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

[Henriettasmum]

Good morning folks

In preparation for what sounds like a week of English weather; overcast, cold and showery, I spent most of yesterday in the garden, cleaning up from the high winds last week, mowing, weed killing, pruning, leaf raking etc .. while I have a few aches I did not have at the start, I do love standing back and admiring my handiwork .. looks good! Of course, I had feathered helpers

As I have a bit more time this morning, I read the swill debate in more detail. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am reading livestock and farm animals which I believe would not include 5 bantams in a backyard which are pets and not being used for meat or eggs for sale to the public?

When we cook, if it is something the girls can eat, we just cook a little bit more for them. So, they are eating what we are eating and if the rules do apply to them, then that is a tad on the stupid law side

SilkieChickStar I am pleased to read your little Silkie is on the improve and your quarantine girls do look happy.

Gee appps, you are having a rough trot

Do you know yet what a possible cause is? Do you think they are all related or different issues? As you know, I am no expert when it comes to what ails chickens, but if it is related, you would think it has to be environmental, something they are eating, or getting into? I do hope you are able to work out what it is.

Hi there Henriettasmum, when I read “we found the poor little bub was a bloody mess. The broody hen had attacked it viciously and there were shards of skull sticking up in the air…….” I was thinking it was deceased. I got quite a shock to hear it had survived and kudos to you for saving them both. Yep, when we have had hatches, no-one gets a name until I know for sure they are staying. They might get a nick-name in the meantime, but definitely not their given name.

I love Pekin’s .. the world needs more Pekins!

6 chicken limit here and no roosters allowed. I have 5 bantams. I think the limit is a good thing for me or there would probably be an 0 after that 5

sjturner79 If I read it right, 13 bubs and 2 duds is a pretty good hatch rate .. congrats!

We also thought our little duckling wouldn't survive. The vet nurse at our rural stockfeeds took a look and just said "love it" which is what we did. We thought the eyes had been pecked out as they were covered in blood and it was stumbling, so it was a wonderful surprise when I gently bathed them in warm water when first one, the the other, eye appeared and I realised it could still see. The poor little thing had to be kept apart from the other duckling, as all birds love to peck at blood but I wanted them to see each other in case the injured one survived so we worked out two separate areas in the brooder for a while. There were daily bathings and pretty soon, even though the top of its head was still a mess, we started to feel more optimistic. They lived in my lounge room in a brooder and when I let them out in the daytime, they would follow me around the house. The eldest one has always looked after the younger one. I remember one day when they were a bit older they had the run of the verandah to wander around during the day and lived in a kid's playpen at night. Ours is a highset house at the front. I was inside when I heard the eldest one who had been named Tootsie quacking louder and more insistently than I had ever heard her. I rushed outside and saw her just standing there. I couldn't find Trixie (the badly injured one). Tootsie ran to the edge of the verandah and looked over the edge. Sure enough, sitting quite calmly below, on the grass, was Trixie as happy as larry. My husband raced downstairs, picked her up and brought her back upstairs where Tootsie fussed over her like a mother hen. Since then (and that happened middle of last year) Tootsie has always looked out for Trixie. They do everything together. We can't let any of the boys get to Trixie as she has an indentation in the top of her head where there is a hole in her skull and we are worried in the boys' endeavours to mate they could grab her there and kill her. The two sisters have their own separate pen and get to free-range when the rest of my flock are still in their pens. The first three pics are : just after the injuries; living on the verandah; and in their pool when the injury was almost healed. Today the only indication of the injury is an indentation. Otherwise they are two perfectly healthy girls although I think Trixie might be a little bit deficient mentally but she has Tootsie to look after her and she is certainly happy. The following photo is of my last batch of incubated pekins and silkies. I love silkies too, but the pekins have my heart. I have added in an extra photo of how Tootsie and Trixie look today - perfectly healthy and happy.

