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

[sjturner79]

Oh she is precious! Congrats Sweetbeak, and a potential olive egger too? Very nice




I generally lock them out of the nest box during the day, let them go about their normal routine, then put them in a milk crate to sleep at night, that's elevated on some bricks to ensure good airflow underneath. It's worked well for my silkie Agnes so far, but if not, I'll look into picking up an old bird cage. Had a little kerfuffle just now with the nests being hogged by Esme and Bea, poor Agnes needed to actually use one to lay an egg, so I kicked them out. Once she was done though, Bea made a break for the nests whilst open, and the egg Aggie left behind Gotta admire that broody determination. Keep us updated when you put your eggs in the incubator, what are you planning on hatching?

Sounds like a good setup. If I can order eggs then I will be getting lavander aracuna, olive eggers and rosecomb Dorking if I can find them. If I'm just throwing in what I've got then it will be a bunch of silkie X , frizzled X , Marans X, astralorps X, and RIR X , depending on what has been fertilized by who.
To be a little clearer I have a frizzled roo, a silkie roo and a Wheaton Marans roo with
3 silkie hens, 3 frizzled hens, 3 silkie X hens, an astralorps hen and a RIR hen. There might be a random heavy rooster and another 8 mixed breed hens added before I start collecting so I guess could be anything hatch.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Sounds like a good setup. If I can order eggs then I will be getting lavander aracuna, olive eggers and rosecomb Dorking if I can find them. If I'm just throwing in what I've got then it will be a bunch of silkie X , frizzled X , Marans X, astralorps X, and RIR X , depending on what has been fertilized by who.
To be a little clearer I have a frizzled roo, a silkie roo and a Wheaton Marans roo with
3 silkie hens, 3 frizzled hens, 3 silkie X hens, an astralorps hen and a RIR hen. There might be a random heavy rooster and another 8 mixed breed hens added before I start collecting so I guess could be anything hatch.

Wow, sounds like either way you'll get some nice birds. Very interesting potential mixes too with the varieties you have, fingers crossed though you can order the ones your after as well. Are olive eggers hard to track down? I have an ever growing list of chooks I'd like to have one day, though I need to finish the new coop first.

I've actually been wanting to share pics of the first nesting box we've almost completed (it looks like a little house!), but have been unable to finish painting it due to this late afternoon rain we've been having the past few days.

It's held up that, and finishing the ramp. Well, we also needed more timber.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Hi there Duckie48 In the over three years I have had my gals, I have never had a double yolker, let alone a triple … good luck with the hatch!

sjturner79 Thank you. The reason I got to thinking about avocados was that the post my friend shared on FB basically said, 'suspend half of avocado seed in water, when it strikes plant in pot' and then had a picture of a small potted avocado tree with avocado’s on it. It was kinda funny because 1. it did not mention that not all seeds strike and just getting past that step can be challenging and 2. Sit back and wait at least 7 years! Lol

Fizzybelle I hope you get Agnes’ eye problem sorted soon; poor little girl.

Congratulations sweetbeak (s)he is a little chubby cutie! I love the ever so proud look on mumma’s face.

Dusty, LuLu and Crystal have not gone broody in the past so, with KiKi gone

that just leaves Cilla and Blondie who are definite broody’s.

I am prepared for them this season. With the excellent score of a large dog crate for $20 I now have two crates ready to go .. may be I will not need them .. yeah, right! Lol

Blondie last season in the one crate I had:



The new additional breaker:



I let my broody’s sleep on the roost with the rest of the flock and just get up early to put them back in the crate before they can settle in a nest box. They also get to free range with the flock and I just keep the run door closed so they can not get into the coop.

Not that they did not try on the old coop. The new, raised coop will definitely be a challenge

Cilla has a habit of sitting in the coop yelling at whoever is trying to lay an egg. It is like all the nest boxes are hers and even if she does not want to use them, she still yells at anyone else using them.

Yesterday Cilla had laid her egg, sung the egg song and was ranging the garden with everyone else. Next minute she is in the coop yelling at Dusty who was trying to lay. If you remember the new coop, there is a ramp and chicken door on one side but on the other side is a small viewing door. I opened the viewing door, lifted Cilla and put her on the ground outside both the coop and run .. oh, I so wish I could explain the look on her face ‘what just happened? How did I get here?!’

