Recent content by pelicanchook

  1. pelicanchook

    Rooster crowing all the time

    My rooster starts as early as 3.30am - fortunately my neighbours are farmers and happily accept this as "farm noise". However, during the day its just an occasional crow. If anybody has any clues about why he starts so early - and repeats about every half hour, I'd value your suggestions.
  2. pelicanchook

    Chicken etiquette?

    Wow, I would love to have my girls behaving like this, you are very lucky. My flock, who live in the comfort of Cluckingham Palace, treat me like a palace maidservant, whose only function is to bring them food, and keep their premises clean. I think I must have got them too late (18 weeks) to...
  3. pelicanchook

    Review by 'pelicanchook' in article 'Egg Binding: Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention'

    Excellent article, really helpful, thank you
  4. pelicanchook

    My rooster is losing his feathers

    I have a 2year old rescue rooster who now lives very happily with my 9 hens. He was a magnificent bird when he arrived, but I have noticed that the girls (and one in particular) are always pecking at his feathers. He is now looking decidedly scruffy, and I have no clue how to stop the hens...
  5. pelicanchook

    Review by 'pelicanchook' in article 'Caring for Chickens in Summer: Tips for a Happy and Healthy Flock'

    Thanks, lots of good ideas I can try here in Australia, particularly in the weeks when every day is 100F+. I have installed an old single wooden bed in my coop, and then laid old wooden sleepers (about 4" thick) crossways across it, giving the girls a 6' x 6' space to cluster under when it gets...
  6. pelicanchook

    Toys and enrichment?

    Interestingly, my Australian chickens won't touch red cabbage, or red lettuce, but go mad for a suspended green cabbage or lettuce. I also put a skewer through a sweet corn, or zucchini (might be you call them courgettes) and suspend them and they really love them. A big bundle of straw gives...
  7. pelicanchook

    Pinning down a rooster - does it work?

    I love reading about all your problems with roosters, which fortunately I don't have to contend with. It always makes me smile when I read what is obviously the usual abbreviation for rooster as "roo". Here in Australia, where I live, a roo is a kangaroo, which is always my first...
  8. pelicanchook

    Why Do You Use Deep Bedding/Why Do You NOT Use Deep Bedding?

    I have a big dormitory area for my girls, with their roosting racks about 4 feet off the concrete floor (with a ramp for them to access the racks). I put straw on the concrete floor - loads and loads of it, together with herbs, wormwood branches, fleabane - anything that adds a pleasant smell...
  9. pelicanchook

    Help! My wife is mad at me for feeding the chickens pizza!

    My goodness, what a fuss! Australian chickens must be much tougher. My girls get whatever scraps might be available, ranging from pizza (rarely any of that left over), sausages and any other meat including salami, mice caught in traps, fruit of every kind, especially water melon, but not...
  10. pelicanchook

    What treats do you give your chickens?

    In winter I add warm water to their pellets and call it porridge, and then add two eggs on top, every morning. In summer I buy tins of corn kernels (cheap) and keep them in the fridge, and then take a tin down when it starts getting hot around midday. In really hot weather (quite often 40C...
  11. pelicanchook

    Can a dog and chickens safely coexist in a small backyard?

    Some dogs perhaps - mine which is part labrador is perfectly fine with my chooks, but a beagle - no way, remember they are used in fox hunting, and at two years old, it will be well set in its ways. I think I'd give up that idea, or find a more effective way of constraining your chooks all the...
  12. pelicanchook

    Raising Chicks In a Portacot

    Hi Sage, I'm in Australia too, and I have used a portacot with great success. I let mum look after the peeps in my nursery (old dog kennel) until they were about 8 weeks old, then as she got fed up with the task, I moved them to the portacot to let them get bigger before they joined the flock...
  13. pelicanchook

    Comment by 'pelicanchook' in article 'My $10 Inexpensive DIY Fodder Tower with Dollar Tree Dish Bins'

    Fantastic article - and so well explained. I shall try this out straight away because here in Australia in summer it is very hard to find good green vegetation for the chooks at a reasonable price.
  14. pelicanchook

    How many chickens would you need to keep to supply all the meat and eggs your family eats?

    Fabulous article, thank you for working out all the maths, way beyond my capabilities. I have chickens just because I like chickens - their eggs are a bonus which I usually give away to others because I just couldn't eat that many. I would absolutely NOT be able to eat any of my girls, although...
  15. pelicanchook

    How many chickens would you need to keep to supply all the meat and eggs your family eats?

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