Our 'Sound Bite' this month is: Kitchen Scraps.
We asked our panel, do you give your kitchen scraps to you birds? What do you find works well? What do you think are the positive and negative points of it?
Please note, this is currently running as a BETA page and will be fully online with more views from people across the poultry hobby in October. If you have any feedback please email: mail@poultrytalk.com Thank you.
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From Chicken Street, well known columnist writing for many magazines. Breeder of many breeds. |
Dawn Holliday A beginner who loves her chickens. Here to tell us how she gets on & what she loves about them. |
Lewis Seaman Young enthusiastic poultry breeder & exhibitor keen to expand his knowledge. |
Paco Delgado Part of the Poultry Talk. com Team. Belgian breeder, exhibitor & Judge. |
Robert & Julia Rees True Bantam Breeders & exhibitors based in Wales. Passionate about their birds. |
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Sophie Mccoy Founder of One Little Egg, swapping to find an amazing item to auction for the BHWT. |
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Bio: AKA Chicken Street. Breeder, Keeper & freelance writer.
Location: Oswestry, North Shropshire.
Favourite part of the hobby: Introducing new folks to it.
Favourite breeds: Brahmas & Owlbeards.
It’s been a very odd year weather wise, the garden seems to be well ahead of itself in some areas yet in others the very hot spring of the year prompted a number of vegetables into a very early start only to be nipped back by a rather naff start to the summer. Much the same can be said of the poultry, fertility across my breeds kicked in very early on only to be knocked by the heat which, in some pens, induced an untimely moult. Egg production has also been far more variable this year which again I attribute to the weather. I’m sure by the end of the year I’ll look back at my records and see that on average it’s been no different.
That said, the warm dry periods have meant the growers have been able to spend more time outdoors getting on with the act of growing and by now the eldest of the youngsters are starting to reach full maturity, and particularly with the table breeds it means I can work out just how many I’m likely to have for the freezer and how many will either go to the laying flock or on to sale or auction. August can be a buyers’ market when it comes to poultry sales as many breeders will have sorted through their young stock, selected out the ones they wish to keep and will be looking to move on the spare stock before the winter sets in. I, like many others up and down the country will be doing much the same as I only tend to over winter my breeding flocks and any likely replacements I may need. With feed prices continuing to rise it’s always best to have only the necessary mouths to feed before the new season starts.
Sound bite: I’ll feed my garden & laying flocks uncooked scraps such as left over greens as it’s a part of the overall recycling job poultry does for the household converting unwanted vegetation into eggs & compost. Would I feed them cooked leftovers? No, there are no cooked leftovers here! Would I recommend it? Not really no, a chickens digestive system is not designed for cooked food, and none of my coops have a cooker installed.
Contact me: On twitter: www.twitter.com/chickenstreet and visit my website at: www.chickenstreet.co.uk
Bio:
Location: Wakefield.
Favourite part of the hobby:
Favourite breeds:
Hi. I'm Dawn and live near Wakefield. I started with my first three 'girls' in June 2010. I say it like that because one turned out to be a boy, so rather than introduce just one, I bought a couple more and everything went ok. Then one morning I heard that familiar croaking of a young boy learning how to crow! So I had to return him... Then there was a bully..., and then i tried a couple of Frizzles but that didn't work out either so after all that I was left with Babs, who was a brown lovely looking cross something, and two Light Sussex. Unfortunately the fox got them earlier this year while I was away camping. So i don't really know the in and outs of it, but it chewed through thick wood to get to them.
I demolished that run, then rebuilt a huge extended one and bought 6 very special little girls.
They are all doing very well now and laying 6 beautiful eggs a day....they're coming out of my ears i have that many...!
I originally got into chicken because I wanted some sort of pet but I live alone and work long shifts so time can sometimes be limited.
Ideally my long term plans are to run my own little b and b but with pigs, sheep, and chickens. So thought this would be an ideal way to 'test the water..'
Sound bite:
Contact me: Find me on Poultry Talk. com as: newchicklover
Bo: Young breeder & exhibitor. Properito of Hulver Hens.
Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
Favourite part of the hobby: Watching chicks hatch and mature.
Favourite breed: Russian Orrloff
Hi everyone. I’m Lewis Seamen from Hulver Hens and I am pleased to now be writing a small piece for Poultry Talk. Com each month. First of all let me introduce myself and let you know about the business I have set-up. Hulver Hens is a small poultry business set up by myself Lewis Seaman in 2011, aged 15 .
Hulver Hens is based in Suffolk on the out skirts of Beccles . We don’t breed many birds every year and this is because we mainly breed to supply ourselves with breeding and showing stock for the next year. The birds we do sell are surplus stock we do not need for whatever reason. As we are breeding in such small manageable numbers, even the standard in our surplus stock is high. The following are what we keep, breed and show at Hulver Hens: Croad Langshans, Gold Dutch, Barb d Uccle Bantams, Pekin Bantams, German Langshans, Russian Orrloff, Gold Laced Polish, Sablepoots, White Plymouth Rocks & Old English Game Bantams.
We hope to be selling most of the above, so we can concentrate on a selected number of breeds. So if you are interested, please see my number below.
A Dutch Hen & Chick bred by Hulver Hens.
Sound bite: Personally I can remember my great Grandmother telling me of a giant broth her farther used to make from all the food waste from that week and feeding to his beloved chickens. I myself can’t think why we shouldn’t feed our birds with food waste, they love it! It also saves space in the bins and stops the smell in the summer so surely it’s a win, win situation?!
Contact Me: Find me on Poultry Talk. com as: croad langshan Tel: 01502 47662 Email: croadlangshan@hotmail.co.uk
Bio: Respected breeder & exhibitor of Belgian Bantams. Experianced in importing & exporting birds. PCGB True bantam Judge. Re-introduced the Belgian De Grubbe back into the UK.
Location: Nr Evesham, Worcestshire.
Favourite part of the hobby:
Favourite Breed(s): Belgian Bantams.
It's great to have this monthly opportunity to update you here, on the shows I attend. As well as the work I do on breeding an even better standard of Belgian bantams and promoting the breed that I have worked so hard with over the past few years.
First of all I am going to tell you how I came about re-introducing the Barbu de grubbe back into the UK & then the Everberg, to their recent sucess at some of the top shows in the country!
Rumples Belgian Bearded Bantams.
After the First World War no one had seen the Belgian rumples at the shows, in fact no one had them, the disappearance of many breeds was inevitable. Introducing the first rumples in the UK wasn’t easy in anyway, importing birds from the continent was not easy but finding the rumples was also another difficulty. After two years as I was visiting the European show at Zuinlaren, north Holland I met the very interesting and well know Belgian Breeders Add & Anike Rijs, they had some barbu de grubbe in various colours and he was happy to help me introduce them to the UK. In January 1994 I finally got them here in the Cuckoo, Quail and white colour. I fist wanted to make sure that this breed was in the right hands so I gave a pair to our late friend Richard Billson. Richard was very sucessful with the rumples and soon we bred plenty more so we were able to to spread them around to a few more Belgian breeders that were interested in them. The rumples had very little interest from the Belgian breeders and this was something I found hard to understand. Now, 17 years later, the grubbe are starting to be popular around the shows and winning top prizes at some of the larger shows.
The late rumples Everberg is the d’uccle rumples version. I introduced them to the UK in 2008 when I imported them from Belgium, from the top Breeder Jaak Bolle. It seems that the Everberg had helped the Grubbe to establish, as many new breeders are interested in them and this can only be good for the breed.
Keeping rumples can have its downs but also has many benefits, the grubbe is a very easy bantam to keep, in general they are very lively and full of character, they are good layers, they are not good flyers but they are very fast runners. Rumples also have their advantages for breeding as by crossing them with long back d’Anvers (the tail version) in my experience it will shorten the back, also very useful to cross with those d’Anvers that have to low a tail, or bad tails in general as the rumples skeleton is very different from the d’anver, also to improve the colour or any other genetic fault.
