Well there are only 3 sleeps left until the big day
I can imagine that children (both big and small) are getting rather excited by now, hoping that they have done enough to secure a visit from Father Christmas.

I am finally all ready (except for locating some Candy Cane for my tree, that is) and thought it a good time to say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and more importantly, thank you to all our customers in 2011. We sincerely hope that everyone has a peaceful and joyful time.

I hope that 2011 has been a good year and that 2012 will be just as good.

Hello Everyone

Not to worry everyone out there, but the count down is on and Christmas is fast approaching. In 10 days time the lucky ones will be anticipating their dinners, whilst quite a lot of us will be in the kitchen hovering over the oven making sure everything is still to time

If you are still looking for Christmas presents to buy then our range of Chicken Houses and RCOM Incubators are in stock so are sent out on 24hr delivery.

We have been advised by our couriers that the last date for a pre-Christmas delivery is Wednesday the 21st December 2011.
If you are struggling for ideas, or not sure which item most suitable then you can always give us a call.

Just a quick Rhea Update

The rheas are now only a bit shorter than I am and although they don’t know it yet, they are about to be re-homed into a what will be their perminant home - which opens out onto an acre of land.

It’s quite amazing how quickly they have shot up and although they are not yet fully grown thier strength is unbelievable - Mr Fox will definately think twice, which is not a bad thing
The only other thing which crosses all of our minds here is the actual move. I’m sure it will take a lot of planning, patience and not forgetting manpower. We are always up for a challenge and I’m sure the Rheas will provide an afternoon full

As Trevor has been busy incubating different breeds, we have now got our hands full with all different types of birds!

The newest chicks are the Rheas.  They are truly fascinating little things.  I’m saying little just for now as very soon they will tower over me (I am on the short side ). Once they have grown up then I’m sure that they will assist the Llamas in deterring Mr Fox also.

I have been takinga few photographs (like a proud mother) but the rather inquisitive chicks were fascinated with the camera and as soon as they saw it they ran over to me and pecked the camera constantly, thinking I was about to give them some more food :)  In the upcoming weeks I will make sure that I download some photos to the Blog and keep you posted on their progress.

Trevor used the RCOM 20 Pro incubators and RCOM 50 Pro incubators to hatch the eggs and I would advise to keep looking on the ex-demo/ex-display section as we may have a couple of incubators on special offer very soon (I have to clear this with Trevor first mind you, lol).

We would all like to take this time to wish all our customers a very merry Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful New Year.

Thank you for all your business throughout 2010 and we hope to continue such a good relationship with you all in 2011.  Whether it be Chicken Houses, Incubators, Red Mite control (perish the thought!) or any other chicken accessories we are always here to offer advice and make sure that you get the best quality for your hard earned.

Personal note from Claire:

Thank you again for helping in making my first 6 months with P&T Poultry so enjoyable and as my wisdom grows, I’ll be sure that I’ll continue to pass this information on Have a lovely Christmas and I hope you enjoy the festivities.

Dear All,

I have been on the phone for over 45 minutes today with Interlink and Parcelforce and to be honest the information is gobbledygook but I will try to pass on what I understood.

We are still being told that tuesday is last day to send christmas orders for below Scotland, apart from selected areas but at this time no-one can tell me what selected areas are.

We currently have 18″ of snow outside my office, of course for us on a farm this is not really relevant as we have vehicles that deal with it as if it was not there so we will always get your orders shipped.

I am afraid after that we are in the hands of the carriers that have to get parcels from here to central hubs in Birmingham or Coventry where they are sorted and then sent to local hubs over the country which are then sent to your local depot and then placed on local vehicles and hopefully delivered.

As you can see the parcels do a lot more miles than a straight line from here so even if you have no snow, they may have to go through very badly affected areas.

As of 10am Saturday 18-12-10 I would therefore say we can NO longer GUARANTEE Christmas deliveries despite what our carrier has said, however of course if you still wish to order from us and take a chance we guaranteewe will do our part ensuring your parcels are shipped and of course we would also be very grateful for your orders

Wow got up late today and by the time emails were answered and other things were done I was over an hour late out to the birds. The chickens did not care they were busy doing their things but wow the geese a whole different story. From well over 6 acres away they saw me and what a ruckus!!! Have you ever had to listened to a load of geese running towards you to remind you that you are late and excuses are not accepted? Wow it is noisey but a scoop of cut maize got me slightly forgiven but every time I entered the field to collect the eggs during the day I was reminded noisely that lateness is not to be accepted. Well I have learnt my lesson. Hopefully tomorrow we will be back to the normal bathing in the stream and a friendly honk good morning. (now I know how the guys feel if they are late to work lol)

As I understand last shipping day for Scottish Highlands and Northern Ireland is the 19-12-08 and for mainland UK it is the 22-12-08. We have been told however orders placed by 12pm on the 23-12-08 have a high chance of being delivered on the 24-12-08 but best not to leave it to lastminute like me.

We will do our utmost to ensure all orders are with you before christmas, if there are any special instructions then please let us know. Please do not forget if you are not at home during the day we can deliver to your work address or another address where you maybe but we can not offer timed deliveries I am afraid - only before 3pm.

Yes I do get this question often and the honest answer is - I dont have a clue but seriously without watching I could not say but normally you can see when you open the chicken house in the morning and if he comes flying out and waiting for his ‘prey’ (lol) or girlfriends to come out then I think you are pretty safe that he is. You will also note that when he is ready to have a good time with his laides that his legs go very red.

But the real give away is when he jumps on their backs, now most cockerels I know do not understand the principle of piggy back so I think they are thinking of other things when this happens.

I Have noticed in my sussex that if the hen gives a good shake and ruffle of the feathers he has been a good shot but if they run quickly when he gets off them he missed - this is only a personal note with my nearest light sussex pen and records over the last 2 years.

To be honest though the easiest way to know if he is mating is to watch he will not be shy because you are watching!

Now is he fertile is a whole different question, this can only be answered after incubation of the eggs whether by broodie or incubator.

If you wish to eat eggs where a cockerel is in the pen then ENSURE you collect fresh eggs daily and put them in the fridge if you are not eating straight away. Do not put them in a warm place.

Blood spots in your egg does not mean they are fertilised, it means there was a bit of a tear when your hen created and shelled her egg.

Wow here we go chicks running everywhere again, I am afraid due to time pressures this year our chicks are naturally reared. Acres of grass seem to be growing again, glad it is lighter and lighter I need it :). The good news my brother will be taking over breeding for me from 2009 so we should be selling livestock again next year. He gets to clean chicken houses soon, wow how I will miss it