Good morning folks
(Sorry for the long post, started waffling and couldn’t stop
)
Pennae I may be wrong but I think you may find that others are closer.
Howdy KerryF and welcome to the thread and BYC.
I am sorry to read that your introduction to chickens was not the best; starting off with sick birds is definitely an initiation by fire!
TheChookPatch beautiful pics!
Lols on the “giant chickens” good thought but not sure satay (or any of us) would be able to convince the other half (or, in my case, the neighbours
).
Deej211 congrats on the green egg
Dusty laid another pointy offering so in 4 days, I have got 2 eggs .. OK, not exactly a production line, but it is a start
Woo hoo Sidhe13 as I said, your little one is a definitely a fighter, that is good news
Tee hee, satay doesn’t look like Sam was in Queensland, no blue sky here!
As always Fancy beautiful pics .. you live in picture paradise!
I hope the walk goes well and kudos to you for helping out; mind you, I don’t believe being surrounded by beautiful pooches will be hard work
Yesterday, from the kitchen window, I spotted a Paper Wasp nest in our hedge. Having been stung in the past by approximately 8 Paper Wasps at the same time, on the arm, I am not particularly fond of them.
It stung like all **** and took months to ‘heal’. I could not even lightly touch that area without it flaring up again.
I did not want to be mowing the lawn under the hedge and risk another attack.
Anyways, I walked past hubby’s office window (which hubby faces and can see me) with a can of insect spray, got close enough to douse the nest and then run but the spray had been sitting under the gazebo on the shelf and for some reason, was not working, no matter how hard I shook it .. me standing there frantically shaking a can of insect spray and attracting the attention of said wasps was not actually my Plan A.
So back past hubby’s office window I go to dispose of useless can and grab another … back past window again with new can .. same result! Mental note to self: after one defective can, should probably have checked second one before arriving at nest!
Back past window again with second defective can and back past window again with working can of insect spray from inside which was tested. Sprayed nest and ran past window.
Another trip with a plastic bag and long shears, placed bag on ground, cut off deserted nest which dropped into bag and then back past window again with plastic bag hanging off the end of the shears at arms length.
At some stage during this whole fiasco I was expecting to hear a “whatya doing?”; “are you OK?”; “do you need a hand” or even a “whatya ya killing now” but nope, got zip, zilch, zero and naught!
My Hero
Speaking of heroes, Cilla gets the Chicken of the Day Award at Bambrook Bantams today.
This morning she ‘raised the alarm’ and I raced out to see which of the neighbours cats was stalking them and found a stork-like bird on the fence, eyeing off the goldfish. I chased him off.
10mins later, Cilla ‘raised the alarm’ again and back out I went to find the same goldfish predator, back on the fence, sussing them out. Chased him off yet again.
5mins after that, she lets me know, once again, that he is back and this time he was on the lawn, next to the fish ponds obviously picking out which fish looked the most appetizing.
I chased him off and he has not yet reappeared … thanks to Cilla, I did not lose any of my three humungous gold fish in the middle pond or four in the bottom pond. 5 of the 7 fish I have had for 5 years now and I am very fond of them.
Good girl Cilla!
So, the rain coats are back on the runs and by the looks of the forecast, might be staying for the rest of the week. Using the deep litter run method, wet runs is not ideal.
The good news is that while we have rain, I do not believe it is expected to be torrential, just showers now and then so hopefully no flooding this time around.
Cilla and the bubs spent a good two hours exploring the garden yesterday and as predicted, much to the aunties disgust which they had no qualms announcing! I had one eye on the bubs and the other on the driveway, half expecting an RSPCA van to pull up .. with all the complaining going on, I felt sure someone would have reported me for torturing my chickens.
The first 30mins or so the bubs were freaking out at everything .. wind, wild birds etc but it didn’t take them long to learn that fun was to be had. It was good to see that when spooked they legged it back to the coop, granted Cilla was looking at them as if to say “what is your problem?” and encouraged them back out again.
A couple more weekends of the above and they should all be able to free range together. A couple of weeks of free ranging together, we should be able to open up the segregated coops/runs and be back to one flock
In a perfect world I would be able to leave mumma and chicks in with the main flock but unfortunately, my set up is not ideal for this so I have to go down the integration, patience and persistence path.
