Today I gave the girls a yogurt treat and took some photos of the flock together.
Last year after having nine girls we lost two and the flock of seven seemed small. I wanted to add some bantam hamburgs. Catrin is a breeder that we have got several of our bantams from in the past, including Speckles, who we sadly lost this year and Catrin was just starting to breed hamburgs.
We went to see her last year and we said we would stay in touch throughout the summer and see how it was going with her hamburgs. In the end she only had two batches hatch and they turned out to be predominantly cockerels. Catrin couldn’t spare any hens so we agreed to try again the following year which is now this year.
At the end of last year we added Shadow and Sugar and the flock was back to nine again. Then this year we suffered another two losses and the flock is again back to seven and seems small once more.
I contacted Catrin again. She had a late start this year but now has hamburg eggs both in her incubator and under a broody hen. Once again we are staying in touch and I am hopeful that I may get one or two this year if she can spare them.
I will call her again at the end of the month to see how many she has hatched. Then it will be a wait of up to three months to be sure of the sex. I really really hope that this year we might have one or two hamburgs.
Bantam hamburgs are not as tiny as seramas but are small. They are hardy, good egg layers and they don’t go broody. They come in many different colours but Catrin has just one colour which is silver spangled. Speckles could never be replaced but it would be lovely to have a similar colour to her back in the flock.
I am having to be patient and wait for now but I am hoping that this will be the year that we add a hamburg or two to the flock.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
They are lovely birds – I think I said that the first I ever had, when I was about 10 years old, was a trio of golden spangled hamburgs. Absolute beauties, and brilliant fliers (at that time, we used to free range!) Hope you’re lucky.
I remember you saying that you had had them. Before I knew what colour Catrin had I had researched the colours and golden spangled and citron colours were my favourite. I felt a little disappointed when Catrin said she had only silver spangled. Since then I have googled the silver spangled many times and they are striking and then after the loss of Speckles this year they became even more attractive to me. I would have loved to have several hamburgs of different colours like the seramas but haven’t been able to find any other breeders so will settle for what I can get, fingers crossed.
The girls look good, and as always their run is spotless. Hope you do have some luck, and can get some new girls.
Aw, thank you. I hope so too. I think that Catrin may want me to have at least one as I missed out last year.