 

[sjturner79]

Wow, sounds like either way you'll get some nice birds. Very interesting potential mixes too with the varieties you have, fingers crossed though you can order the ones your after as well. Are olive eggers hard to track down? I have an ever growing list of chooks I'd like to have one day, though I need to finish the new coop first.

I've actually been wanting to share pics of the first nesting box we've almost completed (it looks like a little house!), but have been unable to finish painting it due to this late afternoon rain we've been having the past few days. It's held up that, and finishing the ramp. Well, we also needed more timber.

The olive eggers were hard to find last year, but are slowly becoming more common as the number of Marans breeders selling cheap rejects increases so people have the dark layers to cross with the blues.

 

[Anniebee]

Good morning folks

Hi there Duckie48 In the over three years I have had my gals, I have never had a double yolker, let alone a triple … good luck with the hatch!

sjturner79 Thank you. The reason I got to thinking about avocados was that the post my friend shared on FB basically said, 'suspend half of avocado seed in water, when it strikes plant in pot' and then had a picture of a small potted avocado tree with avocado’s on it. It was kinda funny because 1. it did not mention that not all seeds strike and just getting past that step can be challenging and 2. Sit back and wait at least 7 years! Lol

Fizzybelle I hope you get Agnes’ eye problem sorted soon; poor little girl.

Congratulations sweetbeak (s)he is a little chubby cutie! I love the ever so proud look on mumma’s face.

Dusty, LuLu and Crystal have not gone broody in the past so, with KiKi gone

that just leaves Cilla and Blondie who are definite broody’s.

I am prepared for them this season. With the excellent score of a large dog crate for $20 I now have two crates ready to go .. may be I will not need them .. yeah, right! Lol

Blondie last season in the one crate I had:



The new additional breaker:



I let my broody’s sleep on the roost with the rest of the flock and just get up early to put them back in the crate before they can settle in a nest box. They also get to free range with the flock and I just keep the run door closed so they can not get into the coop.

Not that they did not try on the old coop. The new, raised coop will definitely be a challenge

Cilla has a habit of sitting in the coop yelling at whoever is trying to lay an egg. It is like all the nest boxes are hers and even if she does not want to use them, she still yells at anyone else using them.

Yesterday Cilla had laid her egg, sung the egg song and was ranging the garden with everyone else. Next minute she is in the coop yelling at Dusty who was trying to lay. If you remember the new coop, there is a ramp and chicken door on one side but on the other side is a small viewing door. I opened the viewing door, lifted Cilla and put her on the ground outside both the coop and run .. oh, I so wish I could explain the look on her face ‘what just happened? How did I get here?!’

Teila ....

Love the pics, as usual. .. That crate you purchased for $20 is a real bargain. Young Sonya, after she has her spey stitches removed on Wednesday, goes back into her crate which is identical to that ... and is indeed big. Meantime, she's been lounging in luxury on two old lounge-seat cushions, thick as can be, and soft comfortable, in the family room. With the plastic collar/bucket thing on her head. Once that's off, back she goes ... into the crate, in the family room, so's I can at least go shopping for an hour or so, without wondering what kind of horrors I will find on coming home. !! One cushion fits snugly into the crate, and she uses that in there, with a bowl of water and toys. Thank heaven we decided to keep the seat cushions when we chucked out the actual lounge suite.

Avocados ! .... Some years back I tried that procedure. Water became a little goopy looking, so I changed it every other day - and it struck beautifully with 2 roots ( 1 large - 1 very small ) and split at the top with a very tiny shoot. All was well ... The browny-green shoot was sloooow ... the roots were much faster, so I figured it might be happier in good soil in the garden with those lovely new healthy roots.

A week later it had departed. Dead as a dodo. Pip had all gone to mush when I dug it out.

Ah well, I have a nice avocado to eat, so will try it again. You have rekindled my interest. Not sure whether to thank you or not !!

I did know it would be some few years before it would ever fruit. But at least you have two trees with some promise. Maybe they can only grow in Queensland ?? Must look up what kind of soil they need ? .... and I notice yours are in pots - is that the answer ?.


Cheers ......

 

[gourmetgrannies]

Hi Sydney siders!This is Ethel Belle, my Welsummer. She about 26-28 weeks old, any idea when she will lay??
The suspense is killing me, I'm eggcited!!

