New to BYC!! All the way from New Zealand.

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SilchooksNZ

SilchooksNZ

In the Brooder
5 Years
Dec 4, 2014
12
3
26
Kia ora you all;

We aren't super brand new to chickens, but becoming "official" with Backyard Chickens after peeking without registering for about 7 months (hehe).
My partner calls me "Crazy Chicken Lady" as I love our girls so much, and I keep thinking we might need yet another chicken....
We have 6 girls:
Gina and Tonica: Our first 2, Brown Shavers egg laying machines, and really cheeky docile chickens. They weren't laying enough eggs for a family of 4, so we decided to get 2 more:
Ferrari and Vespa: A Blue Leghorn (Ferrari, who is not laying yet after 2 months, she must have been younger than she looked when we got her from the "original" Crazy Chickenn Lady) and a Lavender Araucana (British Tailed Araucana), who only started laying her first beautiful light green-blue eggs a couple of weeks ago. We had sort of given up on them ever laying eggs, as we got them at the end of September with the promise that Vespa had already laid her first green egg, and Ferrari "would start soon"... Mid November and nothing was happening. I got sick of buying store eggs, so decided to get:
Lena Kravitz and Mary Poppins: Two gorgeous Plymouth Barred Rocks. Lena Kravitz is such a "Rock" Star, and Mary Poppins has the beautiful old style bloomers that make her look like the beloved Nanny. They were already on the lay, pick them up from a farm nearby where they were "Wild Ranging" more that Free Ranging.
Our girls are so beautiful and so funny, we waste a lot of time watching Chicken TV, we even do the dialogs for them!!

We live in New Zealand, where we have a house with a decent size backyard but not a farm. People walk past our house and always always look into our front garden hoping to catch a glimpse of the chooks, so lovely. Our cat Daisy thinks she is a chicken, she loves hanging out with them, keeping a keen eye and always making sure that the yoghurt I put out for the ladies is just perfect for them, hehehe....

Life is good and we enjoy the simple pleasures, like a basket full of lovely eggs, the Pohutukawa tree in full bloom at Christmas time, and the veggie garden thriving. I am chuffed about our sunflowers making the house look so much more like a home, blooming along the front fence!!

We like sailing, mountain biking, road riding, chicken watching and improvising dialogs for our chicken soap operas.
We also love looking after our garden and cooking.

Thanks for such a useful site, I have so many questions for all of you now!! Better start reading!!

Silvana and Chris
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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You sound so egg-cited about life! What an inspiration! Your flock sounds just lovely! I keep a few Barred Rocks as well in my flock and they are just the life of the party.

You won't be alone in being a "crazy chicken lady"...lots of us here too.
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So you have come to the right place!

Make yourself a home here Silvana and Chris and we do welcome you to our flock!
 
What a wonderful intro! Sounds like you all are having a great time with the chicks/chooks. Nice to have you join us!
 
Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. You have a very good and thorough introduction. I love the names of your hens. Brown Shaver is one of many labels under which some hatcheries market their Red Sex Link hens, which are produced by crossing a red gene rooster with a silver gene hen. Not only can the offspring be sexed by color from hatching, but (as you said) they are egg laying machines, outlaying either parent breed. It's one of the interesting quirks of hybridization. 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.
 
Thank you for your welcomes!! And since you are all so helpful, I am going to Ask. I have been reading the different threads and forums, but there is soon much out there, it is hard to find quickly, and I have some seedlings to put in the garden.
So, my question is: We think our British Tailed Araucana (Vespa from now on) is broody. She has only been laying for the last couple of weeks. I am not against hatching some fert eggs, but i was told this morning "We already have 6 chickens!!!" which is the absolute truth... But if we hatch some babies, we could have them in time for Christmas!! Or thereabouts...
Would the other chickens be mean to Vespa and her babies? Should I move her out of the main coop to a different one and leave her to it?
Are BT Araucanas good mums? Do they usually look after their chicks, and would she keep away the cat and the other hens?
Thank you guys, will keep an eye on updates from the veggie garden.

Silvana
 

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