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

[Anniebee]

Poor Carl is back in isolation sigh. She was starting to just not look good, nothing specific just not well looking, and she seemed to be eating a lot of dirt still.

I seperated her back into the old bunny cage a couple days ago. First day she did one small solid poop that really just looked like dirt. Yesterday she did some watery stuff that looked really sandy and today again very watery but less sandy looking. She ate nothing much the first day, a bit yesterday and ate well today.

I'll keep her in there till she is pooping properly I think.

But why the dirt obsession? I know the crop is fine as she hasn't been allowed on grass yet, why is she still trying to move stuff by eating dirt?

I've been adding an electrolyte etc mix for birds to her water the last few days and she is still getting the probiotics added to her feed once a day.

appps .... I found this elsewhere on BYC ... and it might help. ( hoping ). https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/293450/my-chickens-are-eating-dirt-why/10

Bottom line is ( from this post anyway ) feed natural greens - fresh cauli leaves ( mine LOVE those ) , scissored grasses ( as long as it is clean and you know where it comes from ) ... scissored heads of broccoli into minute flowerettes etc. . .... any other greens you can think of.

There are so many natural greens to feed. Buy some baby spinach leaves > wash them > chop up finely - and feed. It's not expensive - buying in small quantities at a time.

Just a thought or two .......

********

My little Mindy Araucana is in a super heavy moult - not eating much, except the cooked meat mince, oats, bran, finely chopped greens and a little scratch mix I give her and the other two ( although they probably don't need protein at the moment, except Mandy Welsummer who is also in an ultra ultra slow moult ). Molly just plods along - sheds a few feathers here and there, and has produced more eggs ( from no eggs from anyone - back to one egg every 3 days - courtesy I think of Molly RIR - to my astonishment

).

Mindy gets a full crop on meat mix stuff. Not too much interested in the layer pellets at all. I keep a check on her consumption --- by carefully measuring her layer pellets - they are not a favourite at the moment, by any means.

But ......she EATS a lotta DIRT .... so I think perhaps ( please someone correct me if I am wrong ) .... the dirt acts as something more than just grist and grit for her crop.

Mindy mostly poops large .... always with some urate on it and well formed. But occasionally drops some brown stuff that could be just a lot of dirt with no urate. And then she might go for a couple of days with only tiny poops - ( I guess depending on how much she has not eaten ).

Have noticed that her poop production when roosting is far less now than it is when she is in laying mode. She produces enough woopsies to provide the entire neighbourhood with excellent well formed vegie manure when in full on laying mode.

Hope these little hints help somewhat.

Cheers .........

 

[Anniebee]

Space is not my problem, we have over 50 acres,time is. Feeding 70 odd chickens morning and night can be quite time consuming and cleaning out pens is an all day affair. Life was much simpler when I had 20 chooks.

I am having conniptions at the thought !! .... 70 odd chickens .... ( don't matter if they are odd or not - there's 70 of them ??? )

Plus your other beauties - the horses you have to take care of ..... how many hours in your day ( I'd like to know

)

So - you are a bit time poor Fancy ... little wonder at that. .... I just do not know how you do it. !!!

Cheers .....

 

[Anniebee]

Goooood morning folks

potato chip glad I could help with the names

cwrite yeah, some cats can be very sensitive .. Syba definitely suffers from separation anxiety when his Dad goes away.

When we first got chickens our routine was a bit out of whack and Syba ended up at the Vet due to very frequent vomiting … turns out that was his reaction to having his routine out of whack and he prefers to be fed at the same time every day

Sprinkles is a cutie!

LuckysMum your bubs and adults are beautiful! So is Bear!

Aaaw appps I am so sorry to read that Carl is under the weather again.

