Australorps breed Thread

[DeesHens]

Quote: Thanks for your fencing suggestions Bruce. I had tried Amazon but they don't have any black PVC coated 1" 20 g. hex wire 72" x 150 ft. roll. It would last longer in our marine climate. DH does not want to do a do over in 10 years. Plus the black coated blends in better and looks nicer. So far Wireman is our best bet.
We have a chicken tractor with the hardware cloth run attached presently. I was allowing my hens to free range next to our house between 1-3 PM on a sunny day so they could get their vitamin D among other nutrients from finding bugs and foraging greens. I checked on them every 20-30 minutes. I had been doing this for weeks by the way. Then suddenly a raccoon hiding in our tree hedge 50 ft. away from the house evidently stalking attacked. The fencing surrounding our front yard where they were free ranging (using this term loosely) is as you said large enough to reach through. But this raccoon actually boldly came into our yard unfortunately. Therefore, we are planning a fence that will keep out predators in a large area of our property. Along with the above fencing my DH will install electric wiring, a 1" 24" x 150 ft. galvanized hex wire skirting offset so the holes will be 1/2 the size against the PVC coated stuff. To stop grass/weeds etc. growing into bottom electric wires we are thinking of laying down strips of vinyl siding first in the fence area. The reason we are going with 6' high fence + electric wire at the top is to not only ward of raccoons but to hopefully dissuade deer from jumping in too. We have considered netting over the top as well. But may just run electric wires across (we had success with this in our pomeranians court yard to ward off eagles from taking them) and also DH can build a couple of tepee structures to place on each end of the padlock for them to hide under if threatened by hawks, etc. So far these are our ideas. Anyone have suggestions? We are still in the planning stage so will consider more ideas.

I cannot help but ask you if you feel affection for your MIL? Well, don't feel pressed for an answer. Just musing here. Have to wonder if you look favorably upon this particular BA or not.

~Dee~

 

[DeesHens]

Bruceha: I'll try and take pictures later this afternoon. I've got company coming for lunch and don't have time now. But now I'm worried that I have at least 6 roos!!!! Mine have bigger combs and wattles than your avatar and they're pink.

But I've heard that Ideal is really, really good at sexing, so I'll try to remain calm.

The two smaller ones definitely have no pink and almost no combs.

Oh good! More BA pics.

That would be a rarity as the usual rate of sexing chicks is around 90%. One roo maybe, but not six surely! Yes, Do stay calm.

~Dee~

 

[bruceha2000]

It is hard to get SQ Australorps. It is a very popular breed from the big hatcheries, but rare as Show Quality. Some here have been trying to get them for quite some time.

And then there is the "surprise" that the U.S. Australorps are FAR from the original breed brought from Australia.

Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

black PVC coated 1" 20 g. hex wire 72" x 150 ft. roll. It would last longer in our marine climate. DH does not want to do a do over in 10 years. Plus the black coated blends in better and looks nicer. So far Wireman is our best bet.

Along with the above fencing my DH will install electric wiring, a 1" 24" x 150 ft. galvanized hex wire skirting offset so the holes will be 1/2 the size against the PVC coated stuff. To stop grass/weeds etc. growing into bottom electric wires we are thinking of laying down strips of vinyl siding first in the fence area. The reason we are going with 6' high fence + electric wire at the top is to not only ward of raccoons but to hopefully dissuade deer from jumping in too. We have considered netting over the top as well. But may just run electric wires across (we had success with this in our pomeranians court yard to ward off eagles from taking them) and also DH can build a couple of tepee structures to place on each end of the padlock for them to hide under if threatened by hawks, etc. So far these are our ideas. Anyone have suggestions? We are still in the planning stage so will consider more ideas.

I cannot help but ask you if you feel affection for your MIL? Well, don't feel pressed for an answer. Just musing here. Have to wonder if you look favorably upon this particular BA or not.

~Dee~

"Padlock," that would be "paddock", right? Can't fit many chickens in even a really BIG padlock

OK, so from what I *think* I know:

- Deer need a 7' fence, they can jump a 6' fence. And hot wire on top of a fence won't deter deer, you have to have ground and wire contact at the same time for the shock to occur. That is why birds can sit on high voltage wires. Two ring fences that are somewhat lower and spaced far enough apart that the deer can't clear both in one jump but close enough they can't get a good jump angle from inside the outer fence will also keep them out because they won't jump into that space. But I'm sure double fencing would be a lot more expensive.

