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Does anyone know if we can get different colored I'd bands or something for them, the girls can't tell them apart ??? Like the pigeon leg bands or something?
They have liked the scraps and the girls throw some feed
Mix on the floor for them to scratch around every time we go in.
They were alive this morning and don't seem to mind a pat once we catch them (pics in fb, will
Upload later)
The girls are in love!
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You can get bands. Something we have been meaning to do, so we can mark the ones for breeding, the ones for eating and the ones for selling. Will see what I can find out for you about where to get them from.
ETA: Check out eBay. I am going to chat to my local ag store first (well one of many), if they are of no help, then I will just use eBay.
Thx hun, I assumed there would be something, Ohhh e-bay looks good, would have to work out size ;)
Girls are really loving them, we just went down & threw out some scraps, topped up their water, put them all up on their perches.
They just want to spend the day down there & pat them.
I wonder how long before we get eggs?
Health wise what do I need to do/look for to know they are healthy & don't have any pests?
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ZF - Good signs of health are nice red comb and wattles (wattles are the soft skin bits that hang below the beak of the bird). Check them over every week or so - looking at their legs, things that they might get are scaly mite - so the scales on their legs get really crusty - this is easy to treat. My hens have never had this in the whole time I've had them (more that 6 years). They can also get other mites in their feathers - usually if they have good access to dust bathing, they keep fairly clean from these. If they do happen to get mites,they will be quite scratchy and you can treat them with a dust - pestene powder.
Hens lay from around 20 weeks of age. You will notice that hens pullets not layer have yellower legs and around their eyes. Once they begin to lay, the yellow that was going into their system (so legs, etc) goes into the yolk of the egg. So keep an eye on that for signs. The comb also becomes much fuller and redder when they are coming into lay.
As to wing clipping - you do only one side. This causes them to be unbalanced and therefore unable to fly over things. Just use a pair of decent scissorsand trim the longest feathers by half. It doesn't hurt them.
ETA Just looked at your pics, they are mature hens, so eggs should be laid soon! Do you have any dummy eggs in the nesting box so they know where to lay?
Do you have them locked in still? You should let them settle for a couple of days in their night house so they know where to go back to each night once you start letting them out.
Once you start letting them out, you will be unlikely able to get them back in in the middle of the day. They will naturally return on dusk, but chooks are greedy pigs and while they are out freeranging, you will probably find it hard to get them back! Perhaps make a habit of calling them with something tempting to get them to come to you.
Becareful leaving them with the dogs - even the most well behaved dog has been known to turn into a chook killer at times!
Any more questions, I can help - love my chookies!!
?? about the yellow legs and the yellow moving to the yolks. Never heard of that and would certainly not apply to black legged chickens. If anything the colour of the legs do fade as they age in both males and females.:
They have been in since we got them, don't want the dogs at them and wanted to give them time to figure out their surroundings.
No dummy eggs?
As HotI mentioned, last night & tonight when we went to check on them & give fresh water I caught them and put them all on the perches.
Thanks for the info, I will have to print some of it out :)
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Well this is the information I was given at my very reliable backyard chook forum many years ago. Actually it also applies (and probably moreso than the legs) to the vent. A non laying hen has a dryer, yellowish vent, whereas the laying hen's vent in moist, larger and white.:
The vent is the better way to go. More confused about the yellow going to the yolks statement, as that would mean that black chooks would lay eggs with black yolks as their leg colour changes :lol: Have come across much contradictory information when it comes to chooks, you should hear them at the local poultry club ;)
I suppose dark pigmented chooks would still have the yellowing thing, you just can't see it. Serious poultry people can tend to be slightly, um, odd in my experience! I know one lady who has personalised leg braclets with letter beads on each of her chookies!
ssshhh! that will be ZF before long! :rofl::
:rofl: you think :p ????:
HotI have you prepared the fact sheet I demanded on FB? :rofl: I can see how ppl could get quite addicted to chickens , breeding etc.
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ZF is going to be a crazy chicken lady!
