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Hi ladies another quick question?
I am looking at an add on gumtree for some "genuine point of lay silkies" they are $30 each is that a good price?
Also this person has ex battery hens for $6 that she says are laying and in good health, says they are about 19mths old???? is this a poor buy?
I want to stay away from the ex battery but for that price it might be nice to get some eggs and see how they go IYKWIM, she says they are hy-line browns, is that just another breed of isa browns?
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Ohh also founds australorps for $15 said they are about 4mths old and will start laying in about 5wks?????
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I have been looking at australorps a bit zf and that seems like a good price to me.
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Great price for Australorps. Nice bird, fairly calm, quite big. Have not much luck with them being broodies (not sure if you want that though)
$6 for ex battery is not too bad. We pay $2 here, but they are in horrid condition.
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I might get some of the hy-line's and maybe ask DP about buying an australorp for something different.
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Soooo DP said we should get 4 more from this lady (spoke to her today), she said they might be malting & going off the lay but they WILL lay again but I might take some of my birthday $ and buy myself a silky
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Sooo ladies we ended up with 3 white silkies & 2 hy-lines.
The Hy-lines are bigger than our girls and our girls know it, 2 of mine have started fights with the biggest.
DD1 has named her silly PRINCESS, I might just name DD2's FLUFFY so it's easy for her to remember & I haven't named mine yet.
I've put all 5 new ones in a separate room so our girls don't fight, how long should I do that?
Will check the new ones aren't fighting amongst themselves too.
Our girls are out free ranging but I might give the new girls a week inside to get used to it first?????
Anything I should know about the silkies?
Also when we do get eggs should I use a grey lead and write the date on them, how long do they stay 'fresh'?
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i found my chooks had a tussle while they worked out the proverbal "pecking order" then calmed down. and i've added twice to my brood
AFM - the baby chooks are still alive and kicking - kinda sad that they are the "weaker" ones (well delta's not. but still) my chooks down the shed have stepping stones and a wooden ladder to get in and out with all the flooding we've had. once its dried out more i'll be getting some sandy lome (sp?) for the floor to raise it up and re-doing the roof, and looking into some nesting boxes slightly off the ground - so that we can have baby chickens again (not any time soon LOL) and go from there. i might also look into a better drinking system then a few old bowls and a handless pot for drinking. feeding will be all kitchen scraps and grain. but until then...i'll be sloshing it out in the mud to feed them. at least spot servived it all - him and chook and casper almost ended up in the laundry!
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The girls have names - Hird The Bird & Charcoal are DP's and FIL's and they are the hy-lines.
Princess, Fluffy & Elina for our pretty new ladies
Will give them tonight to settle in then just let them all in together and hope for the best do you think? but wont be letting hte new girls outside for a week or so.. just to be sure.
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Got some cute pics on FB, will add to my album here tomorrow.
The girls love the new silkies.
The hy-lines seem quite large, Hird the bird is massive.
ETA: Does anyone know a good poultry forum, there's one on tapatalk 'poultry matters' and then backyard chickens but am I right it's American?
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One of our girls has an impacted crop..i've tried the olive oil and massage this afternoon and will try again tomorrow but I'm worried it won't work.
Suggestions?
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Have not dealt with an impacted crop before - hope you can get if fixed Jennifer.
As for forums, there is the Backyard Poultry one. I tend to only read though when it comes up in Google searches. Found there is a fair bit of conflicting advice, but in most cases you can find some of the info you are after without having to actually post. Earth Garden has a poultry section, they are (or where in the past, been awhile) quite knowledgeable and friendly.
We are seriously looking at culling our flock and starting again. We got in a couple of dud batches of faverolles eggs and the girls have not been good. Two very undersized, who have both since died. Sweet little girls, just wish I separated them sooner for their own safety. They would have been no good for breeding, but would have made someone a nice pet. Also had crooked beaks in other birds. Add to that we have egg eaters. Hard to pick which ones are doing it, so for all the food, we are not getting many eggs. Probably need $500 for the better incubator and to bring in eggs from a more trusted source.
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Jennifer13 i'm sorry to hear that, hopefully the oil and massage helps, if not have you got a local vet you could take her to?
Thanks Astrid, i might poke around them a bit for information, i just want to get some info on the silkies really and maybe even some more ideas with the 'chicken hotel'.
