Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Teila]

Gooood morning!

Aaaaw Sam, congrats on the bubs, adorable! How is the little fighter doing?

Sidhe13 I saw your post yesterday regarding the mealworm but did not reply because I was waiting to hear other responses as this was the first time I had heard this and was not sure what the issue was; thinking that maybe ducklings were different to chicks.

Anyways, I have not heard stories of the meal worms eating their way out and have fed my chicks meals worms from 3 days old and all the gals get a couple of meal worms each a day.

If I am supposed to crush the heads first, I will be rethinking my mealworm feeding; it is bad enough when one snatches one before you have chance to let go and you are left holding half a meal worm .. eeew

Hey appps while I have not used a No Crow Collar and probably would not, I have a friend who has used one on her rooster. Yep, the idea is that the collar restricts the amount of air the rooster can draw in, thus restricting the efficacy of his crow. The general rule of thumb for tightness if that you need to be able to slip your pinky finger between the collar and his neck. With my friend’s rooster, it took some tweaking to get the setting just right and while he could still crow, the volume was reduced.

However, it was a little too tight during the tweaking phase and she nearly lost him! I have also read stories of roosters not being so lucky and choking

Congrats on the quails and pipping satay; looking forward to some pics.

 

[satay]

It's been my experience that kicking them only makes them more aggressive. Kids tend to torment or goad them a little. If you are concerned about the safety of your son , best to remove the threat, but I wouldn't think encouraging the boys to kick the bird was the answer. Just my opinion.

I agree, There are too many good roos out there. Trust me who is the rooster queen to keep an aggressive one.

 

[satay]

Having neither ducks nor mealworms I can only ask..why?..

Isn't it's stomach going to kill it?

It sure will. I have given up trying to feed my girls meal worms. The run for the hills and wont go near them.

 

[satay]

Got two more girls today (I know I shouldn't have lol)
First I thought they were polish but I'm thinking houdan now because they have 5 toes.
Does anyone know how else to tell the breeds apart other than their toes count?

 

[Kleonaptra]

Hey Kleonaptra for the sake of others in the thread, we should probably agree to disagree If I can though, I will close with some research I have done (as I mentioned, I have spent countless hours researching these unwanted visitors) and I have encountered similar reports to the below on many, many expert blogs/threads etc:
Crows & Shiny Objects: This is an extremely common myth, but it’s just that, a myth . (And I’ve seen way too many “official” websites state this myth like it’s fact, so don’t feel bad for believing it!) The thing is, stories about crows collecting shiny things are anecdotal, and not observed by people who watch crows constantly and study them.
There’s a couple of reasons why people might think crows like and collect shiny objects and continue to pass along the myth. First, young crows are very curious about everything. They play with all sorts of objects they find in nature, and chances are if something is glinting they may me more likely to explore that object (just like how you might notice something glinting in the grass and investigate it), than something that blends in to the background. As I talked about in a previous post, juvenile crows are the same size and, to the untrained eye, look just like adult crows, therefore people may be attributing a juvenile play behavior to all age groups, accidentally. Are they particularly attracted to shiny objects, or obsessed with them? Highly unlikely, they may just be more likely to find them because they are easier to see/attract attention easier (welcome to why advertisers use shiny and bright things on other humans to attract their attention). Honestly, adult crows are more likely to be terrified of brightly colored or shiny objects unless heavily associated with food on multiple occasions. The reflecting light when they are flying in to roost etc can spook them. If they do take something shiny, like your car keys etc; chances are they are just taking them somewhere more secure to explore if they have any food benefits.

Oh mate what a serious LOL I'm having here. Wait, wait, there's an 'official' authority on crows now? And this has not been noted by people who regularly observe them! Pmsl! I lived or worked on 15 different properties over the greater Sydney region and I've had pet crowds at every single one. They all like shinies. Each of them have favoured particular kinds of shiny too. Probably worth noting for the future, when I speak, its only from my own experience. I tend to believe 'official' sites less and less as they argue directly against the evidence I have on hand. Though I love crows, I adore mynah birds, and I hear the most outrageous lies about them which, for the sake of the thread,i wont go into. As for your interaction with them, I was try trying to help YOU honey, I wasn't trying to make myself feel better about your crow flock, I honestly just wanted to help make your life easier and its so simple.

