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

[sjturner79]

G'Day from Sunny Down Town Quakers Hill.

HI ! I'm guessing from your username your a Radio operator, who is a Holden Fan, and by quakers hill you mean the suburb of Sydney .
What poultry do you have or are you intending to get ?

 

[Fancychooklady]

Chickens are attracted to the red blood colour and will peck at wounds.  
Purple antibiotic wound spray is a good treatment and hides the blood colour.

xxxx   M

That would be Terramycin or pink eye spray, not to be confused with cetrigen. The latter is an antiseptic spray and fly repellent but doesn't contain antibiotics.
Just thought I'd clarify Ash, because the cetrigen comes in a purple can and lots of people confuse the two. Both ' must haves ' in your first aid kit though .

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thanks Anniebee  I have 10 3 year ISA's  in the main area of the coop I have a special mix it has pellets, seeds and its supposed to have stuff for the shells. I've fed our chooks on that for 10 years and am only just having trouble with soft shells. I think because they are in the run everyday they are not eating as much of the mix. The stock feed place I get it from has chooks and its what they use for theirs.  My chicks are still on starter and they have a container that drops what they need. My husband just made this feeder after doing some research, but I think he overfilled it as they can only get their heads in.  Today when I cleaned I removed some of the mix and have told him to stop feeding them. He's always feeding them which is why I wanted this feeder to try and stop the waste.  There are sunflower seeds in it  I think and that's their favourite so they try and dig to get to it. I have told him that some of you use hanging seed containers so we will try that if this doesn't work. Thanks for the diagram I will show him.
I cleaned up and put wood shaving down where they roost and it smelt better straight away. I have been laying down hemp for the chicks and that seems to work well. 
We've done a lot of work on the coop and run today so I'm hoping that the deep litter will help cut the time spent cleaning. 

Funniest thing my grand daughters were in the "petting area" they had the silkies on their laps and were gently rocking them and singing to them apparently they were sleeping. Grand children and chicks are just the best fun to watch, time wasters really. No not time wasting they both (chicks and kids) grow up so quick you have to take time out for them or miss out on the fun. 

Sorry for your sad day Fizziebell I hope the new girl helps ease the pain. Looking forward to more photos.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. 

Commercial feeds / pellets do contain some calcium, what does the pack say about calcium levels ? Many free range grains contain shell grit, but this is to help with digestion and has little or now impact on calcium available to the hens. The shell gland requires a lot of calcium to cover each and every egg that a hen will lay over its lifetime. If there is a shortfall the hens system will extract it from her bones , ultimately leading to perosis and premature death. So by the time you experience soft shelled eggs this process has already begun. The other 2 important factors in good strong eggshells are phosphorous and vitamin D , so it is best to let your birds have some free range time , fresh air and sunshine.

 

[mooandmcgee]

[COLOR=333333]( from Fancy ) - That's good news. Beware of any open wounds as her flock mates will be inclined to peck at anything that stands out. Injured members of the flock are inclined to be a ' soft target ' . Just keep an eye her.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]............. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Certainly yes mooandmcgee  - especially if she has any redness around her little bottom.    For some reason chooks are attracted to 'red' .... and may have a peck at her.  [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Meanwhile, it is great news that she is coming to you when called.   Guess, ( perhaps because she has been away a few days ) that she has fallen to the lowest ranking in the fowl stakes, but I think that would be fairly normal.    So many species react this way to what 'they' see as the weakest in the flock / herd / band.  [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]As Fancy advised - 'just keep an eye on her' .... I am sure you will.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Cheers .......  [/COLOR]

Yes, I have been watching poor Carla like a hawk!! The vet stiched her and really cleaned her up well so there isn't really much for the other two to see. I have known this vet for almost 9 years and he knows in a bit pedantic when it comes to those sorts of things.

 

[satay]

Sounds a little inhumane to me.
Sorry for the double post, having a few probs with this site today.
See it's not just you Annie.

I understand why people use them but me being the rooster lover i am I could never use one. Lucky for me being on acreage i don't have to.

 

[satay]

Telia, that coop looks fantastic. A palace worthy of your fluffy royalty.

Well, I just got back from dropping Iris off. Burst into tears whilst handing him over, but the staff at City Chicks were kind, and they genuinely care about their animals. The owner who served me said that Iris' new family is very nice, live fairly near the hatchery and he'll be a pet for sure with his own new group of ladies. They wanted a nice friendly boy, and owner could see how sweet he was when she held him, and praised my efforts at raising him so nicely, as he's such a handsome boy, which meant a lot coming from another chicken person. So I'm happy for him, he was practicing his cock-a-doodle do's this morning, so it was the right time to re-home him before he got louder. Never want to do that again though, give up a pet, dear god that was awful. 

