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Zeil

Zeil

Chirping
Jun 29, 2015
180
18
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Brisbane QLD
I'm Sarah and I'm a chronic lurker, but I'm working on that.

I live in Brisbane with my partner and while we've had two exceptionally bossy and indulged parrots for years (green cheeks) with also very recently took in three Lohmann, two Leghorn and one astrolorp chick.

I'm very involved in urban homesteading and sustainable living and it was something we'd talked about on and off for a while, however the actual acquisition of chicks was rather spur of the moment. We were discussing adopting ex battery hens...

My partner is a teacher though and her school had one of those hideous hatching programs which I must say I really dislike and so we got fluffy little chicks. So now we have six chicks instead of the two or three battery hens we discussed, but such is life...

There gorgeous though, really sweet and funny and loving. My parrots loathe the competition. Which is mildly amusing to me.

One is almost definitely a rooster, which is really sad but not unexpected (very surprised there aren't more actually... Although maybe) and currently my partner and I are trying to alternatively talk each other into and out of keeping him.
He's a sweet dear little thing who insists on inspecting everything before the hens, but the reality is we will probably have to rehome him.
 
Hi so happy you joined the BYC
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Hi NorthFLChick,

My parrots throw stuff at me when they feel ignored and I also get a talking too when I'm eating and they don't have anything but their pellets. The hilarious thing is they both really enjoy talking to the chickens, although one gets vaguely frustrated when the chickens don't respond and typically goes and hides in his tent and growls like a puppy. I think my birds would make great behavioural subjects.

On the subject of the rooster, we're not too worried. We're looking into rehoming options, but only casually currently, as I said keeping him isn't completely off the table, it's mostly that we were ideally keeping hens for eggs (my favourite free range cruelty free brand turned out to be anything but, which I'm still really angry about) and my partner is leery of what it would be like having a rooster with them.

Also, I must say I'm not really sold on sexing chickens by sight or behaviour. All reputable parrot breeders will have their birds dna sexed. In fact the breeder I purchased my first parrot from wouldn't even hazard a rough guess at the sex of the rainbow lorikeets he had, as technically they were too young to be housed with families and he wasn't having them sexed until the next week. Also one of my male parrots displays predominately female behaviour. Also I once had a professional duck sexer sell me what she claimed was a small Muscovy female... Yeah he turned out to be a 14kg male... I picked him out because of how friendly he was and didn't care ultimately about sex, but it amused me for the longest time.

Meanwhile the horrible gentleman whom came to the collect all the hatching equipment was dead set against us taking several of the chicks, assuring me that the breed they used could be immediately sexed by coloration, and that four were almost definitely male. However as they've grown it's become obvious that they actually supplied three different egg breeds two of which casual research suggests can't be sexed by colour. Also as they've grown five of them are developing distinctly female traits whilst only one is beginning to behave and look like a rooster, which is funnily not one of the ones he claimed would be based on colour.
Although as I said I'm not sold on sexing by look or behaviour, not even my own, not until their adults and it's painfully obvious by wattle and tail feathers, so until he crows we aren't shipping him anywhere.
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. A lot of us were lurkers before joining. :eek:) You have some great layers. Australorps are my favorite standard breed. I've raised them for years (along with dozens of other breeds), and they are extremely hardy, calm and gentle (my children and granddaughter made lap pets of them), and excellent layers of large brown eggs. Lohman is one of a number of labels under which some hatcheries market their Red Sex Links which are laying machines. You should get loads of large, brown eggs from those three girls. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
 
Hi Sarah, so nice to meet you. I have enjoyed your introduction and sense of humor. By all means Welcome to Backyard chickens
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, so glad you joined the flock.

BYC has a large Aussie community - the more the better, and thread "Australia, six states and one funny little Island." Hope I will be able to follow you as you go on to post on other threads.
 
Hi Michael,

Actually I have been curious, our australorp has remained quite small, yet the research I've done on the breed state that they were roughly the same size as Lohmann's fully grown.

She's a sweet little thing but isn't picked upon. Actually the chickens are all pretty placid. In fact BK (australorp) is actually one of the most pushy and she's always in the food dish, however has remained small while everyone else has about doubled in size. In your experience is this normal for the breed?
 

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