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

[Ashburnham]

Just a thought that occurred to me.
When people choose birds from unsexed chicks, they will usually pick the biggest and strongest looking chicks.'
The biggest and strongest chicks at most ages will be roosters!


xxxx M

 

[vehve]

Ash, that's a good point.

 

[cwrite]

I'll certainly bear that in mind Ash. : ) I will hopefully be choosing two babies this week-end.

Glad your chooks survived Vehve. I've heard that hawks return once they find a good looking food source so a few days in the run to recover shaken nerves might help with that. Good luck!

That's a huge looking egg Sam!

 

[vehve]

I hope the hawk was just passing by, I haven't seen any here before. I think the chooks won't be exploring the yard without supervision for a while though. I might start leaving a dog out with them.

 

[Anniebee]

Noticed a couple of comments about hawks in your territories.

A few weeks back, my chickens looked up at the sky, not moving much - just looking - and then made a run for their coops. Stayed in there but still looking upwards.

Noticed a movement just barely above one of our trees. A full fledged wedge tailed eagle. With his eye on my chooks. There was too much vegetation for him / her to get through to get at them, and finally it flew away - tailed continually by a cheeky wattle bird. All birds in the immediate area had gone utterly quiet - hiding no doubt.

Seems there's always a wattle bird that will tail or chase a wedge tail ... have heard of it before. Cheeky little beggars.

I stayed outside for a long time - long after the eagle had disappeared - just in case it returned. It didn't.

Just goes to show.... and we live in the Dandenong Ranges ( Upwey ) .... Eagles are not common here, but occasionally they present themselves way up high. Had never ever seen one so very very low before.

Just thought I'd add that little bit.

 

[AliceGee]

My silkies free range all day and we have a pair of wedge tails that fly over occasionally, so many wild birds react even I know what's up. My chooks run to the undergrowth and turn into statues but i put them away Anyway. We also just had a pair of pacific bazas move in. They eat insects and small mammals despite their size and appearance so thankfully they're only a concern if I have small chicks at the time. There was a young hawk hanging around but I didn't let them out when he was around so he lost interest and left, where I live we're surrounded by cane fields so that draws heaps of birds of prey in but also provides them with plenty of alternate food sources!

 

[AliceGee]

It was after spring and there was water laying everywhere. We routinely empty the horse water troughs to minimize mosquito larvae but we live on the river , you've only to sit on the verandah at dusk to see the trout jumping for them.
In dry pox , if you can keep them nourished and hydrated it should pass in 3-4 weeks, but in the wet form lesions grow in the esophagus , eventually starving them to death.

I recently had a silkie hen that developed fowl pox, first time I've ever had one with it and I really didn't know much about it but after some research I was cleaning the lesions with salt water and painting them in iodine. After having it for about a week and a half the lesion above her eye got so bad I couldn't see her eye anymore. I had bought some 'sanichick' online to clean the coop and noticed on the bottle it said to paint on fowl pox lesions so I thought I'd give it a try. A few days later I was surprised to find that the lesion over her eye and on her beak had fallen off completely and she was fine! ( I'd read it could take up to 6 weeks to pass). It's been several weeks and nothing more has happened with it so she's all good! I don't know if it passed so quickly because of using the sanichick or something else but it will definitely be my go to thing for lesions if any others get it in the future.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I recently had a silkie hen that developed fowl pox, first time I've ever had one with it and I really didn't know much about it but after some research I was cleaning the lesions with salt water and painting them in iodine. After having it for about a week and a half the lesion above her eye got so bad I couldn't see her eye anymore. I had bought some 'sanichick' online to clean the coop and noticed on the bottle it said to paint on fowl pox lesions so I thought I'd give it a try. A few days later I was surprised to find that the lesion over her eye and on her beak had fallen off completely and she was fine! ( I'd read it could take up to 6 weeks to pass). It's been several weeks and nothing more has happened with it so she's all good! I don't know if it passed so quickly because of using the sanichick or something else but it will definitely be my go to thing for lesions if any others get it in the future.

In my research there was one reoccurring factor, there are many forms and degrees of severity but I will look into sanichick , thank you.

 

[IamSamSam]

Hi CWrite.

The big one is 71.3g but the other two are only 37.4 and 38.1. They are small new layer eggs. Where as the big one is fromy lorpx wyanadotte.

 

[CJ88]

With the birds of prey we get sea hawks here there has been a family nest not that far has only worried the local dove population never the girls so very thankful