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

[Anniebee]

Teila ---- your post :

Anniebee Cool Hand Cilla has been marched off to solitary and Dusty threw her a little baseball and mitt on the way

As she could not get to the nest box this morning, I was woken by her taking out her frustration on all and sundry, so solitary for her. I am hoping that by Sunday evening, after three days of solitary or free range without access to a nest, she may be back on the wagon.

Had such a good laugh from your first sentence there .... ' Cool Hand ' Cilla is one strange little lady, isn't she ?

Good luck with the Sunday evening bit !!!

.... I do hope she remains non-broody - for at least a week or two, for you ??? Perhaps she is just addicted to it all ? D'ya think it gives her bragging rights, and an excuse for a punch-up ?

Poor Cilla ....

Cheers ~

 

[locknest4]

The fire we saw yesterday frm Mandurah has now wiped out the small country town of Yarloop. 95 homes burnt down only 15 left. 58,000 hectares burnt and still out of control and spreading.My heart goes out to all those affected by the fire. More fires have started in the southern Perth suburbs near Forestdale. Hope some rain comes soon but without the lighting strikes.

 

[chicken-clucky]

Took pics of the Belgian to post today, but left the memory card behind will do this weekend. I feel what you mean already. She needs company.

I love standing in the rain. I remember when living Clermont way a while back - the dam was down to 3%. They were going to truck water in and it rained. The change in the town was amazing, instant and something you can't describe. Needless to say there were a lot of us standing in the rain in the street.

My old super chook Harriet - she gave me an egg 60 plus days in a row over and over and crowed like a rooster. Gone now but fondly remembered. Particularly when I hear her successor crow.

What do you do with feathers? - I'll post a pic of decorations a friend of ours makes out of feathers. Little birds.

I make dream catches with them

If you send me feathers of a special bird I can make you one.

 

[Anniebee]

Oh heaven help us all ---- another question. Not one I think I can Google. !!!

Mandy Welsummer, who I mentioned some pages ago, was 'looking off' --- hiding in the nesting box which is actually ' chook bed' .... with tail down when slowly walking, and looking like she had lost a million quid and found sixpence.

This has happened now 3 times - and after some TLC inside, very warm cloth applied to her vent and abdomen, a cotton stick covered in vaseline up the vent ( just in case ) - she would emerge the next day looking perfectly normal. Thought, as many suggested, egg bound, impacted crop, sour crop etc. Apparently not. Fed them all mashed egg plus shells, yoghurt, cheese, greens - mix. to get her interested in eating again, and it worked a treat.

She ended up shedding heaps of feathers .... so ok - I am happy ---- she's moulting. But not like her usual moults, which are very slow and long. This was fast and furious.

Now - within a day or so of no more feathers - she produces an EGG !! IN the nesting box, and sits beside it ???? First egg from her for weeks. ( neither she nor Molly have used that nesting box for anything other than sleeping for two years !!! ) .... She stopped picking at her breast feathers too ... that seemed to last only a couple of days.

I would have thought that a moult would have to have finished approx. 2 > 3 weeks before they start laying again ??? .... It is certainly her egg, ( just the one ) ... unless Molly RIR has taken to laying a darker, terra-cotta coloured sprinkled egg - all of a sudden.

Question : Can a hen lay an egg while moulting, or within a day of not shedding further feathers ???????? ( had cleaned out the coop of feathers and straw ). I would have thought not !

Rather weird chooks at no. 44.

.........

 

[MyHaven]

Oh heaven help us all ---- another question.   Not one I think I can Google. !!! :/

Mandy Welsummer, who I mentioned some pages ago, was 'looking off' --- hiding in the nesting box which is actually ' chook bed' .... with tail down when slowly walking,  and looking like she had lost a million quid and found sixpence. 

This has happened now 3 times - and after some TLC inside, very warm cloth applied to her vent and abdomen, a cotton stick covered in vaseline up the vent ( just in case )  - she would emerge the next day looking perfectly normal.  Thought, as many suggested, egg bound, impacted crop, sour crop etc. Apparently not.     Fed them all mashed egg plus shells, yoghurt, cheese, greens - mix. to get her interested in eating again, and it worked a treat.      

She ended up shedding heaps of feathers .... so ok - I am happy ---- she's moulting.   But not like her usual moults, which are  very slow and long.   This was fast and furious. 

