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

[RodneyRooster]

Hi guys, long time no see, I've been having a world of trouble with this site on my phone, I've written a few replies to posts and they just never post, forget about adding photos (I could be writing all this for nothing again :/ )

Heard some immature crowing this morning. Would you believe from the d'uccles, my big boys are around 16 weeks and not a peep yet the 7 week old d'uccle is trying to crow!!

Awww gorgeous maybe the older ones will follow suit now. Looks like the younger ones may end up being the alphas.

Well last night i went to shut the chooks in and found 7 eggs! Wha..? only have 4 layers and i only got 3 yesterday but that doesnt add up. Totally confused as id had 4 every dsy before hand for a while. Then i remembered i have 5 again! Now Miss Vonte is back with the oldies. So i obviously missed 2 yesterday. Yay lots of eggs again.

Today is seperation day i think. Will clean out any cob webs that will undoubtedly be in the broody coop and pop my roosters in there. Hopefully be able to get rid of them quick smart but somehow i doubt it lol

 

[ChristieB]

@RodneyRooster
Do the move tonight when they are all settled in to sleep, no chasing involved

 

[RodneyRooster]

@RodneyRooster
Do the move tonight when they are all settled in to sleep, no chasing involved

Yeah ur probably right, thats when i do the adults, didnt think of doing the same with chicks! Lol. Cheers

 

[Fancychooklady]

@RodneyRooster
Do the move tonight when they are all settled in to sleep, no chasing involved

It's also a lot less stressful for the birds .

 

[satay]

Awww gorgeous maybe the older ones will follow suit now. Looks like the younger ones may end up being the alphas.

Well last night i went to shut the chooks in and found 7 eggs! Wha..? only have 4 layers and i only got 3 yesterday but that doesnt add up. Totally confused as id had 4 every dsy before hand for a while. Then i remembered i have 5 again! Now Miss Vonte is back with the oldies. So i obviously missed 2 yesterday. Yay lots of eggs again.

Today is seperation day i think. Will clean out any cob webs that will undoubtedly be in the broody coop and pop my roosters in there. Hopefully be able to get rid of them quick smart but somehow i doubt it lol

Thankfully none of my young belgian roos are crowing yet but out of all the eggs I've hatched this season (Belgian ) looks like ive ended up with 1 female and 1 possible female the frizzle and a tonne of pretty boys. Even my 3 millies are roosters. So i started out trying to hatch a millie fleur girl and got none. Think i would class that as an epic fail

 

[satay]

Oops odd that above reply was christieb.

 

[sjturner79]

One of my August hatched hens has started laying. Hopefully the other 3 will start soon. Looking forward to seeing if snowies eggs are green or blue.

 

[Anniebee]

To appps and Fancychooklady .... re peacocks !!

If you ever really want to keep peacocks - and they ARE beautiful ... ( even though their clean up is dog sized !! ) .... then you will have to clip their wings. They love to roam and find
their own little havens, from which they are very very hard to extract !! .

A little while back, I posted ( I think ) about clipping the wings of a peacock - took two of us - the owner hanging on, and me clipping. !! It does not hurt them as long as you know what you
are doing. Same as for chickens - a certain area is ' no-go' on the wings. Stops their wandering habits. And they are happy enough to meander around a largish area, scrounging. Not good for a small garden area.

Much the same as chickens, they should be locked up in a large pen for the night. They also become docile towards evenings. It's an avian thing, I guess.

Hope you find the owner of the wayward peacock who is doing his / her own thing at the moment. !!

Cheers .......

 

[Anniebee]

Is it possible to have a half broody chicken ? ....... Teila - you might be able to answer this one !!!

Mindy Araucana, who was laying quite a few soft shells, ( and much help was given on here for the problem ) ... is laying proper eggs now - for a couple of weeks - no weak egg areas, and no soft shells. I do think the calcium ( for horses ) helped a lot. ... It was not oyster shell / calcium carbonate, but seemed to help. Just a dessertspoon twice a week in her rice mix. Loves it.

Now down to once a week calcium supplement.

However, along with the calcium, I introduced a dummy egg into her coop. At first in the nesting box. She kicked that out, very quickly.

She now lays almost every day, by sitting on the dummy egg and depositing her perfectly formed egg, beside it. So of course, I harvest the lovely fresh egg.

She then goes off her face. "took, took, took, screech cackle, took took, screech" etc. with much agitation, strutting up and down the fence and jumping in and out of her coop.

The only way I deal with this, is to divert her attention ... with a couple of small handfuls of scratch mix, scattered on the ground. That shuts up the noise. !! And boy is she noisy. She is a natural gormandiser ... eats like there's no tomorrow, so that works.

I get the impression she is less than impressed with the removal of her freshly laid egg. Should I remove the dummy egg ? Is that upsetting her, and encouraging some kind of broodiness ...... or is it all in this chicken addled brain of mine ???

Cheers all ......

 

[Fancychooklady]

To appps and Fancychooklady  .... re peacocks !!    

If you ever really want to keep peacocks - and they ARE beautiful ... ( even though their clean up is dog sized !! ) .... then you will have to clip their wings.   They love to roam and find
their own little havens, from which they are very very hard to extract !! .   

A little while back, I posted ( I think ) about clipping the wings of a peacock - took two of us - the owner hanging on, and me clipping. !!   It does not hurt them as long as you know what you 
are doing.   Same as for chickens - a certain area is ' no-go' on the wings.   Stops their wandering habits.   And they are happy enough to meander around a largish area, scrounging.  Not good for a small garden area.   

Much the same as chickens, they should be locked up in a large pen for the night.  They also become docile towards evenings.   It's an avian thing, I guess.  

Hope you find the owner of the wayward peacock who is doing his / her own thing at the moment. !!    

Cheers ....... 

Hi Annie , the local caravan park owner migrated here from Victoria and seems to be building an ark. At least he is collecting the animals.
So far we have had his flock of geese visit, several mallard drakes and now the peacock. He seems quite happy down on our back block and his biggest threat is the sea eagle that he roosts under at night.