Poultry Keeping General Discussion #2

I'm getting three from three most days now which is very exciting for DS (that's his job), even though it's seriously freezing here of a night.

HOWEVER, they are driving me crazy!! Despite heaps of scraps and the right amount of pellet they are eating everything!! Any grass that hadn't been frostburnt, every plant down to the roots, vegies destroyed....etc etc. THey have a yard up the entire side of the house but they can get over the fence despite wings clipped. I've tried making the top of the gate wobbly with soft mesh but they still fly over it!!!
I need to grow veges as the cost of them up here is just stupid.
Help!

My girls have the front yard and the veggies are in the back, with a house in between! Lol They destroy my plants otherwise. On the plus side, when I (occasionally remember to) weed, they demolish whatever I take out, so not much need for the green bin. They also keep the lawn and weeds under control where they roam.

My issue is the mess they make on the front step, particularly if it rains (they shelter at the front door). But I figure they're worth it. ;)

Kim - We're starting to grow veggies here too and from chicken keeping in the past I know how much damage they do if you dont protect them very well!! So they will be fortress protected over here :)

Have two new girls today, so four in total, three of which are Isa Browns. We've been so lucky with great chooks, very healthy, very tame and eggs in under four weeks when we were told around 6-10 weeks. The chook lady's daughter apparently likes playing with all the chickens and carries them around lol so we get very friendly chooks :)

Ohh Kelly i would love to know where your getting your chooks from - i'm thinking i would like to add to our lovely bunch.
I was really hoping to say to Dp wait until near x-mas and i would LOVE to get some chicks and let the girls raise them, at the moment though it's FREEZING over night here and don't have anything setup, come summer though in the glorious weather we could setup somewhere for them inside & out (away from our big dog) and watch them grow.

At the moment we are getitng a few eggs still despite the cold, we had about 2-3 weeks where we were getting 5-8 eggs every 2 days (with 8 chooks thats pretty good i think) and we had to give some away, i still have quite a few but after cleaning out their 'hotel' we are back down to 2-3 every 2 days.. but they normally go a bit funny sometimes after we've been in and changed the nesting boxes around.

Going away next weekend so the gorgeous HotI is on egg duty - watch her get about 8 eggs in 1 day while we are away :p

ZF - mine are inside (the three that are left :wall: ) and even summer they'd need to be under a lamp for at least 16-20wks as they dont have "warm" fethers untill point of lay (or near to) according to my neighbour. we have ours in an play pen in the kitchen with a tarp on the floor that gets hosed down once a week.

we have 3 mottly crew left - thanks to Vic and his "cuddles" so no more chicken cuddles for him!! but they're cheeky as! if you lived next door to me you'd hear "Boof IN elle IN star IN Sparrow OUT monkey OUT lucky OUT" almost every time the door opens! chooks down the back are starting to lay too but i need to make some temp. covers for some of the boxes as mine seem to like some privacy to laying. which shouldnt be too hard.
we did lose baby girl and Little S a few weeks back - the cold did it i think but i also dont know how old they where.

I saw some Gunie foul listed on a local buy/swap/sell group and was tempted to talk to DH about them - they're noisy like gard birds but look soo cute and apparintly scare off snakes? we'll see. i cant wait til we have *all* the chooks in the back yard..more people in the house than animals for the first time in like 8 months LOL

I would never get guinea fowl again! Happy night when the fox got it.

Just spent a wad load of money on a new incubator, so now we can start the breeding program for the Fav's. Hope it is worth it, but the old incubator was no longer doing the job properly.

ZF - shoot me an email and I will give you her number. Couldn't be happier with our chookies! Double yolker this week too :)

We have 5 chickens, but 2 got chased out of the pen by my cat today! Grrrr
I hope I can find them or they come home. Poor chickies

Well DH has made them a fortress. They cannot get out of their own yard. They were pretty cranky the first few days and I only got one egg per day for 3 days. Went in the next....and got 6!
They don't even try to get out any more. They've also been eating way more greens then they did before which I'm glad about. They used to turn their beaks up at them lol. DS took a couple of barrow loads of sand in to them today. Not sure who was more delighted - the 3yo little boy and his barrow being helpful or the chooks lol. Back to getting 3 from 3 a day. I've given loads away.

Guinea fowl are sooo noisy Dansta. Friends of ours have a couple. They are good guard dogs though.

