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

[IamSamSam]

babies are growing quickly. Family arrived back from China holiday and my 8 may need surgery to remove a grommet that has been in for 3 yrs. grrr if it happens it's to this little guy. He loves his Afro chicken though !

 

[satay]

The shearer turned up, Yes hubby is still gloating that I told you he would. I booked the man via text so not sure how the thinks he knew he would turn up . He is from a farming property out west and is studying at uni down here. From what I can work out he is that busy with requests for a shear that he ran out of time last weekend. He didn't look much older than 20 but i'll give him this he could shear a sheep well. Under 30 mins all 3 were done. So calm with the sheep too and handled my big ram Tyson well.
Above pic is bel looking suitably unimpressed with her shear

and below Patsy after.

 

[satay]

So when would you let them sleep out there?   They have a little bathroom cabinet with air holes drilled at the top that we can lock up at night and its filled with hay.  Do you think that once the rainy weather passes next week they could move outside day and night?  We arent quite as warm as you I think we are getting about 15c overnight still.

Mine go out at 3 weeks all year round. Even in winter when overnight in the minuses. Our over night temps at the moment can still get down to 10c or so and they all do ok.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I've tried and hopefully haven't missed any posts. Love the baby photos. And sorry to read of losses. Had my hands full lately

Cute ! Did you get any of that wild weather yesterday ?

 

[Teila]

Good morning Friends

Was not looking forward to today .. Mondays are our busiest day and usually we have 2 people from 8am to 9:30 and then 3 or more for the rest of the day. Just found out it is just me until 9:30 and from 9:30 to 11:30 there is just me and one back up who, while very knowledgeable, is not good at getting things done quickly … gunna be a long day!

No storms here .. beautiful day yesterday. I hope everyone else was lucky also.

sjturner79 congrats on the new additions .. I did chuckle at “wasn’t intending to buy”

They are pretty cute!

Sam that little one is adorable!

Satay ah well, at least you have a spare “I told you so” for another day

We have a bit of a mystery … KiKi, who was pretty close to being broken, was in the run just before bed time last night when she thought she saw something in there with her .. she clucked up a storm which, of course, got everyone else who was in the garden going as well. Took quite a while to settle them down and even at bed time, on the roost, KiKi was still grumbling about something. I pretty much stripped everything down I could in the coop and run and found nothing and no signs. Come dark, they settled.

This morning I was up before 5am to frantic chickens .. KiKi and Crystal had not come down off the roost and the others, while down, would not go into the front part of the run, even when I put breakfast in there.

I stripped everything down yet again and once again, found nothing! I didn’t move or change anything yesterday, there are no signs of any wildlife, including snakes and rodents and I have no idea what is going through their crazy little chicken heads … well, probably just KiKi’s crazy little chicken head + the power of suggestion

I say KiKi was close to being broken because I had her locked out of the nest box for the majority of the weekend and she was pretty good by yesterday but this morning, when she eventually came down off the roost, she spotted the nest box.

I have also discovered that I can not put KiKi in the broody breaker .. I tried it yesterday and she freaked out; to the point that both hubby and I thought she was going to hurt herself. She kept throwing herself at the wire and worked herself up so much she was seriously panting. I had to get her out of there before she overheated! I was in the shed getting a bath ready for her to cool her down and when I came out she was just a pile of feathers .. OMG! I thought she had died ... heart attack, heat stroke etc. Anyways, turns out she had just hunkered down into the dirt and was cooling/calming herself down.

I very rarely question my decision to have chickens but today is one of those days .. up before 5am, psychotic overheated broody's, invisible threats ..........

 

[IamSamSam]

Cute ! Did you get any of that wild weather yesterday ?

Yeah we did. I feared the coop would wash away. No damage thankfully. And only minor flooding ( minor equates to I didn't need to stop it entering the house LOL) fantastic light show

 

[IamSamSam]

She just was worried her invisible eggs were getting cold ! I had a hen do that kept trying to get in and I made the dog sit and stay at the coop door. She won't go near him. She gave up after trying him once.

 

[appps]

Mine go out at 3 weeks all year round. Even in winter when overnight in the minuses. Our over night temps at the moment can still get down to 10c or so and they all do ok.

Thanks all, seems I'm just Molly coddling the little blighters. I made them sleep without the heat lamp last night, will do that a couple more nights inside at night while it's raining since it's supposed to get 20-40mm one day this week and I'm not 100% sure it won't flood in their new pen then out they go!

 

[appps]

Yes - too much /too many time with a rooster treading on her back, stripped saddle feathers

I'm not sure I'd keep,her seperate from your other new ones (obviously seperate from existing birds till out of quarentine) , it could take quite a while for them to grow back and by then everyone else will have forgotten her and found the new pecking order and she's going to get picked on going back in. As long as she isn't bleeding it's really no different to one that has a shocker of a molt (see above for example lol) and they should just ignore it and treat her as usual.

 

[locknest4]

iamsamsam Such cute chick pics!

Teila I reckon chickens are a bit like cats in that they think they can see things that no one else can

.

Many times in the past I have raced down to the chicken pen to find out what is causing the ruckus, only to find NOTHING! It also appears to be contagious, if one starts their 'Bokking' (as my son likes to call it), they all feel compelled to join in

!