Poultry Keeping General Discussion #1

thanks girls! I guess thats whats bad about adopting a stray...no idea how old she is (although she looks mature...not that i really know but she looks big and healthy) or what breed...shes orange/brown... I would say looks like a normal chook (but i havent seen too many different breeds until i went to a show on the weekend =P).

her and our puppy seem to get along ok, he ignores her.. unless she makes a noise or big deal and he barks a few times and then gets bored. so thats good. she has even expored his house (he has a kennel in a big dog cage thing that is always open) and he has been in there, and well they are both still alive...so thats good.

ours eats potato scraps, thats all we have really given her so far, but we can give her anything really cant we? carrot peals? lettuce etc?

Should I be encouraging the laying by doing the ground egg thing? or just leave her to see if she does it herself? I dont mind either way if i get eggs or not, I just dont want to deprive her of it if it is something she needs to do.

we have been giving our puppy, puppy mince - which is just raw mince of crappy meat... will it be a problem if she finds it and tries it??? cause she has free range of the whole yard...so can easily access it if she wants. (not that Shelby often leaves any...but you never know)

Thanks everyone!!!

We've always had chooks on the farm, and they'll eat pretty well anything. Getting hold of a bit of mince isn't going to hurt her, but they do prefer veggie scraps and such. Watching them chase after a mouse silly enough to rear it's head in the chookyard and get seen is hilarious when you have 20+ chooks chasing after it trying to eat it.

We'd keep a bucket in the kitchen and pretty well any organic matter went into it - the crusts off the kids toast, tea leaves from the teapot, veggie peelings of all kinds, leftovers from dinner etc. They'd pick through the lot and there wouldn't be much left after all of them had been through it. They'd also have plenty of wheat and lupins plus laying pellets available to them (it was a wheat farm after all) and the shell grit is like people have said, to prevent them from having problems with soft shelled (or no-shelled) eggs.

DH and I were talking about it and once we buy our own place and aren't renting anymore we'll look at maybe getting a few chooks - I've always loved having them around and eggs taste better fresh from the chook :)

Hello Chookers,

We have bought a property and included in the settlement are two mature chooks. They have a nice, quite large and very secure coop. My question is... how do i free range them? I don't think they currently spend any time outside the coop, but I'd like them to wander around during the day if it takes their fancy. But if I let them out, will they return to their coop of their own accord, will they fly away, will they be frightened if they've never been outside before???

No doubt I will have many question's to follow, I've never owned chooks before!

Hey Nickle - if you open the gate and leave it open, they should eventually find it and start wandering of their own accord. Most will then return to their favourite roost in the evenings without any trouble. We'd get a run of about 50 or so retired battery hens every so often and they'd start off huddling pathetically in the yard trying to figure out who took away the walls before they'd gradually start to explore their surroundings. It'd take a few weeks but soon they'd be all over the place and scratching around just like regular chooks.

Teirae - Your chook WILL need something other than just scraps to ensure she has a balanced diet. Barastock does a good range of pallets or if you wanted something different then the Red Hen in the blue bag has a combination of pallets and grains/seeds ... one big bag for one chook will last you ages. SHELL GRIT will not promote laying - just harder egg shells.


She could be not laying for a couple of reasons - she may be too young or she may be too old (I believe they only lay for 3-4 years). She sounds like she might be an Isa Brown by the colours but there are many different breeds that have the same colours. If her Wattles (sticky uppy bit on her head) and Combes (dangley ear lobey bit) are very very red and longish then she would be at the laying age or nearing it ... or even past it.

I am not sure if your in a position to do this but maybe get another chook for her to keep her company and get something from a reputable seller thats either laying or close to lay so you get some eggs. Maybe a dummy egg in her nesting box might give her the idea?

If she has not laid by summer I would think she is past it .....

HTH

Nae x

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Hello Chookers,

We have bought a property and included in the settlement are two mature chooks. They have a nice, quite large and very secure coop. My question is... how do i free range them? I don't think they currently spend any time outside the coop, but I'd like them to wander around during the day if it takes their fancy. But if I let them out, will they return to their coop of their own accord, will they fly away, will they be frightened if they've never been outside before???

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As Cranky Kitten said - just open the gate for them, some will wander out and love to roam far and wide and others might take a little while to get the idea.
Chooks WILL find their way home once it starts getting dark but if you want then you can train them easliy to come a call. I found my fav girls treat which is cheese and ham so early in the piece I would start off close to them and say "chooooook chook chook chook choooooopk chook chook chook" in a similar pitch to how they sound and throw some treats for them .

