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

[Teila]

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

Aaaw Sam I am so sorry to hear that

RIP little one.

 

[Kleonaptra]

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.

I agree with most of that....I do not 'encourage' as such, my mum has done so at multiple houses always with disastrous consequences. I believe very strongly in wild ones fending for themselves and Im quite disgusted at practises which prevent whole generations of birds not being able to. I care for everyone on my property, wild or not, and always make decisions best for all, sometimes sacrifice someones preferences because of this. So like you I take the wild ones who come as a bonus to owning birds (or sheep or horses or goats etc lol) as members of the family and do not 'encourage'

As an animal rescue volunteer, I want wild populations to sustain themselves.

I appreciate the lengths you go to to keep your flock safe. They are lucky to have you! However I must agree with you on the slightly paranoid part.....I only own one pair of shoes....

And I also think that bringing in small amounts of foriegn bacteria only strengthen immune systems. So long as they do not over wealm are not viral or too infectous yadda yadda yadda....

Im also very interested in showing my birds and my only hesitation in doing so is leaving them at the show for 3 days or so....Everything else is part and parcel of showing, much easier with birds than horses let me tell you!

 

[Kleonaptra]

Took these pics this morning





I know its difficult to see, but next to the concrete basket in the garden theres a little baby lorp taking a tiny winy dust bath. So cute! And my gals Penny and Megan sitting at the back door.

Me and Shiela

 

[Kleonaptra]

My Binky chick. She did not have lice as an almost fledgling back in 2007 when I picked her up....I kept her in my bra for three weeks, so I think I might have noticed.

 

[Sidhe13]

@Fancychooklady That is a fair point! The boys have never really had anything to do with the chooks...i have started him off today handling and "integration" to see if that helps. If not, we will have roast chook...

 

[Fancychooklady]

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.

Your concerns are well grounded. There are over 100 species of wild bird that carry the A viruses .

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-in-birds.htm

 

[IamSamSam]

Aaaw Sam I am so sorry to hear that    RIP little one.

Thanks Hun

 

[appps]

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

Oh I'm sorry :-(.

 

[Deej211]

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?

houdans are much larger than polish. One of my polish jens has 5 toes. Ive been told it happens now and then

 

[Deej211]

Polish hen standard weight around 2kgs houdans is 2-2.5kgs...it is hard to tell.