Warning, hatching chicks can be addictive!! I found hatching chicks under a broody one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. 'Candling' the eggs with a torch at night to see if they are fertile, then watching the development, seeing the chick swishing around inside the egg, wtaching the blood pumping through the veins and then finally hatching out. And watching the mum teach them everything. So much fun!!!:
The only thing that cured me from hatching them every season is having to find homes for the roosters that you inevitably get. :(
Ours find a home in the freezer. Good reason to have dual purpose birds that both lay and are good eating.
Well,see there is just me - and I can't dispatch unfortunately - call me a sook, but I just can't do it. I need a big strong man to do it for me while I hide inside and pretend it's not happening!
I can't swing the axe, but I help hold and then gut after he has done the plucking. First time I was almost throwing up and in tears, now I am fine.
Ok ladies what do you do with your chicken manure and how often do you tidy up after your feathered friends?
I have a bit of straw left over to swap their nesting boxes around as even though i have been showing them their perches they still seem to poop in the boxes but am wondering how often i should clean up after them.
I have to empty out their pool today as they have feathers and seeds right through it, am thinking of maybe not filling it FULL (as we can't get it out the door with water in it) and just using an old baby bath in 1 of the other rooms so they have 2 water sources.
I have also noticed they are digging/scratching in 1 spot behind the door - i know they like to scratch around so have they just found a soft spot they like?
I found some chicken rings on e-bay for $7.40 for a pack of 25 with free postage but am not 100% sure on what size to get, DP thinks about 12mm ?
We put the dirty straw on the garden or on top of the compost heap, depending on what's there to be fertilised. Some plants find the manure a bit strong straight out of the coop, but TBH we haven't had an issue yet.
Our coop gets cleaned out by DD twice a week (with my supervision). It's pretty grotty by the time it gets done, but they're out free ranging all day, every day, so not too much of an issue really.
Cool, I will bag it up and give it to DP's friend for his veggie patch, straw and all!
Then when we do ours we can keep it.
Will clean it up tomorrow when the girls are feeling better!
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Girls are now color coded :) will get proper pics to share.
They seem to have some sort of mite/lice, they are small and white/clear... How do I get rid of them? After I pick the girls up I find some on me :sick:
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Multiple things you can do.
Pestene powder on them and around the coop - not too expensive but messy.
Cydectin - the cow/sheep drench - think 1/2ml on their skin, works like Frontline does on dog. We use this due to have about 30+ chooks at any time who are not used to being handled, so we often sneak at night when they are sleeping and do them. Expensive outlay, but will last you for ages. IF you have a farmer friend, they may be able to give you a small amount.
Long term - grow herbs like rue, tansy and wormwood (lavender is handy as well). Good herbs all around for keeping down pests. They walk against it and nibble the leaves. I also strew them around the laying boxes, especially when I have a broody I make sure there is a fair bit below her wood shavings.
We have lavender in the front yard, what if I cut some off and put in the nesting boxes?
Might have to buy some powder, are the mites harmful to the chooks or us?
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Good tip on the lavender Astrid. I have heaps so I'll do it as a preventative.
Not sure about the mites, I think they are mostly annoying, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Don't think they harm us, just itch, I have had to comb them out of my hair before.
Leg mites can cause them pain and make it hard for them to walk if allowed to get very bad. We did have some little blood sucking one, which we think contributed to the death of a broody (we just could not break her of it and we think the blood loss to the mite pushed her over).
Cool, will put some lavender around the place and head to get some powder.
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we use pestene on our chooks when they get mites. it s a 2 person job. one person holds the chook upside down by its legs, if you put its head back or cover its head with your hand it kinda goes into a trance. then the other person sprinkles the powder and rubs it in so it gets in close to the skin. maybe i can send DH over to give you a hand?
I've got the upside down thing down pat (thanks for that tip), that's how I put the leg bands on :)
Any tips on the best place around here to buy the powder?
Ohhh getting help would be great, you guys could check out the setup :p
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either of the big town stock feed places should have it.
Thanks hun, might have to go there tomorrow.
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Have uploads some pics into the CHICKEN ALBUM, let me know if they look healthy?
We let them out while we cleaned out the chicken hotel today, our dog jack snuck around licking his lips but we gave him a bit of a smack and a yelling at and he left them alone, the girls loved watching them outside and we had no problems getting them back in, i think we will start letting them out every afternoon from about 4ish and then putting them in after dinner... would that be the best time?