 

[Teila]

Hey Anniebee I would definitely put the seed with shoot into a pot and leave it many months before putting into the garden. I changed their water every day.

Also, you must leave half of the seed exposed when you take it from the water and pot it as you can see in these pics.

My two could probably do with going into the garden but, because we rent, I am not doing that. If we have to move, I am taking them with me!

I might, however, try and get them some bigger pots.

This is Arnie two months after sprouting, just before he went into his earth pot.



Just transplanted. [Note the seed, half exposed]



Two months later. We had a bug attack which is why he has holes in his leaves.




Four months after that he moved to his big pot [You can still see the seed].



Danny sprouted in May [the baby picture in the earlier post] and spent 6 months in the water pot until he went to the earth pot. While he is bigger than Arnie now, he was definitely a slow starter.



While the roots are fast to grow, the sprout takes it time. This one has only just sprouted but has a substantial root:



On this one, the leaves have only just appeared but the roots are quite established:

 

[appps]

Good morning folks Got a little bit of catching up to do appps we basically have Foxtel for one reason, the Footy Channel! We also do not watch a great deal of television and listen to the radio most of the day. But it is nice to flop into the recliner at the end of the day and watch TV for an hour or so before bed. If there is nothing else, we can always rely on an NCIS episode .. no such thing as too much Leroy Jethro Gibbs! Fizzybelle how is Agnes’ eye? Aaaah, the joys of having broodies [not! lol]. Cilla has laid 5 eggs since the return to laying, 5 more to go and I will probably have a broody also kat79 sorry to read about your egg dilemma. Anniebee many thanks for the additional info on Chucky. He continues to visit daily. Hey MullyAly sorry, I am not able to answer your question. Not much news of note. A friend on Facebook posted a link to ‘How to grow avocados from seed in pots’ which got me to thinking I should take an updated picture of my two; Arnie and Danny [yep, even the trees have names here! lol] Baby Arnie Baby Danny Arnie on the left is 4 years old this month and Danny on the right is 3 years and 3 months. Danny looks a bit droopy because today is watering day. I do not hold out much hope of getting fruit from them but I still love them

I was watching a YouTube video and the guy was excited because his 16 year old avocado was finally fruiting. Yikes that's a long wait lol I've got one is I think three years this year, it came up in the compost heap and I snapped the tap root off pulling it out before I spotted the seed and I realised what it was. I planted it in a pot figuring worst could happen was it would die (didn't know to leave the seed exposed either so buried that too) and it's still going strong I'm also babysitting one for my sister as it didn't like her salt air which is bigger (not quite the size of yours) that a neighbour gave her. Last year it got covered in flowers but it was all mid move and weeks of rain and it ended up loosing all its leaves and the flowers. I repoted it into a much better draining pot and it came back 10 times better so we are excitedly looking toward to this years fruiting season

Mine is the front one

Hers hasn't had a droopy leaf since I repotted it into the homemade air pruning pot, have to make another for mine

And in other exciting news, look!my dwarf mulberry that turned up in the mail as a stick last year if getting fruit!

 

[Teila]

appps Wow! 16 years! That is a long wait! You can’t blame him for being excited

So do you reckon I should get mine bigger pots or just leave them? I have to admit I am scared to transplant them in case they die, which after all these years would be devastating.

I wonder if they will remain happy in the pots they are in, just stunted a little?

 

[appps]

appps  Wow! 16 years!  That is a long wait!  You can’t blame him for being excited 

So do you reckon I should get mine bigger pots or just leave them?  I have to admit I am scared to transplant them in case they die, which after all these years would be devastating.

I wonder if they will remain happy in the pots they are in, just stunted a little?

They are a lot smaller than my pots that's for sure. I had to repot my sisters because she had made a pot out of chicken wire and straw but it was just holding way too much water every time it rained. I wasn't even sure it would live it looked so miserable at the time but it's never looked back. She also had it in full sun but I was reading they grow in part shade till tall enough to to become the canopy so I've got it under a jacarandas tree with my orchids.

I've recently started repotting things much more than I used too but nothing died yet lol. They do say you should only pot up one pot size at a time but admit I don't tend to do that rule all the time.