Taranakian
Chirping
Like a big dumb idiot, a little over a month ago I decided to get some fertile eggs to incubate - I should have waited for another six weeks or so. Spring is a rough time of year on the west coast of New Zealand. Wet, blustery and, based on cloud cover, the temperature can vary widely/wildly from one minute to the next. We've got a few days of reasonable weather, these cute little buggers are 10 days old, and last night they decided to have a dance party all through the night. They need more space, and we need them for them to have more space...outside. So it's clearly time to make a wool hen.
I failed to take photos of the most laborious parts, but it's all pretty straightforward. I found a couple of men's size L wool jerseys from an op shop. They were actually the same, just two different colours. I cut up the one I liked the least into strips (hoping it would yield enough material that I could keep the other one if I decided I liked it). Then folded the strips over and cut them shorter based on dangling them near the anchor points for the strips and seeing how much excess would be hanging on the ground, while allowing some excess to anchor them to the crate.
I reckon the chicks don't care if the strips are uniform or not, so I'd say the strips range from about 1.5" to 3" wide depending on where they were cut from the jersey. I then took a milk crate I bought years ago and never got around to using for anything else, and attached the wool strips using a simple cow hitch (
). Then threaded/shoved the ends through the holes either side of the anchor point to create a bit of a gap for insulation purposes. The whole part took way longer than I expected. When I ran out of the first jersey, it was clear I was going to have to use the second one, but I got by with just cutting off the sleeves.
Brushtail possum in a pest here in NZ. It's an Australian native that was imported here to start a fur industry. They are tied with arctic fox for having the second most insulating fur in the world due to being hollow. My guess is the same insulation that keeps you warm in the arctic would be the same insulation that keeps you cool in Oz...but who knows? Either way, I had to deal to some possums in my garden last year and have the fur I've been saving up to make a duvet out of - unfortunately I'm far short (entirely out of laziness - they've left my garden alone so we've maintained an uneasy truce) and will now have to start collecting again. The open space on top of the wool hen crate seemed about the perfect size and shape to encapsulate my meagre possum fur collection for extra insulation.
And, finally, the body of the jersey I didn't use gets stretched out over the whole thing to encapsulate it all for just a little extra warmth.
The legs on the bottom of the crate and taller than the legs on the top, so this also means I can simply turn it over to give them some more space for their next stage of growth, and then add another milk carton underneath with deep bedding when they outgrow that. I'm going to put them outside and monitor them for a few days while the weather is more mild and we have nothing approaching freezing, but fingers crossed this is the solution that frees up my sanity/ability to once again sleep through the night.
Clearly the crate is a bit dirty - it's been out in the elements - but I'm perfectly happy with that. One, they won't really have access to that dirt. Two, I believe in inoculating them with natural antagonists. If they can't survive on their own they're not meant for my property and while I would prefer to cull them when they're healthy and a reasonable size for dinner, I also don't want to put in the work for anything that is simply going to fail to be healthy in the environment I'll keep them in, so starting slow and early makes sense to me, for my purposes.
I failed to take photos of the most laborious parts, but it's all pretty straightforward. I found a couple of men's size L wool jerseys from an op shop. They were actually the same, just two different colours. I cut up the one I liked the least into strips (hoping it would yield enough material that I could keep the other one if I decided I liked it). Then folded the strips over and cut them shorter based on dangling them near the anchor points for the strips and seeing how much excess would be hanging on the ground, while allowing some excess to anchor them to the crate.
I reckon the chicks don't care if the strips are uniform or not, so I'd say the strips range from about 1.5" to 3" wide depending on where they were cut from the jersey. I then took a milk crate I bought years ago and never got around to using for anything else, and attached the wool strips using a simple cow hitch (
Brushtail possum in a pest here in NZ. It's an Australian native that was imported here to start a fur industry. They are tied with arctic fox for having the second most insulating fur in the world due to being hollow. My guess is the same insulation that keeps you warm in the arctic would be the same insulation that keeps you cool in Oz...but who knows? Either way, I had to deal to some possums in my garden last year and have the fur I've been saving up to make a duvet out of - unfortunately I'm far short (entirely out of laziness - they've left my garden alone so we've maintained an uneasy truce) and will now have to start collecting again. The open space on top of the wool hen crate seemed about the perfect size and shape to encapsulate my meagre possum fur collection for extra insulation.
And, finally, the body of the jersey I didn't use gets stretched out over the whole thing to encapsulate it all for just a little extra warmth.
The legs on the bottom of the crate and taller than the legs on the top, so this also means I can simply turn it over to give them some more space for their next stage of growth, and then add another milk carton underneath with deep bedding when they outgrow that. I'm going to put them outside and monitor them for a few days while the weather is more mild and we have nothing approaching freezing, but fingers crossed this is the solution that frees up my sanity/ability to once again sleep through the night.
Clearly the crate is a bit dirty - it's been out in the elements - but I'm perfectly happy with that. One, they won't really have access to that dirt. Two, I believe in inoculating them with natural antagonists. If they can't survive on their own they're not meant for my property and while I would prefer to cull them when they're healthy and a reasonable size for dinner, I also don't want to put in the work for anything that is simply going to fail to be healthy in the environment I'll keep them in, so starting slow and early makes sense to me, for my purposes.
