Poultry Keeping General Discussion #1

Oh Jennifer13 :( nice to know the neighbors are keeping an eye out.

Got 2 silkie eggs yesterday and 2 big eggs the day before :)
Compared our eggs to some I bought (needed more to make hot cross buns) and ours are just as big :)

Penelope is still loosing feathers but seems herself, someone suggested extra protein while they grow feathers back, so I might give them tuna cat food once every couple of weeks.

DD2 got to actually take an egg from under her silkie yesterday, she was very excited.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

Gemma the chicken continues to recover slowly. She's still toppling over a bit but is now able to right herself alone. She's good at standing to eat and can manage a bit of movement so is eating her usual grain and seed mostly.

Our friends who live across the street went on a five week trip and left their three chickens to be cared for by the neighbour. I got a call this morning from Kangaroo Island to say the fox had taken two and only one was left. She knew our girl was on her own now too and asked if we'd mind caring for theirs. So we brought her home to our coop and put Gemma outside so they could talk to each other for a while.

Gemma isn't up to a playmate just yet and I'll give the neighbour's hen another day or two in the coop before I let her out. I figure if they can see and talk to each other a bit the introduction might be smoother when Gemma's ready.

And I'll be ringing the council and parks tomorrow about the fox. First one we've had in three years. It wouldn't have bothered them if the dog wasn't away as well. So we'll be a bit more fox aware here too, as well as securing the yard from invading dogs.

Feels like we're living in the country, not 20 mins from the city (Sydney)!

we had four duckling hatch on sunday morning.. jees they are little cuties.

jen; aww sorry tohear about the fox. im rural vic n the only time i've seen a fox is a) running one over and b) after nextdoors hunting nights. glad gemma is on the mend, she has a friend for now too.

Amber: awww what kind of ducks?

AFM: chicks are still alive..trying to be humain about killing them :( if all else fails i might ask a neighbour to do it.
casper is sitting on 6 eggs. hopefully in about two weeks they'll hatch. then i'll move all the big girls into one side of the shed. and back-fill some holes to stop escapees! other then that the girls are good. they're loving the front yard at the moment dunno why. havent left our place yet but if they do it'll be to next door - lovely long grass there for them and spoil freshly turned over. plus its where half of them came from!
other then that over easter i'll be attempting to re-roof the chook shed and maybe pin down the run so i can let the girls go in there if we have a holiday or alike...also might turn the soil over as im thinking i'll plant some pumkin seeds there next year and maybe watermellon too...but we'll see...after this lot of chicks hatch no more LOL or i'll give them away (as much as i'd LOVE an army of chickens..)

hey all- so excited to be joining this thread. We are nearly finished getting out coop ready for chooks and as we have never kept chooks b4, I am wondering if you guys can hold my hand through this new experience lol.
Spent today patching up the roof, making a new door, and hopefully by the end of the weekend, it will be all finished and ready to get some chooks.
First question- What type of chooks should I get and where from? I am out north/east of melb. I am after good layers/child friendly chooks that are pretty hardy.
Next- what do I feed them? I know about the food scraps and what to avoid, but is there a special mix I should get from my local stock feed? Or anything that I should make sure is in the mix?
- Ok so when I get these chooks, do I leave them locked in 24/7 for a period of time, or start them free ranging in a purpose build area from the start.
also, chook shed is 10ft x 5ft- how many chooks would you recommend for me to get?
think that is what i need to know to get started. So looking forward to chatting with you girls about the girls when I get them lol
xxx

Hi Det - I will hold your hand!!

Type- well it's quite a personal choice, but Australorps are good hardy little black chooks - you can get standards or bantams (smaller) which are great with kids. Silky's are very kid friendly and soooo cute - but don't lay as much as others. I have some crosses and some Sussex - they eat ALOT - however you can get bantam Sussex which don't eat as much cause they are half the size. They are great layers but will go broody.

You will need to purchase a good quality chook food - a layer pellet with all the nutrients they need, plus maybe a scratch mix or similiar for treats (grain) - throw a few handfuls out each in the mornings/afternoons and call them and this will get them used to coming to you when you call them.