The Everberg is very friendly but a quiet little rumples, again full of character and very easy to keep, having foot feathers its' ideal for those breeders that have small garden and are looking for a breed that do not scratch the garden. They are not the best layers but they do make very good mothers. For both varieties it’s recommended for breeding to trim the vent feathers, the males to be trim from the low part away from the body at a 45% degree and the females the opposite way from the vent, towards the top of the back, this will balance the male and female body to mate properly.
The Belgian Rumples are in my experience one of the funniest and easy breeds to keep with the exception of the trimming of the tail for breeding and don’t worry about trimming the vent, as it is easy to do and beneficial to the breed.
The colour standards for showing in the UK are the same for all Belgians; White, Black, Blue, Lavender, Black mottled, Lavender mottled, Quail, Blue quail, Silver quail, cuckoo, Millefleur, Blue Millefleur and Porcelaine.
If you decided to keep de Grubbe or de Everbeg as they are still rare so I suggest becoming a member of the Club by contact the British Belgian bantam Club secretary and then you will be able to get a breeders list of all the Belgian breeders in the club.
You can contact the British Belgian Bantam Club Secretary, Mrs Nicola Firth on 01359 230448 and by email at: belgianclub@aol.com
Soundbite:
Bio: Breeders & exhibitors of Dutch, Belgian & Malaysian Serama bantams, predominantly. Over 25 years experaince with poultry as a collective.
Location: South Wales.
Favourite part of the hobby: Breeding our stock.
Favourite Breed(s): Dutch, Belgians & Serama.
We are R & J Rees and we are from South Wales. We keep Dutch, Belgian and Malaysian Serama bantams as our predominant breeds. We do have a few Japanese bantams and some chocolate pekins also as sidelines. As a collective we have experience of over 25 years with poultry as we have both been around the birds from childhood. We have two young children aged 3 and 4, who have been brought up with poultry from birth and very much enjoy the hobby.
It's a challenge to put the right breeding birds together in the hope they produce quality stock. Sometimes you get it right and other times you get it wrong, but it is always a learning curve and a lot of fun.
We have done well with exhibiting our birds, achieving many class wins, Best Dutch, Best Belgian, Best True Bantam, Best Any Other Variety True Bantam, Reserve Show Champion and also overall Show Champion. Though for us, although we do enjoy and take great pride in exhibiting our birds our enjoyment comes mostly from breeding our birds and raising them at home.
Sound bite:
Contact me: Find me on Poultry Talk. com as: happylittlehenny Website: www.malaysianseramabantams.com
Bio: Running www.onelittlegg.co.uk
Location: North West England.
Favourite Part of the hobby: Keeping ex-bats for their cheeky, loveable personalities and their sheer love of life.
Favourite Breed: Ex-Battery Hens of course!
I am running the One Little Egg swap, raising much-needed funds for the British Hen Welfare Trust to enable them to continue their amazing work rehoming 'spent' battery hens and campaigning for a free-range future. I started with an egg in April laid by one of my ex-bats and I swapped it for something bigger and better. Then I kept trading up until I got my current item - a complete Harry Potter audiobook boxset which I swapped with the lovely Stephen Fry. He even autographed it! So if you can offer something bigger and better for the boxset or if you'd like to donate a little cash to help end battery farming, visit www.onelittleegg.co.uk. I hope to end up with something amazing to auction off for BHWT at the end of the year!
Soundbite: I have seven greedy ex-bats who would eat treats all day long if they were allowed. Because of their history and their susceptibility towards ill health, I make sure they get nutritious ex-bat pellets with just the odd treat of leftover veg, fruit or pasta (all unsalted). I think it's fine to give hens the odd healthy scrap here and there, but they are layers and so they need layers food first and foremost.
Please join me in raising awareness and funds for the British Hen Welfare Trust's work in ending battery farming. Visit www.onelittleegg.co.uk or donate online at www.justgiving.com/onelittleegg or by texting HENS99 £5 to 70070
Contact me: Through the above methods. Find me on Poultry Talk. com as OneLittleEgg
