my fine feathered friends have been busy this week not sure if it makes a difference. But I have been leaving the eggs until the afternoon to collect and have been getting 4-5 a day (out of 8 chooks). I love collecting them and they have laid them in two nests within their coop.
jules.,
Sep 13, 11:00pm
welldone tjc30! its so rewarding! i did a run round the neighbours yesterday with eggs for everyone. we are getting so many now, im not sure what to do with them :)
jules.,
Sep 16, 5:45am
woohoo, we have 1 broody lady, so im hoping to get some SLW eggs to put under her on the weekend. hopefully we will get more girls this season!
jules.,
Sep 19, 3:16am
well, we got our fertile eggs today, i shifted 'clara' into the broody coop, and now she wont sit! i have left her with a couple of non fertile eggs hoping she will sit again. so fingers crossed this will work. any ideas are greatly welcome!
purplegoanna,
Sep 19, 4:31am
i spent all this afternoon unloading 2c mtrs' of lovely brown half rotted leaf/sawdust mulch into my new chook run, i couldnt fit the wheelbarrow in the entrance gap cause the new hen house was in the way so had to take it all in by banana box!now all i need to do is have a decent tm sale to get some $$ to buy my mesh gate and its done, ive sprinkled grass seed in there as well.i must say it was looking very plush for a chicken run. Ive got one light sussex chick in my brooder which im hoping turns into a girl so i can have 3 chickens as two chooks/2 eggs is enough but not quite enough if i want to bake.the nice man i give my roos too is going to give me a orp bantam in repayment.
jules.,
Sep 20, 2:09am
clara was sitting quite happily this morning when i checked on her. so i left her to see how she went, she was still happy this avo, so with the kids help we lifted her, took the non fertile eggs and replaced them with 7 fertile SLW eggs. i kept an eye and looks like she will be a good mummy! (touch wood, dont want to jinx it)
jules.,
Sep 20, 3:25am
do any of you sell your free range eggs! what do you charge!
antoniab,
Sep 20, 4:42am
We picked up 3 ex battery chooks (shavers) yesterday! :) They finally ventured out of their house today - dont blame them staying in there as the weather is rotten and they have bugger all feathers on their bellies poor girls. Any ideas how long it will take for them to settle in to being free range, grow all their feathers back and start laying! Cheers.
tinart,
Sep 21, 6:39pm
rats! have discovered some rats have made nest underneath the wooden floor of the chook house. it sits flat on the ground. and ideas on getting rid of them ! am worried they might attack the chooks or give them disease.i dontthink they can access inside of chook house.thought about bait to poison them but dont want chooks to get it while outside. ideas! also we will be moving house in month or so .is it better to have chook house raised off the ground when we get to new house and so avoid this again!
koru_designs,
Sep 21, 9:24pm
Re #373 Are you sure it's rats rather than mice! Both rats & mice will eat the chook food & spread disease but rats also attack chicks.so if you have young birds, keep a good eye out for injuries. Bait stations are less likely to work effectively if you have a lot of food lying round (because they won't eat the bait), so keep your feeder strung up on chain or similar & clean up around the feeder regularly. What you use is up to you.multi-dose poisons tend to be safer around kids & other animals but take longer to work & you run the risk of them dying under the floor (which will smell). But single dose poisons have a much bigger risk to pets. I personally prefer coops that are up off the ground (even if just by a couple of cms). It helps prevent the floor from getting wet & gives a bit of airflow under the coop.
purplegoanna,
Sep 22, 4:19pm
yes i agree with koru designs i cant believe how many chook house on here are made to sit on the ground, its so much easier to have them on legs/stilts then the rats have nothing left to live under, the best one ive seen was on legs and the legs had stainless sleeves to stop vermin climbing up and the chooks had to jump up/down about 1.5ft to get in & out of the hen house.she had no problems with vermin what so eva.
purplegoanna,
Sep 22, 4:22pm
and yesterday i put my hens into their new run and they have spent to whole time scratching around in the bark, dont know why i raked it out all neat & tidy theyve made giant holes & mounds everywhere, looks like a bomb zone! lol but theyre happy, had to physically put them into there hen house last night silly tarts obviously couldnt work out how to get into their new house. Yay gone are the days of me having to move their cooparound the lawn.
tinart,
Sep 22, 4:38pm
i dont have any chicks the hens are adults now - so would the rats ( if they turn out to be rats not mice) be able to harm them!i have four chooks. they are hylines so quite big. they have no qualms about pecking my cat if its stupid enough to get too close.