And to conclude my tale, because I am hopeless when surrounded by chickens, and only because I'd been wanting one forever and they had some, I came home with a little lavender Araucana. Prolly 8-10 weeks old. They had a super friendly Araucana roo there too, but no, I got a pullet. Well, fingers crossed she's a she, comb is basically flat, and the hatchery owner said she looked the most feminine of the bunch. I'll post pics later, and ponder over names. I like old fashioned lady names for my hens.

It's awful isn't it. I cried for 2 days when i had to re-home my sheep recently. You know you are doing the right thing but it doesn't make it any easier.

 

[satay]

Myhaven, yeah, Aggie's still clucking away, silly girl. She'll get over it eventually, as long as I keep her locked out. I'm just surprised at how determined she's been to stay broody. I must say you girl Honey is beautiful! What an amazing colour, I'm sure she'll get prettier every day. Sorry you ended up with a roo too, though maybe with a D'uccle you can get away with it. He is very handsome though. If you re-home him I wish you the best with it. Got pics of the newbie this arvo. Here she is.

 

[satay]

G'Day from Sunny Down Town Quakers Hill.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

.. Wow, lots of posts to catch up on.

First up and most importantly, thank you all so very much for your kind words and support on the coop build.

After only one night in the coop, last night they had to put themselves to bed without mum to check that all was OK as we were at the football watching North Melbourne defeat Brisbane at the Gabba

Anyways, I got home to find 5 girls on the roost and Blondie in the nest box .. not bad for only their second night. I also found a KiKi egg in one of the three nest boxes

so looks like they have worked out the new accommodation without drama.

Not having a human door yet is a bit tricky because I have to move the makeshift barricade and I am hoping that while I do the housework and grocery shopping today, hubby works on the door. Having said that, it has been a pretty full on couple of weeks so I am not going to push, just hope

mooandmcgee great news on Carla’s recovery and so lovely to see her back with her friends.

LuckysMum Because I take the food away every night and replace it in the morning, I do not have a ‘feeder’ and instead use two plastic, rectangular dishes, one for seed and one for whatever the treat of the day is; lettuce, tomato, leftovers etc. The two dishes sit nicely in a cat litter tray. They do not jump on the dishes and just walk up to them and peck and any seed that does get knocked out by their beaks drops into the litter tray.

I have two girls who lay long and/or pointy eggs and they have done since they started laying; I agree with Anniebee that I do not think it is a problem:



Fizzybelle I am sorry that Iris turned out to be a boy and that you had to part with him

KiKi is still causing some grief with her particularly loud voice and many times now I have verbalised that “she has to go” but I am still trying to work with her because I know how hard it will be to let her go.

Congratulations on your new girl! She is very pretty. Some old fashioned name suggestions from me are, Minnie, Ethel or Martha.

Fancy I am so very sorry to read of you Goshawk troubles and loss of a chick

MyHaven Honey is beautiful! I am sorry that PoL turned out to be PoC [crow] with your D’uccle

Anniebee yeah, if Council ever hear KiKi, I am sure they would not believe she was a hen unless they saw her lay an egg

Good to hear that you solved the speckled egg dilemma and yep, very strange.

Clothes pegs are a favourite in this house also .. they were used to help hold down the rain covers on the old run, they seal the cat biscuit packets, flour packets in the cupboard etc etc etc ……..

Just a tip, on the 20kg feed bag, which I keep inside in the laundry cupboard, I use a large bulldog clip, works a treat.

VK2HSV Welcome to BYC and the thread, lovely to meet you and I look forward to hearing about you and your flock

 

[mooandmcgee]

Well we had a showjumping coach here from NSW running a clinic over 2 days and whilst I was down the front playing host, I heard the roosters sound the alarm. By the time I got back up to the house the goshawk had pulled one of the chicks through the wire and had it trapped up between the coop and the cherry netting. Poor little thing was still warm . That hawk had the audacity to stand screeching at me and has been back twice since. It managed to peck one of the 3 week olds on the shoulder , drew blood but he will survive.
Tomorrow I will have to move everyone around, once he knows there are little chicks about he won't give up.

Oh that's terrible!! Best of luck, hope you are able to out smart the bugger.