Hi from South Africa

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chameleon

chameleon

Chirping
Dec 23, 2016
414
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Garden Route, South Africa
I've been reading here for a while now and decided it's time to introduce myself. This is how I ended up with chickens ...

My neighbors had chickens a couple of years ago but decided they didn't want them anymore and 'set them free'. They live in a cottage on a small farm, with plenty of wildlife, so only 1 hen and 1 rooster survived. We moved into the cottage next to them about a year ago and noticed that the hen manages to hatch a clutch of eggs every few months, but the chicks never survive more than a day or two before they get taken out by hawks and things. So about 10 weeks ago when the hen managed to hatch out 4 of her eggs again, I secured them all in a small courtyard and gave them food and water. The next day, one of the chicks was missing and a little later they somehow escaped the courtyard (I think the gardener let them out). A little later a hawk spotted them and tried to catch one, so I decided to bring them in and try to raise them myself.

The hen is completely wild and we didn't have a coop or anything to keep them in so I just caught the chicks and moved them into the house. They lived in our living room for 4 weeks until we finally had a coop and run built for them. They have now been very happily living in there for 6 weeks, 2 pullets and a cockerel. Sadly though, we've had a really bad heat wave and lots of fires in the surrounding area, and after a particularly hot and smoky day, one of the pullets didn't make it.

I found BYC when I decided to try and rescue the chicks and have found lots of great advice and tips here, and so I've finally decided to join in.

Here they are at about 2 weeks
 
whoop whoop said:
That is terrible, poor NN, poor you
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a guy up the road from me has Boschveld, always wondered what they look like they can be varying his Rooster is red with greenish black tail feathers and very handsome he is too. He just lets them wander all over the road, I am surprised they don't get run over.

So your neighbours have free range chooks and don't care for them - that is really bad, do they have a lot? Well I hope you enjoy your break and hope by the time you get back NN will surpise you.
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They had about 30 in a tiny little coop, the roosters all killed eachother and they got bored with them so they just 'set them free'. All the rest were killed by predators and dogs except for the top rooster and the NN. They've been living wild basically for the past 3 or 4 years. We only moved to this house about a year ago, and I noticed that every time the hen hatched out eggs all her chicks would disappear within a day or two. 4 months ago I just couldn't let them go on like that so I saved the 3 chicks she had left and built a coop and closed run for them. Then the next time she was sitting I moved her whole nest into the coop. I can't do anything for her right now, but I'll see how she's doing when I get back. If she doesn't manage to hatch anything I'll have to get her some friends.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC and thanks for your introduction and pics.

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

You may wish to consider joining your country thread - just type "South African threads" in the search box and it will pop up.

All the best
CT
 
G’Day from down under chameleon
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Welcome!

Your chicks are adorable!

CTKen has given you some great starting points.

Kudos to you for rescuing the chicks and giving them a fighting chance. I do not want to encourage chicken math but if I read it right you now only have 2? It is advisable to have 3 or more so that if you sadly do lose another, you are not left with 1 lonely chicken.

I hope you enjoy BYC. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends
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Thanks for the welcome and tips CT and Teila.

@ Teila. Yes, there are only 2 left now. I built the coop and run large enough for about 8 chickens just in case of chicken math happening
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I was hoping to have about 6 eventually. The original hen is sitting on another clutch at the moment and I'm considering moving her into the run so that she can raise her own chicks safely. I'm still researching the best way to do that though, she's quite wild and I don't want to stress her too much and make her abandon the eggs. I've already fenced off a section of the run and prepared it for her.
 
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Thank you for adopting the chicks and giving them a fighting chance.

Good luck!
 

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