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

[sjturner79]

To sjturner79 ....   Thank you for your response. 

I have looked at dry rabbit tucker, considering it to be ( perhaps !! ) something slightly different and interesting for the girls, rather than the scratch mix they get every few days.   Being that is like feeding them a McDonalds diet, I don't do much in the way of scratch mix for them - only 2 or 3 days a week - a handful or two.  But, as mentioned, I have never succumbed to buying it for them.   

I must remember to take my reading glasses next time at a large supermarket, and read the ingredients of rabbit and guinea pig food.  

Their complete food is layer pellets and anything / everything else is a treat thing. 

I would NEVER give my chickens, cat food, although some do.   It is designed for cats, ( both dry and wet )  and is not at all good even for  dogs !!   .... let alone chickens.  .......... Nope.  

Dog food is not good for cats either.   It's the vitamin and mineral additives in them that make them so different.  I do feed the girls cooked meat - and will up that this week for more protein.   

( I feed my dog Blackhawk holistic diet ... chicken and rice.   Found the lamb and rice heated her blood up too much ( red meat can do that ) ... and she started scratching like a mad thing, with no fleas to cause the problem.    Backed off that, onto Supercoat for one bag full - which has little meat, but a fair amount of grain in it ( not good for long term ), but it seemed to do the job. .... she stopped scratching and is now back onto Blackhawk chicken and rice - on which she will stay.    I add to that, a raw egg a couple of times a week, a bit of cheese here and there, and some tuna in olive oil ... again, here and there. ) 

But, as this is a chicken thread, I had best stick to chickens !! 

And you sjtturner79, or someone else, may be able to assist with a query.   I  have read and believe, that chickens have a 'limit' to their egg producing abilities.   i.e. they have just so many eggs to produce, and then there's an end to it.   Also have read that the larger the chicken, the more inclined they might be to quit laying earlier than others.   I have scrounged around via Google but cannot find much information about Welsummers and when / if  they cease to lay. ??

Mandy Welsummer is one huge chook.  She eats well, drinks her water and stands upright with tail erect ( a while back she was rather sad and floppy, but she got over that ).   She is the only chicken I have that drags her moult into months .... she is sooo slow.   So I am thinking, it is her almost half a year moult that has stopped her laying.   Will only know if that is the case when Spring arrives.   She is still shedding feathers, but also growing new ones.    

Just one of my 3 chickens is providing eggs at the moment - about 5 per week, and that is Molly RIR.  Strange looking eggs for her - speckled ( ?? ) and not her normal lovely baby pink colour.... but it IS Molly who is laying them.   Maybe Mandy has taught her how to speckle spray eggs ????        

Mindy Araucana will begin again soon, as she is developing her new feathers now, and is already interested in making a nest !!  ... she's a hard task master at laying.   But poor Mandy .... ?  Nothing from her since December.  

The runs are overshadowed ( even though Neil has cut a lot back ) by a ginormous elm tree, owned by the back neighbours.  So during summer, there is not much daylight gets in, as the sun is high in the sky, and the tree is heavy with foliage.   But as we approach winter, the sun is lowering, and the elm leaves are falling so there will be plenty of sunlight for them over winter and spring and into early summer..   sunlight is already filtering into the runs ... 

Perhaps I had best just shut up and wait for Spring ... eh ?   Meantime, if anyone has any other suggestions, would appreciate them.  

Apologies for the long post ......  

Cheers .... and thank you. 

........... 

While it is true that an overy will only produce a set number of eggs during the life (no matter what the species), I don't think Mandy would be near the limit yet. The bit about larger chooks making less eggs is only based on the selective breeding-- it is better if a bird raised solely for it meat lays less eggs.

The other factor is the longer per year a bird moults, the more years they lay for, so with a 6 month moult per year I would expect a good 10 years of laying from her.

 

[Anniebee]

We've had our fair share of 40 degrees here too, haven't lost any silkies to it but I did lose a silver laced Wyandotte , rose comb doesn't allow them to regulate their body temp as well as straight combed birds.

Fancy ... does that apply to pea combs as well .... ( Araucanas have pea combs from what I can see on Mindy, and that I have learned ).

Mindy Araucana, definitely suffers most in the summer heat ... and she has a pea comb ( I believe ) ... but certainly does not have a rose comb. Her comb is like a little scrunched up piece of pink to red line of a comb. It does not protrude, like a straight comb does.

...........

