You are quite right.
mrs. C.
Good thing that the roost aren’t sharp!
No worries, it's all good
Out of curiosity, is there many options available to you for sussex varieties other then Light?I would prefer Fret to have taken a longer break but she's up for it and as I've mentioned, she looks better than I've ever seen her.
The circumstances are about as good as they can be currently to hatch chicks.
If it all goes wrong I have a recent option of a couple of Light Sussex pullets which I know are healthy.
I've contacted 14 breeders/people I know who have kept chickens. Out of those 14, 9 have stopped breeding, or keeping anything except Red Sex Links, or other production breeds, Lohmans, Stars, Red rocks, Comets, Rhode Island Reds (wtf are American oversized production birds doing here!). Some have stopped keeping chickens altogether.
Bird flu, Covid and people just wanting eggs rather than wanting to keep chickens has wiped out many of the small scale hobby keepers.
There are still the breed club breeders but their stock is limited and often not what I think I can slip into the current circumstances.
As an example. I contacted three or four breeders who keep Light Sussex and British Marans. I ask how many eggs a year they lay and how they were hatched. All stated their hens lay over 250 eggs a year.They've turned a breed that did lay say 180 eggs a year into a production bird, because most people want eggs and don't care about the breed bar the looks. I spoke to one breeder who proudly stated her Light Sussex hens laid around 300 eggs a year.
I did find some other heritage breeds that seem to have been bred properly but the waitng time can be months and of course they are broody hatched free rangers and I wont keep such birds in the conditions I have at the allotments.
I upholstered our roosts..lol I bought a roll of rubber mat material used to line big tool chests, wrapped it around and stapled it. It is pretty cushy.
Speaking of rubber mats. My chickens love sunbathing on it.
Do you do anything to stop mites getting under the mat?
The mat material is solid (no vent holes.). We bought a spray, (I can't think of the name at the moment,) that you can use to spray the coop, roosts or the chickens, directly, I sprayed the roosts down and let it soak in before I covered them, I respray around the edges every other day. I am a big fan of prevention so, I do a deep clean twice per week, a tidy up spot clean twice a day, which includes raking the run, and check the chickens every night, for any signs of parasites, *touchwood, we have not encountered anything, but I am so afraid of anything happening to them, that I am hyper vigilant. My house has gone to hell, between working full time and taking care of the chickens, but it is important that they stay healthy. I am so glad that I work from home!
