Will chickens help my depression?

[Fancychooklady]

Congrats John, and well done Gympy ( limpy) . Gympie is in Queensland and is as we speek is being inundated with rain

. Not wishing that on you, but certainly hope that you'll be inundated with fresh eggs

nothing tastes better than your own eggs! Worth the wait hey!

 

[tgooberbutt]

Yes, the door to the ladder and the little run underneath is open all the time, I iwll only close it if I am cleaning the coop out and they are all in the run so they cant get back up till Im done. There is just no way a critter can get to them. I have completely sealed off the coop and run from anything. It has no gaps bigger than 1/2 inch hardware mesh, and the mesh extends 2 feet from the run on all sides so nothing can dig under. Sounds like you could do with a coop like mine to live in yourself by the sounds of the driveby shootings and things.

Do you think there is a connection between Ikea and the driveby's

We don't have driveby shootings here that I know of, but we do get gypsies and the odd tealeaf (theif) that might wander around looking for scrap metal or anything not nailed down.

On closer inspection in the coop this morning, I found that there was another egg, but it had be smashed and not in the nest box. Also one of the shop bought ones had a dent in it. I hope they arent turning into egg eating chooks.

LOL! Although, with all the traffic that the IKEA and malls around here generate, it's amazing that someone hasn't whipped out an automatic weapon just to get a parking space. I just live in a super-urban area.

You talk about gypsies stealing random stuff, someone came into my yard in the dead of the night before Thanksgiving, broke into the coop and had my favorite chicken in his arms before I made it out and tackled him. I'm kind of a night owl, (you can probably tell from my post times), and that was the only way I heard anything in the yard. I was lucky. It sounds like your coop's pretty walled off, which is good ...

Congrats on the second egg too!!

 

[JohnPeel]

Thanksgiving, broke into the coop and had my favorite chicken in his arms

Actually, I hadnt thought of anyone steeling my chickens. Thankfully when I was building the coop I fitted a bold for a lock on the main door. I only put the bolt across, but will now make sure I put a lock on it, just in case. It will be something anyway. Glad you got your favorite chicken safe.

 

[JohnPeel]

Congrats John, and well done Gympy ( limpy) . Gympie is in Queensland and is as we speek is being inundated with rain

. Not wishing that on you, but certainly hope that you'll be inundated with fresh eggs

nothing tastes better than your own eggs! Worth the wait hey!

I was brought up in Perth WA, and lived there until I was 16, then went to the UK for a year, back to OZ for a year, back to the UK until I was 21, back to OZ for 2 years, back to the UK, and I could go on a few more times.

The last time was 7 years ago and I went for 6 weeks to catch up with old friends, one friend was pretty much ran the biker gang colled the Coffin Cheaters and ran most of the night clubs in town, so we had a ball. Another friend was my one true friend, he were like family. We went up to Broom for a few weeks together while I was there, and had an amazing time.

But I love Australia and I told myself that if I every go back, it will be to see the whole of the East Coast. Good luck with all that rain, and the cane toads, and the crocs, and the flies, and snakes, and the mozzies. Oh such fond memories of all the lovely cuddly ozzie critters

 

[Fancychooklady]

Don't forget to visit Tassie , I'm from Wollongong NSW but moved to Tassie in 1999. Great place to bring kids up. Listening to you talk about Oz makes me feel like singing, "I still call Australia home" lol

. My husband works in WA we lived there in 1989 and in Brisbane in 1981 . He also lived in the states, when he was on exchange with the navy seals, hmm makes me feel like a widow , lucky I've got chickens, horses , goats, and of course my 2 girls to keep me busy.

 

[chickenzoo]

You could always get emu too.....I have 6 lol..... But require a much bigger coop...hehe

 

[JohnPeel]

Emu, that's amazing. Plenty of meat on those legs. I remember my mate and I were driving in the outback, and he suddenly stopped the car and reversed it. He said look over there. It just looked like a clump of small bushes and grass. He said look harder, and there were 3 long necks sticking out of it. I couldn't believe how hidden those things were, and I really couldnt believe how my mate was able to see them. He said, practice, that's all.

I bet you have your hands full with those things. That's great.

 

[JohnPeel]

I have noticed that when I go out to see the chooks, they fly from the door of the run to the pen fence 15ft away. They even try to fly up the short fence to get out. I dont know if they need their wings clipping, and if they do, should I wait until I am ready to let them out to free range in the day, in about a months time. Or, should I even bother about clipping them at all. Is that fact that they can fly a problem? I must admit, I am worried about clipping the wings, bless them.

 

[chickenzoo]

I wouldn't bother clipping. That is their best defense to avoid predators....and get out of trouble. Feed them lots of treats and believe me.....you will have no trouble.getting them back in or staying. Many times I get in the pen just to get away from them....lol. Once they know coop is home..when it gets dark they.will go back their. I turned all my big breeds out to freerange....100 plus.....they still go back to their coops at night.
My Emu are pets.....they think.they are dogs and have to be in the middle of anything we are doing....lol. They will come up and lean on your shoulder..in their version of an Emu hug. Not a mean.bone in their body....just goofy. Its hard not to laugh when you see an Emu spazzy.dance.....

 

[JohnPeel]

I thought that myself about letting them at least be able to jump up in a tree to get out of the way of a dog or fox, but then I though they might stay in the tree and too scared to come back, or even sleep in the tree. I guess the sleeping in the tree shouldn't be seen as a problem though.

When it is just starting to get dark, they all leave the pen and small run underneath, and climb up their ladder to the safety of the coop. I then go up and lock the door to the run to keep them safe. When a big truck or seagull or other weird noise happens, they all run like the clappers into the run and out of the pen. I hope this will be the case when I eventually let them free.

Your Emu's sound great fun. When we were growing up my dad run down a Wallaby and when he got out of the car to check on it, it had a baby Joey with it. So my dad brought it home and we had it for a couple of months. We had a peg bag on the back of the door and it used to sleep in that. We fed it with a bottle, but we had to give it to a sanctuary because we were told we couldn't keep it. But a few weeks later it couldn't find a foster mother in the sanctuary and died. Bless it.