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

[IamSamSam]

Oh sorry Meeka I'm in Sutherland area

 

[satay]

I agree but u know men - I won't push it. I'm ' allowed' to fire up the bator!
Thanks but it's cool. Im collecting these.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Check out these breeds of chicken. Don't think I could handle a bald chicken.

http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/12-Utterly-Bizarre-Chicken-Breeds

 

[IamSamSam]

Check out these breeds of chicken. Don't think I could handle a bald chicken.

http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/12-Utterly-Bizarre-Chicken-Breeds

LOL my kids would never eat chicken if they saw that.

 

[cwrite]

What do you guys think of buying chicks from a market? From the website they seem to be 1-3 weeks in a range of breeds (including lavender Araucana & silkies

) & they claim all the chicks are vaccinated against mareks & fowl pox. I've turned into a germ phobe & keep on going round in circles between risking getting boys - day old chicks/vaccinated birds/& paying a lot more to get girls for sure but being older they may have been exposed to more germs. The chicks advertised are vent sexed which isn't great, but neither is having to deal with unwanted roosters. Does anyone have experience of buying chicks from a market?

 

[vehve]

@cwrite , if you have the opportunity of quarantining them, then why not. When they're old enough to almost be integrated, take your least favorite hen (Mine would be a Sussex at the moment) and throw it in with the chicks for a few weeks and see if anything happens. That would be at least some sort of biosecurity measure. And then of course remember not to cross contaminate between the coops etc.

 

[Findtex]

The goats enjoying the sun shine after 2 days of rain.

 

[cwrite]

That's a great idea Vehve! Unfortunately I don't have a least favourite chicken as I only have one. The other four 'belong' to my kids so Hagrid will have to be the test chicken after their quarantine time is up.

That is an impressive set of horns Findtex! What kind of goats are they?

 

[vehve]

cwrite, from an ease of integration and biosecurity perspective, I think waiting for a broody and throwing some eggs under her might be a better route to take though. I don't have a lot of experience with bringing in new members, as we've only had chickens since this spring. We did get three older pullets to add to our existing flock, but we just threw them in there. In Finland, it's a pretty safe thing to do though, as Finland is, if possible, even more hysterical about food safety than Australia. Salmonella and Newcastle disease are nonexistent here, and I don't think we have a lot of Mareks either. Cocci is of course a concern, but with the usual treatment being culling here, they are quite resistant. I think our Sussexes were suffering from it, but they got over it by themselves.

 

[cwrite]

I've considered that, but getting hold of the vaccine is tricky & we have so many wilds birds living in & visiting our garden. The chickens have become quite lax about chasing other birds off the lawn lately too. I'll decide on Sunday when I'm at the market most likely.