 

[Kleonaptra]

I would also like to add that wild birds healhy or not , do carry lice. When a bird is sick or dying, if it has lice , they will come to the surface and leave the host as the body temperature drops.

I don't want to get into a roaring argument here but I realize my own comment was was to misinterpret. Yes, they MAY carry lice. The great majority are free of lice from my experience. I never said they wont ever have lice, just that the wild bird population is not a great lice infested mass (I really hate how people think that) and when people find one that is its usually the weakest/sickest in flock and that's why. Healthy wild birds may carry lice but are very good at removing them and thus not becoming infested.

 

[V1cky]

I don't want to get into a roaring argument here but I realize my own comment was was to misinterpret. Yes, they MAY carry lice. The great majority are free of lice from my experience. I never said they wont ever have lice, just that the wild bird population is not a great lice infested mass (I really hate how people think that) and when people find one that is its usually the weakest/sickest in flock and that's why. Healthy wild birds may carry lice but are very good at removing them and thus not becoming infested.

I get heaps of wild birds where I am (some of which I have to handle to save from my cats) and the only time I've ever noticed any with lice was a pair of cockatoos which would come down for a feed. They were regulars and it was only during breeding season that I noticed the lice so I'm presuming it was only due to nesting that the lice were present. I agree that healthy wild birds are pretty good at keeping themselves lice free.

 

[Ashburnham]

It's been my experience that kicking them only makes them more aggressive. Kids tend to torment or goad them a little. If you are concerned about the safety of your son , best to remove the threat, but I wouldn't think encouraging the boys to kick the bird was the answer. Just my opinion.

Yes - attacking the rooster back only makes it more aggressive.
I use a length of thin plastic water pipe to gently push the roosters away when necessary.

And never try to catch or pick up hens in the presence of the rooster, they will try to protect that hen by attacking you.

xxxx M

 

[IamSamSam]

Aww my little fighter perked up and I thought he may just make it. After the morning feed he went to sleep and never woke up

RIP little Bub. Buried him under the Lemon tree

 

[Teila]

I also do not want to get into a roaring argument and believe that civilised discussion and differing view points can be educational.

Like you Kleonaptra I only speak from my experience but throw in some research that I have undertaken to educate myself as best I can when I have no experience. I then make the decision that I feel is the right one; if I am wrong, I live with the consequences.

Research indicates that lice and mite enjoy the comfort of a warm nest and the parent birds sitting on it and subsequent chicks. When the nest is vacated by the parents and chicks when grown up, the lice/mites remaining in the nest look for another host.

Encouraging multiple wild birds to your garden may increase the chances of them nesting in your garden, close to the food source and then, when they vacate the nest, there are some rather inviting, permanent resident chickens that the lice/mite can move on to.

I am not anti-wild bird and as I mentioned before, those that chance by are welcome and if I did not have chickens, I would not be concerned but I do believe there is a risk with encouraging them en masse because the more birds in my garden the more chance that one of them may be the “weakest/sickest” in the flock and transfer what ails them.

I do not have show quality birds but also would not be interested in showing birds. If I take a healthy bird to a show, I risk disease transmission from another bird at the show which, at that time, may not be showing symptoms and was innocently entered. I then take my bird home and risk my flock.

By encouraging wild birds I may be encouraging a sick one and increase my flocks chance of infection.

I practice biosecurity to keep my flock protected and shoes that I wear to other peoples chicken coops or feed stores etc are not worn in my coop/run etc. Inviting wild birds when I have no idea where they have been is increasing the chances of infection.

While maybe a little extreme and/or paranoid I raise the issue of bird flu in the States with 1,000,000’s of birds being destroyed and some just because they were ‘at risk’ of being infected.

Granted, many of my points are ‘what/ifs’ and ‘maybes’ but erring on the side of caution is my preference.