Sub-tropical chooks - picture heavy

[ChickyChickens]

Snowy cut the cord yesterday. I saw her going for a few of her chicks. Last night all the chicks roosted after a bit of peeping. We also had our first day of five eggs in one day since the broodiness started. That means I don't need to worry about Stampy not laying. It was much quieter this morning although we are still working on Snowy's whine. She is on her second time out already.

Stampy visited our windowsill for a preen and rest this morning.



I'm having second thoughts about taking some chicks to the market. I was watching them for a while this morning and no one screams roo anymore. I still think the most likely one is Rumpless but I'll see. I saw the beginnings of muffs & beards which I'm quite excited about.

WOW!! That is a nice hen!!

 

[cwrite]

I've had some unintended consequences of giving Snowy time out in the cat box for her new constant whining noise.
After the second time out on Sunday she stopped whining. She had laid her egg in the cat box but I thought my training had worked. I left the cat box on the patio table for easy access for any more whingers.
On Monday I spotted Snowy trying to break into the cat box on the table.

I took the door off and left it on the patio. That wasn't quite right for her. The whining started again until I reattached the door and put her in the garage where she laid her egg.
This morning Snowy whined until I gave in and let her lay in the garage again. My chickens are clearly better at training me than I am them.

I can't imagine what is going through her little chicken mind. It must be something along the lines of - I'm almost moved into the big house now.

Fortunately for our chooks, with the recent rain our lawn is recovering well from the pool blanket episode. : D

 

[ChickyChickens]

I've had some unintended consequences of giving Snowy time out in the cat box for her new constant whining noise.
After the second time out on Sunday she stopped whining. She had laid her egg in the cat box but I thought my training had worked. I left the cat box on the patio table for easy access for any more whingers.
On Monday I spotted Snowy trying to break into the cat box on the table.

I took the door off and left it on the patio. That wasn't quite right for her. The whining started again until I reattached the door and put her in the garage where she laid her egg.
This morning Snowy whined until I gave in and let her lay in the garage again. My chickens are clearly better at training me than I am them.

I can't imagine what is going through her little chicken mind. It must be something along the lines of - I'm almost moved into the big house now.

Fortunately for our chooks, with the recent rain our lawn is recovering well from the pool blanket episode. : D

LOL, Snowy really knows what she wants!!!

 

[chooks4life]

This morning Snowy whined until I gave in and let her lay in the garage again. My chickens are clearly better at training me than I am them.

Very true... Beware of them training you to perform tricks in response to their whining. It can and often does blow up into nonstop complaining. Once they've learnt that complaining gets them what they want, you're often plain doomed. They can stick to it longer than you can and if you're in suburbia they often will have you over a barrel.

Rehoming or killing them has been the only solution for most people with this problem, sorry to say, plenty of horror threads on this site about futile battles against whiners, and I've had my own battles against them too. You should never, ever, give a chook what it wants in response to its complaining. That is one vicious cycle so many people get stuck in.

Good luck with stomping that out as soon as possible! Best wishes.

 

[cwrite]

We spent a fair bit of time restricting the chook grazing area and replacing some of the garden borders. I let the chooks out for a short while this afternoon to see how successful we had been and managed to get some pics at the same time.

I think I've identified at least one roo - for sure this time.

My little surprise has been that faint barring is showing up in quite a few of the chicks so they are probably not pure breeds. I could be wrong, but I don't believe the +50 game colours includes barring. The below pic is of the roo above as it has the most barring.



Rumpless is starting to show a bit of white lacing and is still keeping me guessing. I'm thinking pullet this week so she is growing a few more tail feathers.



I'm pretty sure this little princess is a pullet.



I'm leaning towards roo for this fellow. I think this is Ninja - the one that flies up a bit and walks up the fence rather than being lifted into the run. We still have two chicks that can't work out how to get out. Considering that the ones with the crests had the hardest time figuring it out I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and thinking that restricted vision may be making them appear to be slow learners. Ninja was a fast learner.



I've been trying to ignore Snowy the last few nights and managed two. Sleeping with the windows closed has helped a bit, however last night Snowy whined so loudly and for so long that DH got up and put her in the garage where she laid her egg. We are going to shortcut things and just have her sleep in the garage tonight. I'm pretty sure that isn't what she is after because she will miss out on the early morning grazing.

@chooks4life Snowy definitely has me over a barrel which is a shame because she was such a wonderful mum. It's no coincidence that all the noise happens before 9am because after that I don't worry so much about them disturbing our neighbours. I'm sure we can find someone with lots of space to take her on if we can't break this habit.

We are getting five eggs from our five hens most days and they are all on pullet grower as all the fences in the run are down. I've been feeding them back well crushed egg shell in a separate dish from the shell grit and have noticed the chicks are getting stuck into it. I thought chicks were supposed to know better than that?

Rumpless having a look at Dotty who was mid bath.



Lastly, a couple of pics inside the run. It looks so much bigger now that I have removed the fence and enormous dog box, but it is certainly not meant to cater for so many older chicks and hens so I am looking forward to moving some on sometime soon and is also the reason I've been letting the free-range so much. The hens are getting less tolerant as the chicks get older.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Not sure what you mean here, egg shell is the very first source of grits chicks access, while they hatch in many cases. Some don't but more instinctive ones do.

Good luck with Snowy!

 

[appps]

Not sure what you mean here, egg shell is the very first source of grits chicks access, while they hatch in many cases. Some don't but more instinctive ones do.

Good luck with Snowy!

I'm guessing she is referring to them not needing calcium till laying.

 

[cwrite]

That's right appps.
Anyway, Snowy got to roost in the coop because we didn't get a nipple water bottle sorted out in time.
On to plan X, remove both nest boxes and replace with my home made nest box after sorting out the roof issue. It's too low, which can be easily fixed. Maybe this will work - I'm ever hopeful.

 

[ChickyChickens]

That's right appps.
Anyway, Snowy got to roost in the coop because we didn't get a nipple water bottle sorted out in time.
On to plan X, remove both nest boxes and replace with my home made nest box after sorting out the roof issue. It's too low, which can be easily fixed. Maybe this will work - I'm ever hopeful.

I hope all goes well!!!

 

[cwrite]

Thanks ChickyChickens. : )

We had a good morning today. I woke up at 6am with a fright that something had happened to the chooks because they had been so quiet.

They had their five hours of free range (4am - 9am) and got apples from my heat hardy apple tree when they went back into the run. Snowy only whined a little and they have all settled down. The cooler weather is over and we are back to scorching today.

We had three visitors in the bush over the back fence yesterday. It appeared to be a juvenile with it's folks although there wasn't much size difference. The one bird complained incessantly and kept setting my chooks off. It also wasn't foraging, just complaining so I'm guessing juvenile being shrugged off.







I still find it amazing seeing these birds in the wild. Yellow-tailed black cockatoo.