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

[CluckerFeet]

I love your pics. They all look very interested in the camera - and I call that a flock. Like a family it doesn't matter how many there are.

There are many of us who wish we could keep a rooster.

I have too many chickens at the moment because I've done some hatching to build my numbers after a fox killed some of my birds and where I now live I can have up to 20. I have orders for some birds. So what I have now is not what I'll end up with. I don't name anybody until I know they are keepers.

So the list of keepers goes.
2x blue Australorps Liz Taylor and Fraidy
2x Barnevelders Cagney and Lacey who crows like a rooster and so did her mother.
2x orpingtons not yet laying hard to name, one thinks she's a D'uccle
1x cuckoo Marans which is actually pure black - Ninja
1 naked neck - Nelly
1 black Australorp I suspect bantam cross
2 Dorkings chicks
2 brahmas hatched this weekend
2 Sicilian buttercups
3 D'uccle - Honey and still considering names
1 Pekin
1 bantam cross - Flubber

I always get to know my chooks before I name them. The unnamed ones above are too new.

Wow - your flock sounds amazing. I always try to get to know my chickens - or any of my pets - before I name them too. I once had a chook who acted and looked like a "Little Eagle" as a pullet, and so I'd call her Little Eagle or L.E, which eventually became Ellie.

I think Dapple got a little stand-offish when I took that pic - she was getting a little annoyed with a camera being shoved in her face.

 

[CluckerFeet]

Love the pic

Wow you take great pictures of your chooks.

I love it that you have such a mixed flock. I have a tiny flock of 3 chicks and as a new chicken owner I say that's enough. You could almost call it my great chicken experiment.

I started out with four chicks... it was kinda an experiment as well, only more to see how the dog I had at the time would react. The chickens ended up following my dog around the yard to the great disappointment of the rooster I had at the time (who I wasn't able to keep). My dog used to tease the rooster all the time... until one day he strutted up to her and pecked my dog right on the nose. I think that was the day my dog realised she didn't like roosters.

What kind of chicks are they? And be careful - you say you think that's enough chickens now... but you might get addicted to keeping chooks like I did! :7

 

[User395221]

Hahaha!!! I make myself laugh at how ridiculous I seem to all of you I know.

No, you seem a totally normal "chook person". Have you read the "you know you love your chickens when..." thread? If not, it'll make you feel better when you think you are going "over the top". You are among like-minded folk here.

 

[mooandmcgee]

I love your pics. They all look very interested in the camera - and I call that a flock. Like a family it doesn't matter how many there are.

There are many of us who wish we could keep a rooster.

I have too many chickens at the moment because I've done some hatching to build my numbers after a fox killed some of my birds and where I now live I can have up to 20. I have orders for some birds. So what I have now is not what I'll end up with. I don't name anybody until I know they are keepers.

So the list of keepers goes.
2x blue Australorps Liz Taylor and Fraidy
2x Barnevelders Cagney and Lacey who crows like a rooster and so did her mother.
2x orpingtons not yet laying hard to name, one thinks she's a D'uccle
1x cuckoo Marans which is actually pure black - Ninja
1 naked neck - Nelly
1 black Australorp I suspect bantam cross
2 Dorkings chicks
2 brahmas hatched this weekend
2 Sicilian buttercups
3 D'uccle - Honey and still considering names
1 Pekin
1 bantam cross - Flubber

I always get to know my chooks before I name them. The unnamed ones above are too new.

WOW that's amazing!!!! What fantastic flock!!!

@CluckerFeet
Ella is a splash australorp
Carla is a black orpington (my special little one) and
Rosie is a blue orpington (thought she was going to be black but her feathers are coming in and she is very much blue). My daughters named then the second they laid eyes on them.

We are able to have five here so we will see. These three are known as "the great chicken experiment" at our house. So we will see what happens. Love them already and would die if one turned out to be a roo

 

[CluckerFeet]

WOW that's amazing!!!! What fantastic flock!!!

@CluckerFeet
Ella is a splash australorp
Carla is a black orpington (my special little one) and
Rosie is a blue orpington (thought she was going to be black but her feathers are coming in and she is very much blue). My daughters named then the second they laid eyes on them.

