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

[User395221]

We have been lucky here. The council has lots of information on distances from neighbours and all that

The important stuff....

I think the restriction on numbers is so some "brightsparks" don't start running commercial egg operations in their suburban backyards. I think 6 is a reasonable allowance for the suburbs. It's enough to supply eggs for a family and not so many that they would be creating a huge amount of poo/smell and noise and the sort of stuff that neighbours might get upset about.

 

[appps]

Im sitting in office works car park and just spotted yet another hawk. Think this one is doing laps over the local park which has ducks.

Potato chip, I've got 8 and my personal limit is going to be 10 but we have a pretty big yard for a town block. I had 6 but didn't choose breeds that are great producers so we were struggling to feed five people without buying eggs. I'd be kicking myself if I hadn't been able add my recent australorps. It's been a learning curve

 

[Teila]

Peace and harmony returns to Bambrook Bantams ... Happy chickens, chilling on the deck with their Dad

Please excuse LuLu's scruffier than usual appearance, poor thing is moulting and lost her tail:

 

[Anniebee]

So, even by chicken standards, they aren't behaving "right", it's not just the "thwarting" of their instincts going on? When I was thinking about the potential for "hormone replacement therapy", I was thinking "they must have something for this, what do the chicken farmers do?" and then realised that, unlike cats and dogs, chickens are (viewed as) "dispensible". Show signs of "trouble" in a commercial outfit and you stop being a laying hen and be a table bird.

We need Cher from that movie "Snap outta it!"

Are your girls related? Is it strange to have several broody hens?

potato chip - - - - Admittedly, I only have 3 chickens, and only one of them has shown broodiness on several occasions now. ... Mindy Araucana.

If weather permits, I lock her out of her comfort zone ( her coop - with lovely places to sit in broody mode ) ... bring out the food and water into the run --- and let her be for 3 or 4 days, locking her up at night when she is docile. She is a lone chicken, as one of my larger girls hates her, and would murder her in an instant. Two are separated from one..

Breaks Mindy easily. If weather did not permit - I would bring her inside for 3 days - on straw, in the main bathroom ( which is easily cleaned ) with her food and water. Anything possible to get their minds off their usual retreats and their hormonal uproars.

But then - I only have 3 chickens, and only one who has ever gone broody. !!

Apparently it is not strange to have more than a few broody hens at a time - as Teila confirmed in a previous post - they 'bring one another on" " start each other up " into broody stages.

Cheers .......

 

[User395221]

My new chickens are part araucana I wonder what they will be like when they're grown. One is already a "real character", I think she's going to end up being the empress of everybody, she's only little, but she has aspirations of roost-ruling, I can see it in her.

 

[Anniebee]

Absolutely ! Certain breeds are more prone to go broody, silkies and Cochins are at the top of that list. Isa Browns are hybrids , specifically bred to not go broody.

Isa Browns are largely held by egg farmers. For that very reason. They often don't live a long life, but are extremely productive - in whatever state they lay in. I loathe the idea of caged hens laying, ( mostly Isa Browns I would think ) .... and I suspect that everyone here hates it all, too.

But free range Isas' do their darnedest to lay and continue to lay until they give it up. Have a friend with a chicken farm - heapsa chickens - mostly Isa Browns .... and she has to cull them occasionally, although I have NO idea how she knows who is doing what or --- not !! And I have not asked. !!

I gather though, she lets them live their lives out naturally - which is a short time for many full flock Isa Browns ( not the pampered backyard Isas' who can live a lot longer ). She runs a bio-diversity farming complex, raising the egg layers and French breed Limousin cattle. Compact, hardy and docile to handle, with excellent beef production to size.

Cheers ......

 

[User395221]

I don't know my girls' background. I adopted them from some people, but I don't know where they got them, ie whether they got them as chicks or adopted them from a chook farm or from a commercial operation or what. I don't know how old they are, just that they are still laying.

 

[Anniebee]

My new chickens are part araucana I wonder what they will be like when they're grown. One is already a "real character", I think she's going to end up being the empress of everybody, she's only little, but she has aspirations of roost-ruling, I can see it in her.

Just wait until your part Araucana starts pretending to be a rooster. !!! My Mindy Aruacana lights forth with some of the weirdest shrieks and calls, I have ever heard from a hen.

She lays like there is no tomorrow - but also 'crows' .. ... which has had one neighbour enquiry ( hmmm !! ) recently, asking if we have a rooster. I suspect ( as roosters are not permitted in our Shire Council unless on specifically large acreage ) .... that she might have been thinking of complaining.

I showed her Mindy's blue eggs - she was agog at the colour, and has not questioned anything since. Besides which, Mindy only 'crows' about once a week. Her cackle/shrieks are loud though, and she sets the others off into the same calls, which can be loud and a bit daunting !!.

Only lasts about 10 minutes though.

Cheers .......

 

[User395221]

My Mindy Aruacana lights forth with some of the weirdest shrieks and calls, I have ever heard from a hen.

When I had chickens before, years ago, I had australorps. One of them would make the hugest racket after she'd laid an egg. She did that bwark bwark bwark chicken noise from cartoons and she did it loudly where I could hear her from the house. When I first heard it I thought there was something wrong, and went out to investigate, but she was just announcing her having left an egg for me.

Now, Grace is part australorp, part araucana. I hope she doesn't take after your Mindy and after my Agnes, or there could be complaints....LOL (Agnes was 'top chook' and Grace is being pushed around by her younger "sister" so I don't think she'll end up being a huge vocalist, but you never know, do you?

 

[appps]

My australorp honks. She is also very loud in the egg song department. Hoping the other two are quieter when they start!