Chickmumwannabe
In the Brooder
- Feb 6, 2015
- 4
- 0
- 14
Hello all
I live on a 1200sqm block, 6kms from Brisbane CBD - capital of Queensland, Australia. Subtropical summer over here right now which means hot and (even worse) humid. This is handy for me as I push pens in the city to earn a crust.
Although I must admit I have harboured a secret desire to have my own chickens for a long while my foray into the world of chickens has been born of necessity. My daughter had five chickens, all happy friendly folk, but moved to Tasmania and wasn't able to take them with her due to quarantine restrictions and so it was that Bossy, Flossy, Dot, Freckle and Speckle came to live wth me in October last year. How wonderful! I have been chasing solutions for every chicken related query I have since and often end up on BYC so here I am - never having joined a forum for anything in all my vast number of years. Next comes my story and I apologise in advance for my verbosity - a lot has happened in a few short months.
One morning about three weeks after they came to stay I went out for the ritual chat to start the day to find the pen had been broken into, Flossy and Dot were gone, Freckle and Speckle were scrambling away from anything that moved and Bossy was cowering in the corner nursing a nasty cat scratch. To cut a long story short despite first aid and cuddles Bossy died that night and Freckle and Speckle lived in the downstairs bathroom for a week until I managed to get Fort Knox constructed. Flossy and Dot have not been sighted since but are suspected to have joined a local commune (there are a few backyard chickens in the area).
F & S are Silver Sebrights. They settled into their new home nicely and soon came to be my best buds, eating out of my hand, accepting the occasional cuddle and laying their little eggs. I decided it was time to get them some playmates, did some research about heritage breeds and tracked down a breeder who had Sebrights and Lavender Araucanas. I picked up 6 week old Splodge (Silver Sebright), Violet, Maggie and Judi (Lavender Araucanas) on Boxing Day and put them in a chicken cage in the house in the first instance because they seemed too little to be outside. I lost Maggie and Judi in under a week. I'm told this happens but meantime my chicken graveyard has just tripled in size.
By mid January Splodge and Violet have grown expedentially and need more space to roam so I move their cage out to the pen and section off one end. The minute Speckle sees them she is stalking them and trying to get them through the wire. Violet panicked and flew over the 120cm divider straight into F & S and they chased her down, cornered her and attacked her in less than a minute. I curled the top of the divide over to discourage Violet from flying over and decided I would get 2 more full grown hens to put F & S in their place. I arrange to pick up 2 Lavender Araucana pullets on 23/1/15.
On the morning of 23rd as I am backing out my drive I notice that Speckle is in the babies pen! On investigation I find the babies hiding behind their cage so I pick them up and put them in the big pen with Freckle and shut Speckle in the babies area. After half an hour Speckle isn't liking it much but all else seems fine so off to work I go again.
That night I get home late with Iris and Lilac and lo and behold all four are sleeping soundly in the coop! Success I think - more fool me
I pop Iris and Lilac into the coop in two vacant nesting boxes as all the research says but nothing goes to plan. Someone (I suspect Speckle but can't see in the dark so not enough evidence to convict her) doesn't like it and all hell breaks loose and it's been bedlam ever since.
So. F & S spent the next week in the babies cage until yesterday when I gave them another chance with a supervised visit - they failed and seem to be targeting Splodge who is the littlest and the sweetest little girl. The other three are all bigger in size than F& S and get out of their way pretty quick. I have built a temporary pen away from the main pen for F & S but they have no coop only a milk crate with straw for a bed and temporary shade and shelter (corflute is my friend). Iris, Lilac, Violet and Splodge are getting on very well in the pen with the coop. At this stage Freckle and Speckle are about to have their names changed to Heckle and Jeckle and live in temporary accommodation until Splodge grows up enough to fend for herself.
So here is the scorecard
Financial - who's counting?
Time - an artificial construct!
Days off work - best not go in to it.
Sanity - who am I to judge?!
Injuries from construction efforts - will someone pass the antiseptic please.
Am I in need of help? 'fraid so.
Do I need counselling? Most definitely!