 

[Henriettasmum]

80 something percent of locked down eggs.
30 I set.
17 started developing
16 at lock down.
1 drowned in incubator.
2 fully formed chicks failed to pip and DIS
13 bubbies running around in brooder.
So it's not a lot of what I set, but it's only 3 out 17 good eggs that didn't hatch

Congratulations on your new bubs. I have had great success with my incubator with most of the eggs hatching successfully, although last Christmas in an endeavour (foolish) to get more girls, I reduced the temp too much and although all the eggs hatched everyone of them had "falling over sickness" (my name for it). They looked fine except they'd roll onto their backs with little legs kicking up in the air until they struggled upright again. Everyone of them died within a few days. I later learned it was due to the temperature being too low. I still believe that a slightly lower temp will produce more girls than boys. On my next batch I reduced the temp by half a degree (centigrade) - I had 8 eggs, one was infertile, the seven others produced girls. I have another batch of seven that are about two weeks old now. I am interested to see if I have the same success or if the first test was just a fluke. I also have six silkie chicks about the same age, that the broody was sitting on. She hatched two, then abandoned them and the rest of the eggs so I put the eggs into the incubator and the chicks into the brooder. I will compare the results. I find everybody's experiences so interesting, so look forward to more posts.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Those are some adorable photos Henriettasmum, love the little duckling whose beak is wide open, full of attitude hehe. And that pen of pekins and silkies? A pen of pure happiness right there

 

[Fizzybelle]

Here's a group shot of my six, an odd assortment, but a good one. Ada and Annabelle are slightly hidden from view. The chookies will lose this area of the yard soon though when the shed is put up. They'll need a new dustbowl, I might relocate some of the dirt.


And here is how the coop construction is going.




This is actually the run, and will be enclosed with avian type wire mesh. The coops/nesting boxes are yet to be built. The doors still need some adjustments. The roof will have a good quality tarp over it to keep rain out (cheaper than iron sheets). Most likely will also add shadecloth to the sides in summer too, depending on the sun. The roof timber was damp so it'll need time to settle. I'm super happy with how it's going though, very study! I won't have to get up early in the mornings eventually, they'll be able to let themselves out into their pen to play. I want to plant herbs around it, and have hanging boxes/baskets from it too

 

[Henriettasmum]

Welcome back Rosemary - ( Henriettasmum ). You sure have a checkered history with your poultry, and very sad to know of your losses. I am a '3 chook' person, so naming them is ok - but must say that if I had hatchlings and a large variety of young, with visions of selling them, I couldn't bear to name them. Once they are named, it becomes very personal, as you would know. Thanks for all the info from your poultry farm ( and it seems it is a farm ) ....

I do hope your grand-daughter is doing well, and is dealing with her depression, with all the right help. It is a horrid thing - my own daughter is diagnosed as clinically depressed.

It can be terrible for her, and family can do nothing to help - all remains in a psychologists hands, plus medications. She seems to be ok at the moment, thank heaven. .

Cheers ........

Calling my place a "farm" is a bit generous but perhaps "hobby farm". It kind of just grew and was never meant to be as big as it is. My husband is partly to blame. He hates to see any of the birds going and every time we get an unusual cross baby, and we do get quite a few unusual colours and appearances, he can't bare to let them go. He is interested to see what we end up with, in the next batch!! and the next batch etc. so what hope do I have??

My granddaughter is doing very well now, thanks. We caught her at a very bad time and the holiday with us seems to have done the trick. I put it down to the new bubs, giving her something else to think about rather than her problems; my husband who, at the time, was heavily involved in charter boats took her for a week-end on the Great Barrier Reef where she did quite a few SCUBA dives and the photos of her grinning from ear to ear certainly showed there was light at the end of the tunnel. Since then, she has returned home, gone back to university, started a little business (caring for animals when people go on holidays) and life is certainly a lot brighter for her. You are right, there is very little that we can do to help but we did find that giving her another interest, putting her focus on creatures in need of comfort did the trick for her. I hope that your daughter can eventually see that no matter how dark our world can get, there is always a brighter side if we can only find it. I wish her and you all the very best.

 

[Henriettasmum]

Those are some adorable photos Henriettasmum, love the little duckling whose beak is wide open, full of attitude hehe. And that pen of pekins and silkies? A pen of pure happiness right there

That is my favourite photo of the ducklings. And she still does have attitude. She can see me, from their pen, as soon as I leave the house and starts quacking for me while Trixie stands a bit in the background, a little bit shy. Tootsie, on the other hand, loves having her beak and her back rubbed.Tootsie's a smart little lady and lets us know what she wants. Fresh water, please as she stands looking first at her tub of drinking water, then at me, then back at her tub; or at her pool (they now have a larger green one) then at me saying, I want some clean water here, too please. They certainly get their water dirty very quickly. With all the splashing the ground around the pool becomes very soggy. My husband is preparing to build a new duck pen. We have five birds that have a pool inside their pen and that free-range all day, cleaning up my garden, eating snails - I've never seen a live one yet but lots of empty shells! They will keep their current pen but I also have two other ducks, Marion and Ferdie (named by my granddaughter as ducklings - they were therapy for her when suffering badly from depression - Ferdinand turned out to be a girl, so became Ferdie and Marion is a drake but he has remained Marion as he knows his name) - anyway, those two have their own pen close to the other five and prefer to stay in the main pen while the others free-range after a very short trip outside to say hello to Tootsie and Trixie. But what we plan on doing is dividing the new pen in two, having a pool in each of them and letting them associate without actually getting together. We'd love for them to live in the same pen but we're worried about Trixie's head.

