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

[Anniebee]

Originally Posted by Fancychooklady

Sounds a little inhumane to me.

Sorry for the double post, having a few probs with this site today.
See it's not just you Annie.

.............

Not too keen on the idea of crow collars ... a cockerel crows - and the problem is that many councils don't allow that - which is such a shame. There is more noise from noisy parties, uproars when someone is having an argument in the street at 2 a.m. boom boxes in hoon cars, screeching of burn out tyres, the sounds of shots fired ( I don't want to know at what ) etc. ... and many other annoyances in a neighbourhood, than a cock crowing.

But that's just my opinion ... I do respect other neighbours feelings about it. Wonder how many people have kept a crowing cock, without any objections from neighbours - anywhere. I would think that would be the case, more often than we might think. ..... of course the Council, if on their rounds hears a cock crow there most likely would be intervention.

Heaven help me if one of our rangers is in earshot of Mindy Araucana who can kick up one helluva ruckus at times, and ......... sound like she's crowing. So far, so good.

.........

And yes Fancy - this site crashes - and it is very annoying. Figured it wouldn't be just me - an overall 'cyber hissy fit' situation ??

Too many technological hitches and glitches these days .... makes me want to give it all away at times.

Cheers all -------

 

[VK2HSV]

G'Day from Sunny Down Town Quakers Hill.

 

[Anniebee]

@Teila WOW!!!! That looks AMAZING!!

Your chicks are living like KINGS!! We started our cook yesterday and my goodness it is no where near that size or that amazing.

Might have to rethink it a bit.

Carla made it through the night!!!

The dog was a friends who came over and had forgotten we now have chicks. The dog got poor Carla in the bum, but seeing that it was a big dog that got her it could have been a LOT worse. So poor little Carla, she is just happy to be back home.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. I will keep you posted on her recovery.

Question: Any suggestions as to how I can encourage her to drink water? It has her antibiotics in it and she needs as much as possible.

mooandmcgee ---

Totally agree with Fancychookladys' advice below here. Otherwise, if the antibiotic is available in small tablet form ( might be it isn't !! ) .... it is relatively easy to open a chickens beak and pop a tablet into it, massaging neck to swallow.

Perhaps you could ask your vet again ?

Otherwise the egg, rice / bread mixture and anything else she might like ( with the addition of the anti-biotic ) is very good advice.

Hope she recovers well - she was very lucky considering it was a big dog that got her in the bum.

Cheers ........

 

[Anniebee]

Thanks for the info. Ours roost on perches. I have one hen who's laying soft eggs and someone's eating them and one of them laying long eggs, but I don't having anyone dropping them thank goodness. We have tarps and shade clothe too. My granddaughters love my backyard with the fruit trees and veges and lots of edibles. They asked my son if they could have a backyard like that but not as messy. Haha as you can see from past photos it was my baby chicks run that makes it a mess and that was for their benefit too. lol
As too clothe pegs aren't they the best they are what hold my shade clothe down everywhere.
Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend with their girls and boys.

You are welcome LuckysMum ....

It is great that your chickens roost .... more natural than my 2 big girls manage - who huddle together in a nesting box. ???

Chickens will hop into soft shell or broken eggs at the drop of a hat - far faster than I am at catching them to stop it !! ..... They usually go for only the yolk. Offering them calcium carbonate in the form of oyster shell for self feeding, ( good advice previously from Fancy ) .... could well fix the soft shell egg problem. It can become a problem, as the soft shell eggs can get stuck in the 'birthing' duct, and create some serious problems.

I would not worry too much about 'long' eggs. I don't think it means anything bad, although someone here with much better expertise than I have, might have some ideas as to why that happens. Occasionally get a 'long' egg from my girls ( when they are laying, that is ). All still in various stages of moult, except for Molly RIR.

And hey - MyHaven and ( I think ) Teila .... it IS Molly RIR who is laying the splashed-with-squirts-of-brown eggs. ??? She used to lay perfectly pink eggs. Now they are pale beige in colour with these 'spaced out speckled' brown spots on them. ( which made me and others here, think it was Mandy Welsummer ). Watched Molly laying an egg in her 'garden' nest yesterday, and when I collected it - sure enough - there were the speckles on it - same as recent eggs laid. ....... All quite strange.

..........

Clothes pegs --- best things ever invented. I have literally dozens of them in the pantry and freezer, closing up opened plastic containers of food-stuffs, very efficiently. I use them for anything that needs to be 'closed' for freshness. Even have a couple on the chook layer pellet 20 kg bag - to make sure the bag is kept dry and free of any nasties.

They are the best..

Cheers .......

 

[mooandmcgee]

Thanks @Anniebee, @Fancychooklady and EVERYONE for the great advice!!! Carla was a bit delicate today but she is doing well & is drinking her antibiotics like a champ. She still comes when I call her and so she hasn't lost her trust in me which is GREAT!!

