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

[satay]

Lol, my hubby does all of his shopping on Xmas eve. I often jokingly say that we get what ever is left over. It helps that he works in Hobart .
However he has no imput in the family gifts, I've even heard him say to his sister, ' what did we get you ' ? No idea !

Haha Yes mine has done that too.

 

[satay]

I have noticed something funny with the belgians the last few days. As i live in the land the rain forgot (i need to get a sign made up for my front door) I turn on the overhead sprinklers in the vege garden. I have noticed that in cage 1 fancy wanders out looks like oh yeah its wet again and wanders back inside, Appps has an all mighty hissy fit and screams blue murder like she is going to drown and runs inside. Ash wanders out and looks like whatever it's wet again and continues to scratch around. In cage two rodney comes out has a not so impressed she is wetting us again look and goes back inside. Annibee thinks she is in heaven and starts madly dust bathing like she is at some great day spa. Only problem is she is a porcelain belgian so she doesn't look all that attractive after she has had her mud bath for the day. and they say chickens don't have personalities.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hello everyone. Hope its ok to join this thread getting to confused with the overseas temps and locations. I am from comboyne nsw. We will be getting some australorp babies soon for the kids xmas. 5 chicks and a rooster all 2 & 1/2 weeks old. Its the first time i will be raising babies and was wondering if anyone has some good advice. I have a fully functional chicken run with coop mostly shaded withs spots of sun throuh the day. Was wondering what age i should start them in the chciken run/coop? Should i wait till they have feathers. The temp up here changes often so its not like a constant summer heat. Thanks in advance for any help

Young chicks will require heat. Once they are fully feathered in usually 5-6 weeks they can tolerate overnight temps. Until then short periods of time outside , in a contained safe area are ok. Giving them access to the ground from an early age also will help them Build immunity to such things as coccocidiosis
This link is always helpful for new chicken owners.


http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/03/baby-chick-basics-what-you-need-to-know.html

At 21/2 weeks they still require a constant heat of around 85 F or 30-32 degrees Celsius. So if your day time temps are hot enough they will be fine but night time is when they need artificial heat/ lamp.

 

[appps]

Sad news. Got home today and hubby said "I saw one of the chickens had got outside their yard and was trying to get back in when I got home".

That was an hour before I got home and I asked if he had put it back in. His reply "No I didn't think to" had me flying out the door. I located the poor thing under a small tree and tried to dropper some water in its mouth but it was too late and it died in my arms.

I will be clipping wings soon so no one can fly out again.

Oh so sorry to hear :-(

I keep a container of water outside their run too just in case as we too used to get the occasional escapee as well. If nothing else the native birds appreciate it.

 

[appps]

I have noticed something funny with the belgians the last few days. As i live in the land the rain forgot (i need to get a sign made up for my front door) I turn on the overhead sprinklers in the vege garden. I have noticed that in cage 1 fancy wanders out looks like oh yeah its wet again and wanders back inside, Appps has an all mighty hissy fit and screams blue murder like she is going to drown and runs inside. Ash wanders out and looks like whatever it's wet again and continues to scratch around. In cage two rodney comes out has a not so impressed she is wetting us again look and goes back inside. Annibee thinks she is in heaven and starts madly dust bathing like she is at some great day spa. Only problem is she is a porcelain belgian so she doesn't look all that attractive after she has had her mud bath for the day. and they say chickens don't have personalities.

 

[locknest4]

39°C here yesterday and today (that's the shade temp not full sun temp "out here in the country"). All the girls are panting so I've gone down both days to give them a squirting with the hose. They now officially love /hate me as I am both the bringer of food (love) and the bringer of the "big wetathon" (hate). Poor things don't kno whether to run toward or away from me when I appear. But they sure are cooler after a hose down.
Thank u to everyone who replied with sympathy and the extra water buckets outside the run idea. There is now a bucket under the shade of that little tree

 

[sjturner79]

Hello everyone. Hope its ok to join this thread getting to confused with the overseas temps and locations. I am from comboyne nsw. We will be getting some australorp babies soon for the kids xmas. 5 chicks and a rooster all 2 & 1/2 weeks old. Its the first time i will be raising babies and was wondering if anyone has some good advice. I have a fully functional chicken run with coop mostly shaded withs spots of sun throuh the day. Was wondering what age i should start them in the chciken run/coop? Should i wait till they have feathers. The temp up here changes often so its not like a constant summer heat. Thanks in advance for any help

You need to keep young chicks over 30c and under 36 until they get good feathers. I have found that black astralorps still don't handle temps of over 35c well until they are over 9 months old.

 

[sjturner79]

. Babies first time outside.

 

[RodneyRooster]

I have noticed something funny with the belgians the last few days. As i live in the land the rain forgot (i need to get a sign made up for my front door) I turn on the overhead sprinklers in the vege garden. I have noticed that in cage 1 fancy wanders out looks like oh yeah its wet again and wanders back inside, Appps has an all mighty hissy fit and screams blue murder like she is going to drown and runs inside. Ash wanders out and looks like whatever it's wet again and continues to scratch around. In cage two rodney comes out has a not so impressed she is wetting us again look and goes back inside. Annibee thinks she is in heaven and starts madly dust bathing like she is at some great day spa. Only problem is she is a porcelain belgian so she doesn't look all that attractive after she has had her mud bath for the day. and they say chickens don't have personalities.

Hahahaha! Awesome. Nope, totally false!

. Babies first time outside.

Awwww yay!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Lol, seems like there are quite a few xmas eve shoppers amongst us.