I am planning on running some 'ladders' up to the perches as i don't think the silkies will like how high they are so thinking some flat board with some smaller rungs nailed on will be perfect, might also entice our girls to use them and stop pooping ontop of the nesting boxes and IN them
I've also found their feed seems to be disapearing quite quickly so i don't know if our girls just had a bigger than usual appetite or if the little sparros are getting in and eating it (maybe even mive or rats), the grain mix is in a feeder lifted off the ground at chook head height so we are going to look at getting netting for the holes in 1 side of the roof and also for the front wire of the cage as they are quite big holes and birds fly straight in, if we use some netting then it's still nice and open and airy for the girls but other birds wont be getting in.
I am thinking of maybe even getting a signe made up to hang near the door 'CHICKEN HOTEL' and writing the girls names on the back of the door in permenant marker
Astrid - how many birds do you have at the moment, what breeds do you have?
Sorry i'm a bit behind with who has what.
It scares me to think of spending so much money on chooks but i could honestly see myself getting quite addicted to making things better for them or buying more etc etc....
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jen : aww
Astrid - could you use a warm pets bed for hatching eggs? or would that not work (we've hached all ours under the chooks)
ZF: your white slikys look like the one i had. but she was a japanese silky (i think) called lady. as for the perches they might like something "thicker" to hold onto as they climb up KWIM? my skilys will perch happily about mid-thigh level on their perch (just a fancy H frame but with three cross bars) as for the feed it might be mice? i throw out about 4 or 5 hand fulls of grain each moring and two at night (in the shed) for my girls. they free range from dawn til almost dark (they've worked out how to push the door open, LOL) so they eat alot of bugs
AFM: fuzzbutts are doing well. chaseing bugs that fly around their heating lamp. its quite amuseing to hear them cherping at like 10 at night while one runns around the box with the prized bugg in beak! i took them out side yesterday - for the first time they where on the gass and kinda looked at me like "what the hell is this?!?" and i took some photos (on FB) of them. every time i put the diggie cam down they ran over to it and pecked it! so cute. they still get time out in the kitchen while the dogs locked up. tilli spent some time on my lap last night watching bones. the old man next door told me if i handled them too much i'd "kill them" but they seem to be doing really well. seeing as three out of the four, by rights should be dead as they where the 'weaker' ones! oh well.
now i'm off to draw up plans for the new chook shed and sort out where i'm going to plant some new shrubs for them to hide in!
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Hye ladies HERE are a few pics of the new girls - i did have a question with the silkies though - 2 of them seem to have the nice dark 'dangly' bits on the sides of their beaks but 1 doesn't... are these dangly bits part of their''combs' - see i really am a novice.
I can see a big difference in the combs of our new girls compared to our old girls in that they are a deeper red and are not floppy at all, i keep forgetting to get pics of our old girls now to compare to when we got them.
The new girls really are quite big compared to the old ones, i've let them all in together this morning so hopefully they have fought out the pecking order and are all being friendly now, will be letting our girls out soon and leaving the new girls to play inside alone.
Our current perch is about hip height on me so probably a little too high for them, i will add the little ladder and mabe run some bars off the sides for the silkies.
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You are doing the right thing - that's about all you can do - lots of massage to break up the mass that's in there. There are surgical methods but I wouldn't like to try them.
One of our girls has an impacted crop..
Suggestions?
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SJen&zf - my girls freerange all over our.property...and the.paddoc next door and have been.known to go out onto the nature strip and next door. And drink out of the fish pond too.
Afm fuzzbutts are doing well they have grain and bugs. Im looking at making a play pen for them so they can.spend some time.forageing. Any one know when I can.let them.roam with/roost with my.chooks?
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Dansta - i saw on FB your going to start letting the fuzzbutts out in the play pen?
Well we got 2 eggs in 2 days so either another girl is laying or 1 of the girls is ramping up her efforts, the girls are still so excited about finding eggs and caring for the girls, it's quite nice to watch them.
All 9 girls are out free ranging during the day now, i find the silkies tend to be in before the others and often as it's gotten dark i go down and they are alreayd inside waiting for me, otherwise they come running as soon as i open the gate.
DP has 2 big trailers in the paddock so i am wondering if we move it if there might be eggs under there, i don't really want to get down on hands & knees and check in case there is a snake under there.
All in all i think the girls are going well though and i'm happy they seem ok.
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