Australians - Where are you all????

[RareBreedFancier]

Wow! All growing, that's great.

I have two empty 'bators here at the moment but collecting eggs for the Easter hatch.

Your new arrivals are very pretty. I defiantly need some ducks in my vegie patch, waaaay to many snails in there. Got DH to say yes to ducks the other day too!

Now I just have to find some before he changes his mind.

 

[dirtgirl49]

Well finally the last of my five Silkies has laid an egg - we were beginning to despair of her, thinking she must be sterile, as we have had her since last July when she was 3 months old. Three of my Silkies started laying at 9 months and then the 4th one started a couple of weeks ago. My last one to lay is a beautiful red/copper colour - her name Julia Gillard!!
The 4 new girls on the block that I adopted at the weekend have settled in and funnily enough the youngest of all the nine chickens - a 6 month old Black Polish Bantam called Betty now appears to be running the show!

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Oh my! I hope my Silkies don't take that long to start!

Glad yours finaly have though.

Got to laugh at her name, just yesterday DH suggested we name my RIR pullet Julia.

 

[duckyfromoz]

What a weekend!!! I am ready to go back to work for a rest....

Saturday morning I started work on the front garden - the wooden boarder is falling down under years of weight pushing on them- so I decided to dig out the garden and fix things up. I did about 1/3 of it- and it was so much easier to mow the lawn with the boarder fixed...then it was off to clean out the night pens.. 4 bags of shavings and hay removed. When I let them back into the pen - I sat down since it was all clean and just watched them all. Stevie-Ray sat with me and had a great little conversation while trying to nibble my ear. She really is a sweet girl- After they ate and drank-0 they all settled down to snooze. It was so relaxing i could have easily fallen asleep out there with them!!! Today was a drive up to my block of land- dump the hay shavings and grass clipping and do some more road building. On the way home we stopped at a cemetery for a wander. My daughter has followed my footsteps and has great interest in the history of the area - and loves to research what she can about the people buried in the small cemeteries so long ago. Our favourite so far are Tarnagulla and Waanyaara. Both very old and now closed - but so full of history. We have been lucky enough to meet with caretakers of some of the older cemeteries up there in the goldfields - who are a wealth of knowledge and have plenty of time to talk. Talbot had a fire go through in 1983- and many wooden headstones were lost- however written records remain. Sadly at Waanyaara- a fire has destroyed both the cemetery and the records so many graves are unmarked. Talbot actually has over 100 listed chinese buried -however only two headstone remain today. So much history lost- but it is very interesting to read about those who died during the gold rush. Many soldiers WWI and WWII have markers in these country places. Farmers sons who went off to fight for our country and never returned. And other who did- and lived to a goodly age now at rest. With ANZAC Day approaching- it is these graves that hold my interest at this time of year. The fallen heros to whom we owe so much.
Ok...enough from me... I think I need a good nights sleep. Hope you all had a great weekend too.

 

[wooklet]

Haven't been here for a while so thought I'd better check in! Found our Barnevelder sitting on 17 eggs this afternoon

- thought that this wasn't the broody season??!! Hope all your chicks are well! I have a new Malay rooster arriving on Saturday, I've already named him "Tyrant" short for Tyranasaurus (whoops,spelling!) He'll go with Dyna - short for Dynasaur how DOES one spell that!

You sound busy as always Ducky!

Bye!

 

[whiteflare]

I found this thread on the list of state threads. I'm an Aussie! Hello! Is it too late for me to join? Seems like you guys all know each other pretty well.

 

[dirtgirl49]

Whiteflare - Welcome - I am from Sydney and have only just recently joined the site. Where are you in Oz?
Hope you enjoy the chicken banter between folks on this site.

Wooklet - when you say your Barnevelder was sat on 17 eggs - are they all the eggs laid by the other girls? One of my silkies is constantly going through bouts of broodiness and this morning I found her hopping onto the eggs laid by 2 of the other girls. I have to keep shooing her out of the coop, but she inevitably ends up back inside!

Rare Breed Fancier - well since her first egg was laid last week, dear Julia G has managed to lay one egg every day since - most unusual for silkies are they are very sparse layers at the best of times.

Ducky from Oz - I too love visiting grave yards - last year we visited the big one in Bendigo and I found the chinese section of the graveyard so sad, all the chinese gold miners who barely lived to be 35 yrs old. As you say - just so much history in these grave yards. We also came across a grave stone of an Irish lady who died aged 115 in about 1875, can you imagine living to that age even nowadays that alone over 130 yrs ago when things were very different here in Australia.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

 

[wooklet]

All welcome here, whiteflare!

] Nice to have you on board!

Dirtgirl, we have 2 laying Branevelders, so I guess that she was sitting on the eggs laid by both of them, they can be a nuisance when they try to lay in each others nests, that's why I like the incubator - come to think of it, it may be time to turn it on again soon!!

It's been off for a long time now - at least 2 months, scared it will get rusty!

 

[duckyfromoz]

whiteflare and wooklet...its never too late... For white to join this thread...and for wooklet...to turn the bator back on. And now- just for some encouragement- I have duck eggs just starting to hatch tonight!!! The bator was only off for long enough for me to clear the house- but now its too quiet in here. Cant wait for more babies again. Of course there is the issue that we are heading into colder weather so we will have to keep our babies inside longer..

 

[duckyfromoz]

I was at another auction today- sold the last few of the ones I have to part with to bring my numbers back to respectable levels.

I did come home with a friend for the little muscovie I got two weeks ago. This one is a coloured one. I have never owned a coloured scovie before- and this little one is supposed to be a girl..I hope so- she is so cute! Annabel the little yellow one was so happy to have a friend at last.