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

[angela27]

Beautiful  girls its look like you have plenty of shade there. I love the crow proof bowl. Cheeky things.

sjturner  I love your little chicks is mum a frizzle.

angela27 your babies look gorgeous.

I am really envious.  I put 5 eggs under Lucky and 4 got taken (Teila's crows @#$%) and the last one didn't hatch.  I candled it and there was a chicken in it. But we had a cold front come through and Lucky was of the nest a bit, which wouldn't normally matter with the heat we'd been getting.  After 26 days and I couldn't hear anything when I tapped on it I decided to take the egg away.
I've now got a bantam australorp and a cochin that are broody and I don't know whether  to put eggs under them now. I might wait and see what the weather does. It's so unpredictable especially for the weather bureau.

Your hens are gorgeous! I'm fast becoming a crazy chicken lady!!
My little chicks are the first I have ever hatched. I have 13 with 2 Mumma hens. I'm so in love with them at the moment!

 

[LuckysMum]

Not until you run out of hens!

Thanks. Your silkie x frizzle does look gorgeous. Good luck with the new hatches.

angela27 I have hatched a few now and it the most beautiful experience. Watching them grow and develop their personalities is great fun.

 

[Susan Hampshire]

Awww I'm envious !

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Thank you for all the kind comments regarding our featheries and furries .. I have passed them on and the general consensus was “we are aware, now feed us!”

Backtracking to some comments I missed before posting yesterday’s pics ….

Susan having bantams that spend more time broody than they actually do laying eggs, we often have to buy eggs from the supermarket and they usually end up being scrambled and fed back to the girls .. yeah, I know

Anyways, I bought some free range eggs once and I have no idea on what they were free ranging but I have never seen such pale yolks in all my life!

Have you considered getting an incubator? I confess to never using one and taking the easy option, broody hen, for hatches. But, it would give you the opportunity to increase your flock and hubby might be more accepting of cute little fluffy butts that hatched at home

I believe the accepted norm is 2-3 chickens per nest box; 4 square foot of coop space per large chicken and 10 square foot of run space. However, in our climate, we can cut a couple of corners on the coop space because they do not spend days or weeks locked in the coop because of snow and usually only go in there to lay eggs and roost. Corners can also be cut on the run space if they spend the majority of the time free ranging and are only locked in the run when need be.

Fancy well done on the little chickie save .. right place, right time! Sorry to hear about your little orp though.

Howdy manualname I am not sure if we have met before, so hello and welcome to the thread

sjturner79 beautiful little fluzzy butts!

Angela27 great news that Squirt has blended in with the bigger bubs … that picture is soooo sweet!

LuckysMum sorry to hear about the eggs

So, if the storms hit this afternoon as predicted, we could get up to 50mm of rain … bring it on! Hope you get some satay

 

[angela27]

@Teila Just realised that one of your black hens is named Cilla, like Cilla Black! Then realised that all your hens have names of singers! Only one I'm stumped on is Crystal...

 

[Teila]

@Teila Just realised that one of your black hens is named Cilla, like Cilla Black! Then realised that all your hens have names of singers! Only one I'm stumped on is Crystal...

Tee hee Angela, yep, female singers has been the theme of our naming since Day 1 .. Crystal Gayle

 

[Anniebee]

Sorry to hear you lost baldy....your grand daughter sounds like mine ....Ella is so into all animals! But wait a minute 'chickens that catch a mouse!!!! Really?

They do indeed.

Here is a link -

- where a hen steals a mouse from a cat.

Warning - perhaps you might like to turn it off, after the hen rushes in to steal the mouse - - not the prettiest of viewing of what the hen does.

......

 

[Anniebee]

Yeah I lost one of my baby orps recently to feather strangulation. Just one of the hazards of having babies under fluffy chickens around moult time. I have heard of people plucking the underside of silkies and it makes me wonder if this is why some hens pull their own fearhers out whilst brooding.

I have read somewhere, that this is exactly why they pull the feathers out - and the article also mentioned, so's the chicks can get even nearer to the very hot skin of mumma chook. Which makes sense, I guess.

Clever girls aren't they .... but just acting out of instinct I guess.

Cheers - - -

 

[Anniebee]

Welcome to manualname .. and angela27 .... good to meet you both.

Love the pic of little 'Squirt' ... what a tiny little bub.

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

Have had a fair bit to catch up on during this visit. Can't afford to let too many days go by without visiting BYC. Am trying to back off the computer a bit - so's I can get to the cupboard / wardrobe / drawers chaos in this house. It has to be done. I usually visit BYC first thing, but ... will probably only catch up a couple of times a week for a while.

So sad to hear you lost little Baldy LuckysMum ... after all that happened to her. RIP Baldy.

Teila - just as well that Chucky has matured and is off doing grown up things. You would miss him greatly, and he would miss you, if he were still so dependent on you. Which he obviously now is not. And that's a good thing for all concerned. ....

And you could sing the old childrens' ditty "Four and Twenty black birds - baked in a pie" ... with some variations to the words that follow ....

Weather is so very cold today, I have the heater on and a heavy cardigan being worn. Need a hot water bag for my feet, and hands are freezing - even using the keyboard. Snow reported in the high country here in Victoria today and tomorrow. -1° to 6° C at Mt Hotham ?? Autumn is announcing itself all over the place, and the currawongs are calling their delight at it all - in fact they haven't shut up all day today. Hope Queensland returns to a low simmer, and gets good rains. NSW is milder thank heaven.

No chicken news from here - all the same ole, same ole.

Cheers ~~

 

[sjturner79]

The wild hatch has moved into the coop. If we get a nice day tomorrow I'll take shadow out of the box with her babies so that she realizes that all the eggs have hatched..