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

[appps]

Fingers crossed she gets over it quickly!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Quote:
Well I didn't know this before but it looks like we have a standard for Sumatra. That still doesn't mean we actually do have them.
There is a standard for bantams Yoko's and yet we don't have any of them. It's probably just taken from the UK standard, like much of our birds.

 

[Teila]

Gosh, Telia...I had to break just one "We never go broody" Isas and that was hard enough sectioning off parts of the run and nesting boxes. Four sounds like a nightmare!

Fingers crossed she gets over it quickly!

Touch wood and everything crossed but at 12:00 midday and on supervised free range she still has not returned to the nest box! Hopefully 'playing' in the garden all day and having watermelon to eat will take her mind off motherhood!

 

[K Spot]

Seems like everyone is right into the swing of hatching! Ahhh, spring is here

I candled some of my eggs yesterday; I just grabbed out 7 random ones and all but one was developing!

Bubbles is down to 14 eggs since on the first day I came home to find she had cracked one of the bantam Rocks -sigh- She's doing a good job for a first time sitter.

Vehve - I have a Speckled Sussex and she's a gem of a bird. A very reliable layer, has never been sick the whole time I've had her (nearly 2 years), is friendly and a great ranger. I like the Speckled and Coronation varieties the best. I have an older Light Sussex hen, but that colour is perhaps my least favoured of the colours Sussex come in.

This is not a recent photo of her - she has much more white on her now after her last moult.

 

[Outpost JWB]

She is beautiful

. We are down to one girl (Freckles) and one roo (Sue). We had Sue in a dog crate because he kept flogging me and giving me more attitude than I allow my roosters to give me. Well, night before last, I let him out & put him back on the roost as the girls were already up. Because, when I went out to lock to coop door, there was a rat in his cage with him! It was biting his feet, and he (of course) cannot see at night, but was growling and trying his best to get the darn thing. We did not have these issues last year. It's bad this year. But one good thing: Putting Sue in the crate has given him an attitude adjustment. He has been much nicer to me. I still would not turn my back on him. He is a rooster.

 

[appps]

All organised for the chicks to arrive and not a moment too soon as one of the others has decided to go broody but I couldn't put her in Alcatraz because that's where penny is sitting on her eggs. So we have put her in the newly sectioned off area instead.

This is Alcatraz where our broody's go till they get over it (normally cupboard door is closed so they can't try and nest in there but that's where penny is nesting so open)

We spent the morning putting up a divider so that she will also have a little bit out in the sunshine and so the others can get used to the chicks.

Normally the gate to Alcatraz would open to close off this extra run but can't do that or winry would get in to penny so had to put something temporary there too. Winry is not amused at all and screeches at me every time she sees me lol. Hopefully she is over the broodiness before the chicks are here.

One quick question, do you think I need to worry about putting something smaller down along the bottom edge so the chicks won't wander into the big kids pen through the chicken wire? Not really sure if they will fit through the wire at that age as our youngest before were already about 5 weeks so I've never actually seen a really new chick in the flesh.

Oh and last thing, are magpies a danger to chicks? Wondering at what age they can safely free range with mum. We get a lot of magpies and when the favs were younger a kite used to sit in the gumtree and watch them through the bird netting but they were about 11 weeks at the time.

 

[K Spot]

When I let my babies out for range time with mum, I would sit and supervise. The butcher birds would pay too much attention to them in their dog crates for me to allow them to range by themselves.
I can imagine pesky magpies would be the same.

 

[appps]

When I let my babies out for range time with mum, I would sit and supervise.  The butcher birds would pay too much attention to them in their dog crates for me to allow them to range by themselves. 
I can imagine pesky magpies would be the same. 

Yeah I kinda suspected they might see them as a morsel to eat. We had 13 magpies move into our yard last year, hopefully we don't end up the local crèche again this year because I don't think even me being there would help with that many.

 

[satay]

Yeah I kinda suspected they might see them as a morsel to eat. We had 13 magpies move into our yard last year, hopefully we don't end up the local crèche again this year because I don't think even me being there would help with that many.

The hen should protect her chics. They normally don't roam far from the mum. My 3 week olds get to free range all day and have never lost one to anything. We have magpies here that bring their babies down each year.

 

[appps]

Well so much for our temporary gate. Look who I just found in the nesting box (the one at the back)

There is a reason she gets called Houdini

And five minutes after taking her out of the nesting box she still hasn't moved.

Do you think she might be broody lol