I loooooove my pekins. I have 14 with a couple of very special ones. The first one that I incubated spent a lot of its time with hubby and me, even sitting on a special sheet on our bed each morning watching a bit of Sunrise. He was happy to sit on our shoulders as we walked around doing housework, and outside would often jump up onto my hat. It was his favourite spot for a while. I love my girls dearly, but I have found that the roosters have the most amazing personalities and climb all over me, now that they are outside in a pen, when I go in to feed them. They love to free-range and they get the first shift of a morning, with the silkies that live in an adjoining pen having to go out separately. Then I let the larger birds out. I have far too many roosters but I'm finding it hard to let them go. I am so worried that people will want them to eat as they are lovely big birds. Luckily, I live in a rural-residential area so I can keep roosters and I have wonderful neighbours who don't complain anyway. I quite like the sound of them, except when they wake me of a morning. It has a lovely farmyard feel.

Lunchtime, so I'd better stop waffling on. Have a good day. Hope to talk again soon when I can hear more about your birds.

 

[Henriettasmum]

Here's a group shot of my six, an odd assortment, but a good one. Ada and Annabelle are slightly hidden from view. The chookies will lose this area of the yard soon though when the shed is put up. They'll need a new dustbowl, I might relocate some of the dirt.


And here is how the coop construction is going.




This is actually the run, and will be enclosed with avian type wire mesh. The coops/nesting boxes are yet to be built. The doors still need some adjustments. The roof will have a good quality tarp over it to keep rain out (cheaper than iron sheets). Most likely will also add shadecloth to the sides in summer too, depending on the sun. The roof timber was damp so it'll need time to settle. I'm super happy with how it's going though, very study! I won't have to get up early in the mornings eventually, they'll be able to let themselves out into their pen to play. I want to plant herbs around it, and have hanging boxes/baskets from it too

I love your six. So pretty. My eyesight's not the best but is that a lavender Araucana on the right? I love my two but 'ariet is a bit naughty and doesn't want to go to bed at night. She can be a trial coaxing her back inside. I really like your run. It's a lot tidier than mine which has now been extended from the original.. Because our start with the chickens was such a sudden decision, we took what we had at home and made poly tunnels with 50 mil poly pipe which we slipped over star pickets. The lower half of the walls were covered with avian wire (concreted into the ground)

and chicken wire above but if I had my 'druthers' I'd have used avian wire all over. Quite expensive though. We have covered the top and partially down the sides with tarps to keep the rain out. The size would be about 15 metres long by about 4-1/2 metres wide. It has a separate section added on the end so that we have two areas with doors. We picked up a garden shed when Bunnings moved to a new warehouse in Cairns for $50 (unbelievable price) and that became their roosting area. I was using anything I could find for nesting boxes - dog kennels found cheap on Gumtree; guinea pig houses; and a few cute timber chicken coops. As my flock grew we quickly added a second poly tunnel that's a bit smaller and was loved by my silkies with their pretty house; then suddenly I got into pekins and we had to divide the pen to keep the two breeds separate. It has worked well but the original tunnel needs to be reorganised as it's all a bit higgledy piggledy at the moment. My husband hasn't been well but as soon as he's well enough he plans on reorganising the whole area, moving the ducks from the far end and having separate roosting areas for all the different breeds. At the moment the only birds that are in a separate pen within the main polytunnel (apart from the ducks) are my silver-laced Wyandottes. But it's lots of fun. However, while I have been trying to reduce my numbers, hubby has become even more obsessed that I am, and wants more different types - gold-laced Wyandottes are first on his list!