Just joining in on the Council limit discussion … 6 allowed here and 6 I have. As I have mentioned before, that is for my peace of mind as I know that if I have more than I should I will fret that I will be sprung. Also, I think 6 is a good number for our yard. We were only ever going to have 2 lol

So, post broody, KiKi is moulting and boy oh boy is she moulting … frizzle feathers as far as the eye can see

Moulting is definitely messing with their system .. Dusty laid a soft shell on Sunday night and while having a hard shell, Crystal dropped an overnighter from the roost that same evening. When you are only getting may be one or two eggs a week, seeing two go to waste is sad. Eggs were on the shopping list on Sunday and yep, after paying for them, they were scrambled and given to the girls for breakfast this morning

Teila ....

One comment - moulting definitely does mess with their systems.

I feel so very sorry for them when they are battling all that - and then the regrowing of feathers, which I just know is uncomfortable for them .... they seem to stick into the soft flesh from time to time - and I see my moulting chickens picking at the new growth frantically, or standing up to sleep, so's the new 'feather tracts' don't hurt them.

Then when all that is over - they are back to pushing hard to produce eggs .... a sizeable birth 6 days out of 7 ........

( numbing of the mind here ) ....

Poor wee souls - and we take so much for granted from them. They deserve velvet cushions, golden cloaks and be-jeweled crowns.

Cheers !! ........

 

[User395221]

Poor wee souls

I thought my chickens were cheerful little things....

 

[Fancychooklady]

I am having conniptions at the thought !!  .... 70 odd chickens  .... ( don't matter if they are odd or not - there's 70 of them ??? ) 

Plus your other beauties - the horses you have to take care of ..... how many hours in your day  ( I'd like to know   )

So - you are a bit time poor Fancy ... little wonder at that.     .... I just do not know how you do it. !!! 

Cheers ..... 

I manage Annie, though it's coop cleaning time and a few need leg mite treatment. Many of mine are moulting so I have the equivalent of 2 acres of land covered in feathers.
Keeping everyone ' bright eyed and bushy tailed ' is time consuming but sitting with my coffee in hand and chooks at foot is also good for the soul.

 

[MyHaven]

I manage Annie, though it's coop cleaning time and a few need leg mite treatment. Many of mine are moulting so I have the equivalent of 2 acres of land covered in feathers.
Keeping everyone ' bright eyed and bushy tailed ' is time consuming but sitting with my coffee in hand and chooks at foot is also good for the soul.

And you still find time for us and to share your knowledge on a huge range of subjects. My hat goes off to you. And I'm a lot jealous.

Does anyone know what these round things are? They seem familiar somehow but can't quite recall from where. They turned up in the quarantine camp.

 

[User395221]

Does anyone know what these round things are?

Not too sure, but they could be chicken fruit.

 

[Fancychooklady]

And you still find time for us and to share your knowledge on a huge range of subjects. My hat goes off to you. And I'm a lot jealous.

Does anyone know what these round things are? They seem familiar somehow but can't quite recall from where. They turned up in the quarantine camp.

The more chooks you have , the more knowledge you gather, not always by choice.
I have heard them refered to as ' bum nuts ' .

 

[LuckysMum]

Check the local laws section of their website. In Queensland that is where you find it. It may be called animals local law or something similar.

Beautiful babies.

I will look though I don't really want to know. LOL The ISA browns are going to a friend when the others a grown up. I will have find a new home for any roos I get. I'm hoping to keep all my silkies I've heard the silkie roos are not very noisy.

apps how is carl? not good when they are not well.

 

[LuckysMum]

MyHaven Thanks for telling me about the local laws section. I looked them up there's nothing there. Our City Council covers a diverse area. We have semi rural, hobby farms and farms as well as residential areas. We have a good size block and we keep the area clean so its mostly any noise that I think would be a problem. Some of our neighbours have dogs that bark all night and cats killing our local birds, I think they are more of a problem then my babies. The only thing on the council web site is about keeping them contained.
Our girls seem to be laying quite well even with the heat. Though yesterday my husband commented on the fact that we were only getting half our eggs the last few days. When I went in to collect the eggs I found he hadn't opened the coop door all the way and they had been laying eggs behind it we found 12 eggs. Not sure how good they will be we have been having over 40 degree days.
But very funny they do seem to out smart us sometimes.