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

[satay]

Hello I'm not quite sure how to 'interrupt' your conversation and I know I am coming on to the social page, but I really want to talk to some Aussies, and hopefully some in Sydney - so hello! I have 3 gorgeous 2 year old chooks, as pets more than as egg layers, and I have 2 concerns at the moment - I'd love some Aussie / Sydney input. 1. I live near the bush and I'm being invaded by bush ( brush) turkeys. It's virtually impossible to stop them, I think. But I hate them because I think they bring lots of germs and lice etc in to my chooks digging / scratching area. Does anyone else have this problem?

2. My chooks are really fussy and I can't get them to eat their proper chook food - it's good quality but I fed them too much corn early on. I am trying to reduce all their other food to make them eat it but I feel awfully cruel doing this.. Any thoughts??

I've left questions on the appropritate forums but not sure if Aussies will see them. Any thoughts would be very helpful! Sorry if I'm in the wrong place please let me know.Thanks heaps : ) Alliterationsss

HI Welcome to byc and the aussie thread. 1.I love bush turkeys I think they are cool we do not have them out here in the country. I am not sure what you could do to keep them away except maybe a water pistol or something like that. 2. Chooks wont starve themselves. I would stop all treats except for the feed you want them to eat.(layer mash or whatever it is you choose as their main feed source). When they have no other options they will eat the food.

 

[satay]

Bit of sad news this morning. Went out to feed the girls and I found old blacky chook had passed. She was the last one from my original chickens when I first moved here. I had her 6 years but the old fella who gave her to me and her 8 sisters of different breeds said they were old and he could not face them dying on him so he wanted me to take them. OBC lasted another 6 years. RIP OBC.

 

[appps]

Oh sorry to hear that Satay. It's so hard when its a pet you have had for such a long time. Sounds like she had a pretty good innings though!

 

[appps]

Welcome Alli (hope its okay if I shorten that

I'm not too far from you but we don't have bush turkeys either so no help there sorry.

I'm pleased Satay said they won't starve as wondering something similar at the moment. But for me its trying to get them off the crumble onto pellets. I was finding I was ending up with the feeder filling up and jamming with the fine dust from the crumble lately so wanted to try full pellets. I mixed the two together but I'm pretty sure now they have pecked all the crumble they could see its just being ignored v

 

[alliterationsss]

Hello to both of you

Thanks for your replies - and oh ... I must apologise - I just realised how strong my language was when I said I hate the bush turkeys... oh dear!! But you know the frustration you can feel sometimes when there's something that won't go away and it shouldn't be there? Sorry if I offended!!!

Really sorry about your OBC - I don't want to think what that might be like when one of mine goes.

Thanks for the suggestions re being tough re feeding. Will have to get on with it,

 

[appps]

Goodness no offence taken I'm sure, its just an expression . Here we hate the black birds because they make it their life's mission to get all my mulch out of the garden beds and onto the lawn lol. They are still cute in their own way though

 

[sydney quailman]

Bit of sad news this morning. Went out to feed the girls and I found old blacky chook had passed. She was the last one from my original chickens when I first moved here. I had her 6 years but the old fella who gave her to me and her 8 sisters of different breeds said they were old and he could not face them dying on him so he wanted me to take them. OBC lasted another 6 years. RIP OBC.

sorry to hear that satay! my condolences

 

[satay]

Hello to both of  you

Thanks for your replies - and oh ... I must apologise - I just realised how strong my language was when I said I hate the bush turkeys... oh dear!! But you know the frustration you can feel sometimes when there's something that won't go away and it shouldn't be there? Sorry if I offended!!! 

Really sorry about your OBC - I don't want to think what that might be like when one of mine goes.

Thanks for the suggestions re being tough re feeding. Will have to get on with it,

No offense taken at all. I hate crows and the darn neighbours dog lol

 

[satay]

sorry to hear that satay! my condolences

Thanks Sam and appps and alli. She did have a great innings the old girl. Forgot to add I still have chooka who is 8 but she is a bantie. OBC was a large fowl black sex link.

 

[sydney quailman]

hi all on friday, i thought i would put the quail on grass and enjoy a bit of freedom , which i did for that day total of 15 females, males were left in there pens. they didnt stop crowing all day.

but the funny thing is when i put 6 normal browns back with the male(he has been with these females for about 8months or so), they all attacked him. poor guy had a red eye and sat in the corner, so i took him out and left in a cage to recover for 2 days, i made sure i left the cage in sight on his females, facing each other,

so i tried again put him back with them on monday night, he was doing thing so i thought all ok.

this morning i noticed his eye was red again and closed, looks like another domestic happened during the night,

i dont understand how this could happen. any ideas anyone?

i think its 1 female that gives him a hard time, then the rest gang up on him.

i watched them go at him and its not very nice at all. he is much smaller then the girls,

i never thought quails can get so aggressive ,

cheers sam