You can bet that they will not pass up on a tasty treat and I can call my girls from the back of the paddock now and have them running without even giving them anything .... though I do still food reward every so often and I ONLY use the call if they are too far or if I need to lock them up earlier.

It won't take long honestly so start by doing it in the pen if you like. Its nice to sit and watch them too when you can, when you first let them out.

HTH Nae x

Thanks, ladies. Seems I can free range them quite easily. I like the idea of training them Nae!

Looking forward to fresh eggs for brekkie!

Thanks Nae, there are photos of her on my facebook if you dont mind having a look and letting me know what you think. we have got chook feed that we give her.
Im trying to con my hubby in letting me get another...but no such luck yet..

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SHe's lovely hun, could be an Isa Brown she looks very similar to my Tilly who is an IsaX. Judging by her colour I'd say she is at the right age for laying or may be an older hen. My Isa has gone off the lay recently. Give it a bit more time but if no eggs by december then she is past her laying age ;)

I went to visit my new chooks tonight! They're bantams... is that good??!! Cute little things with those fluffy feet. The bloke we're buying from said they usually lay about 5 eggs every two days between them and showed me the eggs. Cute little chooks, cute little eggs!!

Bantams just refer to the size hun not a breed would be keen to know the breed of them with fluffy feet, Silkies? Faverolles?I dunno I am just throwing breeds out there.

They sound adorable though and yes little eggs but they will still be tasty x x x nom nom

Lol... yep, new to chook keeping!!

will google away and try to find out what they are... very fluffy feet!

Maybe Cochins with a winter coat??? They are very, very fluffy!

oooohhhh nice!!! they are a nice looking breed ;)

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Maybe Cochins with a winter coat??? They are very, very fluffy!

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Bantam Cochins are called Pekins in Australia.
They are an adorable breed, great for kids and hardly dig the garden.
Pekins rock lol

Ok, I googled Pekin and this definitely looks and sounds like my soon-to-be chooks! One is a glossy brown, with some burnt orange colour and the other is almost black. Pretty little girls! I took another look at their coop and it looks great, very secure with a nice warm dark section with.... aaahhhh, what's it called, where they sit to lay!!! And a secure, decent sized yard for them to peck around in. The whole thing is actually larger than I remember.

I asked if the chooks have ever been free-ranged and our vendor said that these chooks have not because they have had trouble in the past with foxes if they free range the chooks. I asked if this was even during the day and he said the foxes are smart enough that if you put the chooks away at 6pm every night, the fox will turn up for dinner at 5.50pm. :o Any suggestions to keep the chooks safe from foxes?

Sounds like you vendor knows his chook keeping ;)
Never underestimate the cunning of a mother fox with bubs to feed.
2 pekins would need very little free range space, infact an hour or two with you pottering around the garden or the kids playing with them will be fine, even if it is just once or twice a week. Small chooks can also fall prey to hawks or even magpies.
The roost is the dark place where they go to sleep (or roost!) and laying boxes is where they lay.
Is the pen portable? can you move it round the yard to fresh grass? if so, that is perfect, if not, just a hand ful of green leafy veges (lettuce, cabbage etc) every couple of days will do them just fine.
Dont forget though, that the bulk of their food should be pellets/grain/mash, a proper good quality chook mix. Expect to pend $20-$25 per bag, which will last you months lol. Try and find out what your vendor is feeding and get exactly the same brand, they will be experiencing a big enough change without thier food being messed with.
Plenty of fresh water, worm them every 3-6 months and they should be fine.
Good luck, so exciting...

We have ISAs and they are big enough to take care of themselves now. They put themselves away at night and no foxes yet. We're really close to the national park, but I'm pretty sure they have foxes under control in our area. We have bandicoots, numerous possums and various other small mammals and marsupials that are out in the yard most evenings, so I'm guessing if there are any foxes from time to time, they're not desperate enough to come into our yard. Funny though, because only five mins drive from us we have friends who lose a hen at least every six months to foxes.

I'm more worried about the snakes, after the big red belly black that killed on of our dogs earlier this year. Anyone know how chickens go with getting away from snakes?

I accidentally left our front gate open last week for about two hours before dark when I came home. I was panicking when I shut up the coop, but all three chickens had put themselves to bed, so they can't have wandered far if they did go anywhere! Clever things.

Snakes might bother very young chickens (just hatched) but usually won't go for a grown chook, even if we're talking ginormous carpet pythons. Eggs are much easier to get hold of as they don't run away - or peck! So you might lose the occasional egg to Joe Blake, but to me that's a small price to pay for keeping the mice and rats under control (you very rarely get rodents if there's a snake in residence).

