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

[satay]

oh, live worms.  The ones I got are dried. 

Can you grow these at home?  I grow compost worms in my worm farms.  

I must have the weirdest chickens none of mine will touch meal worms dried or alive they take off screaming if i try to give them any.

 

[satay]

My girls have passed bio security and are finally out of quarantine . Not sure how they will feel about their new boyfriend .

They are very pretty, They'd end up black out here from all the dry dirt i would imagine.

 

[satay]

Anni Teila and rodney The hide and seek Belgians.

One of my Blue Marans

 

[User395221]

I must have the weirdest chickens none of mine will touch meal worms dried or alive they take off screaming if i try to give them any.

My big girls weren't terribly interested when I opened the packet, but I was next to the bunny houses so they were more interested in what veges might be on offer. The little girls seemed to like them.

 

[LuckysMum]

Hehe, you need to get yourself a CTD ( chicken training device )
Mine run for the hills as soon as they see it.

great idea. We use the garden hose. But having had 4 boys we have heaps on water guns. I'm so going to try that. My husband just said try on the dog too.

Haha I'm thinking of trying it on him and the 2 boys still at home. I wonder if I could train them to do things.

Fancy What a beautiful setting.

We have 1000 sq too. In an outer suburb most around us are halving their big blocks so we have a good size block. We just keep hoping to win lotto.
Then more chooks and I really want some alpacas.

 

[Anniebee]

The girls made it!!!

First night in the coop. Hahahah!!!

Wondering if I should keep them in the run today so they can get used to it. Yesterday it took a lot of persuasion to get them into the run and I had to physically put them in the coop and lock them in to sleep.

How can I train them that this is their sleeping quarters and to get them to go in it themselves?

Chickens will always put themselves to bed, as the sky grows darker. They seek a roost or somewhere dark and warmish together. As long it is not a tree, that would not be good in my opinion. ( Molly RIR [only] often comes out of the coop late at night, if I am collecting their water container, that I forgot to change, or wondering ( again ) - after I have been out for the evening, if they still have enough food for the morning. But then Molly is THE greatest sticky nose in chickendom.

If I want my big girls to go away much earlier, because rain is coming, or I am going out for the evening - I go into their run, shake my hands at them and say "BED" .... repeated several times. They turn from whatever they are doing, and quietly enter their coop. I have no idea if they respond to the word ( I believe they actually do ) ... but they are very easy to put to bed, even when the sun is still up, and certainly at dusk - if they are not already there. Mindy is a very early settler on her roost - merest hint of the sun going down and in she goes, eats, drinks, flys up and settles. It's a rare event to have to say "Bed" to her.

I began that caper from the time I got them, and it has worked. Give your girls a little time to get used to where their designated sleeping quarters are - a week or two should do it, and try 'talking them in' , all the time - even now when you are manually placing them into their coop. They will learn.

Good luck .......

 

[Anniebee]

My girls have passed bio security and are finally out of quarantine . Not sure how they will feel about their new boyfriend .

They are absolutely beautiful Fancy ... and I would so love to have some myself.

But after the dreadful ordeal I had with Moppit ( my avatar ) ... and losing her, I am very hesitant, unless I can find some way to keep 2 of them inside, and let them out under supervision on the sunniest of days for a bit of free ranging. Not sure I can swing that. And I would hate to keep them locked up in a coop, like caged birds ( ugh ) ... when they could see the others outside having fun.

I know - I am a sook - a scaredy cat, but I think they are so fragile, their feathers soak up water and get through that incredibly thin skin .... not confident enough - - - yet.

Cheers....

 

[User395221]

their feathers soak up water and get through that incredibly thin skin .

have they got enough sense to come in out of the rain? My big girls are out there wandering about in the rain, but they've got "proper" feathers so they aren't actually getting wet underneath them.

I used to go to people who lived rural, they had silkies who wandered about loose. I can't remember seeing them out and about on a wet day or whether they were kept in their house then or they just had the sense to stand under cover.

 

[Chook Newby]

OMG a course?! Seriously I need to see what I can find up here. Hahaha!! My non chicken friends all think I am NUTS! I have two breeders who answer all my questions via email, my vet emails me all the time to see how we are going and I have this forum. But seriously SO much time has already gone into these three little chicks I feel like we should move from the beach to a farm.

Yes the course went for about 3 hours on a small educational farm at Bowning about 45 min outside of Canberra. Its run by a couple. It was very informative.

Good on you I say! All your research just shows that you care. One of my girls had a minor mishap on the weekend and I cant stop blaming myself! She had flown up on a bracket behind the shed and for me that was just too close to the top of my 6 foot fence. So I gently put my hands on her back and gave her a little push as I said 'down you get please'. Well...... she freaked out from me touching her, flew forward and caught her neck on the next bracket in front of her. Her body went under and her neck went back (if you can picture that). She squarked and carried on and ran away once she had hit the ground. I went to find her to check on her and she was hiding behind an aggapanthus. Of course she wouldnt come to me so I couldnt check her but as she is mostly white I could see there was no blood. I felt like the worst chicken mum in the world!!!!!! Im still not over it 2 days later

 

[Chook Newby]

My girls have passed bio security and are finally out of quarantine . Not sure how they will feel about their new boyfriend .

Lovely girls! I would have loved silkies, but Wagga just gets too cold in the winter