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

[satay]

Look what Annabelle learnt to do all by herself. Total dingaling.

Omg she is so cute. I could never have one of those as I have enough trouble now keeping bidda out of the house.

 

[satay]

Hello! I'm from central Victoria and have just started out with our flock of 6 Hylines. Managed to pick one up today, she didn't seem to like it much but baby steps for all of us! So far we've had an egg each day which was a surprise having only got them on sunday.

 

[Anniebee]

Look what Annabelle learnt to do all by herself. Total dingaling.

.... Love it. What a clever girl. Thank heaven I don't have a cat flap.

There would be bedlam and mayhem inside the house, if I did, and had a clever chookie. !!



Cheers .....

 

[Fizzybelle]

The cat's been a pretty good sport about it. We just need to keep the flap closed until someones up as in true cat fashion she likes to go outside at the crack of dawn. Then we can open another door for her.

 

[Anniebee]

Good morning folks

Chuck can not get into the coop/run either. When the girls are free ranging of an afternoon I take whatever food is left over from the day from inside the run and put it outside while they are ranging. They think it is new food that they have not seen before

I pop it just outside the door and they fill up on the way back into the run at bed time.

This is when Chuck gets a feed. I figure he might as well have some because at the end of the day, what is left gets tossed anyway.

He seems fine with the girls and they chase him off if he is in their way.

Just a thought ... being so obviously young, he may well be imprinting on your hens. Birds will imprint on just about anything, including humans, if they need to or get the stimulus.

Come the time maturity happens, with new strikingly marked full covering, and is ready to breed, you may not see Chuck again, or for a while, but I would love to bet s/he stays around, is comfortable with hen friends ---- and the tucker s/he is getting. ..... In fact, after 'Chuck' has bred, it is possible s/he will return with fledgling(s) .... to be fed and enjoy your hens company, again.

Being they are of the same genus as magpies ( Cracticinae ) it would not surprise me that they act much the same way. Had a family of white-backed magpies, headed by Bungwing ( with a floppy right wing, which did not impede at all his flying abilities ) ... plus his wife, and a barren daughter who stayed as the 3rd bird, to help feed the young etc. They were here for 25+ years, and natural attrition took first my beautiful Bung, and a year or so later - the two females. [ Life span is approx. 25 years ]

I have no idea where he went to die. We searched and searched to no avail, and I cried and cried.

( never become attached to wild life ????? - yeah, right !! ).

I made the mistake the first year, of hand feeding the fledglings, juveniles, but it was evident that one was not quite right, yet it could fly and do normal kinds of things, but shook its head a great deal, to almost overbalancing. Neurological ????
.
It was ultimately culled by the females ( not something I want to go into ) while Bung sat and watched on. I tried to stop it, but couldn't. We buried him/her in the garden, along with all the other birds, possums, etc. found departed this earth. I never hand fed the young ones again - instead, giving bi-daily feeds of minced meat, scraps, wet plain biscuits etc. to the adults, to go and feed their young themselves.

This is our beautiful Bungwing - who was way more gentle feeding from our hands, than the girls ever were !!




Cheers ..........

 

[Anniebee]

A hearty

to El in Oz .... you will spend many happy hours here.

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

Have definite signs of hens thinking about laying again ..... Mindy is squatting, and one of the big girls has been making a rounded 'nest' in the straw / wood shavings area ( which THEY call 'the nest' ).

Actual nesting boxes are only for sleeping overnight, fits the two girls snugly together to keep warm.

They may, just may, roost during the summer. !!

Cheers. ....

 

[Coram]

Welcome to BYC El in Oz. Your video brilliant Fizzybelle. It will take 5 seconds before all your chickens are through that door I reckon! The new pen is taking ages due to the rain we have had. It is a bit of a pain as I have three new peafowl to go and collect! I have four hens laying now, and one of the bantams will start any day. Hope everyone is going well, Spring not too far away!!!

 

[SunflowerTheBun]

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me. I don't give them dairy products anyway, but still it's good to be mindful of such things. And thanks for the link, I need to restock some of my vetafarm products, and it's good to see what else they make. I like their probiotics and electrolytes.

Thanks for the well wishes Satay and Sunflowerthebun

No problem

 

[Fizzybelle]

So today I went outside to find someone had pooped on my banana lounge (not unusual) but on closer inspection there were little round white eggs all over it. Gross, but it at least looked like they were only on it, not inside it. As a precaution I gave everyone wormer tablets. Worm eggs are normally super tiny right? No idea what it could have been, they were round, not long like fly eggs. Anyway, glad I did as when I just checked on them noticed Annabelle had roundworm again. Still a lot of fussing to get them to take the tablets, but glad I did.

After trying to open her beak (and failing), Beatrice funnily enough was the only one who actually ate her tablet with no problems when I asked her nicely. My D'Uccle believes in good manners

 

[appps]

@Anniebee. I had no idea they lived that long magpies.

Ours were quite scarce last couple of years and after being the local crèche each day for 13 of the blighters the year before it was very strange to have them not around. This year a pair seems to be back and is already right up on our verandah making a ruckus. I had wondered if they were the ones from a few years back because they are not at all bothered by us and seem to think they own the place. Glad they are back as I quite like magpies, they are so full of personality but hope the creche doesn't move in again. The poop on my car each morning from them all was horrid!