Chooks

[Seaweed]

yay! :elephant::banana:a chook forum :D

What type of chooks does everyone have? I've probably got about 20 all up along with one Indian Runner duck hen. My other one died :( I've got a pet welsummer roo who is like a big feathery teddy bear. He looks like the roo on the kellogs cornflake packet & has the most melodious crow. He looks after my pet hens & cluckies. My pet hens are a mixture of different pure breds with the exception of one silkie banties cross. I think I've got in there a silkie, an araucana, a silver laced wyandotte, a couple of welsummers & a few dorkings with show faults. Then I have the dorkings which I breed. The roo is positively unpleasant. He is genetically unique so I have to keep him. He has a flock of a couple of dorking of hens & pullets. Finally we've got Tam who is dd2's pet dorking hen, the south island champion of 2006 no less. She is quite aggro as well but dd reckons she only pecks when she is happy ;)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I don't know what breeds mine are, but here are some photos. This is Roadrunner:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f71/Angladrion/RR.jpg

This is pied:


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f71/Angladrion/pied.jpg

This is Nero, broody:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f71/Angladrion/nero.jpg

Elise and Nicole with their heads up, and Jessica with her head down. Miss Nosey is noseying elsewhere.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f71/Angladrion/CNV00013.jpg

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Peter is building a new henhouse for me. We got away with it last year, because they were point of lay, but this year, if it's as cold as last year, and they moult in May/June we will be in trouble. So this new henhouse will be a recycle job. the specifications have been given, but what the results will actually be is another matter.

[deesalie]

We're still working on our chicken tractor :eyeroll:

But I think we'll end up just getting the standard Isa Brown hens. We've got a great organic chicken farm close by which will give us a couple of "older" birds... ie 18mths which is when they apparently lay less than is commercially viable

[Serephina]

MT they are lovely :)

[Wonder-Full]

I have 3 bantams so I can get around the council bylaws by having a chicken tractor rather than full henhouse with concrete floor. Apparently they are still classed as pets (which they are) this way.

I made my tractor from some bamboo I chopped down on my property and cable ties, had DH attach some chicken wire and done. Super easy and is still standing after 18mths.

My littlest girl is broody at the moment (her 2nd time in 4 months!). She snaffles the eggs that the other 2 lay until I collect them. At least she no longer attacks me and I can take her off the nest to eat and drink a few times a day. They free range whenever I'm at home, but I shut them away when we're out and at night time.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Can you put up photos? Roadrunner is broody for the second time in four months as well. The light brown one, called Boss, hasn't been broody at all. Pied was broody for 8 weeks, and I got a bit brassed off with her. But I use broodiness as an excuse to cuddle, talk with them, (clip one wing), as mine are flyers and if I don't, they get into the vegetable garden....and retrieve any eggs :D

The problem with our henhouse was that it was originally a hawk muse, which is fine for hawks. it was constructed with two tree trunks going up through the roof, which again, is fine for hawks. but not only does it get wet, it gets damp, and with hens moulting, they do need dry warm quarters. We enclosed the muse last winter, but that will not work this winter, so we are taking it down, and re-using it to make a tractor.

I've asked for a bottom part, on which the middle part sits, with two nesting boxes, and a gabled roof, which I want to be able to be lifted off in it's entirety. I want a sliding drawer under the perches, which I can fill with 2 inches of macracarpa sawdust, so that when I poopscoop, sawdust goes in the compost with poop.

My husband said, "You're not asking much are you?"

My reply was that I also want inset lift up doors on both short ends with mesh inside the first door, which can be lifted up a bit to allow air to circulate in the summer.

His eyes nearly dropped out on that one. I drew him plans, but he said that I would get what I get.

Shrug.

[Wonder-Full]

Hmmm, photos.

Will need to hunt out my tractor photos but think they are long gone along with the dead laptop. Must take more.

The only ones of the chickens I seem to get are them dust bathing in my potato patches or all squished into the nesting box on top of each other.

