HELP FOR THE NEWBIES

[tweetysvoice]

LOL!! My mealworm farm is just about nothing but beetles and pupea! I'm having to buy some worms to feed the chicks cuz there aren't any left.. but man, i'm sure i'm going to be overloaded with them soon! Too funny about seeing those to go at it!



Here are the girls as of yesterday. They are moving into a bigger cage tonight, so i'll get a few better pics. They are growing SOOO fast! Will be 2 weeks old tomorrow.
I have a blog going for both my chickies and ducks - check my sig and you can see how much they've grown. I'm a couple days behind posting, but am still taking pictures daily.

What kind of shift work do you do? I work at a hospital, so I'm well aware of the odd hours! In fact, i'm heading in here in a few minutes for a short shift.

 

[Aussie Lady]

Thanks Tweetysvoice, I love the picture, they are sooooo cute

. Maybe one day I will get chicks as well however for the time being it will be point of lays to get me started. Once we are on actual property, we will have more room to move about and have the things that you can't in suburbia. My hubby is a wardy i.e. a patient support officer - wardsman who assists the nurses with their patients & cleaning. He is in the middle of doing his AIN certificate (Assistant in Nursing) which will give him a more hands on with patients. He works constant night duty at the Royal Brisbane & Women's hospital. I am a student nurse also in the middle of doing my Diploma of Nursing at college. At the end of the year I want to continue with my Bachelor of Nursing which I will have to complete in Uni. I work casually as an AIN in between my studies and work odd hours. Hubby and I are hoping this will open doors up in the rural areas so that we can move out of the suburbs and into the country on some property. Still got a while to go - won't be long I will be on my second prac which I have asked to be a rural placement - we will see. Are you a nurse?

 

[tweetysvoice]

Not a nurse. I do some nursing aid work, but mainly am in the admissions department within the emergency room. I, too, am going to school - but it's more for the medical administration side of hospitals. I took the admissions job as a foot in the door! My husband works in medical records at our hospital, so it's nice to be able to drive into work together sometimes. Working in the ER is great. I love the excitement and the feeling that i'm helping people out. I'll graduate with the administration degree in a year, so it's only a temporary position - who know what I'll do after that, but i'll be eligible and have the degree to be a department director.

 

[Aussie Lady]

Hello everyone

I'm soooo excited, I had to share that I just picked up my 4 Australorp girls. They are in a transportable crate in the backyard (with water of course) as I write. I'm waiting till the sun goes down so I can then introduce them to Shatzy. The guy who sold me these said not too worry as the Silkie was there first and they are a very placid breed. He recommends them to children for pets. The only downside is that they get quite large and they may be hard to handle for small children. You can however get the same breed in a Bantan. On the drive home they didn't even make a sound - you wouldn't have known that you had chickens in the back of the car. They were not that hard to catch either. They are at point of lay and it will be approx another 4 weeks until they do lay. I can't wait for my first ever egg.

I've just come back from the back yard and cleaned the chicken coop - my Silkie is running around - I don't think she really noticed the other chickens in the crate - I don't know if the Australorps recognised her either. My dog Oli noticed them and sniffed around the crate. Anyway I left enough of the old stuff so that her scent is permeated throughout the coup. It will be interesting to see what happens. I can't introduce another new Silkie now because there will be trouble in the coop.

It's quite funny, the Australorps are double if not triple the size of the Silkie and they are still growing. I think they will be bigger than Oli too - he'll have to watch out then!!! I'd hate to think how big a rooster would be in this breed.

My worm farm is going good - lots and lots of beetles. They devour my scraps like its going out of fashion. I hope the worms come soon.

Once they are settled, I'm make some photos and post them here.

To all A HAPPY AND SAFE EASTER SEASON

 

[Aussie Lady]

I am very happy to say that none of my Australorps attacked Shatzy my Silkie. They all seem to be living in harmony. I'll let them out in the afternoon and see what happens. That was a worry and a half however Shatzy has obviously stood her ground.

 

[chikenscratch]

Very interesting read so far! I too am a new chicken owner. We got ours at a week old and they are now 7.5 weeks old. We have a total of ten chicks (4 RIR, 3 red stars, 3 barred rocks). We are not yet sure how many are pullets and how many are cockerels. We know for sure that we have 2 RIR roos and one RIR hen, but the rest are to be determined!

 

[tweetysvoice]

I am very happy to say that none of my Australorps attacked Shatzy my Silkie. They all seem to be living in harmony. I'll let them out in the afternoon and see what happens. That was a worry and a half however Shatzy has obviously stood her ground.

This is awesome! I'm adding a few more silkies to my flock next week! Going to pick up some that are due to hatch next weekend. I'm glad they get along!!
How is your mealworm farm going? I have a thousand beetles and still don't see signs of worms yet. They gotta be breeding though. I thought starting a month before I got the chicks would be good. Should have started them 3 months ahead! LOL

 

[Aussie Lady]

Hi Tweetysvoice,

It's quite interesting to watch, the Australorps who are 3 times her size and still growing accept her however they don't really mingle with her. She likes to socialise with them, however they just seem to ignore her or sometimes just snap at her. They even took a worm that she found from her but they have not injured or attacked her in any way. She wanted to join them in a mud bath however they wouldn't let her. The most unusual thing though is come night time they are all snuggled up together including Shatzy/silkie. It's quite amusing to watch, I out there with my torch and peeping in and there they are 4 big black chickens and the white on buried in the middle, all keeping themselves cosy and warm. I don't think I'll ever understand these chickens

As for my meal worm farm - it takes time. The experience I have had so far is yes I do have quite a number of beetles however they have been laying eggs galore. They like laying the eggs on top of the newspaper. At first I thought hey what's this? Then I realised that it was the eggs, so I just tapped them into the wheat. On cleaning out the box i.e. to check for any ants or molded scraps, I noticed way down near the bottom of the box were baby meal worms -

. I've also noticed the more I feed them, the quicker this process goes. I'm still waiting for them to grow big enough to give to my chickens however it is taking several months. I'm hoping as we are coming into the winter months (which is mild here only frosty mornings and cool evenings) they will still continue with breeding/growing. So I suggest, keep feeding them with lots of variety of foods - ones that don't go moldy too quick. I checked them an hour ago and put in scraps of cauliflower leaves and some cauliflower, a carrot, broccoli (they seem to love these unlike children) and some other bits and pieces. They seem to bury this down deep into the box. They also love potatoes, peel and all. I have to share these now with the chickens so they too get their vitamins from the vegs. So hang in there, the worms will come.

PS: The Vaseline I spread on the plastic box has kept the ants out successfully. NO MORE ANTS!!!

You may want to dig down in your box and see if you can see any baby worms - you'll know as you can feel these wiggling in your hand

 

[tweetysvoice]

Thanks for the tips! I haven't buried my hand down there at all. There is this one funny spot that all the beetles like to bury themselves in and it's just a pile of beetles. I could grab handfuls of them from this one corner! LOL. I don't have newspaper in mine, I had some paper towels. Maybe I should check closer on that then. There might be more down there, i'm just not looking hard enough. I am keeping several different types of feed going - so that shouldn't be an issue at all. We are just coming up on summer here, so maybe the heat will help a bit more then too. Yours might have been warmer from the start than mine were. and Yay! about the ants!!

Too cute on the chicks! I'm glad your silkie isn't getting picked on at all, at least to the point of bulling. Sounds like they've just made her the lowest on the totem pole. I'm probably going to get 3-4 of them just so they can have their own little flock and not be ganged up so much with the other chicks and ducks.

 

[Aussie Lady]

Sounds like a plan - good luck