Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Bens-Hens]

I did wonder if winter was slowing her down. They get about 10.5 hours between sunrise and sunset. Apart from the boy's in the box box, the girls have full access to that in their run. (no pop doors etc keeping them in the coop)

We had the nest boxes (3 of the 6) lined with hay to begin with, but they just tore it all out on the first day, we tried a few different things like shredded paper, saw dust, wood shavings until we found one that is still in there after the girls have been in for a look. It's a mix of the hemp brooder bedding and red gum wood shavings.We are just about out of the wood shavings so we will top up with the hemp stuff next time they need it. We can see the girls have been in there but no obvious sign of liquid, yolk left over shell of any kind.

We have two plastic eggs and one white golf ball in there.

I look in all the little hidey holes and other places in the run where she may find some privacy but nothing so far. Maybe today hahahaha (I have been saying that for about 3 weeks now lol)

We already started the dinner names, the 'Tea' brothers was not a miss spell hahahaha

 

[ozexpat]

Tea in Australian is dinner.

Confusing but no more than calling your main meal an entree which means enter or appetizer.

 

[NovaAman]

You need to up their light to 12-14 hours, or wait on nature. I let mine go with nature so I don't burn my hens out. You can get a few years more on laying hens when you let them rest through the winter months. Yes, you'll get the random egg, but if you let them rest through the winter, their bone will stay strong, their health will be better. Its kinda of like a woman. A woman who has kid after kid with out a break is more apt to have osteo problems later in life, lose her teeth faster. Leaches the calcium from the body. Feather re-growth can be retarded. There are some who will say I am full of poop, and other who will agree. But I think a hen should get the same respect you'd give any other animal on the farm. You don't breed cows endlessly, and by nature they come into heat every other for a reason.

Anyway, who wants to play a game of hide and seek?

Spot the Soledad...


I went to lock the birds up tonight, and I always make sure the garage chickens are in, I do a visual look and noticed that Pat the Rat was missing, but found his dumb butt wedge between the nest box and a mason's tool box. Moved the nest box over so he's was able to get out. I think he may have exhausted himself... Then I noticed Soledad gone. Now Soley is a pink skinned silkie and the sweetest thing. She was practically blinded by her own top knot, and I nearly lost her to starving over the winter, since I didn't realise there was a problem... Trimmed her up, and she's been a piggly wiggly ever since. Anyway, she's nearly a year old now, and she finally reached egg laying maturity at about 10 months old. At that time, her comb reddened up and nearly all her face fluff fell out revealing her big eyes permanantly now. Sweet. Well anyway, She hasn't been laying lately, and I attributed that to the heat. Or so I thought. I also haven't been getting marans eggs either, which is depressing, since those are some pretty fat birds... Yes... I am thinking about my stomach here. So... Did you spot the chicken?

 

[NovaAman]

I hope you found her... Anyway... here's what was under her...


11 Marans eggs, 6 of her eggs, and 1 from one of the other girls... Now... I didn't realise that the Marans had been making it to the front yard, let alone into the middle of the ornamental grass... LOL. They were all pretty cool to the touch, and I know she's hasn't been sitting on them but for a few hours today. She's pretty big on getting fed, and she's been in the garage every night... Anyway, I set her up a nest in the garage with 4 marans eggs... Lets see if she's really broody or just considering... 18 eggs... Freaking marans... LOL Nice brown egg they lay though huh?

 

[scottcaddy]

OK, been a bit quiet of late, just have not had much happening in our chicken world.

I have been tinkering a bit of time on our 'barrel poo processing device' I just have to put a tap into it and it should be ready to start to use. When it's done I will get a few pics. We are producing more than our compost barrel can cope with so this is an alternate that we hope is suitable to use at the same time. More on that later.

Still no egg/s. I was kicking it outside today with the family and got some update photo's of the flock. I didn't get everyone but we got both sexes and one of the breeds we have.


Here are our 4 20 Week old's.
Luna (BA)....we have had many talks about pot's and crispy chicken strips. She is strong willed!


Rosie (RIR) Big and fluffy, wide backside, but not much comb/wattles, and still light pink. A while to go for her.




This is Cleo, very hard to tell our two L/S's apart without picking them up. I think they are that close they will lay their first eggs within a day of each other! Very crisp white feathers on both of those girls. Couple more weeks before we get an egg from them too.


Now our 15 week old's.

Smudge, Lav Araucana (non US STD) He has not long ago started to get his defining hackle and saddle feathers. Loves a crow and a bit of a dance around.


His comb has really stepped up the last two weeks too. He is called Smudge because unlike the other roo we had, he had this grey colour in his comb, like it was 'smudged'


Barney (BV) He is getting so shiny! I carry both the boys to their night box and get a good look at them every day. Barney dodged the crock pot by pure character. Steal was a bit rough and I could see us having problems down the track, where Barney was much more tame, so we kept Barney and Steal became mild slow cooked chicken curry.


Baby (Lav Ara), has grown bigger than Jewel. Her and Jewel both have plenty of standard floor, but both are beautiful birds. baby has white legs, but some nice head gear coming in.


Curly Sue (BV) She is a nice birds too, this is the one that spend some time in a splint, we never fixed her toe. name was as simple as her brother's Barney. Just had to be Curly. Also feathering out nicely.


Here is Lavern (Lav Ara) She is clean faced, but has the nicest dark grey colour, also has slate legs.




This is Amy Wyandotte, one of our two SPW's. They seem to be maturing well and taking the hen shape of low and wide. Lovely birds with the exact feathering type we were hoping for. Look forward to see how she looks at full size and feather.


That's it, down to two roo's and 10 pullets.

