Poultry Keeping General Discussion #1

[Jennifer13]

Oh poor Roast.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Ok so roast is gone
Yesterday i cleaned out the chicken hotel, put all new fresh straw in their nesting boxes (which they are STILL using to poo in), rinsed out and put all new fresh water in the hanger, their pot & old baby bath, refilled their feed hanger and gave them all fresh veggies in pots (so they don't have gunk lying around everywhere).
Put some new fresh straw on the ground to scratch around in, dusted their beds, the old straw room and them last night.

Took THIS photo this morning and i THINK but am not 100% sure that it looks like their combs are becoming a little darker and some seem to have straightened even if only slightly - what do you think?

We've been letting them out of a morning when we are home all day but have had no issues getting them back in at night or even during the day if we need to go somewhere.
Penelope seems to like being out the most, she's the first out and seems to adventure a little more than the others, but no escapees as yet.

Still no eggs i don't know if we just have duds, if they are not ready or if we are doing something wrong?
Hopefully a bit more sun and outside time will encourage them a bit more and once we get a bit of $$ behind us possibly after my b'day in 2 weeks i will go and buy that book

[Jennifer13]

ZF, have you hunted around under small bushes and hides holes? My girls like to lay in a few different spots so it's like an Easter egg hunt here at least a few times a week. Look out for if one seems to have disappeared for a little while - that's usually how we find ours. Sometimes they even lay in the coop!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I haven't checked outside at all, they are in the coop over night, I just assumed they would lay in there overnight / early morning!


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[Jennifer13]

They can lay any time (although they do have to be awake lol). I have a couple of early morning layers and one sometime-during-the-day layer. If we lock them in, at least one will run out when we let them out so fast you can barely follow to her favorite spot and lay immediately. She must be busting! Go looking and on't be surprised if there's a dozen.

Mine once laid under an old box that was waiting to be thrown out. I have no idea how they squeezed in!

[Astrid]

Our used to lay in the agapanthas, the corner of the garbage shed and the oddest place of all, between two pumpkins that were growing, sheltered by the pumpkin leaves.

[Jennifer13]

The agapanthus are a favourite spot here too!

[Floweryfields]

Mine pick new spots as the whim takes them! I recently found a big stash of old yucky eggs in the garden hidden away. One chook used to practically dance onthe spot waiting to get out the gate to the main garden and then would sprint there to lay her egg each day.

[Rainbow_Mumma]

3 of our chickens have gone clucky though 2 are in the same nesting box, will this pose a problem?
The other i noticed when i fed them this morning her eggs felt cold .. Whats happened?

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[HotI]

if our chooks laid eggs not in their house, we would lock them up for a week or two and then they would go back to laying in the nesting boxes.

also with pooping in nesting boxes, they are probably sleeping in there. is your perch above the height of the nesting boxes? if you put the chooks on the perch everynight, they should learn to sleep there.

[Dansta]

3 of our chickens have gone clucky though 2 are in the same nesting box, will this pose a problem?
The other i noticed when i fed them this morning her eggs felt cold .. Whats happened?

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One of my girls Mardi will sit then come out for food then go back in. she'd have about 10 eggs under her (both hers and another chooks i suspect) and smokey is the same, she's sitting on two eggs both come out for food and then go sit back down again. mardi will peck my hand should i try and touch her eggs and smokey runs under mardi - both nesting next to an old 44 gallon drum thats in the corner of the shed! I just let them go, most of the time they lay in the shed i've found.

I had two chooks do that. and one baby chicken hatched. both the chooks look after it! and they laied/hatched this baby under a wooden box missing a bit of wood so they had like little letter box type opening.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

HotI hun you'll need to come visit my chooks & check them
Out for me

I'm tempted to close the girls in 1 room overnight, get up early & let them in the other room then after breakfast let them out for the day.

They poop all through & ontop of the nesting boxes!


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[Kazbah]

We lost a girl last week (poor thing) and today we've confirmed that at least 2 of the chooks we got at kinder are roosters. One of them is Pip's favourite (Velma) and the other is Ivan (who we suspected was male). I'll prolly take the chooks to get dispatched and then take Pip to Abundant Layers to get a PoL chook to replace Velma.
*sighs*

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Am looking at some chickens on gum tree, do these sound reasonable?


" I have 11 chickens (9 Isa browns and 2 white chickens) for sale.
They are all currently laying. They have all been free range organic chicks since the day I bought them. They basically own my back yard.

I am really sad to list them, but they need a new home because I have decided to move closer to the city and don't have the time to take care of them.

$10 per chicken or $100 for the lot.
Pick up from Thomastown (postcode 3074)"

What would the white ones be?
Is this age group good? Maybe they would encourage my girls to lay?
It's not too far from our place and I would probably look at buying 2, maybe white for something different... Waiting for the person to reply.


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[~me~]

The white ones could be Leghorns, hard to say really. How old are they and how long have they been laying would be questions I would ask. If your hens are not laying, I don't think laying hens would really encourage them. You could try putting dummy eggs in your hens laying boxes to see if that encourages them at all.
Otherwise it sounds pretty good

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Sorry it says they are 6-8mths old I might ask for photo's?
We wanted 2 more chooks so it's not just to encourage the girls... Hmmmm I want them.. Lol the white ones.


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[Kazbah]

What breed are your current girls? Ex layers?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I'm fairly sure Isa Browns.
The people replied, all sold today
Oh well we might be going to the Seymour expo so will look around.


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