Australians - Where are you all????

[dirtgirl49]

redfeather & dirtgirl-I also keep all my "senior citizens". My old rooster -12yrs has outlived his original wives and his kids. His new wife has now got 9 of his chicks so his line will go on!. I figure the old girls teach the new ones the ropes.

Gosh I didn't realise they could live so long!

 

[cate0404]

Cate, thanks for sharing your pics of your lovely chicks. I said I wouldn't add to my flock following the death of my favorite girl Lavender, but when I see photos of these gorgeous little fluff balls I literally get all 'clucky' again and think, 'Ah well, another couple won't make much difference'
I am down to only 8 girls currently and husband thinks I should increase the flock!!
I find the worse part is introducing the new girls to the established flock, having to fence off a special area especially as I have a terribly bossy Polish bantam Betty who despite being one of the last girls to join the team, has definitely established herself as head honcho!!

I have absolutely no problem showing them off, I think they are gorgeous!!

redfeather & dirtgirl-I also keep all my "senior citizens". My old rooster -12yrs has outlived his original wives and his kids. His new wife has now got 9 of his chicks so his line will go on!. I figure the old girls teach the new ones the ropes.

12 years!! Well done to him and you!

What breed are these cuties?

I have no idea, there is a lady in Braidwood NSW who (for $215) lends you her incubator, breeder box and give you 12 eggs of mixed breeds plus other things you may need for the first 2 weeks of their lives. So it was a pot luck as to what we would end up with. I actually put up a post in What Breed is this? to see if anyone wanted to hazard a guess as to what breed they were.

 

[redfeather13]

are you going to wait to see which ones are hens or roosters ?

 

[redfeather13]

redfeather13 - I'm with you, letting the older gals stay on till the end of their days. I couldn't get rid of one just because she has stopped laying. I get way too attached to my girls and as most of them are poor egg layers at the best of time, they are there more for enjoyment, eating the weeds and bugs and keeping the grandsons amused!

being in a 'rural' village I get a few of the country folk ask why I spend money on feed for chooks that no longer lay.

My answer is this - I feed my cat and my dog and they've NEVER given me eggs

just luv em

 

[redfeather13]

What breed are these cuties?

maybe give us a few more weeks and then ask again

 

[Rachel96]

Oh... I haven't been on in so long... I've just read abou 40 posts to catch up, and now I've no idea about the first one I read!

About snakes - I've never had problems with snakes and my chickens. We don't have pythons here, which is probably a major factor! We have brown snakes and black snakes, but they generally keep to themselves unless provoked (ahem... one of my cats managed to get bitten by a brown snake last year... luckily cats have a 3-day window for treatment after being bitten by brown snakes, unlike dogs which have about an hour before they die). The snake in the picture was giant! I can't believe that's one of the smaller ones!

ChineseChook - welcome! I agree with Dirtgirl about which breeds. It really depends on what you want your chooks to do for you, where they're going to be living, whether they're going to be around children a lot, and so forth. If you answer Dirtgirl's questions, I'm sure we'll all be able to help you more.

Cate - those chicks are adorable! I want some! Unfortunately, I promised my parents (who were thoroughly sick of brooders inside) that I won't get any more chicks until September. It seems forever! I went into the local grain and fodder the other day to get food for my chooks, and they had a dozen day-old Marans chicks in there! It wasn't fair, I tell you. My youngest chicks at the moment are now 8 weeks old...

from Rachel.

 

[qldchook]

Nice to hear from you Rachel, I will go and look at your album but for those of us who are new tell us about your chook family

 

[Rachel96]

You want to hear about my chooks? Well.. where to start?!

I'll start with my father's flock. He has 6 ISA Browns (about 8 months) and 5 white Leghorns (about 2 years), all girls. The Leghorns were hand-raised, the ISAs were not, and the Leghorns are called Vegemite, Honey, Treacle, Peanut Butter, and Floppy.

