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

[Anniebee]

Update, Appps turned up this morning looking for food so she is now locked back in her pen. She is none to happy about it either.

but i can't have her out there somewhere at night at her size. Also found 3 little ring neck babies this morning.

So pleased to hear this news. Better to lose a few eggs from wherever they are hidden, and tolerate tantrums, than lose your lovely little chicken.

.......

 

[Fancychooklady]

That's true Annie.
Some pics of the youngsters today. Glorious day, at last!

 

[SilkieChickStar]

Update, Appps turned up this morning looking for food so she is now locked back in her pen. She is none to happy about it either. but i can't have her out there somewhere at night at her size. Also found 3 little ring neck babies this morning.

I am glad you found her!

 

[Teila]

Beautiful pictures Fancy!

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Apparently our predicted maximum today is 35C and currently the relative humidity is at 88% .. I might just go back to bed

Nothing major planned for today, just a coop clean and some garden pottering.

 

[SilkieChickStar]

Good morning folks 

Apparently our predicted maximum today is 35C and currently the relative humidity is at 88% .. I might just go back to bed 

Nothing major planned for today, just a coop clean and some garden pottering.

Yep it has been quite disgustingly hot the last few days >< Coop clean planned here too

 

[Anniebee]

Wonderful photos Fancy ... and all that lush green grass for your beautiful chookies to wander in and enjoy. Chicken heaven methinks.

Glad there has been an improvement in your weather ( I think that is correct ) - at least the day the photos were taken, it sure looked good. We had a couple of days of sunshine ( yaaay ) ... and it's back to grey and cold today. The heater is on ( again ) !!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Re : Mandy !!

Mandy continues to puzzle - if anything, more so. At times I think " this is it - it's time to go " when she seems to struggle with her walk, and then stretches her wings downwards as she prepares to sit down ... then if she sees something she thinks might be interesting, she gets up and wanders off, tail high, a normal walk. She stands, stretches upwards , ruffles her feathers and beats her wings - all normal, when she emerges from the coop in the morning. She 'potters' around the garden, and finds spots to sit in. Thought the worst a couple of days back when I saw a real struggle, went inside to bring out some bread and anitone for her - and she not only raised herself from the garden spot she'd sat in - but literally jogged into the run - to get her food which I hold at chest height for her. Stood to eat it and then promptly sat down again with tail going straight up and a thank you growl. She has always growled.

If I put a dish of goodies on the ground for her - she sits on it !! ... so I carefully pull it out to the front and she eats the lot while sitting. ( I separate them for goodies now - as Molly is a bully over food ) ,,, Ok - that's finished, what else can I find - and up she gets to wander off - slowly or at a regular pace. ... Everything is intermittent with her. But, it is and has to be, one day at a time. She is back on her tablets - just one 1/4 per day, plus the Anitone and I believe it has helped.

Mindy - after 5 days of 5 perfect eggs, dropped another soft shell yesterday - an entire egg which broke because of its fragility on landing. So she demolished the yolk and left the rest for me to clean up. I do think the Anitone has helped a lot - but her laying is endless and I am always very happy on the rare days that she misses laying. Big sighs of relief from me. Gives her a break to accumulate / assimilate more calcium from her food and the Anitone.

Molly had a big inspiration yesterday ( after two days of sunshine - which has now ended

) ... purred and talked softly, spent some time doing circles on the nesting area - sat and then did not produce an egg. I was almost certain I would find one but no - nothing. These girls need sunshine and warmth. IF the weather ever warms up around here, Molly I hope will go back to producing eggs, for her sake mainly.


Have a good weekend everyone -

Cheers .........

 

[Fizzybelle]

Good morning folks

Fizzybelle sounds like you are having as much fun as I am with chicken antics at present.

I have had a couple of hens try the crowing thing but with any luck your Mabel will be like them in that they try it but do not seem to do it every morning like the roosters do and neither of them continued with it.

cheep82 aaaw, sorry that you have to rehome your little boys.

SilkieChickStar cool, I am pleased you have family interested in buying your jelly beans; you will be able to visit. OMG! That little bubby is adorable!

Satay Ah, ok, thanks for that … I did not know that they may not return to the nest if they see you watching .. country chickens are way sneakier than their suburban chicken cousins

Yeah, a few eggs are not worth her becoming something’s dinner or breakfast.

