Newbie to BYC from NZ

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Wooble

Wooble

Hatching
Feb 17, 2016
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Hi there :)

I'm new to this forum but not to chicken keeping-- I'm on my 'second flock' of girls.

First lot were 6 brown shaver girls who I had from day olds, my last one left me aged 7 this time last year :'( I went looking for some girls who may have a bit more lifespan in them than the 'boom and bust' style of my shaver girls (they layed every day from 6 weeks old to 4 years old with no issues, and then after 4 years I started running into a whole host of health problems with them that even the vet couldn't fix :( ) and fell in love with some of the fancier breeds.

I now have 2 chinese crested silkie bantams, a wyandotte and an australorp. Loving having these girls-- they're certainly much more refined than my squabbling drama queen shavers were-- and the youngest is just coming up on a year old now :) They go by the names of Penelope, Luna, Bumblebee and Abby.

I live in New Zealand (that spit of land on the map at the bottom) and currently have my hens, 3 tropical community fish tanks, 2 Southern Bell frogs and 2 burmese cats. I also do things like hiking and sailing because this country is so beautiful it's hard not to.

I'm mainly wanting to join this forum because I've worn out my family, friends' and partners' ears about chickens already and it would be nice to find some like minded people
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Looking forward to talking with you all and browsing through posts of chicken speak :D
 
The heritage breeds of chickens are likely to live longer than the sex link egg machines. The egg machines lay like mad and then burn out. That is their purpose .. EGGS EGGGS EGGGGGS EGGGGGGS, and then check out. My Easter egger is 10 now. no more eggs though. My oldest was a Silver Seabright, that cranked for 13 years. All are pets only, I do eat the eggs. Also had a flock of pigeons that got eaten by a predator in the autumn. Will rebuild that flock of pigeons this coming spring.
WELCOME TO OUR FORUM AND ENJOY BEING AMONG LIKE MINDED PEEPS.
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cavemanrich said:
The heritage breeds of chickens are likely to live longer than the sex link egg machines. The egg machines lay like mad and then burn out. That is their purpose .. EGGS EGGGS EGGGGGS EGGGGGGS, and then check out.
Click to expand...

That is unfortunately what I thought with my girls after the first few went. A shame really, as loved them to bits and they had such funny little personalities. I am glad to hear that the heritage breeds tend to live longer :)

My partner was looking through breeds back before I got my current lot and one of the few he was enthused about were silver seabrights-- he thought they looked like a drawing/were not real because of that pretty lacing. Will definitely be on my list of future chicken breeds to keep, though I'm not too sure whether they are commonly available here in NZ. Amazing that your one lived so long!
 
The seabrights are a bantam breed. They are slightly larger than Old English Game hens, but smaller than silkies. What kind of restrictions does New Zealand have on importing chickens/chicken hatching eggs. ??? Here in the US. there are sooooo many varieties available. Not sure how difficult it would be to impost some for you. Always easiest and best of course to get some from your local area.
Seabrights come in silver and golden. Same chicken just different colors. Had both. EXCELLENT FLYERS as well.
Can see both in this pix.


 
cavemanrich said:
What kind of restrictions does New Zealand have on importing chickens/chicken hatching eggs. ??? Here in the US. there are sooooo many varieties available. Not sure how difficult it would be to impost some for you. Always easiest and best of course to get some from your local area.
Seabrights come in silver and golden. Same chicken just different colors. Had both. EXCELLENT FLYERS as well.
Click to expand...
Hmm importing animals/any biological matter into NZ is tough-- security is tight and I'm not entirely sure about the protocols but there would probably be certifications here and quarantine there :p But thank you for the offer.
I'll look into local breeders at some point, but it would probably have to be when I have a covered run as atm the fence for the run is only 1.5m high and uncovered so the flying part would probably not be so good. We're in a central city area, cats are terrified of the wyandotte and australorp and have never seen a hawk here, hence why we have an uncovered run.
Yours look gorgeous :)
 
Hi and welcome to BYC! You certainly are in the right place for chicken chat being considered normal and actually interesting! However, as an Englishman, please, i implore you not to mention rugby in any way, shape or form!
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. Welcome and i hope that you enjoy being a member as much as the rest of us.

All the best
CT
 
Just to be correct.. I do not have anything I could send to you. I just posted those pix to show you what I had. The only chicken I have from that batch is the incomplete one in the top middle of photo. above the little white one. She is the 10 tear old one. My thoughts and question were if you would order baby chicks from the many hatcheries here in the US. Obviously the cost would be high as per distance transported. In the past, I communicated with a chicken keeper in Thailand that was getting chickens via air mail from the US. It was all legal as well in his country.
 
cavemanrich said:
Just to be correct.. I do not have anything I could send to you. I just posted those pix to show you what I had.
Click to expand...
Sorry, my mistake-- I misread. Anyways due to the restrictions that are imposed by my country and cost I won't be getting any animal from overseas, hatchery or private. NZ is more restrictive than most because due to the isolation of our country we often have far less diseases/pests than others and the government tries to keep it that way. Very lovely hen regardless :)
 

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