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Post by brigadier on Jul 2, 2013 7:22:22 GMT
I have been trying to rear Belgium D Anver chicks for two years now without any success whatsoever.No successful hatchings last year at all. This year a little better but mites killed off the last batch of six and now two little hand reared chicks have died, one wasnt quite right from birth and the other,which I had in isolation got crushed by the other chicks (mixed breeds) once I put it with them. Im tearing my hair out as I love raising hens and these little ones particularly take my fancy.
Need to rethink this completely.......
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haffyfan
Administrator 
is pressing random buttons...sorry guys
Posts: 7,391
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Post by haffyfan on Jul 2, 2013 18:55:02 GMT
aww sorry they didn't make it. Ducks seem much easier to keep...
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Post by racaille on Jul 2, 2013 20:10:32 GMT
I feel for you. I bought in some Marans eggs but none of them hatched successfully - mind you, neither did the Araucuna eggs ..... I've been keeping chickens now for a decade or more and I am having to admit (reluctantly) that the ones that do best are the 'rustic' ones, the plain brown jobbies I bought as 'poulets' at about eight weeks old and very cheap, intended for eating. They are not lookers but they thrive here. I would love some specialist hens but have accepted that they will, because life is like that, be the first ones scoffed by the fox/buzzard.  |
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Post by brigadier on Jul 2, 2013 20:11:30 GMT
I think you are right, they dont get mites which puts a lot of people off hens!
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Post by racaille on Jul 2, 2013 20:25:51 GMT
Although a 'friend' a while back sold me some hens which brought scale mites with them. That wasn't pleasant.
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Post by brigadier on Jul 3, 2013 8:56:26 GMT
To be fair to your friend Rac , they might not have known, it only dawned on us when my husband started itching furiously!!
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Post by racaille on Jul 3, 2013 19:03:34 GMT
No I don't think she did know Brig, she was such a divvy that she put her hens' deformed legs down to arthritis. It was only when the ones she sold me started to develop the overly long scales that I did a bit of research. Happily, easily cured by dunking their legs in oil.
Mind you, when I passed my ATE exam I was grilled on treatments for scabies and ringworm and was able to surprise my judge by saying 'engine oil' for both!
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Post by toomanyhorses on Jul 13, 2013 21:07:09 GMT
I had 2 beautiful Vorwerk thingyerals. I was thinkng about getting vorwerk hens to go with 1 of them and leave the other with the rest of my hens. Unfortunately the flaming fox had other ideas and killed everything except 2 hens that managed to escape and hide.
Hope you manage to raise some succesfully soon Brig.
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for so much hard work we thank ye!!