My sister has ducks (she says they're less dangerous than chickens because they don';t have pointy beaks). She has 4 Muscovies (about 6 months, we think 2 drakes and 2 ducks) called Butterscotch, Banana, Lemon, and Sherbet; a Khaki Campbell trio called Coco-Pop, Cadbury, and Chocolate Mousse; and four Indian Runner hens, Blackie, Beauty, Whitie, and Beatrice. Perhaps lcukily, the Indian Runners came pre-named. I'm sure you can see what my sister uses as insperation for naming creatures. Apart from the Muscovies, they're all laying age, but we're only getting eggs from the Runners at the moment. We think the Khaki Campbells have a hidden nest somewhere...

Two Muscovy ducks with the drake in the middle.
.
The Khaki Campbell drake, a KC duck, and a Runner duck.


Whitie - I think she's so sweet-looing. More than the others, anyway. She's a bit of a loner - she doesn't hang around with the other ducks very much.


A whole bunch of ducks - the Khaki Campbells and the Indian Runners.

I have one large (huge) run (see https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rd-has-now-been-named-the-amazing-poultry-pen. The strange person called 'Jedika98' is my younger sister. Just so you know...) and two much much smaller enclosures. The ducks live with the majority of my chooks in the big yard.

Starting with the further small enclosure, I have four cockerells. Golden Boy, Golden Girl (yeah, yeah, I know...), and Snowball, are all Sizzles, about 19 weeks. Big Bird is a 'mystery chick', probably a silver-laced Wyandotte cross barred Plymouth Rock, about 14 weeks.

Clockwise from top left: Golden Girl, Snowball, Big Bird, Golden Boy, and General Flopsy (the rabbit). The only way I could get them to stand still was to give them food, hence the way they're standing.

In the closer small enclosure, I have five pullets. Pumpkin is a 'mystery chick', a buff Cochin cross (not sure of her other half), and she's 14 weeks. Spot and Suzy are white Leghorns, 9 weeks; Raven is an Australorp, 9 weeks, and Orange is an ISA Brown, 9 weeks.

Again with the food - because if I don't bribe them to stand still, they crowd at my feet and then I can't take a photo. Anyway, clockwise from left: Pumpkin, Raven, Spot, Suzy Snowflake, Orange, Midnight, Sugar aka The Evil Rabbit, and Excalibur.

In the big yard, I have 19 hens. There are 6 lavender Araucanas (collectively called the 'Lavender Ladies'... you know, like the 'Pink Ladies' from Grease?) but only one is named, Toe-Nails (strange deformed toe-nail issue... mostly I think from being mistreated by the previous owner. Another seems to think it's a rooster and keep cock-fighting. There are 6 white Leghorn bantams, also unnamed except for Houdini (can you guess why she's called that?).

Then I've got a light Sussex cross silver-laced Wyandotte of about 27 weeks, called New Girl, and a light Sussex cross something of about 22 weeks, called Light Sussex. I have an ISA Brown cross white Leghorn of about 30 weeks called Sandy, and two Ancona hens called Polka and Dot. Finally, there are two Sizzles, Caramel and Toes. Toes has four toes on one foot and five toes on the other. Both Sizzles are 19 weeks.


Sandy posing for the camera.


One of the Leghorn bantams, and New Girl.


Polka and Light Sussex.


Not a very good picture, involving Toes, Caramel, and Dot.


A white Leghorn bantam and an Araucana.

And finally, a picture of some of the eggs we get. It's not all (but most) and they're labelled, so I hope you can read it!


Wow... that was a long post! In my defence, you *did* ask!

 

[cate0404]

That is an 'awesome' Pen!!! And how cool are all those different eggs!!

 

[Rachel96]

Thanks!

I forgot the Leghorn bantam eggs, though, and some others I'm sure. I can't wait until the Sizzles start laying - I have no idea what their eggs are going to look like! Although I'm not allowed to buy/hatch chicks until Spring (I've said September), I've already pre-requested some MaransX eggs, so I'll be getting dark brown eggs eventually, too! Oh, and I didn't put in quail eggs or Khaki Campbell eggs.

The Araucana eggs didn't show up very well in the picture. They're a lot brighter, and a bit bluer than that.

But I should stop complaining about the inadequacies of my photography skills!

Must go now -- French school.
from Rachel.