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

[LuckysMum]

Colonel didn't make it :-(

So very sorry to hear appps.

 

[LuckysMum]

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and advice on feeding kitchen scraps to chickens. It was very interesting reading.

appps I hope carl and winry are improving. A concrete floor should make life easier for you. We have concrete in the coops it makes for easier cleaning.

Henriettasmum Hi welcome to a great forum. I have Australorps, silkies, ISA’s and just hatched more Australorps, light sussex and leghorns.

sjturner Congrats on the 13 bubbies.

Fizzybelle Your run looks amazing I can’t wait to see it finished.

 

[satay]

That's interesting to know. I can only go on my own experience and I am only incubating very small numbers.  But this latest batch will be interesting to watch grow. My husband and I based our theory on the fact that reptiles (e.g. crocodiles and turtles) are highly sensitive to temperature in their nests. Boys come from the warmer part of the nests, girls from the cooler parts. And that is scientific fact. The reptile farms work on it here. But of course it could be quite different for chicks. Some people maintain that boys come from eggs with a pointy end but how does that explain that my broodies lay both boys and girls whether their eggs are pointy or not? Oh, it's a strange world that we inhabit, isn't it? So many questions. So few answers.

Yes as others have said it's an old wives tale. It does work for reptiles but not chickens. Auto sexing breeds are your best bet. Can be sexed at 3 weeks old. or some at day olds too. Pointy egg thing is also not true. I find each year to be different. Some years more hens, some close to 50/50 and others more roos.

 

[satay]

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.

I have quails but depending on which type you had japanese quails are not know for going broody. There is the odd one you will find sit and hatch but mostly you need to incubate them.

 

[appps]

We have concrete! I can't believe it finally done! About 15 years ago when we lost our flock to foxes I said no more till I don't have to crawl through mud to get the eggs each day and it's not a muddy mess every winter. (well bend over cause our roof is only about 4 foot)

Of course I caved a few years back but since then I've closed in the sides of their house (originally their house was the whole pen and so it was just a lean to with wire walls where we had closed in under the kids cubby house), built a nesting box so I can get eggs from outside instead of having to go in the coop and put a second roof inside it so it no longer leaks when it rains but drains out to a gutter I put up. The only thing left that I couldn't do myself was concrete that floor. And now it's done yay! Happy dance happy dance lol

Oh and little update on the kids, day 3 of the oral thrush drops and winery's crop was completely empty this morning and just a little soft feeling compared to half full of liquid yesterday and full the day before. She is really hungry but I'm pacing out her feeds during the day so she doesn't overdo it till it's all working properly

Carl is still looking ok but I've started giving her the drops too just to be on the safe side since she is sort of ground zero.

Al is not really eating much (been watching her the last week) so has joined winry in isolation and is not amused. She won't even eat the drops on bread like the others so she is getting them syringed in much to her disgust. Her crop doesn't feel full of water like winry did but is a little spongy and obviously not emptying real well as I know she ate nothing yesterday so it should have been empty. Neither of them is really pooping much either but I guess that will improve with their appetites.

I can't wait till letting the chooks out in the morning is not a 20 minute production!

 

[Teila]

Howdy folks

With the majority of the country having a public holiday, this has to be the best Monday I have worked for a long time

Henriettasmum aaaw, Trixie and Tootsie’s story is a special one and it sounds like their bond is special also. They are adorable. Love the Pekin and Silkie pic also.

As mentioned, there are quite a few threads that have been started on the pointy egg theory. I was following this one for a while, which has links to others, but having two girls who only ever lay very pointy eggs and not believing that they would all be roosters, I am inclined to not be a believer.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/969282/sexing-eggs

Fizzybelle beautiful pic of your gals also and the coop/run looks to be coming along nicely.

Appps thank you for summarising your flock issues, I remember now that you mentioned them getting into the diarrhoea but, as you know, it is hard to keep up in here sometimes. Sounds like you might just be getting on top of it all now.

Woot woot, congratulations on the concrete floor and auto door .. good stuff!

