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

[sjturner79]

Rosie after her spa. Need to Vicks her feet in a bit, then she can start exploring our yard tomorrow.

 

[Anniebee]

Most definately . They will still dig a dirt bath but they don't scratch all my wood chips onto the pathways.

My 3 have moon scaped their entire runs. So they get heaps of interesting ( safe ) stuff thrown in there, for them to scratch around in. They prefer however, to 'wait' until Mum opens the gate and out they go - to dig holes ( deep deep holes ), spread anything whatsoever that is in any garden - onto the brick pathways. Ground cover, leaves, dirt and twigs, entire small plants on occasions, looking for bugs.

Then there are the rose leaves. It's all Christmas and Birthdays with those - so my garden is a mess of wire circles 'around things'. They pick at grass, and where Mindy goes ( by herself so's she's not murdered ) .... there is not much of anything ( except circled rose bushes and lovely dirt to dust bathe in ) .... so I always cut up greens for her plus scissored grass pickings, and they absolutely HAVE to be put in a very specific spot ( a tiny dirt patch underneath the clothes line ) - otherwise she won't eat the greens.

.........

I had such a giggle about the chooks on verandahs. None of my girls come anywhere near the back door. They most likely know that is where Miss Ruby emerges from, and although they are not afraid of her - and she is not nasty with them at all, I wouldn't let them all together to 'play'. She is far too big, and too playfully rough, to let her with fragile chooks. And I just know - she being a Golden Retriever, she'd want to pick one up gently in her mouth - which could be a tad nasty - for her and my chicken.

..........

As for strange companions for the chooks - they all seem to love their rosella friends - and lace necked doves. The mynahs are accepted by the two big girls, but not by little Mindy. One mynah sits in a tree above Mindy - talking and mimicking very cleverly, for what seems hours, but never alights on the ground ( knows better ). Cockatoos singly are also welcome, but not a whole flock.

............

The pavers are a great idea to put in their run and turn over for bugs. I turned over some compost recently, and yelled - "look - there ---quick, catch them" but all they could do was look up at me and at the hand I was pointing with. The hand that held no goodies. The bugs ( slaters ) all got away.

Silly me.

Cheers all ......

 

[mooandmcgee]

The girls made it!!!

First night in the coop. Hahahah!!!

Wondering if I should keep them in the run today so they can get used to it. Yesterday it took a lot of persuasion to get them into the run and I had to physically put them in the coop and lock them in to sleep.

How can I train them that this is their sleeping quarters and to get them to go in it themselves?

 

[Fancychooklady]

The girls made it!!!

First night in the coop. Hahahah!!!

Wondering if I should keep them in the run today so they can get used to it. Yesterday it took a lot of persuasion to get them into the run and I had to physically put them in the coop and lock them in to sleep.

How can I train them that this is their sleeping quarters and to get them to go in it themselves?

Yes, lock them in the run . Throw in half a lettuce or something to keep them entertained.

 

[satay]

The girls made it!!!

First night in the coop. Hahahah!!!

Wondering if I should keep them in the run today so they can get used to it. Yesterday it took a lot of persuasion to get them into the run and I had to physically put them in the coop and lock them in to sleep.

How can I train them that this is their sleeping quarters and to get them to go in it themselves?

Yay e Some get the going to bed thing really quick and others like my Millie fleur Belgians well lets just say i still have to put them to bed each night

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Lovely to see lots of chatting for me to catch up on .. chickens fed and coop cleaned, got the hot coffee

moonandmcgee fantastic news that the littlies, while reluctant, had an OK night in the coop. If you persevere with putting them in at night for a few days, they get the hang of it pretty quickly and will put themselves to bed.

Fizzybelle loved the pics of Beatrice.

sjturner79 Rosie looks like she would have enjoyed her spa day.

On the subject of chickens and garden destruction; I have found that my feathered feet girls are less destructive than the non feathered and yep, having bantams the damage is less than it would be with LF. I will not go into details as I have in the past, but I believe you can still have a nice garden and chickens if you plan it right. While my garden is nowhere near as beautiful as Fancy’s, I think I have a good chicken v garden balance.

Yep, the CTD [chicken training device] works well here also .. we only have to pick it up now and they stop whatever they are doing and take off.

Sadly I have not seen or heard Porter lately; I can only hope that he has moved on and not been eaten by a cat etc.

I am not sure of the order but as I sleep lightly with one ear on the coop, I was woken at 11:45pm by either “help, help, help” .. ‘thunk’! or ‘thunk’! .. “help, help, help” .. so, as you do, I raced out with the torch while getting dressed [something at which I am becoming quite adept

] … checked the run and surrounds, all looked good; checked in the coop and found Cilla and KiKi, who had been on the roost at bed time, sitting on the floor, looking a little bewildered with everyone else awake, but still on the roost. As Cilla was on the high roost at bed time and KiKi was on the lower roost in front of her I can only think that Cilla fell off the roost and took out KiKi. The roosts are not that close but I guess it might be possible with some flapping for balance etc. Anyways, popped them back on the roost and everyone was AOK this morning.