- Yeah, that shipping is painful. I found the product you mentioned, $157 to buy it, another $63 to ship to my location. I checked to see what it cost to ship if someone lived in the same zip code as the company: $59, plus 7% sales tax on the fencing PLUS 7% tax ON THE SHIPPING CHARGE. Glad I don't live in Jersey!!!!!

- I can certainly see not wanting to do it again in 10 years. There are WAY too many things to do, one can't keep up.

- Yes, something to keep the vegetation from growing up to the hot wire is needed, see the previous point

. I did somewhere see suggestions for the height of the hot wire off the ground depending on what you are trying to exclude.

- I suspect it will be VERY difficult to arrange the hex wiring to be half way over each opening in the 1" PVC coated hex wire. Things just don't like to stretch the same or with consistency. But, other than mice, voles, snakes, (maybe stoats/ermines?) I don't think anything can get through a 1" mesh anyway so the extra layer may not be needed. More likely need something to keep critters from digging under the fence if this isn't a "day use when someone is home" area. Even a fast dog takes time to dig a hole, and I don't think anything would reach through and grab a chicken during the day since they would be awake and probably not that close to the fence anyway.



I'm still considering all my "yard options" as well. A large area behind the barn is fenced with old chicken wire, and being a noob, I thought "GREAT! safe place for the girls to free range unattended during the day". But the fencing is 4' max, no problem for the girls to fly out. Theoretically, a Cubalaya can fly an 8' fence with no runway. And there is one lonely tree just outside the fence so no cover from aerial predators. More likely it would be a great place for a hawk to hang out and wait for lunch to come by down below. We've been letting them out during the day when someone is home but we aren't watching them so we ARE taking a chance that keeps me a bit nervous. If they go behind the barn, they usually stay close or they come up toward the house. So far I've not seen them more than 40' from a building. If I make some sort of shelters in the area behind the barn, perhaps they will go farther out .

I thought about some sort of netting over the area behind the barn as well but that would be pretty expensive plus I'd have to put in a bunch of tall fence posts, which would be even MORE expensive. And it is very rocky. Forget the post hole digger, it is hard enough to stick in a T post!

I LOVE my M-I-L, couldn't ask for better. No letters to Dear Abby or Annie's Mailbox from ME! It isn't an Australorp that is named for her, it is a Partridge Chantecler. The other PC is named for my dear S-I-L. My wife's maiden name is Partridge. We just couldn't resist and yes, my daughter did ask if it was OK before she named them after her aunt and grand mother

The funny thing is that my S-I-L is very out going and the chicken named for her is the least outgoing of the 12 girls.

Bruce

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Sounds like a good plan!

Click below to see why you want to put a strip of fabric cloth a couple of feet high at the bottom of the wire:



Raccoons work together sometimes. One will scare the chickens up against the wire and a second one will reach through and rip the chickens through the wire.

 

[groche]

And then there is the "surprise" that the U.S. Australorps are FAR from the original breed brought from Australia.

Bruce

Hi Bruce,
if you wander back through the thread, you'll see that this is not really the case. The birds imported into America were the Utility strains of Australorp. These were the original BA's! They were successfully developed by Aussie chook farmers for their egglaying. The 'ingredients' were basically Cook Orp and Langshans, with bits and pieces added by individuals to 'improve' their strain. The Exhibition bird was developed (oversimplifying here!) by the addition of Partington/Exhibition Orp. There are folks on here successfully reproducing this to create more "Australian-type' birds. See if any of these folk have any spare birds if you're interested in 'improving' your birds. Otherwise, look for a 'reject', tight-feathered Orp. to your flock. The issue becomes complicated when we add hatchery 'Australorps' to the mix. There was a period when Australorp/Leghorn crosses were very popular as commercial chooks. Others added bits and pieces so we ended up with "RIR" = red chooks; "White Leghorn" = any white chook; "Australorp" = any black chook! Because of the muddled blood, these hatchery-types could take some work. Brown eyes are not found in our Exhibition birds but occur occasionally in Utility strains. Ray Conner suggests that if you breed these with a black-eyed boy, you should get around half with black eyes. Only breed from these. Hope this makes things a little clearer.
Cheers Geoff from Aus

 

[bruceha2000]

Sounds like a good plan!

Click below to see why you want to put a strip of fabric cloth a couple of feet high at the bottom of the wire:



Raccoons work together sometimes. One will scare the chickens up against the wire and a second one will reach through and rip the chickens through the wire.

Eeewww. Nasty little buggers!