Ooooh an incubator Astrid...cool.

Thanks kelly, will do - whats the e-mail addy?

Ours girls are upset about something as i'm getting 1-3 eggs every 2 days now, sometimes when i clean the hotel they slow a little so will see how they go.
Might just be getting a little cold again.

ZF - kelly@

Have you tried making them mash for winter?

I just found this thread.

We are going to buy some chickens soon. We don't have anything yet and are scouring the web for ideas. So please: any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Did any of your make your own coop or, did you buy one?

i wouldnt mind some noise - let me know when my annoying old neighbour is comming around! we're not in-in town but we are. we're in town as in the pubs on the corner but farms surrounding us - can you eat guinefowl eggs? hmmm

I have to get some kind of way of holding down the chook run wire down the bottom. they keep scooting out - i think i'll get some of that half hight chook wire and double up the bottom and put some over the door way so they cant fly out. and no foxes get in - i saw run up the paddoc next to ours at like 10am the other morning...and one was there the other night too...but my chooks where locked up, thank-fully!

out of the 12 chooks i have down the yard i get 2-3 eggs aday - but im not sure of their age or anythying (other then dusty the rooster who'll be a year old come NYE) but im not overly worried.

Ohh ZF there is a chook place in coldstream that have hatchlings - POL chooks thats where my mottly crew came from, which from memory is near-er your neck of the woods then mine. if you google it they'll come up.

Cass, there are stacks on eBay - cheaper than ones you can see in stores. Due to time restraints we just bought one there but plan to expand it now. :)

We bought ours online too. Not much choice locally for us as we are remote. My DH isn't the greatest handyman and we only have limited time with him home so one we only had to assemble was the best choice for us.
Our girls prefer to sleep on the roof of it though lol.

still here- our chooks are doing magnificantly!!
I get 3-4 eggs a day from our 4 chooks and the eggs are BIG and very yummy
we were lucky enough that our house came with a chook house so we only had to do maintenance on it to get it going again
Thinking of getting another couple of birds but dont want to upset our girls in the process as they are doing so well
they are so tame, happy and healthy chooks and dont wont to change that, but want more girls to share the love with lol
what experiences have you girls had bring new chooks into the mix?

also at the moment we have IsaBrowns but was thinking of getting some astrolorps or even some bantams
what experience has anyone had bringing another breed into a close bunch?
my girls are pretty close and all sleep together and hang together, so worried how outsiders would go?
any thoughts girls
i love me gals can you tell xxx

det my brood are a mix. all bantoms i did have two big red ones (lol dunno the breed) and we locked 'em up on their own for a week when we got them then let them out with the rest and they where fine. as long as they have plenty of roosting space shouldnt be an issue. they might have a tussle to start off with but once they have a pecking order sorted out they'll be fine. my two roosters still tussle - c0ckrell is always got fuzzy tail feathers from it. but its cute makes him look younger then he is, LOL

Isa Browns are notorious for picking on other breeds, so you might want to watch out for that if you add new ones. Ours have always taken a couple of days to accept a new Isa, but never done anything worse than chase it away.

jen my bantoms do that to each other. c0ckrell has fluzzy tail feathers thanks to dusty! the two i had wherent too bad. the mottly crew are isa's i think.

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Isa Browns are notorious for picking on other breeds, so you might want to watch out for that if you add new ones. Ours have always taken a couple of days to accept a new Isa, but never done anything worse than chase it away.

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We looked at getting a bantam or another type of breed and the pet shop told us that you should get even numbers in breeds to stop them being picked on. We didn't want 4 chooks though so we have stuck with our two Isa Browns.

Our girls are starting to slow on the lay atm. I think it is too dark for them and it seems that they were molting as there were feathers everywhere. We get anything from 0-2 eggs per day, so still getting something which is great.

Cass - My DH built ours. It leans up against our existing shed and the back fence. DH just built a frame from treated pine (I think) and wired it up, put a roof on it and put a laying box in, a feed box & water bucket. The floor is a combo of hay and dirt. We give them a run out every now & then but we have a dog and he has to be kept a close eye on as her tends to have a go at the girls if you are not looking....

