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

[RodneyRooster]

Hi all does anybody know where I might be able to get some fertile cream legbar eggs?

Never even heard of them! Lol

Awww .

My babies have stolen penny's spot tonight. She has sat there for the last three years but they obviously tried to sit too close tonight and so they were in her spot and she is perched on the opposite end as far as she can get from them. No wonder she is the bottom of the pecking order when even the babies can push her around lol

Awwwwwww. I think mine will do the same though pretty soon lol, good on em!

 

[appps]

Totally off topic but has anyone got a kiwi fruit vine? I'm wondering about growing one in a pot for 12 months till we get our pergola built to give me a head start on the three year wait for fruit. Wondering if even a new vine will Need a big support in its first year though?

 

[chooks01]

Never even heard of them! Lol
Awwwwwww. I think mine will do the same though pretty soon lol, good on em!

Cream legbar are blue egg laying chooks

Eggs are same size as barred rocks

 

[Anniebee]

Quote:
Really, a match for foxes? I'd heard the tick bit but hadn't realised they gave foxes a run for their money!

___________________________________________________________

Meeka3 .... I was very surprised at your comments. Could never imagine any poultry having a go at 'small snakes' and defeating foxes. Ticks I can understand, and it's good if they can get at them.

They must be some kind of hefty minded birds .... but then, knowing only my own chickens, nothing would surprise me when it comes to poultry. They seem capable of so many things. Can be surprisingly aggressive when the need arises.

My biggest girl had her dirty bottom clipped and washed this evening ... oh wot fun. !! She now has a slightly bald patch ( nothing more than a good moult would produce normally ) .... and I think she might remain seated on a freshly laid egg to warm her butt for the next week or so. The feathers will grow back quickly. She really is a dirty girl. She loved the warm/hottish towel I applied. Raised her tail in sheer delight.

Cheers ........

 

[Anniebee]

Orignally posted by Tandykins

A couple of days later I saw my pug waltz into the coop and waltz back out with an egg in his mouth. I ran out and shouted to him to 'drop it' which he is RIDICULOUSLY good at doing and sure enough found a marked hatching egg. :| I moved the maternity cage up about 2 feet so that he can't get into it. Then I blew out some old eggs, filled them with Tobasco sauce, sealed them with candle wax, coated the shells with Stop 'n' Grow (bitter nail polish for nail biters) and wrote, "Bruno is a dick" on them so that I could easily identify them.

The first day he came out with one and it smashed in his mouth on his way out. He has avoided the coop entirely since. > Serves him right.

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I had to laugh at your ingenious method of teaching your dog not to steal eggs. Gave me a big giggle, although I have no doubt it didn't do the same for your little pug. Poor little man - all that Tabasco, and you marking 'Bruno is a dick' on the eggs. Priceless.

Glad that he has now learned not to raid the chicken coop. !!

..........

Enjoyed all the stories on this thread today .... and especially about the re-arranged roosting accommodation from a couple of members here.

Chooks can be very strange at times. My 2 big girls ( the ones who took two years to learn how to roost ), have in recent cooler evenings resorted to sleeping once again, one in the nesting box, and one just underneath, in the straw covered floor laying area. Their choice, who am I to judge. ??

When it gets hotter overnight here - they will roost again ( I think ). I don't worry about it, just change the straw every other day, and clean out the nesting box of woopsies. They have a decided routine, and they stick to it. The nesting box has not been used for laying for about 2 years !! Nice bed though, apparently - for Mandy Welsummer !

On really freezing winter nights they cram into the nesting box together for warmth. The scrabbling noise from the nesting box on ultra-cold nights, as they jockey for best position, is very funny to listen to, and very noisy.

I do have weird chooks. !!

Cheers .......

 

[Teila]

Good morning Friends

RodneyRooster “Grrrrrrrr! It didnt post! Now i gotta write it all over again! And attach.” I have BYC open on one screen and Word on the other; scroll through thread, type responses in Word; copy and paste

Not only because of what you experienced but because in the time it takes me to type a reply there may already be 3 or 4 new posts But then I am lucky enough to have a home office and I know others are using phones and laptops etc.

Good to see you again! Yep, your little ones are growing so quickly, won’t be long and I will not be able to call them little ones! Not only long necks and combs but also lots of confidence; I love how they are giving you the ‘what are you doing and what is that thing you are pointing at us?’ look. That pic of them on the roost .. too cute!

tandykins I have not heard the ‘helicopter mum’ reference before today .. good one! I have a severe case of PCP [paranoid chicken parent] and knowing my flock, 3 weeks is too young but each flock is different and so is everyone’s experience with integration; that one is definitely a personal choice in combination with flock dynamics. As sjturner79 suggested and appps has recently done; find a couple of hours where you can watch them, grab a coffee [if that is your preference] and settle in for some chicken television

Tee hee Meeka3 you cracked me up with “bye, see you, more food for me, oh, and I bags the best spot on the perch”

Here it would be be more a case of "Muuuuuuuum, how come she is outside and we are in here ... not fair!!!"

Chookepie great pic of Jess .. she looks like she is thinking “I want the snack but what’s with the picture taking thingy?”.