Sadly after watching them today I have realised she is the lowest ranking chick out of the three of them. Now I am wishing I got four to even it out a bit

Why oh why do I ever listen to my partner.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thanks @Anniebee, @Fancychooklady and EVERYONE for the great advice!!! Carla was a bit delicate today but she is doing well & is drinking her antibiotics like a champ. She still comes when I call her and so she hasn't lost her trust in me which is GREAT!!

Sadly after watching them today I have realised she is the lowest ranking chick out of the three of them. Now I am wishing I got four to even it out a bit

Why oh why do I ever listen to my partner.

That's good news. Beware of any open wounds as her flock mates will be inclined to peck at anything that stands out. Injured members of the flock are inclined to be a ' soft target ' . Just keep an eye her.

 

[Anniebee]

Great to see photos of Carla with her flock.

I have a question for anyone who know about deep litter. My girls spill a lot of their seed on the floor. My husband made a tube with holes in the top to try and stop them from spreading seed everywhere trying to get to the seed they like best. But they still manage to get it everywhere. Is that bad if I do deep litter not sure if seed sitting in the litter will be a problem.
Thanks everyone.

I absolutely love your new coop Teila

My husband has been fixing ours up the netting over the top was ripped so apparently that calls for a remodel got to love him.

LuckysMum ....

I am not sure I know what you mean by 'seed'. I cannot go back over all the posts here, to know whether your girls are at laying stage or not. But if they are at 'point of lay - (POL) - then they need to be fed layer pellets of good quality as their main diet. And these pellets should be in a container that is partially filled, but allows continually, only a small amount into a tray at the bottom - so's the girls can feed themselves with little or no spillage. As they eat, the eating tray fills up from the container.

All other goodies ( kitchen scraps, scratch mix, seeds of any description, grass, home made mixtures of rice, egg, greens, oats etc. ) should be fed to them in their runs - soft mixtures preferably in dog bowls which they cannot tip up. ( they think they are Christmas when given these goodies to scratch about in and argue over, in an outside run ). They also think they are Christmas when they tip a normal round bowl over, by standing on it - which they do with alarming accuracy.

I hang my regulating feeder from a hook in the ceiling of the coop, and sweep away any detrtitus that is underneath it. The girls tend to 'scratch' before eating, but all they are scratching at is wood shavings. They pick at the layer pellets in the deep-ish delivering tray, and never seem to spill anything at all. I have never seen any spillage of layer pellet food.

I wouldn't think that seed would be too good to go into the deep litter woopsies that the girls dump. Could cause fermentation of the seed - not something you would want.

Bottom line is - layer pellet food in their coop in an appropriate feeder ( available at pet stores or stock and produce merchants - not cheap, but more than worthwhile ) .... and everything else outside in their runs or in the garden. ( although a garden and grass, holds more than enough goodies for the girls to find ).

That's how I feed my chooks anyway.

I made up an image to show you what I mean .... pardon the 'artistic' effort - it is awful - but gives an idea of what you should be looking for, for an adequate feeder, if you don't have one already.



And as for deep litter .... it is simply wood shavings, that the girls woopsies onto while they are waiting to be let out - or when they are feeding - and it is impacted eventually, with all those wonderful little microbes doing their thing.

There is absolutely NO smell in the coop when I let them out ( unless one has done a woopsie, a few seconds before I open the coop door - THEN it smells. !!

)

Good luck with it all .......

Cheers ........

 

[Anniebee]

That's good news. Beware of any open wounds as her flock mates will be inclined to peck at anything that stands out. Injured members of the flock are inclined to be a ' soft target ' . Just keep an eye her.

Telia, that coop looks fantastic. A palace worthy of your fluffy royalty.

Well, I just got back from dropping Iris off. Burst into tears whilst handing him over, but the staff at City Chicks were kind, and they genuinely care about their animals. The owner who served me said that Iris' new family is very nice, live fairly near the hatchery and he'll be a pet for sure with his own new group of ladies. They wanted a nice friendly boy, and owner could see how sweet he was when she held him, and praised my efforts at raising him so nicely, as he's such a handsome boy, which meant a lot coming from another chicken person. So I'm happy for him, he was practicing his cock-a-doodle do's this morning, so it was the right time to re-home him before he got louder. Never want to do that again though, give up a pet, dear god that was awful.

And to conclude my tale, because I am hopeless when surrounded by chickens, and only because I'd been wanting one forever and they had some, I came home with a little lavender Araucana. Prolly 8-10 weeks old. They had a super friendly Araucana roo there too, but no, I got a pullet. Well, fingers crossed she's a she, comb is basically flat, and the hatchery owner said she looked the most feminine of the bunch. I'll post pics later, and ponder over names. I like old fashioned lady names for my hens.