(Sorry for the long post, started waffling and couldn’t stop
Pennae I may be wrong but I think you may find that others are closer.
Howdy KerryF and welcome to the thread and BYC.
I am sorry to read that your introduction to chickens was not the best; starting off with sick birds is definitely an initiation by fire!
TheChookPatch beautiful pics!
Lols on the “giant chickens” good thought but not sure satay (or any of us) would be able to convince the other half (or, in my case, the neighbours
Deej211 congrats on the green egg
Dusty laid another pointy offering so in 4 days, I have got 2 eggs .. OK, not exactly a production line, but it is a start
Woo hoo Sidhe13 as I said, your little one is a definitely a fighter, that is good news
Tee hee, satay doesn’t look like Sam was in Queensland, no blue sky here!
As always Fancy beautiful pics .. you live in picture paradise!
I hope the walk goes well and kudos to you for helping out; mind you, I don’t believe being surrounded by beautiful pooches will be hard work
Yesterday, from the kitchen window, I spotted a Paper Wasp nest in our hedge. Having been stung in the past by approximately 8 Paper Wasps at the same time, on the arm, I am not particularly fond of them.
It stung like all **** and took months to ‘heal’. I could not even lightly touch that area without it flaring up again.
I did not want to be mowing the lawn under the hedge and risk another attack.
Anyways, I walked past hubby’s office window (which hubby faces and can see me) with a can of insect spray, got close enough to douse the nest and then run but the spray had been sitting under the gazebo on the shelf and for some reason, was not working, no matter how hard I shook it .. me standing there frantically shaking a can of insect spray and attracting the attention of said wasps was not actually my Plan A.
So back past hubby’s office window I go to dispose of useless can and grab another … back past window again with new can .. same result! Mental note to self: after one defective can, should probably have checked second one before arriving at nest!
Back past window again with second defective can and back past window again with working can of insect spray from inside which was tested. Sprayed nest and ran past window.
Another trip with a plastic bag and long shears, placed bag on ground, cut off deserted nest which dropped into bag and then back past window again with plastic bag hanging off the end of the shears at arms length.
At some stage during this whole fiasco I was expecting to hear a “whatya doing?”; “are you OK?”; “do you need a hand” or even a “whatya ya killing now” but nope, got zip, zilch, zero and naught!
My Hero
Speaking of heroes, Cilla gets the Chicken of the Day Award at Bambrook Bantams today.
This morning she ‘raised the alarm’ and I raced out to see which of the neighbours cats was stalking them and found a stork-like bird on the fence, eyeing off the goldfish. I chased him off.
10mins later, Cilla ‘raised the alarm’ again and back out I went to find the same goldfish predator, back on the fence, sussing them out. Chased him off yet again.
5mins after that, she lets me know, once again, that he is back and this time he was on the lawn, next to the fish ponds obviously picking out which fish looked the most appetizing.
I chased him off and he has not yet reappeared … thanks to Cilla, I did not lose any of my three humungous gold fish in the middle pond or four in the bottom pond. 5 of the 7 fish I have had for 5 years now and I am very fond of them.
Good girl Cilla!
So, the rain coats are back on the runs and by the looks of the forecast, might be staying for the rest of the week. Using the deep litter run method, wet runs is not ideal.
The good news is that while we have rain, I do not believe it is expected to be torrential, just showers now and then so hopefully no flooding this time around.
Cilla and the bubs spent a good two hours exploring the garden yesterday and as predicted, much to the aunties disgust which they had no qualms announcing! I had one eye on the bubs and the other on the driveway, half expecting an RSPCA van to pull up .. with all the complaining going on, I felt sure someone would have reported me for torturing my chickens.
The first 30mins or so the bubs were freaking out at everything .. wind, wild birds etc but it didn’t take them long to learn that fun was to be had. It was good to see that when spooked they legged it back to the coop, granted Cilla was looking at them as if to say “what is your problem?” and encouraged them back out again.
A couple more weekends of the above and they should all be able to free range together. A couple of weeks of free ranging together, we should be able to open up the segregated coops/runs and be back to one flock
In a perfect world I would be able to leave mumma and chicks in with the main flock but unfortunately, my set up is not ideal for this so I have to go down the integration, patience and persistence path.
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