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

[appps]

Supposed to be a top of 32 today. 9:30am and its already creeping over 31 and the wind is just hot out there. Call me crazy but think we might just exceed that ;-)

 

[tandykins]

Supposed to be a top of 32 today. 9:30am and its already creeping over 31 and the wind is just hot out there. Call me crazy but think we might just exceed that ;-)

The weather here is meant to be a max of 24, VERY VERY WINDY, with cool breezes. I'm sitting outside right now and I'm shivering just because of the wind. XD Also because I've apparently gotten used to roasting. XD

While I was attempting to remove my head roo's spurs via potato (because he's treading some of the poor hen's backs bare - and they also have saddles) I noticed that he too had a mild case of scaly leg mites.


*SIIIIIIIIIGH* Greaaaaat.

So yesterday and today the coop is getting an extremely thorough pressure washing, spraying, and everyone is getting treated. Just to get it out of the way, I decided to do my quarterly worming at the same time (it's perhaps a couple of weeks early). Unfortunately I have the 4 week old chicks - so I had to get creative with water locations. Worming water too high for chicks to reach - chick water in too small a hole for hens to reach. Dog inside because he's a jerk and likes to knock over and drink all the chickens' water anyway.

On the plus side - it usually takes me a good hour just to get the bedding completely cleared out of my coop but a LOVELY friend loaned me the use of her leaf blower vac ostensibly so I could blow the bedding out of the tighter corners I can't get the broom into. I ended up using only the vacuum function and it was -brilliant-.. What normally took me an hour only took me 10 minutes. I'm sold - I need a shop vac. Also a Tyvek jumpsuit and some kind of full face mask. I'm really over the poop I'm spraying around with the pressure washer just reflecting right back in my hair and face. While I'd still be showering after cleaning the coop - it would be nice to be able to get from the back door to the bathroom without having to vacuum and mop afterward. XD

Oh it's going to be some kind of day...

 

[Fancychooklady]

Supposed to be a top of 32 today. 9:30am and its already creeping over 31 and the wind is just hot out there. Call me crazy but think we might just exceed that ;-)

This crazy country ! I woke up to the river half way up the yard ( must have really poured out on the north west wilderness ) . Had to fish my gumboots out and put my winter rain coat on to feed the chooks.
Hope SA gets some relief today.

 

[Teila]

Howdy Friends

Been busy with work and broody shuffling

Tee hee satay, thank you for telling your broody tale, I feel much better with my two now.

Lol RodneyRooster yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking giving Cilla the benefit of the doubt

She is currently parked in the wire bottomed broody breaker plucking out breast feathers and somehow snuggling into a corner!! It is kind of like sending a naughty child to their room with a Play Station! Lol

Day 2 in the breaker for Cilla and Day 3 for Blondie … at least they can glare at each other through the bars.

Sorry devinandfeather I have no experience with Guinea Fowl or egg candling. Good luck with the hatch though.

Fancy, good to hear you got some rain; not so good about the river though. Yep, we do live in one crazy country!

Anniebee I have read that broodiness is contagious but I am not sure it is a proven fact

Hey appps we had an expected maximum of 33 but I am not sure if we got there; 28.9 at the moment.

You have my sympathies tandykins that sure does sound like some kind of day.

 

[Meeka3]

Hi guys I have 4 pied Guinea fowl keets that are getting given to me and I was wondering wether you could hatch then under chooks because I have a Plymouth Rock that's gone clucky and not sitting on eggs and I will put them under her

Secondly I was wondering how much they are worth

I bought mine fully grown for $35 each, they're eggs are the size of a small bantam and the chicks are very tiny, so I'm not sure how they'd go under a large hen like a Plymouth Rock. Mind you, Guineas aren't very good mamas so maybe the chook would be alright for the 6 weeks they need to stay warm. You have to be really careful with water as well, they're very scatty little things and will drown in a dish of water.

 

[Chookepie]

That's quite expensive ($35)!

 

[satay]

This crazy country ! I woke up to the river half way up the yard ( must have really poured out on the north west wilderness ) . Had to fish my gumboots out and put my winter rain coat on to feed the chooks.
Hope SA gets some relief today.

Crazy indeed. We got to just over 37c yesterday but at midnight last night it was still 31c and the fans were just blowing the hot air around. Fingers crossed we get a storm today but no super cell as alot of my fruit trees have small fruit on them..

 

[appps]

Well I got up and DD had the heater running! She had been up all night trying to finish homework and was under the impression it was cold, I think it was more a lack of sleep hallucination ;-)

 

[Fancychooklady]

Well I got up and DD had the heater running! She had been up all night trying to finish homework and was under the impression it was cold, I think it was more a lack of sleep hallucination ;-)

I have the fire going. Our DD is due in from Perth , next week. Boy is she in for a shock.

 

[MyHaven]

Firstly, I have to say my heart goes out to the bush fire victims. I hope there are no more losses. I can say no more than that on your ordeals.


Chicken hatch problems. I normally hatch under cluckies to avoid issues but I am not having luck ATM.

Has anyone ever had this problem before?

Yesterday morning I was letting the girls out when I spotted under my clucky an egg just visible. So I took a look. It was open on the side exposing the chick inside which was not even dry. I could see the unabsorbed yoke and disposed of the egg/chick. They are due to hatch tomorrow. I put it down to accidental breakage. But last night when I got home from work I was checking on everything and the same thing happened. So I took this egg/chick inside to take a closer look under light to see if I could work out what was going on. When I took this photo - Sorry my iPad is old and the quality isn't that good - I saw the heart beating and the poor thing move. I did what I could but it didn't survive and when I broke it out of its shell once again I could see it's yolk was not absorbed. In the photo above I had removed only a small section of egg about the size of a 5cent coin.

I have removed the two remaining eggs and put them in an incubator.

The hen was still defending each egg. She is very defensive and was showing signs of stress beyond the normal cranky cluck. This morning she was still looking for her eggs so I gave her some fake ones which she immediately settled on. If the surviving eggs hatch I'll give them back to her.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance