Australians - Where are you all????

[Teila]

Hi Teila,
How cute your babies! I'm hoping my broodies will have some babies hatching next week. Do you keep mum and babies in a separate hutch inside your main coop (with other hens)?
I love your idea of cooking up breakfasts and freezing for during the week. Good preparation!!!

Hi there Happy Flock

Fingers crossed for some feathered bubbies at your place next week .. I still cannot get over how emotional and exciting the whole experience is. I'm gunna have to do that again! lol

Cilla and the bubs are in a hutch at one end of a 2.5 metre covered run and Dusty has the hutch at the other end. There is a dividing door so, if need be, I can shuffle bubbies around and let big girls out for free ranges in the garden etc. They are integrated during the day but Dusty likes to sleep in her hutch and Cilla seems to be happy with her new digs so she sleeps there with the little ones. Added bonus to the set up is that, during the day, when they are all together, the only food available is the chick-start and other stuff I cooked up for them. Dusty is not a fan of chick-start. In the afternoon, when the separating door is dropped, she gets to have some lay mash in her food tray and she gets to keep it until the next morning when the door is opened again

Also, with a small number of girls I only had one large nesting box which they shared .. that wasn't going to work with mum and bubbies taking it over and nowhere for Dusty to lay her eggs

 

[Happy Flock]

Hi there Happy Flock

Fingers crossed for some feathered bubbies at your place next week .. I still cannot get over how emotional and exciting the whole experience is. I'm gunna have to do that again! lol

Cilla and the bubs are in a hutch at one end of a 2.5 metre covered run and Dusty has the hutch at the other end. There is a dividing door so, if need be, I can shuffle bubbies around and let big girls out for free ranges in the garden etc. They are integrated during the day but Dusty likes to sleep in her hutch and Cilla seems to be happy with her new digs so she sleeps there with the little ones. Added bonus to the set up is that, during the day, when they are all together, the only food available is the chick-start and other stuff I cooked up for them. Dusty is not a fan of chick-start. In the afternoon, when the separating door is dropped, she gets to have some lay mash in her food tray and she gets to keep it until the next morning when the door is opened again

Also, with a small number of girls I only had one large nesting box which they shared .. that wasn't going to work with mum and bubbies taking it over and nowhere for Dusty to lay her eggs

Thanks for explaining your set-up. I'm trying to build a large run and re-arrange the coop for my hens and the new babies. Do you have a photo of your run with the 2 hutches?

 

[Sandstorm495]

Hi
I live in Darwin, Australia and own four chickens. I'm obviously a late joiner but happy to meet you all!

 

[MyHaven]

Hi
I live in Darwin, Australia and own four chickens. I'm obviously a late joiner but happy to meet you all!

Never too late. Welcome along.

 

[Teila]

Thanks for explaining your set-up. I'm trying to build a large run and re-arrange the coop for my hens and the new babies. Do you have a photo of your run with the 2 hutches?

Hello again Happy Flock

It is nothing flash Happy Flock but it works for the bantams .. the maximum I have ever had is 3 and as I said, I now have 2 adults and 5 babies (sadly, they won't all be keepers).

This is the 'Chateau' end; where Dusty hangs out (the little darling in the picture passed away a couple of weeks ago from internal laying

. I miss my little wrecking ball)


This is the run prior to the 'Ranch' being added:


and this is the 'Ranch' now at the end of the run (hhhm, the lawn looks different, we need rain! lol):

Cilla:


Dusty:

 

[Teila]

G'Day Sandstorm495, nice to meet you

 

[MyHaven]

Chick update: Seven weeks and my Australorp decided motherhood isn't all it's cracked up to be. The chicks seemed glad I separated them yesterday. She was pecking them when they went near her so I took her out of the pen. She never looked back. And talk about hormonal - I called her Fraidy because she was always scared. She's cranky. She had one of the Barnies pinned on her back like a dog. She layed an egg this morning. Now I'll see if she goes clucky after 12 eggs again.

The Silkie is still a doting mum. But her chicks escape every chance they get when I'm attending to them.

Cheers

 

[Happy Flock]

Hi MyHaven,
It's interesting to notice how each hen has a different personality, isn't it?

 

[Teila]

Chick update: Seven weeks and my Australorp decided motherhood isn't all it's cracked up to be. The chicks seemed glad I separated them yesterday. She was pecking them when they went near her so I took her out of the pen. She never looked back. And talk about hormonal - I called her Fraidy because she was always scared. She's cranky. She had one of the Barnies pinned on her back like a dog. She layed an egg this morning. Now I'll see if she goes clucky after 12 eggs again.

The Silkie is still a doting mum. But her chicks escape every chance they get when I'm attending to them.

Cheers

Oh dear MyHaven, Fraidy does sound like she has an interesting chickenality

I am chuckling at the image of her pinning down the Barnie. Eggs? What are they? lol. With Cilla being a mum and losing Britney, I am down to 1 bantam egg every day or two from Dusty which invariably gets cooked up and fed back to them!

 

[MyHaven]

Yes the difference between chooks is enormous. My last mother hen allowed her chicks to stay around until 16weeks. I knew they were weaned, so to speak, when one night she put herself to bed in the big coop and left the big chicks in the nursery. She also started to let the others push them around finding the new pecking order. I didn't get any eggs from her the whole time. Not that I mind when she normally gives me 60 huge eggs (including some double yokers) out of 61 days. My super gorgeous chook.

Fraidy started off so stupid she kept sitting on the wrong nest. I had to lock her up with them. I lost five partly developed chicks because of that. They were all at different stages. Once they hatched she was right. She was as good a mum as they come. I noticed with Fraidy that her comb and wattles were red days after the chicks hatched and getting hotter red everyday. I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did. Given she is clucky more often than not I am worried this means she will be clucky again in a fortnight.

Well it has finally stormed. They said it would be raining every day since the weekend. I hope it keeps up it so dry.