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

Firstly, welcome to this thread Minch83 .... I have not seen you here before.   It's a great thread / site. 

I don't know much about maremmas except that they are bred to protect herds ( of whatever ) to the exclusion of all else.   e.g. ( and I think this was recently posted here or on another thread on BYC ) ... a maremma was in charge of a goat herd, but  chookies got into their reserve, and the maremma 'protected' the goats.    Maremma and goats all ok .... chickens - are no longer.   From memory, that maremma was returned, from whence he came. !   Which was rather sad, but it had to be done.   

So this had me google around ... and I found this site which might help a little.   http://www.maremmano.com/maremma_temperament/attentive_dog_behaviour.html

There are a few hints in this site, which I found fascinating.    One was, that they can have 'favourites' in a herd.   .... will leave the rest up to you to google further.  If there was any way you could identify which chicken laid the egg - it might have something to do with it ( if the licked and plucked chicken laid the egg ) .... dogs are exceptionally intuitive, and your maremma might realise your chicken has done something quite extraordinary ... i.e. - laid an egg !!  :D

Good luck with this fascinating situation ... I am sure your maremma will not hurt the chicken in any way, but heaven help any other animal that invades your chicken run. 

Cheers ......... 


Thanks for the link Anniebee!! I have read a few things on this site before it's very useful.

I'm not sure what is going on with him. He's been around all 6 chooks since they were 6wks old, they're now 25wks. Just very odd and wondered if anyone has had anything similar with their dogs

Thanks again!!
 
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!
I'm so glad you got your concrete floor. Now I hope the girls are getting better. You deserve a break from sick chooks.


sjturner Good luck naming your handsome boy. I have a beautiful white silkie hen. My granddaughters named her ducky.
I was think Duke might be a good name. He's standing so proud there.
 
I am not sure I have a problem or not. 

Mindy Araucana, eats like there is no tomorrow.   Her crop at night is like a rather large hard golf ball, but has receded by the morning.   .... so she is coping with all that tucker.   She has almost always had a very hard full crop in the evenings, no matter what her status.  

She has pretty much almost completed a moult.   Has a beard that Santa Claus would be envy of, .... her tufts have grown away from her eyes ( yay - she can see !! ) and she is into the final stages of feathering her head properly .... but - - -

She remains mostly in her coop this past few days, staring at the wall.   At times I have seen her sitting down as though to lay, so my thought is - she is either getting ready to lay again, or ......... she is about to become, or has become - broody.    There is quite a bit of quiet clucking going on in there, although any promise of extra food outside her coop, brings her straight out ( she is fundamentally, a monumental gutz ).  The amount of food she gets through is staggering.   And also, if anything unusual is happening in the back garden - e.g. the dogs are out - she comes out to investigate.    Her behaviour is strange to say the least.  If outside, she spends a lot of time in one place, staring at the fence ?? 

Re the food -  Do chickens try to build up their resources, before becoming broody ( like reptiles and some mammals do before hibernating ? )   .... or do I just have a feisty, weird, forever-hungry -  chicken who has a goodly dose of obsessive tendencies ?  

Tku in anticipation of any answers .......... 

Yes, or before a molt.
 
I'm so glad you got your concrete floor. Now I hope the girls are getting better. You deserve a break from sick chooks. 


sjturner Good luck naming your handsome boy. I have a beautiful white silkie hen. My granddaughters named her ducky.
 I was think Duke might be a good name. He's standing so proud there.


I think the pose is actually watchful/ alert as the cat had just walked in.
 
Put my first 4 decent sized Millie fleur eggs in the incubator 8 days ago just candled and 3 out of 4 are developing. Fingers crossed in a couple of weeks i might have my first babies from Fancy and appps and Ash :fl :D Teila and Anni are not laying enough yet for me to hatch any of their eggs.
 
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Put my first 4 decent sized Millie fleur eggs in the incubator 8 days ago just candled and 3 out of 4 are developing. Fingers crossed in a couple of weeks i might have my first babies from Fancy and appps and Ash :fl :D Teila and Anni are not laying enough yet for me to hatch any of their eggs.

Teila and Annie had better pull their socks up.
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Yesterday morning I heard the alarm go out and looked out the window to see a kookaburra coming out of the little coop with an egg in his beak,
Tried to get a pic , but no SD CARD in the camera. I watched him for a some time, while most of the silkie boys run and hid the gold laced cockerel stood his ground and was within a foot of him.
When I went out I found he had broken and eaten at least 6. Cheeky bugger .
 
Good morning folks
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appps as Fancy mentioned, I use Woolworths Surface Spray on the coop but even with the link to Parkinson’s, I still use Pestene on the gals and in the nest boxes.

While I did not turn Dusty up side down when she had sour crop, I did accidentally tip her a little when picking her up and she nearly choked on the resultant vomit from a slight tip, not a chance I will be risking tipping her, or anyone else, right over or up side down if they have sour crop.

Tee hee Fizzybelle, I liked the cuddle a Silkie v cuddle a cat
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With the colder temps, cuddling Syba [cat] is not optional; the second you sit down, he is curling up on you sucking up warmth. In winter he is our little warmth vampire.

Hey Minch83 sorry, I have no idea what your pup is doing. As mentioned, may be she is his favourite.

sjturner79 your boy looks like a ‘Horatio’ to me. PS. He is very handsome.

Anniebee just my thoughts, but I believe in order to become broody a hen would need to return to laying first? If she is not laying eggs, nothing to brood on
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I have noticed a change in my gals this winter in that they are spending a lot of time in the coop during the day. Could be because it is nice and big and may be just that they did not spend time in the old coop because it was smaller and slightly cramped. However, none of them are sick as such, but just acting different to usual. It is hard to describe, nothing concrete as such, but I just have this feeling that I need to keep an extra eye on them.

Blondie had a couple of quiet times yesterday where she was just standing, slightly puffed up, watching the world go by, then she was off with the rest of the flock, scratching, having fun etc.

In the absence of any signs or symptoms of an issue, I am currently just putting it down to the weather
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Satay good luck with the hatch .. tell Teila I said she needs to lift her game
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Oh dear Fancy, naughty Kookie! It is funny, if it was a Crow I would be going ballistic but because it is a Kookie, just a “naughty Kookie”
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Put my first 4 decent sized Millie fleur eggs in the incubator 8 days ago just candled and 3 out of 4 are developing. Fingers crossed in a couple of weeks i might have my first babies from Fancy and appps and Ash
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Teila and Anni are not laying enough yet for me to hatch any of their eggs.
A fellow who bought a dozen of my Araucana eggs had 100% fertility 4 days ago.
Not bad for mid winter.

xxxxx M
 

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