OK, break out the ‘I told you so’s’

I am the first to admit when I am wrong and yep, I was wrong, you were right .. while the sunsmart sheeting and good ventilation seems to have kept the temperature in the coop cooler than the outside, the girls have vocalised that it is a little too bright for egg laying which was an easy fix.

On the old run we had a cover which was a cross between shade cloth and a shade sale; heavy duty, pre cut with eyelets etc, not the cheap stuff off a roll. Anyways, we have laid that across the roof wire so it sits between the wire and the sunsmart sheeting, diming the daylight and probably also keeping the coop even cooler. The girls appear to approve

We have an 80% chance of up to 8mm of rain if we get a tropical storm this afternoon and a chance of showers over the next few days, so that will be a good test for the new digs and covered run.

It is nice to not have to sit here trying to work out whether I should put the covers on or not and then after putting them on, have to take them off again because turns out it was not worth it

 

[Fancychooklady]

Good morning folks 

Lovely to see lots of chatting for me to catch up on .. chickens fed and coop cleaned, got the hot coffee 

moonandmcgee fantastic news that the littlies, while reluctant, had an OK night in the coop.  If you persevere with putting them in at night for a few days, they get the hang of it pretty quickly and will put themselves to bed.

Fizzybelle loved the pics of Beatrice.

sjturner79 Rosie looks like she would have enjoyed her spa day.

On the subject of chickens and garden destruction; I have found that my feathered feet girls are less destructive than the non feathered and yep, having bantams the damage is less than it would be with LF.  I will not go into details as I have in the past, but I believe you can still have a nice garden and chickens if you plan it right.  While my garden is nowhere near as beautiful as Fancy’s, I think I have a good chicken v garden balance.

Yep, the CTD [chicken training device] works well here also .. we only have to pick it up now and they stop whatever they are doing and take off.

Sadly I have not seen or heard Porter lately; I can only hope that he has moved on and not been eaten by a cat etc.

I am not sure of the order but as I sleep lightly with one ear on the coop, I was woken at 11:45pm by either “help, help, help” .. ‘thunk’! or ‘thunk’! .. “help, help, help” .. so, as you do, I raced out with the torch while getting dressed [something at which I am becoming quite adept ] … checked the run and surrounds, all looked good; checked in the coop and found Cilla and KiKi, who had been on the roost at bed time, sitting on the floor, looking a little bewildered with everyone else awake, but still on the roost.  As Cilla was on the high roost at bed time and KiKi was on the lower roost in front of her I can only think that Cilla fell off the roost and took out KiKi.  The roosts are not that close but I guess it might be possible with some flapping for balance etc.  Anyways, popped them back on the roost and everyone was AOK this morning.

OK, break out the ‘I told you so’s’    I am the first to admit when I am wrong and yep, I was wrong, you were right .. while the sunsmart sheeting and good ventilation seems to have kept the temperature in the coop cooler than the outside, the girls have vocalised that it is a little too bright for egg laying which was an easy fix. 

On the old run we had a cover which was a cross between shade cloth and a shade sale; heavy duty, pre cut with eyelets etc, not the cheap stuff off a roll.  Anyways, we have laid that across the roof wire so it sits between the wire and the sunsmart sheeting, diming the daylight and probably also keeping the coop even cooler.  The girls appear to approve 

We have an 80% chance of up to 8mm of rain if we get a tropical storm this afternoon and a chance of showers over the next few days, so that will be a good test for the new digs and covered run.

It is nice to not have to sit here trying to work out whether I should put the covers on or not and then after putting them on, have to take them off again because turns out it was not worth it 

Told you so. NEVER ! im sure you will find the right balance for the girls. So windy here, we spent the weekend getting firewood.

 

[Teila]

Told you so. NEVER !

im sure you will find the right balance for the girls.

So windy here, we spent the weekend getting firewood.

Lol

 

[Fancychooklady]

My girls have passed bio security and are finally out of quarantine . Not sure how they will feel about their new boyfriend .

 

[MyHaven]

WOW that's amazing!!!! What fantastic flock!!!

@CluckerFeet
Ella is a splash australorp
Carla is a black orpington (my special little one) and
Rosie is a blue orpington (thought she was going to be black but her feathers are coming in and she is very much blue). My daughters named then the second they laid eyes on them.

We are able to have five here so we will see. These three are known as "the great chicken experiment" at our house. So we will see what happens. Love them already and would die if one turned out to be a roo

Wait until you get your first egg. You add up your expenses and say "Well that Great chicken experiment resulted in this $560 egg - and a moon scape in the back yard!" And you'll still want more.