Ooops, almost forgot .. I thought of you Fancy when I saw this one

 

[Fancychooklady]

We have concrete! I can't believe it finally done! About 15 years ago when we lost our flock to foxes I said no more till I don't have to crawl through mud to get the eggs each day and it's not a muddy mess every winter. (well bend over cause our roof is only about 4 foot)

Of course I caved a few years back but since then I've closed in the sides of their house (originally their house was the whole pen and so it was just a lean to with wire walls where we had closed in under the kids cubby house), built a nesting box so I can get eggs from outside instead of having to go in the coop and put a second roof inside it so it no longer leaks when it rains but drains out to a gutter I put up. The only thing left that I couldn't do myself was concrete that floor. And now it's done yay! Happy dance happy dance lol

Oh and little update on the kids, day 3 of the oral thrush drops and winery's crop was completely empty this morning and just a little soft feeling compared to half full of liquid yesterday and full the day before. She is really hungry but I'm pacing out her feeds during the day so she doesn't overdo it till it's all working properly

Carl is still looking ok but I've started giving her the drops too just to be on the safe side since she is sort of ground zero.

Al is not really eating much (been watching her the last week) so has joined winry in isolation and is not amused. She won't even eat the drops on bread like the others so she is getting them syringed in much to her disgust. Her crop doesn't feel full of water like winry did but is a little spongy and obviously not emptying real well as I know she ate nothing yesterday so it should have been empty. Neither of them is really pooping much either but I guess that will improve with their appetites.

I can't wait till letting the chooks out in the morning is not a 20 minute production!

Sounds as though your life will be much easier.
In the absence of some underlying chronic disease it's unusual to have so many crop issues in one flock. I would take a serious look at your worming program, it's a place to start.

Good to know that the thrush drops are having some impact.

 

[appps]

Sounds as though your life will be much easier.
In the absence of some underlying chronic disease it's unusual to have so many crop issues in one flock. I would take a serious look at your worming program, it's a place to start.

Good to know that the thrush drops are having some impact.

Other than Al I saw the other sick ones all drink Carl's liquid poops so I'm thinking that's why it's gone through the flock. But once everybody is better I will worm them all again.

 

[satay]

We have concrete! I can't believe it finally done! About 15 years ago when we lost our flock to foxes I said no more till I don't have to crawl through mud to get the eggs each day and it's not a muddy mess every winter. (well bend over cause our roof is only about 4 foot)

Of course I caved a few years back but since then I've closed in the sides of their house (originally their house was the whole pen and so it was just a lean to with wire walls where we had closed in under the kids cubby house), built a nesting box so I can get eggs from outside instead of having to go in the coop and put a second roof inside it so it no longer leaks when it rains but drains out to a gutter I put up. The only thing left that I couldn't do myself was concrete that floor. And now it's done yay! Happy dance happy dance lol

Oh and little update on the kids, day 3 of the oral thrush drops and winery's crop was completely empty this morning and just a little soft feeling compared to half full of liquid yesterday and full the day before. She is really hungry but I'm pacing out her feeds during the day so she doesn't overdo it till it's all working properly

Carl is still looking ok but I've started giving her the drops too just to be on the safe side since she is sort of ground zero.

Al is not really eating much (been watching her the last week) so has joined winry in isolation and is not amused. She won't even eat the drops on bread like the others so she is getting them syringed in much to her disgust. Her crop doesn't feel full of water like winry did but is a little spongy and obviously not emptying real well as I know she ate nothing yesterday so it should have been empty. Neither of them is really pooping much either but I guess that will improve with their appetites.

I can't wait till letting the chooks out in the morning is not a 20 minute production!

Gratz on your concrete floor. That sure should make it better for you.

 

[satay]

Howdy folks With the majority of the country having a public holiday, this has to be the best Monday I have worked for a long time Henriettasmum aaaw, Trixie and Tootsie’s story is a special one and it sounds like their bond is special also. They are adorable. Love the Pekin and Silkie pic also. As mentioned, there are quite a few threads that have been started on the pointy egg theory. I was following this one for a while, which has links to others, but having two girls who only ever lay very pointy eggs and not believing that they would all be roosters, I am inclined to not be a believer. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/969282/sexing-eggs Fizzybelle beautiful pic of your gals also and the coop/run looks to be coming along nicely. Appps thank you for summarising your flock issues, I remember now that you mentioned them getting into the diarrhoea but, as you know, it is hard to keep up in here sometimes. Sounds like you might just be getting on top of it all now. Woot woot, congratulations on the concrete floor and auto door .. good stuff! Ooops, almost forgot .. I thought of you Fancy when I saw this one

Love it i can relate to that too but not with horses.