I have put a few bits of lavender in the nesting boxes, most of ours is dead from the heat so might have to give it a bit of water and hope we get some more and i can scatter it around the shed.
I have to get down there and de-cobweb the place, it creeps me out a little :)
Combs are looking a bit pale and bit floppy. A couple of my ISA's have floppy combs, but they were egg battery chooks and in a horrid state when we got them.
What are you feeding them?
I bought a bag of feed from the guy - free range something with everything in 1 then they get a heap of our food scraps - salad stuff, fruit etc.. no citrus then today they were allowed out to peck at the grass so from now they will be getting time in the arvo to do that.
How they are now is how we got them, he said it will take them a little bit o get some feathers back and get used to the new place before laying again... do they not look healthy?
The combs have a me a bit concerned, but considering they are still new to you, that could be it. How old are they? I find ISA's, even ones who have always been free range always look a bit scrappy compared to pure breds.
Diet looks fine, without know the actual brand of food.
We mix our own food. The poultry club has a grain drive and we buy in the big bags of wheat, oats, sunflower seeds, corn etc and mix it ourselves. DH has worked out the ratios to get a good % of protein in the mix. If we need to buy a bag, we normally get the Peter's Free Range (in a blue bag, about $20 for 26kg.
I can't remember how old he said, I'm positive he said they've laid before and need to wait til they fluff out a bit again & get some feathers back??? Does that sound right?
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So they are ex layers from a free range farm? They do look older, especially going by their legs. Their feathering looks fairly good. Ours look terrible, but we have roosters, so the some of the poor girls have bare back and bald heads.
ETA: Though I would add a picture of one of the ex-battery girls of what she looked like when we first got her. We call her Steggles as that is what she looked like.
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...battery-chook/
Underneath they have quite a few missing and 1 has a few off her neck. I didn't really ask many questions :redface: it was from a guy at the local market, he's always there and everyone seems to buy from him. There are 3 ppl that work there and man the truck, animals & LOTS of eggs.
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I thought the combs were a bit pale too - being ex battery might take a good while to get into top shape. Hope you don't mind me commenting on the water - it's really much better to have water up high on something or hanging so they can't walk and therefore poop in it.
Thx ladies, 2 of the girls have straight combs and they seem a deeper red than the others :)
I bought a water feeder today to hang from the roof like their food container but will still keep the pot & baby bath too :)
We will let the girls out for a bit again this arvo but Miss Barbie nearly got eaten by our boy jack yesterday so we will stay down there with them. Then she escaped under the gate and into some bush and DP had to round her up so I could tackle her :rofl:
Bought some pestene today aswell so will try and get onto that.
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I think 1 of our girls is sick.
She has poo all over her bum, she seems slow and almost tripping over herself.
I've 'quarantined' her tonight in the other room with some fresh water and the mix we got for them.
What could be wrong? Will she die? Should I put garlic in the water in case it's a worm or something? The girls will be devestated!
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When you pick her up, does she feel really heavy? Does her tummy feel really fat and swollen? I've had a number of ISAs (red layers) develop sudden illness like that - I had two gowithin a short time so the local vet got the DPI to do a free autopsy. Basically it was a cancerous growth of some sort (probably reproductive tract in commerical layers) that causes ascites (fluid build up in abdo). It is very sad but true fact with hens that are bred to lay constantly that they more often than not end up with diseases of the reproductive organs.....this is why I will never by commercially bred layers again- I went for pure breeds or crosses of pure breeds and haven't had that problem since.
I am really sorry if that is what it is, and am very sorry to have to give you that news.....I really hope it's not that. Do worm her, with a commercial wormer - garlic really doesn't do it. It may help.
A few other questions incase it's something else - is she eating? Do you know how to find her crop to see if it's full? Under her beak on her breast, if she's a normal chook, this time of day it will be stuffed full from eating all day. Check if it's full. If it is, can you check first thing the am to see if it's emptied over night...that will give us more info as to if her digestive tract is functioning well....
Check the fullness now if you can and get back to me....