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

[satay]

Peekaboo! Fancy, these being Marans crosses (wheaten and cuckoo in the mix), what do you think of the difference in comb development between the dark and light ones? Here's a pic of Flappy, our patient, also taken today. While the combs on the light ones are pretty developed, the difference in comparison to the dark ones makes me rethink by guess of everyone being a boy. And Tandy, nice to hear you got that mess cleared up. I agree, call them and ask them what laws they think apply. I don't see how basic wound care could be considered illegal - except for maybe the use of certain medications that might be banned from poultry use (my anti-antibiotic rant is almost starting again ).

I would be thinking both are boys. I only have fw, blue and black copper in marans but the size of both those combs says boy to me.

 

[Nu2chooks15]

Be sure to sit with your birds when you get them. I have a bench seat in with my youngsters and encourage them to sit with me for treats. I can honestly say that the birds that I haven't taken the time with tend to be stand -offish and aloof.

I have a pair of rir girls and a rooster. They are not nasty at all.

Okay, thank you both and thanks to everyone else. Fancychooklady that seems to be the key, Satay I take it you also sit with the youngsters like Fancychooklady. Valid points and duly taken into consideration ... hmmm, decisions, decisions (and keeping on changing my mind lol

), guess I'll go with the original but maybe increase Wyandottes and cut down Isa's by one each so I still have the same number just one less Isa and one more Wyandotte ... will let you know what I've ended up getting when I get home in a little while

 

[Teila]

Howdy Folks

Playing catch up again

appps that was a close call on the Kite and very lucky you spotted it.

Steampunked congrats on the rooster ratio; I’m jealous!

ChristieB good to read your bantam came home.

Wow, well done on the broody quail Redoliveberry so cute!

satay good to hear that your Belg is OK. Aaaaw at Thor and his nap buddy.

cwrite yep, I feel a bit like a swamp dweller myself. Loved the doping quote!

tandykins thank you for the chuckle, your chookies wandering into the preschool is priceless. Well done with Bumblebee! The egg song is very exciting!

I am sorry to hear that you are copping some flack and what’s with the RSPCA thing, gees!. I am at a loss! Wouldn’t not treating bumblefoot be cruelty, not the other way round?

I have given up posting on quite a few threads and if I do post, I always make a point to mention that “this is what I do; others may do it differently or disagree and I respect their right to do that”.

‘Shake It Off’ have you seen this?

birdman55 cute bubbies!

AussieChics ouch! Appendicitis! Glad you are feeling better now. Nice big egg!

K Spot beautiful birds!

Megacakes sorry to hear about your Isa

Welcome Nu2chooks15 and congratulations on starting your chicken journey, so exciting! And, today is the day?!

Luke Wow, I wish I could have done my work experience at a Zoo, many many many years ago, I did mine at a Used Car Dealership. Basically, I was free labour to clear all their backlog of filing for a week!

Love the pics Vehve

So, the news from Bambrook Bantams ….

Woot woot, still broody free!

After nearly melting last weekend, we went to the other extreme the past couple of days and we nearly drowned! A couple of days ago my neighbour’s son was loading a canoe onto the roof of his car; in hindsight, probably not a bad idea to keep one close

On Thursday, I was working and Cilla was announcing her displeasure that Blondie was in her favourite nest box. Knowing Cilla as I do and after checking that no-one was, in fact, trying to kill her and that she was not being stalked by some horrendous chicken eating monster, I returned to work.

Cilla continued to vocalise her displeasure but seen as Mum was ignoring her, she decided to up it a notch and started crowing!

So, here is my 2 year old, matriarch, egg laying, mother of two hatches, bantam hen doing the whole neck stretch/arch, build up to it, grand finale crow! OK, any self respecting rooster would have been rolling in the pen laughing, but she gave it her best; bless her little feathered feet! And, her plan worked, she got my attention .. granted, I do not think she was impressed that said attention was me laughing

Princess Blondie is definitely molting and there is no blessing her little feathered feet, more like little needled feet, feathers all gone and newbies coming through.