My chickens are so cute. Today I went out to check for eggs. Found two of them nesting together in the one box. They both laid at the same time in the one box.
My third girl has not started back yet, I suspect she is going to take a little longer due to her injury that she had. We are also thinking of getting a fourth chicken.
I want to go back to the guy we got these girls off as they are healthy and pure breeds. DH wants maybe an Isa Brown.

[QUOTE=*det*;3170710

also at the moment we have IsaBrowns but was thinking of getting some astrolorps or even some bantams
what experience has anyone had bringing another breed into a close bunch?
my girls are pretty close and all sleep together and hang together, so worried how outsiders would go?
any thoughts girls
i love me gals can you tell xxx[/QUOTE]

You can get bantam Australorps :D
Bantam is not a breed, its a size and most breeds have a bantam sized counterpart.
There are only a few breeds which are true bantams (they have no full sized version) Pekins and Belgiumsb are two that spring to mind.
Bantam Australorps wont be very small though, as a true full sized 'lorp is a very large bird. The bantams will likely be not much smaller than your ISA's.
Be aware that ISA's are very prone to being agressive to anything that doesnt look like them, they can be merciless with thier hounding. So what ever you get, make sure it is bigger than them and that you get at least two of them.
GL :)

I am looking at adding to our girls now that the weather is warming up a little - i have found a site on FB that i might buy from and get some girls just before POL, they can go in the seperate room in the chicken hotel but still be smallish enough for Miss A & Miss Z to watch them grow IYKWIM.

Girls are finally back on the lay - getting a couple of eggs a day and one of the silkies laid yesterday.. was the whitest egg i think i have ever seen.

Ours have done really well with laying this year given how cold and miserable this winter has been. The sunshine over Melbourne the last few days has really helped - they seem alot happier!

We got 4 eggs today ;)


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our chooks are back on the lay.
Miss Houdini is broody and on 11 eggs at the moment hopefully a neighbours son (plus his sister and his mum n dad LOL) will take any chicks they want to hand rear them so they can if they want to - DH has said NO MORE for a while non-stop chooks inside since march 1st LOL

But we have had one egg aday from another one of the girls. dunno which one though.

Awww I'd love baby chicks.


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Hi girls!

Today I put my 18 eggs into the incubator at 4:30pm to see if we can hatch our first eggs. I am very excited if you can tell!

I bought a chook tractor to keep the young chickens in when they get to a few weeks old, during the day, until my hubby and brother build me a hen house.

I have a brinsea incubator which I can see some post about online that ppl are happy with. I am borrowing it , so just hoping it works ok. I bought a dozen austrolorpe eggs and 6 Ancona eggs. They are off a local guy, so I went an picked them up. They are from show winning girls coincidentally, and very big healthy birds! Very beautiful too! I am hoping I will get enough, but I would like a few diff breeds if I can too.

So no doubt you will all hear me getting excited as hatching approaches!

Ps does anyone know when you begin counting? Ie is today day 1 cos I put them in today, or do I wait till 24 he's has elapsed to call it day 1?

Bella xx


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ooo bella that sounds fun!
but be mindful you may end up with a few boys in that bunch! (its near 50/50 sex split on eggs) enjoy them though! i love the little fuzzbutt babies (that said NOOO more in this house for a while! 7 months strait of it haha)

I have hudini sitting on at least 12 eggs and casper is broody over nothing, i did have smokey sitting on eggs but roosting tonight so i took the eggs. will be interesting to see how many hatch, i think i will sell them though - cant deal with a lot of baby chickens- again!

Dansta I think we would end up eating our roosters :). We can't keep them due to council laws and you are right that they could be 50/50. The guy I got the eggs off of, said he had had some 70/30, but yeah, either way there are likely to be boys.

What does everyone else do with their roosters?


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Sounds like so much fun, Bella! We loved having chicks, but I can't see us doing it again unless we lose both our girls at once.

Let us know when they hatch. Photos would be good!

We have had 5 faverolles hatch so far. Pretty good for two new girls and a boy. So atleast we know they are fertile. Just hoping a few more hatch and are just taking their time. Of course the cats are terrorising them by sitting on the incubator.

How cool Astrid! Jen I will keep you posted. I will try to link a photo here if I can do it with my phone :) 2878


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we have two roosters (in the middle of a rural "town") and we just let both go. no one cares we have a corus of rosters in the morning - even when cocrellhead goes off at 12.30am on weekends haha
hopeing to sell/give away any more chicks - if we kept of the eggs being sat on and roosters hatched our neighbour would make some chicken soup out of them

I will ask my neighbors as time goes on if I can keep one perhaps. Tbh, I reckon it will be my own hubby who will be the biggest pita about it.

