Australians - Where are you all????

[phoebs]

Anyone else get shaken by the earthquakes in gippsland & melbourne a few days ago? I think it shocked one of our hens into a moult

 

[Rachel96]

The bed tipping over sounds scary. One of my mother's friends in Moe said that all of the wine fell off the rack in the Moe pub. That was all, though...

I don't think Sturt Road's anywhere near Upper Sturt. I could be wrong, though, but I've never heard of it. Maybe you're thinking of either Upper Sturt Road or Sturt Valley Road?

Actually, I have a funny story about Sydney in Canada. You see, a couple of years ago we'd all traipsed over to Sydney (NSW) for my cousin's wedding (twice in the space of three months - my two oldest cousins). One time, we spent our last day over there at my uncle's (not the bride's father, her uncle too) flat in Parramatta. We weren't sure how to get from their flat to the Sydney airport, so just before we left, we used Google maps to find out how to get from Parramatta to Sydney Airport. Simple, right? You'd think that Google maps would realise that because we were in Parramatta, Sydney, Australia, we wanted to go to Sydney Airport, New South Wales, Australia? Yes? No. Instead, it assumed we wanted to go to Sydney Airport, Nova Scotia. To that end, we were to kayak across the Pacific Ocean.

Now you've heard a little anecdote, I'll tell you about my massively busy (poultry-wise) day. It started very very very bad this morning. You can read about it here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/681718/fox-attack-and-obituary. I lost three birds to an overnight fox attack, the first such attack we've had in over a year, in a supposedly secure coop. It was quite greusome and very sad, and it was shaping up quite quickly to be a horrible, no good, very bad day.

And then this evening, when I was double-checking and triple-checking that all my chickens really were secure, I discovered that my hens had left me a present in the nesting box. Could it be... No way! They'd actually laid something! I should throw a party! No, seriously, these birds haven't laid a single thing the entire time I've had them (in all fairness, three of them ARE only 14 weeks old, and maybe four others are only just 25 weeks. The others have no excuse). And now, I found two (somewhat small) eggs! It's a miracle!

Here's a picture, next to some eggs from my father's chooks. My two (on the left) I think are from the Anconas. Dad's are from an ISA Brown and a white Leghorn. The second from the left is just very dirty, not cream - the same colour as the egg furthest left. I wouldn't be surprised if they're from the same bird over two days.


I'm going to do an extra-thorough search for eggs in the bushes in the yard tomorrow morning. I've been looking intermittently for the past few weeks, just in case, but not seen anything - who knows? Maybe I'll find something!

from Rachel.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Awesome! Great news about the eggs! Frequently we'll find our chickens' eggs smeared with mud too, don't know how they do it, their nest is in the innermost corner of the coop.

I remember the kayak one. Google maps always thinks I am talking about Melrose Park in the US. Hehe.

Sorry to hear about the fox. That sucks. We were told when we got the chooks that there might be foxes in the area, but for four years there hasn't been a sign of them. I suppose we are lucky.

 

[Fierlin1182]

I have been taking photos of the sunset recently. There was a pale lilac one last night from West Beach, which was pretty cool.

 

[Haloclimb]

Sadly I think we lost the frizzle in my profile pic... I went for jaw surgery a few days ago so I've had to rely on my dad to put the chickens away, and the frizzle is one who always hides under the table when she sleeps so you have to move her yourself. The first night she was there and he moved her...second night, nothing. She hasn't been seen since and our dog was going crazy last night, so I think she's met an end by mr. fox ):
I wish we could have had some eggs from her, at least...though her rooster suitor who followed her around 24/7 from the day we got her hasn't seemed too bothered by her dissaperance!

 

[Christie Loves Silkies]

Sadly I think we lost the frizzle in my profile pic... I went for jaw surgery a few days ago so I've had to rely on my dad to put the chickens away, and the frizzle is one who always hides under the table when she sleeps so you have to move her yourself. The first night she was there and he moved her...second night, nothing. She hasn't been seen since and our dog was going crazy last night, so I think she's met an end by mr. fox ):
I wish we could have had some eggs from her, at least...though her rooster suitor who followed her around 24/7 from the day we got her hasn't seemed too bothered by her dissaperance!

Oh no I'm so sorry for your loss

 

[Fierlin1182]

Aww, sorry to hear that.

 

[CrazyChookz]

Sorry about the frizzle, looks like a mighty fine one from the pic.

Your jaw okay now?

Funny though, in Melbourne where I live, you rarely see foxes. Plenty of wallabies though, hiding in the bushes. Cheeky

 

[Haloclimb]

It was a shame, she was going to be part of a blue line I wanted to start, but thems the breaks! I'd been carrying her up to the coop every night for the better part of two months, so I tried to get her to relocate to the coop, at least. And my jaws getting along better, I won't be able to eat anything solid for a good few months though xD Soups and milkshakes for a while longer yet!

And I suppose in melbourne all the foxes'll be too happy with their left over mcdonalds and kfc to care about a few locked up chickens. Too much hassle for not enough reward!

 

[phoebs]

you poor thing!!!