With the assistance of the wet weather, LuLu the Frizzle is doing Droople impersonations and apparently, Dusty’s days just go from bad to worse. One day, when I go out and ask her how she is doing, she is going to surprise me and not whinge.

As some of you know, I have two indoor cats who have an outdoor play run to keep both them and the wildlife safe. Anyways, on Wednesday, cats were on their side of the run and the gals were on the other side. Dusty and LuLu were terrorizing something, which turned out to be a Gecko, before I could save him, he made the decision to run under the fence … Oh dear, the poor little fella’s day went downhill from there, he had escaped the meat-a-saurus’s by marching straight into the lion’s den!

That was a bit sad. I like Gecko’s. We have one that has lived on our front door for 5 years now. We know it is the same Gecko because he has a forked tail and we have nick-named him Two Tails. While we try our hardest to protect them from chickens and cats, if they make their way into the house, they are usually fair game. Two Tails has managed to get into the house twice now and luckily, both times we have managed to get him back out again before the cats spotted him.

My final silly chicken story for this post … I have some elephant ears (plants, not real ears

) in the garden and they are one of my favourites. Sadly, this time every year, the caterpillars get into them and can strip a new leaf in a matter of hours. I check them as often as I can and dispatch the CP’s .. found a big juicy one and gave it to Dusty when I thought no-one else was looking. Bzzzzt, Blondie was watching! I don’t know how Dusty was feeling, but after a couple of minutes of watching her run round and round and round the garden with caterpillar in beak and Blondie on her tail, I was getting dizzy! Dusty actually had no cause to whinge on this occasion cos Mom stepped in and distracted Blondie long enough for Dusty to enjoy her treat

Have a lovely long weekend Folks

 

[cwrite]

Okay, thank you everyone for your responses. I can see now that a lot of it is the hens themselves but that overall Wyandottes are probably going to be more suitable in the beginning. So, I will change things around and just get 1/2 of them to be Brown Isa's and 1/2 Wyandottes (if I can).

Back to being excited rather than apprehensive thanks to getting all the responses and being able to make a more informed decision. I like the RIR's but will probably leave them until next time when I get more eventually (and I'm a more experienced owner).

Good luck with your new chooks! I look forward to a few pics when your ladies arrive home. : )

 

[AussieChics]

Love your stories teila!

 

[cwrite]

It looks like I might be facing my first serious chook illness. Stampy is still not laying regularly. I've had a couple of eggs from her but not many. I saw her lay a couple of extremely thin shelled eggs that were eaten so it's possible that she is still laying and the eggs are being eaten. Snowy is broody so no eggs from her, but the other 3 are laying like champs with solid shells. I have no idea why she is laying soft shelled eggs. The couple that were laid in the nest box were very thin shelled. I'm worried that she will develop egg peritonitus but I'm not sure what the actual problem is. Stampy looks fine. She's eating and drinking, not fluffing up and free-ranging with the big girls. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on & what I can do about it?

 

[tandykins]

Hi, can anyone answer this.

While out at dinner tonight some were saying how mean nasty and down right cantankerous RIR's are. Now as I'm just getting over my issue with birds/chickens I thought I'd ask elsewhere in case they were just teasing me not realising my previous experience. All the information I've seen shows the hens as being people friendly (not necessarily the roos).

Hoping to get unbiased info here as I'd rather know beforehand as I can change my order (as it's family) and not get them if there's any chance they'll get mean/nasty pecking at me.

Thanking you all in advance.

Someone wanting to buy some of my RIR cross eggs yesterday told me that they'd heard this too. I was baffled. My RIR girls are the sweetest chooks I have, very inquisitive and like little dogs following me around. They're totally docile.

Roos? Roos are always going to depend - and I think that most of what determines a roo's nature is in how you deal with him. I've got two incredibly sweet and gentle roos and one who attacked me yesterday. I reacted in the exact opposite way one should, by making myself even bigger. This intimidation will do more harm than good - and I'm taking steps to correct his (ultimately fearful) nature by spending extra time bonding with him instead. His reaction was a misguided attempt to protect one of the hens who I was spraying for poultry lice. I can't blame a confused and frightened rooster for attacking me - but I can try to make him less afraid.