Oh dear appps, poor Penny! Cilla is probably ruing the day she taught KiKi and Crystal to roost with her .. now they have taken over her favourite spot and she has to roost with the plebs

Anniebee I enjoyed your dirty girl bath story .. if it gets too hot today, might just give the girls a dunking of their own but I am pretty sure they will not be grateful

Bed time here is always a squabble fest and most nights I watch and supervise. Cilla has decided that having me put her to bed is definitely the go. She does not jump up by herself anymore and just sits and waits for me; or, as she did last night, wanders up the path to tell me that she would like to go to bed now

Remember I mentioned Blondie was broody? Not anymore! I have the best broody breaker … KiKi! I believe KiKi has decided “if I cannot be broody, nor can you .. Out ya go!”

After I let everyone out yesterday, Blondie took the opportunity of KiKi being otherwise engaged to have a crack at settling into the nest box .. I heard Blondie squeal and wandered down the path to tell KiKi that I had it under control, a weekend of being locked out of the nest box was planned for Blondie and that it might be an idea to give her a break. However, when I got to the coop KiKi was not in there with Blondie .. there was a Crow in there with her!

I am really starting to get peeved and these Evil Black Butted $%^#@’s are pushing my ‘do no harm’ limits .. right now I think I could cheerfully kill one if I could get a hold of it!!

Anyways .. lawns to mow, fish ponds to clean ….. good luck with the predicated heat folks and fingers crossed for cool chickens and no losses

 

[Ashburnham]

Totally off topic but has anyone got a kiwi fruit vine? I'm wondering about growing one in a pot for 12 months till we get our pergola built to give me a head start on the three year wait for fruit. Wondering if even a new vine will Need a big support in its first year though?

Yes - I have several. You need male and female plants. They need lots of water in the summer.
One of mine is only looking to produce significant amounts of fruit this year, and it would be nearly 10 years old.

xxx M

 

[appps]

Yes - I have several. You need male and female plants.  They need lots of water in the summer.
One of mine is only looking to produce significant amounts of fruit this year, and it would be nearly 10 years old. 

xxx   M

Wow, I definatly need to waste no time then! What i was thinking was get the female one and grow it on for a year in a pot so I'm a year further ahead than if I leave it and buy it at the nursery when I'm actually ready for it. I hadn't planned to buy both yet thinking the male probably wouldn't take as long to come to flower? Or did they both take just as long to start producing flowers?

 

[RodneyRooster]

@tandykins great idea with the egg and dog! Wish my dog would stop digging into the chook yard!

Good morning Friends RodneyRooster “Grrrrrrrr! It didnt post! Now i gotta write it all over again! And attach . ” I have BYC open on one screen and Word on the other; scroll through thread, type responses in Word; copy and paste Not only because of what you experienced but because in the time it takes me to type a reply there may already be 3 or 4 new posts But then I am lucky enough to have a home office and I know others are using phones and laptops etc.

Great idea! But yes i am always using my phone lol. Go KiKi! What a great natural broody breaker

 

[tandykins]

tandykins I have not heard the ‘helicopter mum’ reference before today .. good one! I have a severe case of PCP [paranoid chicken parent] and knowing my flock, 3 weeks is too young but each flock is different and so is everyone’s experience with integration; that one is definitely a personal choice in combination with flock dynamics. As sjturner79 suggested and appps has recently done; find a couple of hours where you can watch them, grab a coffee [if that is your preference] and settle in for some chicken television

Oh -absolutely-, and if these babies didn't have their mum I wouldn't even think of integrating them at this age. I just did it. Can you guess what happened?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The adult chickens just wandered into the brooder amongst the chicks and began hogging the chick crumble. XD

One hen got jumped by a chick who thought it would practice fighting and got a gentle peck on the head in return. Queenie has now decided that this chicken is dead to her. It is not allowed to come anywhere near her chicks or is attacked. XD

The chicks immediately began trying to ride my head roo (who fathered most of them) and he more or less pretended they didn't exist. A couple of the older hens who have also raised chicks shared their banana with them - one of my hens has been greedily eyeing Queenie as though she wants to take her babies and is offering them food. I would not be surprised if she tried. Buttface is a mum through and through.

So that was extremely anti-climactic. But good. Very good. So far I've left them alone in the garage, brooder open, whole flock in there, just letting them adjust and relax - I can see them from here and I'll check on them like..well...a helicopter mum.

I popped my broody SLW Tetra out of the nest to encourage her to eat and to check to see if anyone else laid in her nest. Normally when I drop a broody on the ground it makes at least some pathetic vague effort to cushion its fall. Apparently Tetra just completely forgot how to chicken. She dropped like a stone. On her face. The THONK was loud enough to make me apologize profusely and check her for injuries. Once I was assured that she was fine, I fluffed her up to make her angry (and get her moving) and she ran off to torture some poor soul for her psychotic PMS. This is her first time brooding and she took about 4 days to get the hint of, "No your nest is HERE." and pooped on the eggs the very first day.

However, since getting into the swing of things, she's stayed on her nest and now lets herself out instead of pooping on the eggs. My husband wanted to break her of her broodiness after the 3rd day of her getting off the nest - but I urged him to give her time, as this was new to her - and I'm glad we did. She seems to have gotten the idea.