Tee hee satay loved the Policeman V Thor story. As Fancy mentioned, I have also heard lots of stories of emergency services workers being bitten and he may have been bitten himself in the past. When I rang the ambulance for hubby a few months back they actually said to me on the phone "please ensure that you have any pets shut in another room". You reminded me of a couple of stories with Charlie-Bear, she was also a love everyone kinda gal. When I woke up one night to a stranger in my lounge room, Charlie-Bear stayed on the bed, fast asleep during the whole thing but woke up and barked at the Police when they arrived. Another time the Police came to the house [looking for previous tenant] and Charlie-Bear had one of them kinda pinned up against the house; luckily I was already outside and had her calmed down before he could take any action he was contemplating.

I think you are right in that it must be all the gear that they are wearing

So things at BB have settled down as far as the noisy, squabbling girls are concerned. I have made a decision that if we are home and they want out, they will be allowed to free range. I do not like the increased risk of losing one to a predator but I also think that they may be bored and supervised free range is no longer enough; that or they have decided they like it so much, the run is never going to be good enough. I will not let them out if one of us is not home but, working from home, we can still kind of keep a good eye of them from inside and check on them periodically. We can also race out if there are any alarm calls.

Also, hubby loves being outside and working under the gazebo so, technically, if the weather is nice, they will be supervised anyway because he will be outside with them.

For the last two days they have had a wonderful time in the garden and life has been peaceful. I am just about to let them out again but hubby is also on his way out there because the cricket is on and he is quite happy working on his laptop outside listening to the cricket and chatting to the girls.

It was not an easy decision because now, if for whatever reason, they do need to stay locked in they are going to kick up even more of a stink and as mentioned, the chances of predator attack has increased. But, I guess it was kind of their decision also and a chance that we all need to take.

Teila, I'm in the same situation, have been for a while. Firstly, Mabel hasn't crowed since that day thankfully, I hope she doesn't feel the need to try it again. Things are still super fun here as Esme my pekin (of course) went broody. She's in the clucky crate tonight.

I have to let my girls out just before five now, as they kick up a huge stink. Like you I have concerns about my two bantams, but they're happy this way. I think it was when we moved, during the kerfuffle they got free reign of the backyard and that was it. Luckily I rarely see any cats around and there are plenty of trees overhead. Someone is always home during the day here, and I check on them regularly if I hear a lot of carry on.

So far things have been ok, we'll see as I still worry. I wanted to keep them locked up until everyone's up but the noise is too much. Winter was better as it stayed darker longer. I want to do what I can to deter cats, for some reason that's what bothers me most. The neighbour at the back of us have a dog, but there's a pool between him and my yard. I'll do what I can to protect them and will be concerned, but this is how they want it I guess, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Hey, did any other Brisbanites get inundated with butterflies yesterday? We had hundreds of them in our garden and maybe even thousands in the street; both white ones and coloured ones. All our flowering trees, bushes and vegetables were covered in them. I tried to get a picture but you could not see them in the picture against the vegetation. It was really quite beautiful. I have never seen anything like it and the girls jumped more times in one day than they probably have in their lifetimes

I don’t think they caught too many though.

We had a white face heron visit yesterday also but luckily he stayed out the front and did not find the gold fish ponds:



Anniebee I know our weather differs greatly but I was shocked to hear that you had the heater on! As mentioned, we topped around the 35C mark yesterday and 31C predicted for today.

Fizzybelle while not good for you, it is kind of comforting for me to discover that I am not the only one with loud, spoiled chickens

They wake me up around the 5am mark and this morning, because Crystal was already doing her duck impersonations, they got let out pretty much only minutes after breakfast. Sadly Crystal appears to have taught either Blondie or Cilla how to do duck impersonations also. I could hear Crystal this morning and a slightly deeper echo from I think one of those two. Also, Crystal is still picking on LuLu and when they are locked in, LuLu still hangs in the coop.

So, like you, while I am not totally happy about it, they seem happier out and we will have to take our chances.

Cats do not bother me too much. The girls seem to spot them before the cats spot the girls. Across the road’s cat has decided that visiting is not such a good idea [might have something to do with the multiple water pistol hits

]; next door’s cat is lead trained and never allowed to roam alone. The couple of times she has broken out, the girls have let us know. Mr Floppy ears does not seem interested in the girls and simply uses our yard as a route from Point A to Point B.

My worry is dogs. We do not have any dogs wandering the neighbourhood as such and all local dogs are contained but in 6 years we have had 2 x Cav’s show up at the front door, 1 x Labrador and 1 x border collie. With the house being sideways on the block, unfortunately access from the front is not blocked. It is narrow and via the carport but still not blocked and tricky to block. So, if it wanted to, a dog could find its way into the back garden.

We also have lots of vegetation for the girls to hide under.

It is a worry but yep, it seems to be how they want it. Like you, someone is nearly always home and if not, they will stay locked up, no question.

 

[sjturner79]

Auction day. Boxes of chooks ready to roll out.