Can I see the funny side to this? I confess I do
And for anyone who is still with me a big thank you this has been (for me) a wonderful debrief
I live on a 1200sqm block, 6kms from Brisbane CBD - capital of Queensland, Australia. Subtropical summer over here right now which means hot and (even worse) humid. This is handy for me as I push pens in the city to earn a crust.
Although I must admit I have harboured a secret desire to have my own chickens for a long while my foray into the world of chickens has been born of necessity. My daughter had five chickens, all happy friendly folk, but moved to Tasmania and wasn't able to take them with her due to quarantine restrictions and so it was that Bossy, Flossy, Dot, Freckle and Speckle came to live wth me in October last year. How wonderful! I have been chasing solutions for every chicken related query I have since and often end up on BYC so here I am - never having joined a forum for anything in all my vast number of years. Next comes my story and I apologise in advance for my verbosity - a lot has happened in a few short months.
One morning about three weeks after they came to stay I went out for the ritual chat to start the day to find the pen had been broken into, Flossy and Dot were gone, Freckle and Speckle were scrambling away from anything that moved and Bossy was cowering in the corner nursing a nasty cat scratch. To cut a long story short despite first aid and cuddles Bossy died that night and Freckle and Speckle lived in the downstairs bathroom for a week until I managed to get Fort Knox constructed. Flossy and Dot have not been sighted since but are suspected to have joined a local commune (there are a few backyard chickens in the area).
F & S are Silver Sebrights. They settled into their new home nicely and soon came to be my best buds, eating out of my hand, accepting the occasional cuddle and laying their little eggs. I decided it was time to get them some playmates, did some research about heritage breeds and tracked down a breeder who had Sebrights and Lavender Araucanas. I picked up 6 week old Splodge (Silver Sebright), Violet, Maggie and Judi (Lavender Araucanas) on Boxing Day and put them in a chicken cage in the house in the first instance because they seemed too little to be outside. I lost Maggie and Judi in under a week. I'm told this happens but meantime my chicken graveyard has just tripled in size.
By mid January Splodge and Violet have grown expedentially and need more space to roam so I move their cage out to the pen and section off one end. The minute Speckle sees them she is stalking them and trying to get them through the wire. Violet panicked and flew over the 120cm divider straight into F & S and they chased her down, cornered her and attacked her in less than a minute. I curled the top of the divide over to discourage Violet from flying over and decided I would get 2 more full grown hens to put F & S in their place. I arrange to pick up 2 Lavender Araucana pullets on 23/1/15.
On the morning of 23rd as I am backing out my drive I notice that Speckle is in the babies pen! On investigation I find the babies hiding behind their cage so I pick them up and put them in the big pen with Freckle and shut Speckle in the babies area. After half an hour Speckle isn't liking it much but all else seems fine so off to work I go again.
That night I get home late with Iris and Lilac and lo and behold all four are sleeping soundly in the coop! Success I think - more fool me
I pop Iris and Lilac into the coop in two vacant nesting boxes as all the research says but nothing goes to plan. Someone (I suspect Speckle but can't see in the dark so not enough evidence to convict her) doesn't like it and all hell breaks loose and it's been bedlam ever since.
So. F & S spent the next week in the babies cage until yesterday when I gave them another chance with a supervised visit - they failed and seem to be targeting Splodge who is the littlest and the sweetest little girl. The other three are all bigger in size than F& S and get out of their way pretty quick. I have built a temporary pen away from the main pen for F & S but they have no coop only a milk crate with straw for a bed and temporary shade and shelter (corflute is my friend). Iris, Lilac, Violet and Splodge are getting on very well in the pen with the coop. At this stage Freckle and Speckle are about to have their names changed to Heckle and Jeckle and live in temporary accommodation until Splodge grows up enough to fend for herself.
So here is the scorecard
Financial - who's counting?
Time - an artificial construct!
Days off work - best not go in to it.
Sanity - who am I to judge?!
Injuries from construction efforts - will someone pass the antiseptic please.
Am I in need of help? 'fraid so.
Do I need counselling? Most definitely!
Can I see the funny side to this? I confess I do
And for anyone who is still with me a big thank you this has been (for me) a wonderful debrief