 

[Anniebee]

The "el cheapo" bulk stuff is mostly corn. I suspect that the el cheapo bulk rabbit and guinea pig is the same as the el cheapo bulk chicken, it looks the same.

The "good" rabbit food (vetafarm) is mostly grass.

If you can't get chicken pellets, I'd be having a look at the vetafarm parrot pellets rather than the rabbit pellets.

Are chickens' egg song abilities/tendencies breed specific? I've just discovered that Grace does a HUGE performance. She is the little black Australorp cross. When I had Australorps before, the "head girl" used to yell her head off, too. Nobody else seems to be such a "performer". Is it an Australorp thing?

Thanks for the info potato chip ...

I was only thinking of 'looking at' rabbit and guinea pic goodies, as a chuck-on-the-ground treat ... never as full on proper feed. I feed Barastoc Chicken Layer Pellets to my girls, and that is their absolute main source of food. They'd starve if they relied on the ' special goodies' I give them here and there. ?? Which is ( all maybe a couple or few times a week ) .... kitchen scraps washed and chopped up, my " you-beaut rice and goodies" mix which they absolutely love, and anything else I think is good for them to have a go at. I will be upping the protein this week ( because of weird moults in different stages ) with cooked goodies, a tiny bit of cheese here and there, and some hard boiled eggs thrown in for good measure. Apparently, wild bird seed doesn't hurt occasionally either, but I have not gone down that path ...

As for egg songs ... my girls are pretty quiet overall - one sings a few notes when she has laid ( that's Molly who is the only one laying at present ) but it is quiet. She 'honks' rather than sing. Mandy says nothing, but growls a lot and Mindy cackles and shrieks for no apparent reason - certainly not for eggs, as she is presently not laying. !! It would be my guess that various breeds have different songs, and display them at different levels.

Just a guess .....

 

[Anniebee]

Ok this afternoon I let the girls free range and tonight I only had to call them back into their run!!!

SO happy!!!! These three chicks are AWESOME!! Such well behaved little ladies.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions on mites. I think I am going to leave it as there really isn't any real reason to think the chick have them other then I had a small bug on me. I used an entire can of surface spray on the coop before putting them into and so I think it was just a coincidence but will keep you all posted. x

Great news mooandmcgee ... . they learned even quicker than I thought they would.

Well done ... nothing like well behaved little ladies in a chicken flock.

Fantastic.

And I think you have made the right decision about the mites-that-aren't. Which hopefully they really are not. You have sprayed ... just leave it at that for the moment.

Cheers ......

 

[Anniebee]

While it is true that an overy will only produce a set number of eggs during the life (no matter what the species), I don't think Mandy would be near the limit yet. The bit about larger chooks making less eggs is only based on the selective breeding-- it is better if a bird raised solely for it meat lays less eggs.

The other factor is the longer per year a bird moults, the more years they lay for, so with a 6 month moult per year I would expect a good 10 years of laying from her.

Oh my goodness sjturner79 .... you have made my day.

The way Mandy Welsummer is going - she will be good until she is 20 !! ... which might be a problem considering my own age.

She is soooo laid back, and easy-come-easy-go .... rests a lot - looks so totally at ease with the world ( unless Mindy comes within cooee --- then it's every chook for itself ) !!! She turns into Jack the Ripper then.

Strange ....

Thank you ... heaps.

 

[Anniebee]

Had to laugh - at myself initially .... and then >>> .

To all who have posted about 'chicken nappies' !!

I too could not believe it when I first read about them here - and went googling madly to make sure.

It sounds like a superb idea, if you want your chickens inside.

My grandmother ( on the farm ) always had the kitchen door open to outside, and in would come the chooks - ( always looking for goodies of course ) but they didn't have chicken nappies in those days ... she had a little trowel, a small chuck bucket - and another bucket of water with disinfectant ( or whatever it was they used in those days - Phenyl or Phenol ?? ) to wipe the floor with. My mother, being city born and raised - was absolutely appalled.

Me ? - I loved it ... all so natural.

Now that gives my age away. ....

 

[sjturner79]

Fancy ... does that apply to pea combs as well .... ( Araucanas have pea combs from what I can see on Mindy, and that I have learned ).   

Mindy Araucana, definitely suffers most in the summer heat ... and she has a pea comb ( I believe ) ... but certainly does not have a rose comb.   Her comb is like a little scrunched up piece of pink to red line of a comb.   It does not protrude, like a straight comb does.  

