Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[ozexpat]

thanks guys

the number of people concerned is overwhelming

i am being contacted by email, txt and social media as well as calls into work.

while we are all fine, many of the nurses that work in the same hospital as me are distraught as they come from Tacloban and have yet to get news of their families.

I hope they get news soon.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hey oz, our prayers are with you. Your fellow Aussies are giving as much as they can . Hopefully the help that you guys need will get to you soon. God bless.

 

[appps]

Glad to hear you and your family are safe. I hope it is good news for your work mates too.
Such a horrible disaster, hope help gets there soon.

 

[Beulah89]

Speaking of broodies. The lady where we have got stock from posted this pic to FB yesterday. Her GLW 'Goldie' She calls her "the ultimate mothership" lugging about 16 chicks! She said she is a weapon of a mum too.

What's GLW stand for? It'll take me a while to get used to all these acronyms! That is one cool looking chook!

 

[Bens-Hens]

Sorry mate, GLW is a Gold Laced Wyandotte!

We love them, and someday will have more, we already have two Silver Pencilled Wyandottes and we wanted to spread the breeds a bit.

I was distracted today and didn't get those pics, so tomorrow is a new day. They don't look the best, all 'teenagery' with half feathers and half fluff.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Haha- awkward adolescents.
Oz - glad you and your family are safe! We are very lucky to live in an area where very few natural tragedies occur. It's very rare to have a tornado here, flooding rains occassionally, but nothing like I see happening elsewhere.
Very pretty GLW. I have a SLW, molting right now, but normally a very pretty girl. I'm so glad that some of my molters are beginning to get some new feathers.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I love GLW. Unfortunately I lost my lovely roo at the beginning of the year. I still have 4 lovely hens. This little floosey had a fling with a silkie. 8 more wilkies.

 

[NovaAman]

Lol.. Should be wylkies.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Your right , it shall be wylkies.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Interesting mix, I really liked your Silkie x Silver Penciled Wyandottes too Lisa.

OK, so, I had a day plotting and scheming. Managed to get a few pics (OK, maybe more than a few) and a better individual look at the mixes. Man I think we have a lot of boys in our bunch!

Now at 4 weeks old, I am planning to put them on the grass during the day and back to the brooder of an evening. Might keep this up for a week or maybe two depending on how those feathers are coming in. With so many males, some are a bit behind in the feather department.

In the past I have just used our little tractor for these lawn visits, and a temp grow out coop, but with so many chicks, it's just not big enough. I cobbled together a bird net (about $4 or $6 something) and some little posts and a part of the yard that gets shade a couple of times a day and made a little temp run off the tractor.

Sorry, these might not be the best pics, with so many and working by myself, I had to keep them still in a tub for pics....worked most of the time!

Here we go, captioned with breed, colour and estimated sex.

Lavender Araucana
1 x F, 2 x M, based primarily on rate of back feathering, comb colour


Blue Australorps
2 x M, Based on...well.....everything says BOYS! Just can't deny the lack of feathering, combs and behavior


Black Australorps
1 x F, 3 x M. Based on again, behavior, comb height and colour. The past couple of days some are really starting the go pink. Males again seem quite behind on the back feathering.




Home Grown
Black Australorp (Luna) x Lavender Araucana (Smudge)
3 x F, 1 x M. All pea combs, but the males is very wide and quite pink. It's an early call but coupled with the lack of back feathers on the suspect male I think I am right.




More Home Growns
Barnevelder (Curly) x Lavender Araucana (Smudge)
2 x F. It's an early guess, but they have their back feathers, and no colour showing in either comb. Hard to see in these pics, but there is a tiny bit or brown/copper colour in one of them.




French Wheaten Marans
3 x F, 3 x M, with a big side serving of 'can't argue' lol Boys combs are really going pink now. Also, one of the girls appears to not be very "French" at all!




Salmon Faverolles
1 x M, 1 x F. A second serving of 'can't argue!'




Final breed
Welsummers
3 x F, 1 x M. Finally a ratio in our favour! One is a swing chick but there are a few things that make me lean more to female than male. One is clear, with some dark chest feathers showing, lack of back feathers and a comb that is big and going pink, not to mention the pink wattles coming in too. The others still have light combs, smaller, back feathers are in and chest feathers are brown. The swing chick does have a bit bigger comb though, and the chest feathers are not all in yet which gives me a doubt. So far, I really like this breed.






I think that comes in at 13 males, 14 females of a 27 chick hatch. I could still be wrong on some but at least we can sell a few girls in a couple of weeks.

Finally, the temp run extension...and where the chicks have decided to hang out lol. Might have to make some more shade for them as it gets pretty thin after lunch time until mid afternoon.




Cheers Ben