In that space, given you will allow them out during the days I would say 6-8 chooks would be quite comfy. Yes, you need to leave them in the house for the first couple of days so that they learn that's home. After about 2 days, they should be right to find their way back at dusk. I would recommend on the first day you let them out, do so only an hour or so before dusk so they can't get too lost! Then you can supervise them and make sure they return to the house, if they do they will be fine after that.

grr, we had 5 baby chicks hatch saturday - today they're all dead.
i spotted some purple dots around their eyes (post death) casper also has them on her chest. im off to google but i think what ever she has she gave them and it killed them :( which is crappy. thats like 15 baby chickens that have died, plus the other two that i need to kill at some point due to massive growths on their chest. who ever said chckens where easy, lied. i also found fleas too - what can i use on chooks to get rid of them?

Edit: i cant seem to find anything on google, i'll go down and take a photo and post it in a public album on facebook - as i cant upload on BB

[ATTACH=CONFIG]spots on casper[/ATTACH]
there, hopefully that shows the spots, google hasnt shown me anything :(

I can't seem to find anything Dansta, something comes up on greenstone.org with a disease that attacks the wall of the intestine and sometimes comes up on the exterior in purple spots.

One of my girls has been attacked by either a magpie or cat I think. She is limping and has lost some feathers behind her neck. She is eating well still. So will just need to keep a close on her. It's one of my Australorps, poor thing.

heather im sorry to hear that :(

I found fowl ticks? hmm i might have to go down tonight n check the other chooks - capser is on her own and if it none of the others have it then i might take her to the vet. if not i'll be talking to an old neighbour about putting her down n the last fuzzbutts too :(

Perhaps Fowl Pox? My Alanna Moore Backyard Poultry Naturally describes a remedy using gotu kola which is a herb. It also describes it as being wart like lesions on the face. So it could be that.

Oh I'm sorry, Dansta, that's awful. :(

Our girl is hobbling around quite efficiently now. She is just beginning to scratch again. Still not 100% but a bit more like her old self. The neighbours are back Sunday but I doubt they'll take their girl back until they have friends for her. She isn't laying, so I'm not fussed if they want her back. We'll just have to get a new friend for Gemma.

We saw an awesome coop at the show last week that we're pretty keen on. It was from Chook Mowers. Fox proof, dog proof, indestructible and movable. Anyone used one of theirs?

Dansta - how did you go with the ticks hun - hope that info helped you out a bit.

Jennifer13 - glad to hear she's on the mend. I'm no help with the coop etc though.

Not much news here, all the girls seem to be doing well & penelope seems to have stopped moulting.
We are getting 1-2 eggs a day here and even though we were getting silkie eggs almost every day we are now only getting 1-2 in about 3-4 days... i wonder why this might be?
When we went away at easter HotI came and fed them for us, since we've been back they haven't been laying as much but seem to be getting back into it now, maybe it's because they weren't free-ranging for the week we were away?

The girls have quite a large space in their coop and our grass gets quite wet so haven't been free ranging them as much as normal and am thinking we might have to tin up a bit more of the coop over winter as it gets quite damp & cold down there... should we try and water proof as much as possible?

The girls really LOVE having their chickens and we were looking at getting chicks through kinder but they wont be doing it now... maybe we can get some when the weather warms up (maybe my b'day next year) and then the girls can raise their own little chickens.

I really have to get around to worming the girls - any recommendations on a good not overly expensive wormer?

My chooks have had fowl pox and they don't look at all like that. They generally are on exposed areas as mozzies spread them. So usually scabs on face and legs. Are they definitely spots on the skin? I can't get the photo very big.... Any chance they are ticks or stick fast fleas? If they are ticks, you could put frontline on the chooks neck like with a dog, that will kill them. Ticks on chicks would certainly be enough to kill them.

You might like to ask your question with your photo at the forum on back yard poultry dot com. I've received lots of help on there.

cold weather and less hours of sunshine will reduce the number of eggs they lay. if you want to stimulate artificially, you can add a couple hours of electric light each day - but i reckon it's better to just accept that you don't get as many in winter.

maybe the chooks just missed you and didn't like me and my brief visits as much??

I'm sure they loved you & your visits :) you did take home a hat full of eggs :p
Think it was the lack out outside time.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

two hats worth! mmm happy-chicken-egg frittata

Next time you come your welcome to take some more, am looking at making carbonara tonight just to use up some eggs as we half a dozen here :p