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

[Fancychooklady]

The big supermarket eggs come from production reds, a strain of Isa Brown, but they need a fully controlled diet with 20 hours light per day to do it.

It's also why egg binding is common in production birds. The exact same amount of calcium is released from the shell gland to coat the egg, no matter what the size. So the bigger the egg the thinner the shell. Eventually one is ruptured in the chamber and that is usually the beginning of the end.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy ... I know turmeric is excellent for us humans, but would never have thought chookies could or should eat it.  

Stupid non-thinking on my part.   Turmeric will now get added to their 'goodies' mix, the base of which is rice - or left over pasta ( if there is ever any of it remaining in this house  !! ).. 

To the main mixing bowl of goodies,  how much turmeric can I add while mixing it all up.   It usually  results in about a cat bowl size of the goodies for each girl.   I give my two big girls a bowl each, or a double cat bowl with food either side - because they tend to get into punch-ups over a single bowl of it.  

Found Mandy sitting on it the other day - not sure if it was a "this is all mine, so buzz off" to Molly, or whether she just decided it might be a nice place to plonk herself down for a while.   She does a fair amount of sitting these days - but then she is such a very large chicken.    

Brought her inside to clip her wings ( after completing her moult ) ... and she weighed a ton to carry - I swear, as heavy as Sonya Labrador was at 9 weeks of age.   Sonya is now almost 15 weeks old, and I can no longer carry her.  

Cheers ..... 

     

I feed a tablespoon to our older horses and would probably add a teaspoon to your mix. Here's a tip, if you have an Asian grocery store nearby you can get 500 g bags for $7 .

 

[appps]

The big supermarket eggs come from production reds, a strain of Isa Brown, but they need a fully controlled diet with 20 hours light per day to do it.

Interesting. We had is a Browns years ago but I don't remember how big the eggs were exactly.

Every now and then I used to buy local free range eggs from the butchers and they were huge too.

 

[Anniebee]

Teila ... ref : 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

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I would have thought the same, yet some hens will sit on straw to try and hatch that ( as someone remarked here a while back ) because they become broody

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, however, having said that, it is highly likely they have been laying eggs, which have been collected by their owner, for human consumption.

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

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it is bitterly cold here today .... I agree with you - they have been hanging about in their coops to keep warm. The big girls are doing it too now, but not staring at walls ... just at each other. Poor Molly is into a very heavy moult ( late starter ) .... and looks like nothing on earth. Looks half the size she normally is !! .... but is happy enough with life, and eating reasonably well. Mandy is eating very well, and Mindy remains the gormandiser. I have no idea how her little body deals with it all. The perfect woopsie mountains behind her roost, attest to all working properly.


Fancy ....... I think I will give the two big girls some vitamins. Gotta go to the stock and produce tomorrow, so will get some nice tasting vitamins. They are a tad fussy.

And thank you for the advice about turmeric. Much appreciated.

Cheers all .....

 

[Fancychooklady]

Teila ... ref : [COLOR=333333] 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 [/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000CD],,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I would have thought the same, yet some hens will sit on straw to try and hatch that ( as someone remarked here a while back ) because they become broody [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD],,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, however, having said that, it is highly likely they have been laying eggs, which have been collected by their owner, for human consumption. [/COLOR][COLOR=333333] 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 [/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000CD],,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it is bitterly cold here today .... I agree with you - they have been hanging about in their coops to keep warm. The big girls are doing it too now, but not staring at walls ... just at each other. Poor Molly is into a very heavy moult ( late starter ) .... and looks like nothing on earth. Looks half the size she normally is !! .... but is happy enough with life, and eating reasonably well. Mandy is eating very well, and Mindy remains the gormandiser. I have no idea how her little body deals with it all. The perfect woopsie mountains behind her roost, attest to all working properly.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]Fancy ....... I think I will give the two big girls some vitamins. Gotta go to the stock and produce tomorrow, so will get some nice tasting vitamins. They are a tad fussy.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]And thank you for the advice about turmeric. Much appreciated. [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]Cheers all ..... [/COLOR]

A bag of livamol is great alternative to vits added to water. You can add it to the feed. I should add that livamol smells like molasses and can be placed in the coop on ' free take '

 

[sjturner79]

Anyone have any good suggestions for a name for my new boy.
He's going to go out to the show on Sunday to see how good an example of a white silkie that he is.

Anyone have any good suggestions for a name for my new boy.
He's going to go out to the show on Sunday to see how good an example of a white silkie that he is.

I've decided to go with a suggestion I got locally of McLeod.
1 . Because he looks a bit like a cloud
2. He was louder than the other 4 put together while I was out with them and he was inside.

 

[LuckysMum]

Adelaide is here!

This a great forum I'm sure you'll get a lot of good advice here. I do.

 

[LuckysMum]

Fancy Thanks for the treat recipe mine don’t get anything like that.

I have ISA’s and they lay decent size eggs generally 600 -800 sometimes smaller or bigger. They get premium mix red hen and fresh fruit, vege and weeds. They get as much light as there is naturally. Maybe that’s why they don’t live as along they must be worn out, they aren’t big chooks to be laying such big eggs.

sjturner I think McLeod is a great name.

 

[Fizzybelle]

I like the mix you made up Fancy, I might give that a go, just wondering, does the salmon or any fish really, does that effect the taste of the eggs they lay?

 

[SilkieChickStar]

Look at this fluff ball!