we came home this afternoon after being out all day to find all but 2 chooks were out and had dug up all my strawberry garden! i grumpily put all the girls away and set too putting all the strawberries back in place, muttering under my breath. they are lucky its not roast chicken for dinner ;)
purplegoanna,
Jul 15, 5:20am
im proud to announce (to those who havent heard) heeny or penny laid an egg yesterday & an egg today.there first eggs eva & first of theseason.its very eggciting.even hubbys attempting to beat me to the nest to find the golden eggs.
jules.,
Jul 15, 5:38pm
I've switched my girls on to mash for the colder months to keep them warm. I mix it up with warm water so they have something to warm their tummies up. They love it. Its got to be nicer for them when its cold and wet than boring old pellets. They get plenty of scraps and silverbeet from the garden, they have also been getting the foliage from the brassicas I have been picking too, they make short work of that.
I managed to get the lawns mowed this past week so I tipped a couple of catcher fulls of grass clippings in to their run for them to scratch thru and I changed out their hay in their nesting boxes and left that and some fresh hay for them to scratch up too. Gives them something different to do :)
jules.,
Jul 15, 9:36pm
well done purplegoanna! its been a long wait, you deserve it! ENJOY!
shiyo,
Jul 16, 12:31am
mothergoose.thanks for that bit you wrote about what chooks use to be feed many years ago.I increased there food heaps, cooked rice, porridge, spud, pumpkin, wheat, cheap bread. You name it it goes into the pot.And put the self feeder back in for the winter. And they went back up to 8 eggs aday. So it does work. Even with moulting they have kept laying well. 10 hens and only dropped to 6 eggs for 3 or 4 days. There are 2 old girls that may not lay each day.
pamellie,
Jul 16, 5:27pm
Chook Chow I bought some yesterday and the chooks seem to love it already. However it's very damp, as opposed to the pellets which are dry. Has anyone had problems with it going mouldy before they get through the bag! 25kg is a lot of food to get through.
jules.,
Jul 16, 11:35pm
we had some, the chooks loved it. it is more moist than pellets or mash. it seemed to keep ok, we never had any problems, mind you, it was in warmer weather that we had it. but we dont get down warkworth way often enough to get it regularly. but if im passing thru i grab a bag. maybe just make sure its in a good dry place so it doesnt have the chance to rot.
chchpukeko,
Jul 17, 2:34am
Does anyone know of a supplier of POL hyliners anywhere around the ChCh area! I have about 12 shavers (plus a few other odds and sods) but am interested in seeing a comparison of the hyliners vs the shavers.
jules.,
Jul 17, 8:51pm
we just went and picked up 2 new hens :) my son decided thats what he wanted as part of his birthday presents :) so we found a lady close by that has to sadly sell all her stock and move house. he chose a beautiful large blue orpington and a lovely hyline. they are very happy and cruisey girls. we have them seperated from the other girls at the moment to give them time to settle in. we will let them all mingle at dinner time.
purplegoanna,
Jul 18, 12:42am
hubbys grandaughter came to visit today just as penny had laid her egg, miss 4yrs got to open the coop and get the warm egg out, we then brought it into the house wrapped it in bubble wrap put it in a gift box! complete with ribbon handle! and of she went happy as larry to take her egg home for tea!.it was soo cute.she thought it was great cause the chickens kept it warm for her.
jules.,
Jul 20, 11:24pm
thats so cute! little kids love collecting the eggs. mine have long forgotten the novelty, hehe :)
jules.,
Jul 23, 2:03am
ah, im a sucker, went to the pet shop today, and daughter talked me into getting another hyline hen (not that its very hard). shes lovely. that takes us to 10!
eigna,
Jul 24, 4:42am
I have 4 hylines, but sorry - wrong island for you.I had heard the hylines and shavers are very similar, a bit like oak and watties spaghetti.Not sure what difference there is - what have you heard for comparison reasons!
jules.,
Jul 24, 5:37pm
well, on our way to get timber etc, to make a new, bigger hen house to accomodate them all, hopefully they will start sleeping in it rather than in the trees!
jules.,
Jul 26, 10:47pm
bumping. back to the top :)
luteba,
Jul 30, 5:21pm
Egg! Egg! Got our first ever egg yesterday (found this morning) from one of our bantams, though I guess we'll never know which one.Very exciting.
jules.,
Jul 31, 10:59pm
YAY, very cool! We had 7/11 a few days ago, but average 5 a day at the moment :)
jules.,
Aug 1, 4:14am
bump. good thread to keep going, loads of info.
stompy,
Aug 3, 8:46pm
I consider myself very lucky I have had eggs all winter from my brown shavers just have 4of them for a while there I was getting 2 eggs a day but now its 3, lovely little girls they are perhaps it because I tell then that lol.
luteba,
Aug 3, 9:06pm
Had two yesterday!So hopefully now they've both come into lay.
peter148,
Aug 5, 7:34am
I got Hylines here in ChCH, they are friendlier than Shavers and lay better in my opinion.The 2 traders I have used are Dartymock and Sheeprus
jules.,
Aug 5, 8:58pm
If you have 2 chooks and 2 eggs in 1 day, they are both laying, woohoo! they only lay 1 egg each in a 24 hour period.
jules.,
Aug 6, 2:55am
What a handsome looking wee guy you have!
I have been giving my girls dog roll (not chicken type) for extra protein, they love it. I give them a 3rd of a roll cut up every few days for a treat.
We came home the other day to feathers everywhere, I told the kids to go inside and stay there till I called them out. I called and called, then found Milo in the corner of the section by the opened back gate that leads to the park/rugby grounds, she was covered in blood and missing a lot of feathers. I scooped her up and called for my Son to take her inside while I found the others that had run to safety at the neighbours place. From what I can work out, the gate was left open by my inlaws on Sunday after my Sons birthday party, a dog (let off its lead while being walked - a neighbour saw it go in the gate) came onto our property got her twice before chasing her over to the rugby field (more feathers there). I think the owner has possibly taken her off the dog and put her back in the gate! I can only speculate as there was no note left.
I can tell you that if I ever see a dog on MY section, I WILL SHOOT IT!
Milo is doing well. I have her in a rabbit cage to keep her warm and dry while she recovers. I have been putting Rawleighs ointment on her wounds :) Shes happy, talking, walking, even laying her eggs :)
stompy,
Aug 6, 6:52pm
Ooh hee is a lovely looking dude .I bet he knows it.
koru_designs,
Aug 6, 9:21pm
Jules.hope Milo recovers quickly. What an awful thing to have happened. Hopefully this will be a reminder to the inlaws to shut the gate behind them.
He's the sweetest wee boy. He used to ride on my shoulder (doesn't so much any more now that he's all grown up). And he's only around 30-35cm tall (if that) - too cute!
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