Now - within a day or so of no more feathers - she produces an EGG !!    IN the nesting box, and sits beside it ????  First egg from her for weeks.     ( neither she nor Molly have used that nesting box for anything other than sleeping for two years !!! ) .... She stopped picking at her breast feathers too ... that seemed to last only a couple of days.   

I would have thought that a moult would have to have finished approx. 2 > 3 weeks before they start laying again ???  .... It is certainly her egg, ( just the one ) ... unless Molly RIR has taken to laying a darker, terra-cotta coloured sprinkled egg - all of a sudden.  

Question :  Can a hen lay an egg while moulting, or within a day of not shedding further feathers ????????  ( had cleaned out the coop of feathers and straw ).     I would have thought not !  

Rather weird chooks at no. 44.
......... 

Hi, what a puzzle. My girls keep laying but they don't moult hard like yours - if you didn't see the new growth and the old feathers on the ground you almost wouldn't know they're moulting. The new feathers grow as fast as they loose the old.

Maybe extra soy protein helps?

 

[MyHaven]

The fire we saw yesterday frm Mandurah has now wiped out the small country town of Yarloop. 95 homes burnt down only 15 left. 58,000 hectares burnt and still out of control and spreading.My heart goes out to all those affected by the fire. More fires have started in the southern Perth suburbs near Forestdale. Hope some rain comes soon but without the lighting strikes.

I hope no one was hurt And no one gets hurt. My prayers are for everyone on such a dark day.

 

[MyHaven]

I make dream catches with them

If you send me feathers of a special bird I can make you one.

That is so kind of you. And your dream catchers are beautiful. I love the spirit behind them.

 

[appps]

Well we dodged a bullet! Got given a brand new hot plate because its owner is in a caravan park and couldn't run the heavier duty cable it requires. I got an electrician in to fit it for us and he said our is the same and will need upgrading as well. In the process of checking what we have he lifted our existing hot plate and goes hang on, this one shouldn't be hooked up either. The one we were getting was 6700 something and it was 6600. From what I gather we are wired up for 3600. Our original one died about five years ago and the guy we used then just wired this one in without even looking at its power rating. Yikes!

Might have been a good thing I'm a cook it all in one pot kinda gal and rarely have more than one hot plate going, and never more than two or we could have had a fire start under our bench.


Oh and an update on our little doves. My sister was telling me the breeder said that as they develop the fertile eggs will start to go a creamy colour rather than stay the white they are laid. Well our mummy bird got off the nest again yesterday and daddy got on but while they did their swap I could see two eggs in the nest and one was defiantly creamy coloured while the other was white. So looks like we might get a baby hatch after all!
Not sure what will happen from then. Apparently he fosters most of his with regular pigeons as they aren't known for their parenting skills. Mind you shouldn't have been fertile due to the not trimmed tail or developed due to their nesting abilities so maybe we will get 3 from 3 and they will care for it too!

 

[Teila]

05:30am "Yeah, yeah .. early bird .. worms .. whatever! Be a good hooman, DO NOT touch those curtains, GO AWAY and quietly prepare our breakfast which you can serve after 8am!!!"



Tee hee MyHaven love the soggy chicken shots! Sorry you lost her

Anniebee Yep, Cilla is addicted and just wants to be a mumma, over and over and over again. If I had more room and could guarantee that the eggs only hatched girls, I would cave but I just feel bad bringing little ones into the world that I can not keep and others may not want. May be I should hire her out lol

You do have some weird chooks! Lol

In my experience with moults, it has taken my girls ages to lay again. Dusty does the hard/fast moult but still does not lay for weeks or months. LuLu is currently going through a soft/slow moult and also has stopped laying.

In the two hard moults Dusty has had, all signs of pin feathers have vanished completely and she has been fully feathered and back to normal before going back to laying.

locknest4 such devastation, so sad.

for rain

that everyone is OK and

for the firefighters!

Gees appps that is not good and lucky it was picked up before any damage done; 5 years is a good stretch of luck though. It is scary that we are in the hands of those we trust to know what they are doing.

How exciting .. I do hope there is a baby dove, I would love to see the pics. If they are not good parents, you may have to be it’s mumma .. or, I could lend you Cilla; right now I think she would mother anything! lol

06:50am "You again! Did we not tell you to go away!" [Check out the expressions at being disturbed .. it is a tough life! lol]

 

[chicken-clucky]

P

That is so kind of you. And your dream catchers are beautiful. I love the spirit behind them.

If you send me feathers from your birds I would be more than happy to