We have a trip to Brisbane planned in two and a bit months. We have family coming to look after the two boys and our chickens. By the time we get back, all our hens should be producing, and the roo's should be sexually active. We will sort out Blue Australorp egg's, and some French Wheaten Maran eggs to go in with a bunch of our backyard mixes and see what we get. I am looking forward to our next hatch, wish it was sooner but is best for us to do one bigger one with nicer weather than run a split one and to burden our family with more tasks such as chicks etc.

Have a good day!

Are you using fire brick under you gates and such? BTW you have some nice looking birds tailed or not!!

Scott

 

[Bens-Hens]

Nova, I saw that pic on FB, made a comment there! I think I can see her right of center, just below center line. real nice eggs. We will have those some time.

We won't be rigging lighting for the coop, nature will take it's course. The day's are getting longer again now and she can only hold out on us for so long.

Scott, Thanks very much, we have had some visitors, both 'chickener's' and non chicken owners who all say they look happy and healthy. REALLY looking forward to being able to sling out some varied coloured eggs instead of trying to explain what blue eggs look like.

The blocks under the gate are reconstituted lime stone blocks. Got them for a garden bed edging a few years back, had some left over and used them to reduce escape attempts under the gate. The wire wall goes below ground so we weren't so worried about digging there.

I also got the tap in the trial - MK I Super Dooper Pooper to Fertaliser Conversion Barrel - (or MK-I-SDP2FCB for short hahaha) Made from some old bits laying about. Idea is to load the top barrel with the fresh stuff, this gets a bit of water washed in once a week or so. The liquid filters through the droppings into the second barrel. Gravity hold back any solids, the liquid passes out the high holes into the large barrel, where it can be run off, watered down and used on the lawns.

When the solids barrels are full, they can go to the composter. I hope to get some liquid fertaliser, and lengthen the composter life. Our compost barrel just can't keep up with the bird droppings, feathers and bedding used.

See how it goes in real life.

Not classy devise


Top barrel strainer modification...hold back the big stuff.


Lower barrel is drilled on all four sides right up the top, allowing any small solids to settle to the bottom, and the liquids will pass out the top. Timber slats are just to make the bottom stable, as the grey drum is a bit beat up.


Bottom drum fitted, top drum sits over it and the large drum lids screws on to secure the lot.


Now it may make sense. I tried to make a zig zag, with a tap. I have another flange to use, but no tap to suit. If thie little one does not work out I will have to buy a tap to fit the more heavy duty fitting I have.

 

[NovaAman]

Ah, kinda like the concept of septic drain fields. Very cool.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Yeah, or a waste oil separator kind of thing. Age old principals

 

[Bens-Hens]

I have no eggs, but there are a couple of modifications in the wind.

On the egg front, I am beginning to think the nest boxes, which I painstakingly made may be too small. Right width, height, but not deep enough for a full sized hen. It's just not possible to made it deeper without scrapping 80+% of the existing frame work, so I will remove some center dividers and make the 6 boxes into 3 or 4. Should have plenty of room then. (I don't assume that it affecting Luna laying, but I see it could an issue later when we have a few laying.

The other change is to the rooster door opening set up.

I picked up some parts today to try make it more accurate.

12 Volt windscreen washer motor, $5.01
3m of vynal tubing, $2.85
2 new buckets, $1.29 each
1 double row cast iron pulley.

Going to hang the pulley from the roof span, run the cord through that so it will be the same resistance. New buckets (old one has a hole in it now!) and a pump driven off an old mobile phone charger. This is plugged into the timer I use for our brooder heat lamp. This will mean when we go out early in the morning, we can set the timer to turn on at 8:00 am and run for one minute, should pump enough water to weigh the bucket down and open the door. Same as before but instead of a drip system we are using a electric pump and timer switch.

Will get some pics of it once it is rigged up. Is all packed away, only drag it out the night before we know we won't be home.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Guess what.....still no eggs lol. I fine with that, really I am (I hope that sounds convincing hahaha)

Tonight I got one divider out to turn three nest boxes into two, but with a down poor and darkness I had to pack up and head for cover.

I did some more work on the modified automatic rooster box door devise and did a test run. Seems to work well, but I would like a more conventional 12v door popper down the track I think. Maybe a boot (trunk) release solenoid or something. Have to keep my eye out for one.

Firstly, a picture of Smudge, he is looking pretty cool with his saddle and hackle feathers coming through. He seems to also have some other urges coming through too. Rosie seems to be his favorite, but she is not squatting yet so it's a bit of a chasey game at the moment. Typical teens.



The rig.
New bucket up top, I holes the other new bucket being a bit rough with the drill, so it's a scrappy old white one now. Basic timber post ad ply base. Some little copper clamps the hardware threw in for free, 6mm vinyl tube.


Hose feeds into the new bucket. I just fed a air line fitting over the hose to weight it down.


Here is the $5.01 windscreen washer motor. I didn't realizes at the time, but it's a 24 volt (5 amp) truck one. I am running it off a 12 volt mobile phone power source, that only pumps out 1000mA. Spins fast enough to pump, but should not over load it running for the time it needs to. I also had to buy the electrical gland to seal the hose and bucket join. $4.64 from the electrical store on the way home tonight.


Basic set up, just out of view is the little pulley hanging off a hook to reduce the cord friction. First test run took 2.40 minutes to transfer enough water to open the door. I added some chain to reduce the pump running time. Got it down to 1.30 minutes.


Here is the timer I am using. Goes down to a minute cycle, pretty good gizmo that I got for $15 some time ago to trip an extra heat light when I was having trouble with our Hovabator. Will set it to turn on at 8:30 am, then off at 8:32 am.


Alicia will be home tomorrow while I am out, but I am going to set it up anyway and make sure it all works the way it should. So in the morning, I just need to set the water levels and put the clip on the door.


Fingers crossed I have this version nailed