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

[satay]

My stupid move for the day yesterday. My two broody pekins are still sitting on eggs so I decided to commando crawl into their tractor to check on them. I lift up buff peek and check her . Nothing yet, then I pick up black peek and check her. I notice a few eggs seem light so I start to remove them whilst still in the flat position., I pick the next one up and bang it exploded all in my hair and face... There is no worse smell than dead egg.. I still have to commando crawl out of there trying to hold my stomach the entire time. 3 washes of the hair etc yesterday and I think the smell is finally gone.

 

[satay]

He is a beauty Fancy.  I just love how clear his lacing is on his breast.  How old is he now?

@tandykins
I'm impressed with your illustrations.  They are beautiful. 

@satay
how big will your snake grow and can you keep him when he's fully grown?  I must admit I've considered finding a local snake breeder to donate my male chicks to for when I do a wellie hatch in the distant future.    We got far too attached to Toothless (my last roo).  My husband wanted to know if we could take the kids to go and visit him.  :/

Sure she's friendly to everyone.

 

[Fancychooklady]

My stupid move for the day yesterday. My two broody pekins are still sitting on eggs so I decided to commando crawl into their tractor to check on them. I lift up buff peek and check her . Nothing yet, then I pick up black peek and check her. I notice a few eggs seem light so I start to remove them whilst still in the flat position., I pick the next one up and bang it exploded all in my hair and face... There is no worse smell than dead egg.. I still have to commando crawl out of there trying to hold my stomach the entire time. 3 washes of the hair etc yesterday and I think the smell is finally gone.

. My worst nightmare.

 

[tandykins]

My new SLW cockerel is growing out well

What a beautiful boy! I hope our SLW cockerel ends up this super handsome.

He is a beauty Fancy. I just love how clear his lacing is on his breast. How old is he now?

@tandykins I'm impressed with your illustrations. They are beautiful.

@satay how big will your snake grow and can you keep him when he's fully grown? I must admit I've considered finding a local snake breeder to donate my male chicks to for when I do a wellie hatch in the distant future. We got far too attached to Toothless (my last roo). My husband wanted to know if we could take the kids to go and visit him.

Thanks cwrite! I'm in the middle of illustrating a couple of childrens' books that I should really get on with. I have a nasty tendency to sit on projects for days, weeks, months or years while I move on to the next, shiny-looking project. XD

For those that wonder this is what I do with my excess young roos. Mila our 10ft coastal carpet python and no she doesn't eat live food.


That's brilliant. I'd been wondering what I should do with excess young roos. I'm really wary of rehoming them because I can't ensure how well they're taken care of once they leave my hands. This is a really excellent use for them. I will be asking my friends with snakes if they want the occasional young roo for their pythons.

What age do you put the roos down for food? Do you put them down and freeze them for later?

 

[satay]

A snake the size of camilla, She eats a three to 4 week old chick or a large rat. Our smaller snake turbo the 2ft spotted python will eat a week old japanese quail or a full size mouse. Main thing to watch when feeding snakes is they dislocate their jaws to eat so if you were to go a bit too big they actually can die trying to swallow it. Once you've had a snake as long as i have you know what they can eat. Mila will eat up to 3 roosters of 3-4 weeks of age at a time. I freeze my excess you roos and just take them out and warm them in water to a similar temp to heating a babys bottle before feeding her. They do still constrict around their food like they would if they were wild and trying to kill live food.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Whilst I was feeding out breakfast I noticed Walter the rooster was MIA . I called him and looked all round the rivers edge, no sign of him. Walter is the little guy that I saved as a chick, he hatched early and hadn't absorbed his yolk. I went back over with some plums , apples and silver beet and I heard a crow from the back of the hay shed. I had to pull down 20 bales of hay only to find him standing there looking at me as if to say , " you took your time" . All the while I was muttering under my breath , " how many times am I going to have to save you Walter." I'd say he has been wedged in there all night , he is happily calling his girls in for plums now. And I need a change of clothes cause these ones are full of hay.

This is Walter , as you can see he has always been a ' sticky beak ' .

 

[K Spot]

Walter the mischief maker

 

[Steampunked]

I seem to always get attached to the troublemakers...

 

[Kooka]

A snake the size of camilla, She eats a three to 4 week old chick or a large rat. Our smaller snake turbo the 2ft spotted python will eat a week old japanese quail or a full size mouse. Main thing to watch when feeding snakes is they dislocate their jaws to eat so if you were to go a bit too big they actually can die trying to swallow it. Once you've had a snake as long as i have you know what they can eat. Mila will eat up to 3 roosters of 3-4 weeks of age at a time. I freeze my excess you roos and just take them out and warm them in water to a similar temp to heating a babys bottle before feeding her. They do still constrict around their food like they would if they were wild and trying to kill live food.

When we took 'kill' away from constrictors, even quite small ones eg. Brown House Snake (in Africa) they had not always totally killed their pray. Most often it was immobile due to the crush trauma, that action, even in a 2' constrictor has some power to it relative to its pray. We assumed that the action had two goals, first to immobilize, second to 'break up' the pray ready for ingesting. For the most part wild snakes had a good eye for size but sometimes horned pray got them in more strife than they could handle!!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

The guy running www.maransaustralia.com claims to be producing 5-6 rated eggs. His birds will set you back a pretty penny, though! $250 to $350 for a copper pair, male-female. He is primarily interested in selling to breeders.

My French Wheaten Maran I got for $35 looks way too dark to me now...not wheaten at all.

I've heard a LOT about that import, the first one lost hundreds of chicks due to a salmonella incident in quarantine, right? Whole lot destroyed.

This guy is legitimate.
If you have to money I suggest going with his birds.