Poultry Keeping General Discussion #1

[Maruschke]

Oooh we got lucky and a wonderful woman from Freecycle has given us a 2m x 3m coop! Woweeee! Maybe now we can get 3 point of lay...

[Jennifer13]

Freecycle comes through again!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Nice were still working on getting ours chook ready.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We built our nesting boxes (will add pics later), the girls and i have spent yesterday and today scraping out the old hay and poop that the previous owners left behind, carting it into the paddock and using it as mulch on our new trees.
We've put 2 planks of wood up as perches but need to round off the edges, DP has concreted in some stumps for the door and we've concreted any holes a fox could have come in through.
Now we just need to cut our door to size, buy some bails of hay and then we can go and get some chooks.

What will be thee best feed for them, they will get plenty of kitchen scraps (any our worms don't get) - is there anything i should avoid.
They will have a nice green grassy paddock to roam around in during the day but i will be getting a feedr to hang from the roof IN the chook hotel.

Would it be lame of me to write CHOOK HOTEL on top of their nesting boxes ?
Will upload pics maybe tomorrow, they are on my phone and some on the camera.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Jennifer13]

ZF, they can't have avocado, rhubarb, or chocolate, but we give our chooks all the scraps apart from that.

Sounds like it deserves the chook hotel title!

[Floweryfields]

Other than the scraps, you need a layer peller, or mash or similiar. A produce store will have these in 20kg bags which don't end up too expensive. My girls get a mixture of layer pellets and coarse cracked grain - guess what they eat first?

I wouldn't worry about rounding the perches - mine have square and they are better for their feet than something too small.
You'll also need to worm them every 3 months with a good poultry all wormer.

[~TT40~]

My girl laid!! Im not at home but dh just sent me a photo of 4 (what look like) beautiful eggs!!

sent via my vortex manipulator

[Jennifer13]

Yay T!!

My girls have taken to lying on the front door mat. They often do it in the sunshine out in the yard, or in the dust, but they've obviously decided this allows them to better keep an eye on us.

[Maruschke]

Awesome T!

[NaeNae]

Wow T thats excellent - I think they only do 1 egg a day though?? none of my girls have ever laid more than 1 in a day ... could just be the breed I have though mine might be lazy

[~me~]

That's great T!! Yep, only one egg a day as far I know So she may have been laying longer than you think.

[HotI]

A chook needs 12-16 hours sunliight to produce each egg- this is why they lay less in winter. Each chook will only lay 1 egg max each day.

DH forgot to look the chooks up last week and we lost all of them to a fox. I hate foxes. Not getting more chooks until we do a chook yard around the chook house that will be extra deterant to stupid foxes.

[NaeNae]

Oh No HotI thats terrible

[~me~]

Hot1, foxes are such a pest. Where I used to live as a kid, there used to be a local guy who people and us hired to shoot foxes, he was a fox hunter.
We have a chook yard around our chook house as well, just to try and deter the local cats and I have seen the odd fox around here, I would hope they wouldn't be able to dig under our fence, as we have vacant block behind us.

[Jennifer13]

Oh no Hot1! I hope you can get the yard done.

I've seen our chooks chase the only local cat brave enough to venture into the yard. It ran away and never returned! No foxes here, although down the road five mins I know there are regular chook losses to them. Hope they don't come around. I'm thinking our terrier might be a deterrent too.

[HotI]

I heard my labrador run down the yard and bark at around 4am but i think fox must have already done his damage by the time our dog realised. The chooks were pretty tough, but at night they are just easy targets cos they just don't react quick enough to anything.

[~TT40~]

That sucks HotI damn foxes!!

now we have eggs do you just give them a wash and enjoy?? how long is too long to leave them outthere? and if i take them all from her nest will she go at me? and still lay in the same spot?

sent via my vortex manipulator

[Floweryfields]

Unless they are clucky, they will leave the nest after laying and won't be possessive of the eggs. Just give them a wipe with a damp cloth - they have a natural protective layer on the outside that keeps the germs out so try not to wash too much.