Ok ladies i might have convinced DP to convert the old bottom shed/animal house into a chook shed.
I am volunteering HotI to come and look at it and give me ideas about if it will work and what needs to be fixed but i'd love to know what everyone else thinks. Will take some pics and post them in an album and get your advice.
I'd be looking at prob only 2 chooks to start, they will have PLENTY of room in the bottom paddock and a huge shed we can convert for them aswell.
what foods will they need, what are decent breeds that are reasonably priced, they sell at the local market should i just go there?

AHHHHHH it will prob be months off but i want to start planning.. HOTI i'm looking at you babe. :rofl:

Ok HERE are some pics of what is possible the future chicken hotel :p

1. We will obviously have to patch holes in the walls to try and stop foxes getting in but do we have to have a fully enclosed/warm area for them (if you see the pics you will get what i mean)

2. The old owners has a goat and there is still heaps of goat poo in there amongst the straw, will we need to clean all this out and lay new straw down or will tey only need straw etc in their nesting boxes?

3. There is a pic in there of what may have been used as nesting boxes before, would these be ok, is it better to build something new - does it need a lid etc?

Any ideas you can give me on whether or not this would work as a space for chickens would be GREAT, i think the girls would love it, maybe we could add in some ducks.. although i think they would try and fly off with the local birdlife or go to the creek :)

Also if we decide to get a goat or sheep later will it be ok in the space with the chickens?

You could fit a heap of chooks in there! That looks awesome.

2. Is the floor dirt? You can have mainly a dirt floor, but it is nice to add straw or we have wood shavings down.

3. The nesting boxes look ok. You want to make sure they are kept dry.

You want to put at least one perch in, and you want it above the height of the nesting boxes. This encourages them to sleep on the perch and not in the nesting boxes.

BBL

The local market often sells chooks or if you want pretty chooks you could go to the Seymour alternative Farm Expo in Feb.

Your 'hotel' would be really easy to get chook ready, and wouldn't cost much if anything. We used heaps of recycled materials in ours- it's the proper way to build a chook shed :Lol:!

Eventually you want a feeder that you can hang up (less chance of mice eating all the food) and a good water source. We have one water bowl in the shed, and two shell pools full of water in the yard. They are great cos you don't have to fill them very often.

mmm, maybe working bee at ZFs place.

Funny you say about the working bee, i was going to get your expert chookness here to point out a few things and then we can work out just HOW we want to do it :)
It wont be for a while i think as DP is busy with work but maybe just maybe if i can get a list of things i can start doing some things on my own.
The ground is all dirt underneath with all the straw they have left behind, am thinking i might just get in there and move a heap of the junk into 1 of the rooms, rake all the crap to the side and see, then when you come ;) we can work out what could go where.
How TIGHT does the shed have to be to stop foxes getting in?

It's happening, we are going to get some chooks.
DP is buying some materials for the nesting boxes today, we can build a bit of a perch for them out of stuff we already have here, i've cleared out the ground in the shed and just need to get rid of the old waste.
Today i am clearing some grass around the front of the shed, DP's making up a door and then we hope to get some just before DD's birthday.. OR the day after her b'day at the local market so she can pick one :)

Thank You HotI for your help with ideas on things, your daughters assistance will be greatly appreciated today too ;)

Wow I had no idea this thread existed! We are building our coop tomorrow! Woot! Getting 2 chickens for the moment, but we will get them young so DD1 can watch them grow. We want laying hens. Any suggestions? We are just building a moveable A frame.

Woohoo Marushke! We started with two chicks that still needed to be kept under lamps. They grow quickly! DD loved having them as babies and still picks up and carries one around (that will still let her!). Their condition is better than the ones we got at point of lay too. Have fun!

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Wow I had no idea this thread existed! We are building our coop tomorrow! Woot! Getting 2 chickens for the moment, but we will get them young so DD1 can watch them grow. We want laying hens. Any suggestions? We are just building a moveable A frame.

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Unless you want to deal with keeping them under lamps, and risk ending up with roosters, I'd avoid chicks. Point of lay pullets are still pretty small and your dd will get to see them grow.
I'd go for bantams in an Aframe as that way you could get a couple more later on and still fit them in okay.

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...

Freecycle comes through again! ;)

Nice :) were still working on getting ours chook ready.

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 ? :rofl:
Will upload pics maybe tomorrow, they are on my phone and some on the camera.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

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!

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.

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

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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.

Awesome T!

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 :rofl: mine might be lazy

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

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.