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

[Bens-Hens]

Took me half the day to upload this mornings pictures, but I got there in the end. First, the chick update, then some pics from my 'run away' weekend.

I now (after not looking at the chicks for two days) have a doubt about our Coro/Wylkie cross.....looks pretty red in the face, hopefully it's just me. It's now Monday, and on Thursday they are 10 weeks, so maybe a little red in a pullet cross is not out of the ordinary.

Still only certain about one being a pullet of all five.

The Palomino New Hampshire, a pretty bold little guy.


Mr/Mrs Cross, red face but no sign of the male feathers just yet....time will tell.





Mr 'so dark blue I am going with calling it a laced blak' Australorp




Pretty confident this is a Mr Silkie too, awesome colour in it's ears, already has some little wattle action going on and a super wide comb. Easily the friendliest and most social of the five birds.






Only one I am 100% confident with is the Cochin, she is quite pretty.


Today is a lovely day, so we might try and see how they all go with a supervised communal free range this afternoon and see how they get on.

Now thats it for chicken updates (other than buying 3 bags of feed today!)

My weekend away was a bit of a solo adventure as my wife and kids stayed home. I went down south to a town called Albany (just over 4 hours drive) and ran my sturdy little legs off with a few other nut bag mates (yeah, can you believe it, I'm not the only one out there!)

I stayed with some friends who also have a few chickens, they are getting two eggs a day now, but I think their small ones may be banties as they look very mature but much smaller than the two Australorps (cross's) He built a pretty cool coop for them but I didn't get a picture of that.


I had 3 runs on the Saturday, one 5k race and two social 'exploring' type runs, then a big coastal trail run on the Sunday morning. Probably one of the most spectacular runs I have ever done, I started out early and got to see the sun rise over the ocean (something pretty rare living in the west here) Saw some great wild life and had a challenging yet rewarding time. I had planned to do it twice, one for training and one for social which went rather well. I will share a few pictures and throw some captions in too of Sunday's adventure.

The trail runs out to Bald Head, a 13 km round trip out with a elevation gain of just over 700m. Trail surface changed from wood planks, to log steps, to cement, eventually giving way to granite crops, limestone and sand...soft soft beach sand! Either side was flanked by these awesome cliffs.








Sunrise, I stopped on my first trip to get a pic...was absolutely stunning.


Some panoramic shots from near the end, the first was 180 degrees to my right, the second was 180 degrees to me left




On my second lap I was greeted by this little charmer. There has been debate over the breed, but being Australian pretty much all are dangerous. Some friends nearly stood on a python a little further up the track too. Plenty of lizards, even saw two kangaroo's out there.


Then had a quick shower and the long drive home...so I was a bit tired by the time I had a chance to kick back at the computer after the kids had gone to bed!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Boy you've got bad karma. I'd have to agree that wilco is looking like a roo. Looks like your going to be having the same problem I'm having ATM. TOO MANY ROOS !
Albany is my favorite place in WA. It's so beautiful, I remember a place called Frenchmans Bay . The weather is just perfect here too.

 

[vehve]

Ben, spectacular vistas. Looks sort of Mediterranean to me. The bare rock is more of a Finnish kind of view. And the snake is pretty cute too.

Roger Wilco has a bit of a mean eye. He/she looks a lot like a white version of our Tufty. I'll post some comb/wattle pics of our girls at different ages on the bottom.

The fluffy thing has interesting colors on it, and that blue ear is quite pretty.

Are the Australorps as clueless as they look? They always seem to be a bit lost in every picture I've seen of the breed.



Wilma (BCM) and Töyhtis/Tufty (Heinz 57) at 8 weeks; a bit of comb, not much wattle yet


Wilma, 10 weeks, comb and wattle starting to show.


Wilma and Töyhtis, 13 weeks, clearly showing comb and wattle on both.


Wilma, 13 weeks:


These are of course completely different breeds than yours, but still all chickens.

 

[cwrite]

You sure have beautiful boys Ben.

And your cochin looks sweet too! What age do you get rid of them if you are sure they are boys? I'm trying to get my hands on blue/green egg layers & it looks like I may have to risk unsexed chicks or try my hand at hatching with the same result. Do you still vaccinate your day olds?
Those trails look fantastic for hiking. I'm not so sure about running them unless I see a snake of course.
Vehve, my Austrolorps lay a pretty pinkish egg around 50g's & they have yet to go through their first moult. I put hay down yesterday to cover the mud & Hagrid was so terrified that she managed to fly her bulk up to the highest perch. It took one 'volunteer' being dumped on the hay before the others realised it was safe to walk on.

I use leaf litter in the run & only had the hay on hand because I was going to use it in the nest boxes instead of wood chips. Silly birds.

 

[vehve]

@cwrite That's exactly how I would picture them behaving

Our's are a bit different, we planted a plum tree in front of the coop, and covered it using straw as mulch. The chickens immediately thought "Oooo, new plaything!" and it looks like a battlefield at the moment. Still, they're not digging deep enough to hit the roots, so I suppose keeping the soil fluffy is okay.

 

[cwrite]

Just give them a bit more time Vehve & they will turf that tree out of their new dustbath. Mine have several impressive excavations going on, including one that has exposed the foundations of the shed.

I've been limiting their free-ranging time as well so they are fast workers.

 

[vehve]

We're going to rabbit proof the tree at some point, that should keep the chickens away from it too. Once the roots grow far enough for them to reach them, it will be strong enough to withstand the digging. I hope. It will be interesting to see how the plum tree does in the spot, the rock underneath it is shaped so that all the poop that washes through the sand from the coop runs via the tree, fertilizing it. There was a 2 meter tall aspen in that spot when we built the coop this spring. It was almost 4 meters now when we replaced it with the plum tree.

 

[joannefiddler]

Thank you for taking the time to upload all those pictures Ben! They are wonderful. Good news about the Cochin is that you might have a reliable broody hen in her. Shame that she has so many brothers. Vehve, my Australorps are not flighty at all, they are friendly...come running like dogs to me across pasture, are quite adventurous, and are faithful layers. My Cream Legbar and Easter Egger hens are very shy and flighty. Their saving grace is the pretty color eggs, but as far as being fun to be around, not so much.

 

[vehve]

I don't imagine them being flighty, more just a bit clueless. I like flighty birds, they can tend to themselves, and are often curious, or at least our flightier birds are. The productivity of Australorps is tempting though. Of our current birds, the ones that I find the most boring and clueless are the Sussexes. They are super slow maturing. At almost 20 weeks, the roo has yet to show any male behavior. The pullet has just started developing a bit of a comb and wattle, with a slight pinkish tint. And they are such cowards, they run away from everything and stay in the run most of the time.

 

[scottcaddy]

Ben, you have some real pretty running areas! I could do without the snakes tho.
Scott