Fizzybelle --- I had tears too, on reading your story. ,...... BUT ... it is super great that "Iris" ( no doubt a new name for him soon ) was given to people who will love him and look after him well. And he will have a lady 'harem'. That is a huge plus, despite the tears and sense of loss you are experiencing.

Hope your new lavender Araucana works out well. They are just beautiful. And sincerely hoping she is indeed a 'she'. All good wishes to you with your new lovely bird.

Cheers ......

 

[LuckysMum]

LuckysMum ....

I am not sure I know what you mean by 'seed'. I cannot go back over all the posts here, to know whether your girls are at laying stage or not. But if they are at 'point of lay - (POL) - then they need to be fed layer pellets of good quality as their main diet. And these pellets should be in a container that is partially filled, but allows continually, only a small amount into a tray at the bottom - so's the girls can feed themselves with little or no spillage. As they eat, the eating tray fills up from the container.

All other goodies ( kitchen scraps, scratch mix, seeds of any description, grass, home made mixtures of rice, egg, greens, oats etc. ) should be fed to them in their runs - soft mixtures preferably in dog bowls which they cannot tip up. ( they think they are Christmas when given these goodies to scratch about in and argue over, in an outside run ). They also think they are Christmas when they tip a normal round bowl over, by standing on it - which they do with alarming accuracy.

I hang my regulating feeder from a hook in the ceiling of the coop, and sweep away any detrtitus that is underneath it. The girls tend to 'scratch' before eating, but all they are scratching at is wood shavings. They pick at the layer pellets in the deep-ish delivering tray, and never seem to spill anything at all. I have never seen any spillage of layer pellet food.

I wouldn't think that seed would be too good to go into the deep litter woopsies that the girls dump. Could cause fermentation of the seed - not something you would want.

Bottom line is - layer pellet food in their coop in an appropriate feeder ( available at pet stores or stock and produce merchants - not cheap, but more than worthwhile ) .... and everything else outside in their runs or in the garden. ( although a garden and grass, holds more than enough goodies for the girls to find ).

That's how I feed my chooks anyway.

I made up an image to show you what I mean .... pardon the 'artistic' effort - it is awful - but gives an idea of what you should be looking for, for an adequate feeder, if you don't have one already.



And as for deep litter .... it is simply wood shavings, that the girls woopsies onto while they are waiting to be let out - or when they are feeding - and it is impacted eventually, with all those wonderful little microbes doing their thing.

There is absolutely NO smell in the coop when I let them out ( unless one has done a woopsie, a few seconds before I open the coop door - THEN it smells. !!

)

Good luck with it all .......

Cheers ........

Thanks Anniebee I have 10 3 year ISA's in the main area of the coop I have a special mix it has pellets, seeds and its supposed to have stuff for the shells. I've fed our chooks on that for 10 years and am only just having trouble with soft shells. I think because they are in the run everyday they are not eating as much of the mix. The stock feed place I get it from has chooks and its what they use for theirs. My chicks are still on starter and they have a container that drops what they need. My husband just made this feeder after doing some research, but I think he overfilled it as they can only get their heads in. Today when I cleaned I removed some of the mix and have told him to stop feeding them. He's always feeding them which is why I wanted this feeder to try and stop the waste. There are sunflower seeds in it I think and that's their favourite so they try and dig to get to it. I have told him that some of you use hanging seed containers so we will try that if this doesn't work. Thanks for the diagram I will show him.
I cleaned up and put wood shaving down where they roost and it smelt better straight away. I have been laying down hemp for the chicks and that seems to work well.
We've done a lot of work on the coop and run today so I'm hoping that the deep litter will help cut the time spent cleaning.

Funniest thing my grand daughters were in the "petting area" they had the silkies on their laps and were gently rocking them and singing to them apparently they were sleeping. Grand children and chicks are just the best fun to watch, time wasters really. No not time wasting they both (chicks and kids) grow up so quick you have to take time out for them or miss out on the fun.

Sorry for your sad day Fizziebell I hope the new girl helps ease the pain. Looking forward to more photos.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.

 

[Anniebee]

( from Fancy ) - That's good news. Beware of any open wounds as her flock mates will be inclined to peck at anything that stands out. Injured members of the flock are inclined to be a ' soft target ' . Just keep an eye her.

.............

Certainly yes mooandmcgee - especially if she has any redness around her little bottom. For some reason chooks are attracted to 'red' .... and may have a peck at her.

Meanwhile, it is great news that she is coming to you when called. Guess, ( perhaps because she has been away a few days ) that she has fallen to the lowest ranking in the fowl stakes, but I think that would be fairly normal. So many species react this way to what 'they' see as the weakest in the flock / herd / band.

As Fancy advised - 'just keep an eye on her' .... I am sure you will.

Cheers .......