We are able to have five here so we will see. These three are known as "the great chicken experiment" at our house. So we will see what happens. Love them already and would die if one turned out to be a roo

Your chooks sound like they will be very loved.

Speaking of roosters, that reminds me of one that lived up the road from me. No one owned him, but there used to be a large white rooster living near my house that was best friends with a little bush turkey. Its been years since I've seen him and I think someone probably caught him awhile back.
Still weird though - my chickens DO NOT get along with the bush turkeys!
They have made friends with the wild crested pigeons though. Does anyone else have chickens that have some odd form of friendship with another species?

 

[mooandmcgee]

No, you seem a totally normal "chook person".  Have you read the "you know you love your chickens when..." thread?  If not, it'll make you feel better when you think you are going "over the top".  You are among like-minded folk here.  

Just had a look!!!! AMAZING!!!! I also saw your name there a few times!!! Hahaha!!!

 

[Fizzybelle]

I expected a teeny weeny too. The middle egg in the photo is about the same size as my only ever Silkie used to lay 40grams. The D'uccle eggs plural (because I got an identical one today) are a little bit smaller but not much. 29 and 30grams. And these are first eggs. Given the size of the hen they are huge. That's a large egg at the bottom I put there for perspective weighs 81grams.

Let me get this straight - Beatrice is in a run and coop? Withbantam who else? Mabel sleeps in a carrier, where does she run? Where do you collect her from to put her to bed and what time of day is it?

Beatice sleeps in the coop with the other bantams, Agnes and Esme. The larger chickens have their own temporary sleeping quarters in the shed until the new coops built, (there's airflow and it's clean) and they free-range all the time in the yard. The bantams coop (a small A frame kit one) is inside a run I've put together to allow them plenty of room to eat grass, and play, as the coops too small for them to roam around in comfortably. They come out every day twice for free ranging. For now, since she's new Mabel sleeps inside in the pet carrier to keep her separate and comfortable at night (it's all I had spare and secure), it's only until she joins the others in a week or so, then she'll sleep in the coop with them. I did have her in the wire run of the bantam coop briefly until I'd set up her own pen (and found the pet carrier) when I got her home. She's set up in a pen in the front yard to play during the day whilst the others are in the back. Bedtime now, is 5:30 since the suns setting sooner. I get the bantams to bed after cuddle time, as Bea gets super cranky if she doesn't get her cuddles. Mabel goes to bed right after them, as she takes such a long time to settle, but around the same time. The older girls put themselves to bed, thankfully. They're not as sooky.

So two runs/pen, one for the bantams, one for Mable. Three sleeping places, one coop for the bantams, one shed for the big girls, and inside in a pet carrier for Mable. We're still all over the place from the move, it took two weeks to move everything. The yard is fully fenced for the everyone. It seems a little over the place, but they have a routine. I'll soon get Mabel integrated and she'll learn her place in the flock, and have constant company so be less reliant on me for that. It helped Bea chill out eventually, being accepted into the flock, I've had her almost 3 months now, it should help Mabel behave in time. Hope that clears things up.

Telia, I don't pick Mabel up, don't need to lol, she jumps all over me. I can carry her like a parrot.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Here's some pics of Beatrice I took today, she looked so cute hiding between the daisy's (that the girls have almost dug up now).

 

[mooandmcgee]

Does anyone else have chickens that have some odd form of friendship with another species?

If I'm in the yard my chicks are at my feet. If they hear me they actually come running from where ever they are and follow me around.

Pretty hilarious seeing it took hubby and the girls three years to talk me into having chickens.

 

[User395221]

We are able to have five here so we will see. These three are known as "the great chicken experiment" at our house. So we will see what happens.

I'm not an enabler, but if you think you'll end up with 5, you are better off getting them all together now and letting them grow up together. Introducing new girls later on can be a "drama".

Just had a look!!!! AMAZING!!!! I also saw your name there a few times!!! Hahaha!!!

oh, yes, I'm a "regular". I have lots to "confess".