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

[Fancychooklady]

Sounds like the crazy winds are all over oz at the moment.

Crazy is not the word, the sun is shining now, but not for long. Wish I could send you our rain.

 

[MullyAly]

Fancy is this weather you've had over the last few months normal for Tassie? if it is I don't know where you get the strength to keep doing it all over again. I'm still trying to find time to finish my primary coop and run objectives, let alone rebuilding or even just straightening it out again after bad weather.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy is this weather you've had over the last few months normal for Tassie? if it is I don't know where you get the strength to keep doing it all over again. I'm still trying to find time to finish my primary coop and run objectives,  let alone rebuilding or even just straightening it out again after bad weather.

Our springs are usually wet , autumn and winter are normally dry . This year we've had floods and rain all the way through. I'm painting out a bathroom today because I can't get anything done outdoors.

 

[Fingers74]

Hi! My little family are first time chook owners. Up until 3days ago we had 6 Isa - browns. Today we have 2. Bloody dog. Your site has helped me a lot so far and there is still so much to learn. If you are wondering: the coop is being reinforced and the dog will be getting additional training. She does not touch them during the day, including when they are roaming! Night time has become our issue.
Anyway, I look forward to learning from this group to improve our chook experience...the functional pet that we all adore. We are situated in Adelaide.

 

[satay]

Hi! My little family are first time chook owners. Up until 3days ago we had 6 Isa - browns. Today we have 2. Bloody dog. Your site has helped me a lot so far and there is still so much to learn. If you are wondering: the coop is being reinforced and the dog will be getting additional training. She does not touch them during the day, including when they are roaming! Night time has become our issue.
Anyway, I look forward to learning from this group to improve our chook experience...the functional pet that we all adore. We are situated in Adelaide.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hi! My little family are first time chook owners. Up until 3days ago we had 6 Isa - browns. Today we have 2. Bloody dog. Your site has helped me a lot so far and there is still so much to learn. If you are wondering: the coop is being reinforced and the dog will be getting additional training. She does not touch them during the day, including when they are roaming! Night time has become our issue.
Anyway, I look forward to learning from this group to improve our chook experience...the functional pet that we all adore. We are situated in Adelaide.

Welcome. Sorry to read about your loss, sometimes it takes a little ' tough love ' to teach your dog not to touch what's yours, but it can be done.

 

[Anniebee]

No, I have never wished for a broody. I have so many but i can understand why you would.

satay .... answering your reply to my ( again ) long winded post about Mindy Araucana and her crazy ways. ( and to Fizzybelle who also made comment - tku )

Apparently, Mindy is not broody ???? ..... this afternoon she laid a perfect egg ( thank heaven ) .... on the wood shavings covered ground of her coop. I had removed the plastic egg just yesterday. ( figured it might have been confusing her - maybe I was correct - who knows !!

).

I had also removed the ACV from her water several days back, and have locked her up for one half a day with only her layer pellets to contemplate. She hates that - but stiff bickies Mindy ... it's for your own good..... ( would hate to see her egg bound or with a problem in her reproductive tract ).

I can only hope a) she does become broody soon or b) that she continues to get the most from her layer pellets to 'firm things up' for her in the egg laying department. If she were trying out for Olympics egg laying, she'd be in the first selection - in terms of just how many she does lay ( good, bad or indifferent ).

Mind you, it is not hard to lock up the chooks at this time - as the weather is atrocious. Current temp. is 6°C up here in Upwey - and set to go lower. ..... with rain, and more rain this coming week, thunderstorms and hail.

Tomorrow, ( it is alleged ?? ) there will be sunshine - maybe.

.....

Fancy .... I can totally understand your comments about your weather. It's off the wall, nuts. I love winter, but this is waay too much. ....

Another 14 cm of snow expected at Falls Creek overnight, which is about 4 hours drive from Upwey ( far enough away, but ... !!! ). In the high country ... and snow creeping lower - although that will probably stop with a bit of sunshine ( if that happens ) over the next day or so. More high winds expected, and after last weeks' 21 hours outage ... we don't want that again !!

As for your dear little chookie who has survived all that trauma ... she's a spunky lady, but sad that some of her eggs will not survive that onslaught. She will probably recover more quickly than you will - from the loss I mean.

Cheers all ......

 

[Fingers74]

Welcome. Sorry to read about your loss, sometimes it takes a little ' tough love ' to teach your dog not to touch what's yours, but it can be done.

Thank you fancychooklady. I really hope so. We would like to get a black australorp and light Sussex but need to sort out the night issue first. Here is hoping the upgraded fencing helps with that as a starting point.

 

[SilkieChickStar]

So much to catch up on! My girls are all laying! Rosie the silkie finally laid her first egg. Not without a fuss though. She spent so much time running around in and out of the coop that she ended up laying it on the grass lol.

Our green cheeks have started hatching much to our excitement. Can barely see the little jellybean but at least one has hatched. Mum and Dad are being very doting

 

[Teila]

Howdy folks

LuckysMum I asked a breeder friend of mine regarding the white tips on Dusty’s feathers and as you mentioned you would be interested, I am sharing an extract of some of her reply:

Off colours can be due to all sorts of things so recording what time of year, what temps, what conditions all would help correlate a reason. The cuckoo version of feather expression occurs because the chook is THAT sensitive to night and day differences in temperature. Fast feather growth, energy diverted from making crisp markings at night goes instead to keeping the bird warm...then daytime, that energy goes to feather marking...so you end up with fuzzy and crisp and wavy and not markings...due to day and night temp changes. Red bar, black bar, white bars across feathers are due to some sort of stressors from something as simple as you changed the water and it tastes different. Sorta like the markings in your finger nails...a good doctor examines the condition of your finger nails if you have an illness they are struggling to nail down. So nails, hair, feathers in birds...all reflect the conditions they are residing in. Good bad or neutral.

Yer girl's half moon white feather tips are being instructed to produce NO pigment. Why that happens, you will have to investigate that yourself to know--genetics (be more likely consistent to see it turn up with every moult), environment, you are the witness.

Between different breeds, there can be different colour genetics that make one bird less likely to fade colour. Some lines of self-whites bleach yellow in the sunshine, some are affected by consumption of cartenoids like yellow corn or even eating GREEN grass (yellow and blue = green...so there are yellow pigments in green foods, eh).

Hi there Fingers74 welcome to the thread and BYC .. nice to meet you. I am so sorry to read of your loss

SilkieChickStar congratulations on Rosie’s first egg! What a beautiful picture of your Conures and their jelly bean .. so, so sweet .. congratulations!