........... 

There are actually 10 different comb types in chickens, from a combination of 4 gene pairs.
In general the bigger the comb, and the further it sits up from the head, the more heat tolerant and less cold tolerant the chicken. That makes the pea comb which is indeed standard for Aracuana one of the less heat tolerant, with 2 types being less so, the true walnut comb(not the silkie version) and the suppressed comb( which is basically a chicken without a visible comb) .

Having said that people in our area lost a bunch of large comb astralorps to heat in the last big heatwave here, but had Aracuana and some walnut comb xbreed do quite well.

 

[Anniebee]

There are actually 10 different comb types in chickens, from a combination of 4 gene pairs.
In general the bigger the comb, and the further it sits up from the head, the more heat tolerant and less cold tolerant the chicken. That makes the pea comb which is indeed standard for Aracuana one of the less heat tolerant, with 2 types being less so, the true walnut comb(not the silkie version) and the suppressed comb( which is basically a chicken without a visible comb) .

Having said that people in our area lost a bunch of large comb astralorps to heat in the last big heatwave here, but had Aracuana and some walnut comb xbreed do quite well.

Thank you again for the information sjturner79 ....

Just goes to show though, that there is no specific rule about which comb type chicken copes with what, best. ( bad grammar there !! ) . Have heard before ( here and elsewhere ) that Australorps can be a little 'iffy' in the heat - and in general health issues as well. Don't know if that is true or not though.

I am surprised at the number of different comb types. Thought there was about 5 at most.

Underscores my observations about Mindy Araucana and what I see as her heat distress. Have brought her inside on ultra-hot days here in Victoria, to be in the air-con in the family room ( again in the cat carrier ). Glad now that I made the decision to do that. The other two big girls, ( straight combs ) cope well with whatever the weather brings on. Although they do pant a bit on very hot days. I plonk ice in their water to assist that. They become really interested if I drop some ice on the coop floor - - they try to eat it - not a happy endeavour for them, as it slips and slides and they are most confused ....

I spray water onto the leaves of that darned elm tree, to drip down on them ( barring Mindy who is inside by this time ) ... and spray around their coop ( which they do not like much ) .... but at least it keeps them cool. Have a hole dug in the dirt in their run ... which I fill with water on hot days, but all they do is drink the stuff !!

.... it's supposed to keep them cool - but no - they'd rather drink it.

Oh well - that's chooks for ya.

Cheers .......

 

[sjturner79]

Thank you again for the information sjturner79 .... 

Just goes to show though, that there is no specific rule about which comb type chicken copes with what, best.  ( bad grammar there !! ) .   Have heard before ( here and elsewhere ) that Australorps can be a little 'iffy' in the heat - and in general health issues as well.  Don't know if that is true or not though.   

I am surprised at the number of different comb types.   Thought there was about 5 at most.   

Underscores my observations about Mindy Araucana and what I see as her heat distress.   Have brought her inside on ultra-hot days here in Victoria, to be in the air-con in the family room ( again in the cat carrier ).  Glad now that I made the decision to do that.   The other two big girls, ( straight combs )  cope well with whatever the weather brings on.   Although they do pant a bit on very hot days.  I plonk ice in their water to assist that.   They become really interested if I drop some ice on the coop floor - - they try to eat it - not a happy endeavour for them, as it slips and slides and they are most confused .... :/   

I spray water onto the leaves of that darned elm tree, to drip down on them  ( barring Mindy who is inside by this time ) ... and spray around their coop ( which they do not like much ) .... but at least it keeps them cool.   Have a hole dug in the dirt in their run ... which I fill with water on hot days, but all they do is drink the stuff !!     .... it's supposed to keep them cool - but no - they'd rather drink it.  

Oh well - that's chooks for ya. 

Cheers ....... 

I had originally though that until I realized that silkies comb is not walnut comb, then started research. There are silkie comb, v comb, buttercup comb, twist comb, strawberry comb, in addition to the basic types of single, rose, pea and walnut. There are a few others that I can't think of at minute . There may actually be 16 or more types thinking of it, just not all have been named and defined.

 

[User395221]

and in would come the chooks - ( always looking for goodies of course )

My girls come to the back door if they are loose in the backyard, but I wouldn't want them inside. I can't image why they'd want to be there. They've got all their bugs and bits of "stuff" outside. I'm sure they'd waltz in if given the opportunity, but I can't imagine them having much of a good time once they were in.