I had some lovely photos of my original 3 (1 sadly died last summer after being broody and I suspect dehydrated from being on the nest too much the other was killed by my neighbours dog about 4mths ago 2wks after getting my 2 new girls)but all on old laptop too but i'm sure saved somewhere on DVD. So we're back to 3 again.

[Tici]

Thought I would resurrect this one - as I have chickens !!!! :) :chick::chick:

We moved here to our new place in June last year and it has a lovely huge chook pen out the back so I could not wait to get chooks.

I have 2 leghorn x australorps -I bought them at the local pet produce place as chicks and they're my favourites.

I have 5 ex. battery isa Browns who've come here for the good life.

And then there's the 7 bantams - they are so unfriendly aren't they ?

I can pick any of the others up no problems but the bantams are so darn flighty. I inherited these from my parents who were getting rather slack about building them a bigger and better chook pen.

One of the bantam mums is extremely broody and was sitting on everyones eggs all. the .time. We couldnt get near our fresh eggs!

She longs to be a mum again (she moved here with her 3 chicks) so the other night we put some fertile eggs underneath her that we got from a friend and moved her to a separate enclosure and she's happily sitting on them.

These eggs are from a bantam Rooster who's been mating some Isa browns so it will be quite interesting to see.

I didnt know anything about chickens when I started and I am learning so much. I could watch them for hours! I put them all in together at separate stages and they all fought and carried on for a day but the pecking order is all sorted now.

It's not all eggs and laughter thouugh is it ? Takes quite a bit of work this chook keeping. And money for the organic feed.

Here's some pics - the bantams ran away ...

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u341/Tixy79/th_TicsIphone150.jpg (http://s518.photobucket.com/albums/u341/Tixy79/?action=view&current=TicsIphone150.jpg)

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u341/Tixy79/th_TicsIphone149.jpg (http://s518.photobucket.com/albums/u341/Tixy79/?action=view&current=TicsIphone149.jpg)

[Tici]

How is everybody elses chooks going ??

[Seaweed]

i havent got any chooks atm as where i am living there are ferrets and stoats. i do think about it but then i remember how much hassle it is already to go away with the animals. i think for it to be financially viable you need to be able to free range them lots and avoid passengers.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Lovely photos Tici, I looked at them all. Nice garden too. I have a new pekin bantham and she is so friendly. So not all banthams are skitty.

Seaweed, one of the advantages of living in suburbia is that stoats and ferrets are two things I dont' have to worry about. Rats maybe, and other people's cats. But not ferrets and stoats.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Lovely photos Tici, I looked at them all. Nice garden too. I have a new pekin bantham and she is so friendly. So not all banthams are skitty. Seaweed, one of the advantages of living in suburbia is that stoats and ferrets are two things I dont' have to worry about. Rats maybe, and other people's cats. But not ferrets and stoats.

[Tici]

The first 2 are my backyard with the Chooks roaming , but the lovely garden and veggie patch is at my parent's house.

I must post some pics in another thread of mine.

My DD was only 1 and a bit there so that was 3 years ago.

3 of my broody bantam's chicks I have raised since they were little and I have never been able to get anywhere near them. They are called Indian .. something ? .. I can't remember.

[Seaweed]

indian games? i've not really had a problem ever with cats or rats. i have a friend tho who used to have a hedgehog come and take chicks at night. actual i know 2 ppl that has happened to. possums could prob be an issue too but they have been all trapped near us. and the odd stray dog or not so stray in the case of my dog lol he still has that teen pup exhuberance so given the opportunity he will pick them up and bring them to me without hurting them but ppl do tend to headless chicken about it.

[Tici]

Just googled the Indian Games and no they don't look like them. Ill post up pics when I can.

I thought cats wouldn't go for chickens as chooks will put up a good fight ? My cat isnt the lease bit interested in them. We have a possum in our chicken coop most nights, too, who doesn't seem to be a problem.

[Seaweed]

www.feathersite.com (http://www.feathersite.com) i think by memory has some awesome chicken pics. i've had cats that will go and get ozzie crows but never bother chooks. chicks maybe but not full grown birds. my reasoning on possums was based on their activities with our native birds. i've not ever personally had an issue with them despite having lived where there has been the odd possum.