OK, 24" of wire along the bottom it is. If it is diamond over diamond, I think there will have to be a lot of ties to keep it lined up so there are no holes larger than 1/2". Might be worth forking over for the 24" x 100' 1/2" hardware cloth on Amazon.

Unless they hot wire at the appropriate height near the bottom of the fence. Then the coons won't get close enough to get a paw through.


Bruce

 

[DeesHens]

Quote: Sounds like a good plan!

Click below to see why you want to put a strip of fabric cloth a couple of feet high at the bottom of the wire:



Raccoons work together sometimes. One will scare the chickens up against the wire and a second one will reach through and rip the chickens through the wire.



Thanks Bruce & Ron for your input.

Padlock??? I must have SECURITY issues on my mind.

Indeed, I meant paddock.

Yes, as far as the deer go we do understand that they can jump a typical 6 ft. fence. But when using multiple stands of electric wire, using black fencing (black throws off their depth perception we read somewhere) plus possibly tipping the top inward we are hoping to cause them to think twice because of the poor depth perception. I can't find the article we read before but the link below is a good one from your neck of the woods Bruce.

http://www.uvm.edu/pss/ppp/articles/deerfences.html

We have a small apple orchard fenced in with 6' black wire and never in over 10 years have the deer jumped in even though they sleep around it dreaming of the apples within.

Hope this hasn't given us false hope.

Deer are known to break their own rules.

My DH told me my idea of staggering the hex wire skirting over the bottom of the PVC coated hex wire wouldn't work for the same reason you stated. No way could it line up perfectly all the way around was also his input. So we may need to check out that hardware cloth at Amazon. Thanks for that suggestion.

Ron, you've got to be kidding me... they work in tandem! That really blows my mind. A very clever foe indeed!

Bruce, your ground is the opposite of ours. We have sandy loam until you get down a few feet. Then you hit hard clay. We have lived in areas with big rocks every few feet which remind me of your property. It made fence building a horrible challenge but we were much younger then. DH told me he is going to use T stakes because even though our property does not have rocks he does not want to dig post holes. Our acreage is part of old farm land. Basically when we moved on it 17 years ago it was a field of alfalfa.

Soup is hot. Need to go serve dinner now. Thanks again.

~Dee~

 

[SilkieCrazy123]

Ya ill post a pic maybe tomorrow.

 

[galanie]

Thanks for your fencing suggestions Bruce. I had tried Amazon but they don't have any black PVC coated 1" 20 g. hex wire 72" x 150 ft. roll. It would last longer in our marine climate. DH does not want to do a do over in 10 years. Plus the black coated blends in better and looks nicer. So far Wireman is our best bet. 
We have a chicken tractor with the hardware cloth run attached presently. I was allowing my hens to free range next to our house between 1-3 PM on a sunny day so they could get their vitamin D among other nutrients from finding bugs and foraging greens. I checked on them every 20-30 minutes. I had been doing this for weeks by the way. Then suddenly a raccoon hiding in our tree hedge 50 ft. away from the house evidently stalking attacked. The fencing surrounding our front yard where they were free ranging (using this term loosely) is as you said large enough to reach through. But this raccoon actually boldly came into our yard unfortunately. Therefore, we are planning a fence that will keep out predators in a large area of our property. Along with the above fencing my DH will install electric wiring, a 1" 24" x 150 ft. galvanized hex wire skirting offset so the holes will be 1/2 the size against the PVC coated stuff. To stop grass/weeds etc. growing into bottom electric wires we are thinking of laying down strips of vinyl siding first in the fence area. The reason we are going with 6' high fence + electric wire at the top is to not only ward of raccoons but to hopefully dissuade deer from jumping in too. We have considered netting over the top as well. But may just run electric wires across (we had success with this in our pomeranians court yard to ward off eagles from taking them)  and also DH can build a couple of tepee structures to place on each end of the padlock for them to hide under if threatened by hawks, etc. So far these are our ideas. Anyone have suggestions? We are still in the planning stage so will consider more ideas. 

I cannot help but ask you if you feel affection for your MIL?  Well, don't feel pressed for an answer. Just musing here. Have to wonder if you look favorably upon this particular BA or not. 

~Dee~

Galvanized hex wire, otherwise known as "chicken wire"? It will not keep out predators, coating or not. You can get coated 1x1 welded wire and coated hardware cloth at some places. I know I've seen the coated 1x1 welded wire at Home Depot.

Another idea is to go ahead and use the hex wire but put coated "rabbit wire" Or even the hardware cloth, etc. on the bottom section where most predators will be trying to get in. This would lessen the cost since hex wire is generally cheaper than the more sturdy types.