takes at least a day to get done properly.

It's not pretty, and when it's dry it can look like we simply don't take care of our sheds!  But it is incredibly effective, and it is essential to guarding against what is possibly the most pervasive predator our chickens face.

So that's what's going on this week: giving our shed a mud bath to guard against the curse of the Red Mite... 

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Hen Housekeeping!

Now that Fresh Start have collected the old birds and distributed them to their new families (you can read all about them ‘Flying the Coop’ in our previous post), we only have a few weeks to get everything ready before a new flock of birds arrive. And there’s a fair amount to do…

All that chicken muck from under the floor and the earth from the scratch area is now incredibly rich in phosphates and nitrogen which makes for brilliant fertiliser. There are strict regulations when it comes to these waste materials however, so it all gets dug up and moved to another part of the farm. With far more than we can possibly use on our land, the rest is stockpiled ready to be collected by a variety of other organic businesses including local organic vegetable producers and a company who blends it in with their green compost.

The shed is then moved and inspected so that any necessary maintenance can be carried out. With the shed out of the way, we bring in the tractors to rotavate the land which kills off any parasites by exposing them to the sun’s ultraviolet light and prepares the ground for re-seeding.

Then, when all the necessary repairs have taken place, it’s time suit-up and give the shed a thorough wash. 1 x mobile water tank, 1 x industrial pressure washer, 10,000 litres of rain water and a few soggy days later, and the shed is ready for the final stage of preparation when it gets liberally sprayed with ‘dirt’ - but that’s something we’ll go into next next time…

So that's what's going on at the moment: cleaning up after a few thousand chickens so the new birds have somewhere nice and fresh to move into... 

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