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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 ;)
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!
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.