koru_designs,
Sep 22, 9:25pm
They might eat the eggs but are unlikely to attack a large hen - chooks are pretty good at protecting themselves. They will eat the food, though, & can carry parasites & diseases.
itsasnip,
Sep 23, 5:25am
Is this no. of entries a record in the gardening and DIY section!
tinart,
Sep 23, 5:31am
OMG! itsasnip! if it is i will be so impressed since its the first thread i ever started!
jules.,
Sep 23, 7:29pm
not yet :) the 'get growing campaign' thread is at 1279, and the 'beautiful rose ladies' thread is at 388. but this is a great thread! im really glad its still going, its a great place to get info and friendly people let you know what they are up to, so you get really good tips that you can try yourself :) lets keep it going!
tjc30,
Sep 25, 2:03am
all my 8 ladies are now laying first day today that there were 8 eggs.now Im going to start looking for recipies that use lots of eggs lol. I have really been enjoying eating fresh eggs. As the chooks have started getting healthier with no longer being in a cage. Their eggs are tasting better.I love the fact that their whites are so much thicker than shop bought ones which can be a bit runnier.
purplegoanna,
Sep 25, 3:14am
someones in a pip with me and not laying! i gave them a brand new run, rotted bark to scratch around in all the good things and one of the tarts has stopped laying!.im going to have the 'roast chicken' chat with them tomorrow.
jules.,
Sep 26, 4:21am
2 of my poor girls got attacked by a dog AGAIN today! 1 not so bad (but its her 2nd time now), but the other (our 6 babies Momma) got ALL her tail feathers and half way up her back torn out, she has a nasty gash/deep fleshy wound just on the curve of her tail/back, when she moves her tail its not nice and she keeps pecking at it. She seems fine in herself but is there anything I should do for the wound! I dont want it to get infected!
I wasnt home but my wonderful neighbours helped look for the girls when they all scattered and hid, 1 saw the lady at the neighbouring park call her scottish terrior or the like back and put it on the lead.shes bl*#%y lucky I got home just after it happened, I may have had an assult charge on my hands, I swear if she comes close again or even thinks of letting her dog get close I will get the shot gun out and they will really be in trouble!
jules.,
Sep 26, 2:49pm
help, as above!
jules.,
Sep 26, 6:16pm
how was the chat !:) may just take them a couple of days to settle back into a routine after their move. how are they going now!
purplegoanna,
Sep 26, 7:05pm
keep her somehwere clean and dust free, you really want to let the blood dry and crust over, make sure the flys dont lay eggs on her, dont put anything on it until its got a good seal of scab then you could give it a quick spray with savlon every second day, not enough to wet the area mindyou just a misting, some rescue remedy from the health shop would also be good in her water, can you not lock them up in a run when your not home.id be hopping blimin mad.
jules.,
Sep 26, 10:39pm
Thanks for that, I called the vet today and they said the same as you have. I had her locked in her rabbot cage with her babies over night, and was going to keep them in there for the day, but she kept pecking at the wound, so I thought if I let her out it would give her more to do than get bored and keep picking. And the vet also said I had done the right thing there. He said chooks are quite resiliant, they dont often got infections in their wounds, which is good to hear. I just have to hope she stops picking at it and the flys stay away! I have checked on her and its looking good, its starting to dry up. I have some of the rescue remedy so will put some in her water, what a great idea!
They all have a huge run that is fenced off, most of them stay in but a few can get over the top, which normally isnt a problem. But I had them all out yesterday while I was doing the lawns then popped out for 1/2 an hour so left them out. Thats when it happened.
I have just got home from work and let them all out for a run and scratch.
I called animal control today to see if there is anything I can do. He was not impressed and said if we can find out who it is she will be in big trouble for not having her animal on a lead etc, its a breach of the bylaws.heres hoping we can catch her!
purplegoanna,
Sep 27, 3:39am
fine and dandy after there breakfast i told them thyed end up being dinna if they didnt pull finga and by this after noon i had to warm brown eggs.ive got one chick in the shed & one smaller 4 day old one in the house, silly me made the mistake of keeping down my top last night cause of its cuteness.now its not happy unless its out with me or hubby!.arrgghh ive created a chirping monsta!.i did have him in my parrot brooder with a cockatiel chick im handraising but the tiel chick kept sitting on the poor thing! so hes had to go back to my chick brooder.and his teddy!
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