So here's a question for you all in the know. When u t counting the days of incubation do you count the first day you put the eggs into the incubator as day1? Or do you wait till they have been in for a full 24 hrs and call that day 1? I am wondering because I want to candle the light eggs on day 3 for the light colored ones and then day 8 and 14 as well as 18. So how do I know when day 3 is? Also, when u do it, do you take the lid off the incubator and just pull them out one by one and leave the lid off in between? Or do u put the lid on and off each time? Do u make noted on the eggs? Do you move about their position in the incubator, or leave them in the same place?


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First day in the incubator is day zero.
You have about 20 minutes to candle eggs. I tend to take them all out (or out in batches if putting through a lot). Keep the lid on the incubator, keep the heat and the humidity in.
Sometime I mark the eggs, helps with turning, but with our new machine there is not much point. I sometimes mark what I think is viable or not, just out of interest for myself to see what hatches.
Don't really bother with moving about in the incubator.

For there last few days, do not move them, don't turn them at all. The chick positions itself to hatch and it can stuff things up for them to even move them a bit. When we stop turning, we take out the eggs and prep the incubator for hatching, then make sure we put them back the same way.

Thanks astrid! Very helpful.


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So does anyone else struggle with wanting to look at their eggs all the time? I candled my eggs tonight, cos they were day three. I wanted to see if I could see anything. I think I can! I can see a very small blob in about the centre of the yolk. I can also see the air sacs in all of them. On Some of them, around the little blob, I am pretty sure that I can see a small network of veins. I don't know how I am gonna wait another 18 days! Omg! Lol! I am not cut out for this!


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Bella I know the feeling. I have my first batch in at the moment but thank God the wait is almost over and I expect my first hatches on Wednesday. My temp has been all over the place however as has the humidity (what I get from using an ebay cheapie) I've got 5 light sussex due out soon and 24hrs later 12 orpingtons (what I am really waiting on) Ive now got 3 plymouth rocks eggs, 3 buff orpingtons, 2 brown leghorns, another 4 light sussex and 12 rhode island reds at day 6 in. Unfortunately alot are showing they are clear except the buff orpingtons which I am happy about as the last few I put in were all clear (they were the first eggs for the season but so wasn't expecting them to be fertile)

Once the first lot hit about day 5-7 I started candling them most nights. I had not done it before so was really keen to learn what I was looking for. The sussex eggs were the most advanced so they were the ones I candled the most for experience and all 6 were fertile and I now have 5 ready to hatch on Wednesday. I may have killed one or it could have died anyway I don't know but I cracked it open today and it looked like it arrested at about day 10 or 11. If you can see veins then I'd say you have chickens developing. At day 3 I found there was not much to see and some I thought were clear turned out to be developing normally.

Bella Im hoping to sell some of my roo's as the buff orpingtons are hard to get. I know of a few people searching for Roo's but the ones I can't sell I'll eat. I am going to buy one of those things of ebay (like a guilten) and just pray DH will kill them for me. Once they are dead I'm happy to do with gutting, plucking etc. I don't know how to do it so will have to get my parents or google lol. It solves 2 problems for us (the unwanted Roo's) and I worry about all the hormones shop brought chickens are fed. I know they are 6weeks of age when they are killed to eat which is just aweful when you think of how big a 6week old chicken is that is home grown. I guess I'll do them at about 6months and hopefully have some unhormone chicken. Probably wont taste as good as a shop brought one but surely they will be more healthy.

I'm actually really worried about loosing alot of chickens in the hatch. They have just gone into lock down but Ive read alot of stuff about drowning them with too much humidity or drying them out without enough. I sussex were just free eggs I was given but the orpingtons I'm really praying I have good hatch rates as I want them to breed from especially the buffs as thats what I prodominately have as really want some new bloodlines to add to my brood.

How many chooks does everyone have? I've got 19 including all my chickens. I don't have many adults just 2 trios. I'm currently restoring a coop which has 3 compartments and I want to extend it to make 6 pens so these new chickens can go in there once they get booted out of the house. My chooks are usually free range during the day but I lock them up overnight or when I go away.