Recent content by Ebarnes-21

He'd be adventurous, as chickens go 🧐 Assuming the closest home, which does have chickens ... he'd be traveling about 400 yards each way. My chickens could help, they range about 100 yards that direction ... he'd have to be cunning, going around the edge hidden in the bushes and not crowing...

The earlobes are all red - I haven't had any white ear lobed chickens in this flock ... and no true white egg layers either. The light bits visible on the white hen there I'm pretty sure are the little feather puff - the red ear lobe is below that and big enough to look like a wattle. The...

Yes I think I know who it is - she's come out of the same nest as the dark egg a few times, and even it was still damp once. Still holding out the "we were wrong" scenario in case. Surely, objectively, a young bird is more likely. I'm still watching nests for further proof but look what they're...

The 4yo hen is a 2nd-generation Hyline hybrid descendant ... so mother hen was a commercial Hyline brown hybrid, rooster was a Hyline rooster grabbed at hatch. The shape is her usual egg shape ... but that is the most average medium oval shape half the hens lay similar. The first one was small...

The eggs are very impressive. Makes me want more chocolate dark egg layers!! I shouldn't be getting even more chickens though, Lol.

The new birds are all hatched here from my own eggs - so there should be no surprises, genetically. Only Sussex and Hyline brown can be mixed in there. The 4th young one that I haven't seen the egg from individually is a light Sussex. I will continue to watch both of them and see what happens!

Didn't see the egg come out, no ... but now 3 or 4 times it happened in the same nest at the same time as that chicken, and the latest time the egg was still damp when she got out. We've also eliminated 3 out of the 4 new hens from the suspect pool - those have been caught laying ordinary eggs...

One of our hens just started laying a super dark egg a couple of weeks ago. The colour is very unusual, like a barnevelder or maran egg for example? Whereas the hens are a mix of sussex and hyline brown descendants. I thought it must be a young hen, but after watching carefully it looks like...

Of course it's OK for the girls to have food scraps. Pizza they love particularly. We used to feed our chickens and ducks almost exclusively from Pizza restaurant scraps we picked up weekly. I've never SEEN them lay so well before or since! Pizza is bread you know, add in a bit of bacon cheese...

Finally we have Egg, only a day or two ago, down on the river flats. Danny is barely visible in the background behind the goat. I think Egg still looks a bit like a youngster. But he/she has been getting a bit stroppy ... and has been the recipient of a kick recently, as evidenced by the tiny...

This is Rhagar again ... alone in the chook paddock just the other day.

Here is Egg in the foreground, and Rhagar in the back. (the fence is not a 'real' one, it is only dividing a raceway in the same paddock). At this time (about a month ago) they were all 5 together in the chook paddock, living happily spread out over the one hectare or so paddock, because of the...

OK that's quite large. I haven't seen any vocal sacs yet, I'm pretty confident to say. But I'm sure I'll see some pairs shifting around the farm soon ... fences are negotiable to my Emu so I think that will facilitate the territory seeking behaviour. They sort of accept an 'indication' of...

Yes I knew we'd see them fight when they started sorting their territories ... not really looking forward to that .... hoping they don't injure themselves too much, we have to pick up the pieces, veterinarially speaking. I think Lady owns the top paddock, it's her signature territory. Last year...

"So in this photo, they may be 99% physically mature, but they are still sitting in a cosy clump, like chicks." Mine have only recently (in the last 12 months?) stopped sleeping as a clutch (except Lady who separated even 2 years ago) Now they sleep as pairs, generally, but they are shifting...