The photo shows it in its early stages (the neighbour is having a burn-off behind it, if you're wondering about the flames!). It has also had another section added on this end and one area in the right bottom corner has been constructed for the Wyandottes. You can see our simple watering system. They also have the dome type auto waterers but we find this system works much better. We had a spare cistern which still worked properly so John set it up with a hose attached to it and little auto waterers on the white pipe. They work brilliantly. We have now added more and want to take it right around the pen. The yellow item on the pole is a Fox light - we don't have foxes, but it seems to keep local dogs away at night.

BTW the little timber cage in the middle is not for chickens!! At one stage we had a couple of quail but sold them when they failed to produce babies. Lots of eggs but they didn't come to anything. When I sold them, she was sitting on 7 eggs and within weeks I received photos of the babies!! Just my luck.

 

[sjturner79]

Congratulations on your new bubs. I have had great success with my incubator with most of the eggs hatching successfully, although last Christmas in an endeavour (foolish) to get more girls, I reduced the temp too much and although all the eggs hatched everyone of them had "falling over sickness" (my name for it). They looked fine except they'd roll onto their backs with little legs kicking up in the air until they struggled upright again. Everyone of them died within a few days. I later learned it was due to the temperature being too low. I still believe that a slightly lower temp will produce more girls than boys. On my next batch I reduced the temp by half a degree (centigrade) - I had 8 eggs, one was infertile, the seven others produced girls. I have another batch of seven that are about two weeks old now. I am interested to see if I have the same success or if the first test was just a fluke. I also have six silkie chicks about the same age, that the broody was sitting on. She hatched two, then abandoned them and the rest of the eggs so I put the eggs into the incubator and the chicks into the brooder. I will compare the results. I find everybody's experiences so interesting, so look forward to more posts.

Once you do it over thousands of eggs it been proven that temperature does not affect sex of chicks, however storing the eggs at lower temperatures (in a fridge) before hatching seems to seriously reduce the viability of the boys whilst having little effect on the girls. I haven't found anyone that has done the experiment properly on that.

 

[Anniebee]

Good morning folks

As I have a bit more time this morning, I read the swill debate in more detail. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am reading livestock and farm animals which I believe would not include 5 bantams in a backyard which are pets and not being used for meat or eggs for sale to the public?

When we cook, if it is something the girls can eat, we just cook a little bit more for them. So, they are eating what we are eating and if the rules do apply to them, then that is a tad on the stupid law side

While I 'sit on the fence' .... as all 'swill' discussions have had merit, I frankly am more inclined to ignore the laws as they apply to pet chickens, who produce only for ourselves, and are kept in pristine conditions with the most amazing variety of our own edible goodies one can imagine ( barring meal-worms !! ) .... which my big girls still will not touch unless I grind them up into powder to put in with rice mix goodies.

And yes, personally I think it is more to do with livestock / commercial poultry / farm animals - to keep potential nasties at bay.

.................

Fancys' comments are also spot on - Swill laws are a complex situation, and on the overall control of foodstuffs everywhere, including the preparation and cleanliness in commercial kitchens / restaurants / fast food areas etc..

The KISS principle is a good one .... something I remind myself of at least once a week !!

I figure it would only be some bod from some authority who happens on a few chickens in a backyard, and wants to make a name for him/herself, who might be slightly bothersome. !!

 

[appps]

Hey @Teila

I'm pretty sure it all connects back to Carl's impacted crop. When she was recovering she was pooping almost liquid diareah. She was in a cage with a solid bottom so it pooled in the corner and she would drink it. Ick. I drilled a little hole in the bottom so that it would drip out and not pool so she couldn't drink it.
A couple days later I just happened to be up there when she pooped the liquid and winry and colonel both ran over and started drinking it as it dripped out of her cage. No idea what possessed them to

But must have been doing it that couple of days. I've since researched and poor hygiene where they injest too much manure etc can upset the crop and makes a sort of thrush grow and causes sour crop and it seems drinking straight diareah dribbles does too

Silly things made themselves sick ugh

Unfortunatly colonel wasn't that fond of cuddles and had molted badly so what I thought was looking scrawny from the molt was looking scrawny from This and she was very bad before I realised.

Winry also seems to have the sour crop but not having molted heavily like colonel it's not taken the tole on her yet. I'm also treating Al our little cranky bum frizzle (you know what they can be like lol) as been watching her for the last week and she doesn't seem to be eating much. She is going to be hard to treat though as she hates everybody and won't eat from my hand so can't get her to eat the anti fungal like winry does. Im thinking I might even treat Carl with it too in case that's why she took so long to improve and the fungus (it's like thrush) is still sitting in her crop just waiting to multiply if she gets poorly again.