 

[tandykins]

It looks like I might be facing my first serious chook illness. Stampy is still not laying regularly. I've had a couple of eggs from her but not many. I saw her lay a couple of extremely thin shelled eggs that were eaten so it's possible that she is still laying and the eggs are being eaten. Snowy is broody so no eggs from her, but the other 3 are laying like champs with solid shells. I have no idea why she is laying soft shelled eggs. The couple that were laid in the nest box were very thin shelled. I'm worried that she will develop egg peritonitus but I'm not sure what the actual problem is. Stampy looks fine. She's eating and drinking, not fluffing up and free-ranging with the big girls. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on & what I can do about it?

Has it been particularly hot? Soft-shelled eggs can be caused by weather that is too warm.

http://poultrykeeper.com/egg-problems/soft-thin-or-missing-egg-shells

 

[tandykins]

tandykins thank you for the chuckle, your chookies wandering into the preschool is priceless. Well done with Bumblebee! The egg song is very exciting!

I am sorry to hear that you are copping some flack and what’s with the RSPCA thing, gees!. I am at a loss! Wouldn’t not treating bumblefoot be cruelty, not the other way round?

I have given up posting on quite a few threads and if I do post, I always make a point to mention that “this is what I do; others may do it differently or disagree and I respect their right to do that”.

‘Shake It Off’ have you seen this?

The impression I got (I haven't called back yet - I lost two studying days due to picking up our rescue roo Lamington and dealing with the RSPCA horror) was that no one who has animals should do anything themselves ever and that they should be taken to the vet for everything.

So I'll mostly be ignoring that and...just being quieter on Facebook. XD Because that's dumb.

I had Shake It Off stuck in my head all day yesterday. Especially the Haters Gonna Hate part. XD

My final silly chicken story for this post … I have some elephant ears (plants, not real ears

) in the garden and they are one of my favourites. Sadly, this time every year, the caterpillars get into them and can strip a new leaf in a matter of hours. I check them as often as I can and dispatch the CP’s .. found a big juicy one and gave it to Dusty when I thought no-one else was looking. Bzzzzt, Blondie was watching! I don’t know how Dusty was feeling, but after a couple of minutes of watching her run round and round and round the garden with caterpillar in beak and Blondie on her tail, I was getting dizzy! Dusty actually had no cause to whinge on this occasion cos Mom stepped in and distracted Blondie long enough for Dusty to enjoy her treat

Have a lovely long weekend Folks

I swear sometimes I want to yell, "And....FIGHT!" (followed by something like: "Buttface wins! FATALITY!!!!") when throwing treats to my chickens. It gives me great and perverse pleasure watching a chicken bolting across the yard with others chasing it to get a nibble of a mealworm, a wood roach or the odd large spider or small skink I find.

Mine are hunting me down lately to see if I've found anymore dying huntsman in the laundry or in the garage. They love a good spider!

In other news on my end - we (as I mentioned) have mister Lamington in quarantine in the front yard separated by two fences 12m apart from the other chickens (never again will I ignore the need to quarantine - I ended up with a coop full of mites and lice and that's about as GOOD as that can go).

Here he is in the ultra-classy digs we drove him home in (he was only in this for 4 hours, please don't call the RSPCA (kidding, kidding. I'm bitter.))



He's meant to be 19 weeks old but he looks younger than that to me. My son picked the runt of the litter. He's got such a sweet little voice and he's so gentle and inquisitive.

Also: Baby pictures!! Little First looks like a roo.













Their proper brooder should be finished today, thank goodness. They need the space. -_-

 

[megacakes]

The chickens at work go crazy for cicada shells. There's usually heaps of them on the trees in the playground, so it becomes a great collection activity for the kids with an added bonus for the hens.