Post by chookchook on Nov 2, 2008 21:01:42 GMT 8
Hello everybody. It's been lovely to find a local chookie forum, and as a rank amateur you can expect lots of questions from me!
I'm a Mum of 3 with hubby living on the suburban outskirts of the Swan Valley. We built and moved to our 4 acres about 2 1/2 years ago, and became the proud parents of 5 little 8 week old chickies last May. One is a little fluffy footed black bantam, the other 4 were assorted crossbreeds. Although we bought them as layers, one turned out to be a rooster. Glorious looking, glorioiusly noisy and insanely randy - he departed this good earth a couple of months ago, and in the words of Forest Gump, das all I has to say 'bout that.
Our remaining band of 4 started laying 7 or so weeks ago- our big fat black one is an "olive egger", just to add variety. Our bantam has been stubbornly broody for a few weeks now, so dear hubby is now building an extention on the chook pen so we can try our hand at hatching some fertilized eggs. Big fat black chook also went broody yesterday, so are looking at getting a broody cage to try and snap her out of it.
And to add to the mix we bought 3 moth-eaten 16 month old ex-battery hens a fortnight ago. Wow - have they stirred up the pot! Our placid little crossbreds have been learning the concept of pecking order from the aggressive little brown girls. But what a joy to see the battery girls learning to stretch,scratch and dustbathe. For a couple of days we had them laying on the ground, but have not had any eggs from them in a week. I have a suspicion though that one of them might be an egg eater, as I did find a broken shell a couple of days ago.
We have a super enthusiastic German Shepherd Dog, so the chooks don't get to roam the yard, but seem to be happy in their pen. We have a huge vege garden, so there's no shortage of interesting cuttings for them to scratch through all day long.
Wow, turning into quite the novel - I'll end it here for now!
cheers,
Jane
I'm a Mum of 3 with hubby living on the suburban outskirts of the Swan Valley. We built and moved to our 4 acres about 2 1/2 years ago, and became the proud parents of 5 little 8 week old chickies last May. One is a little fluffy footed black bantam, the other 4 were assorted crossbreeds. Although we bought them as layers, one turned out to be a rooster. Glorious looking, glorioiusly noisy and insanely randy - he departed this good earth a couple of months ago, and in the words of Forest Gump, das all I has to say 'bout that.
Our remaining band of 4 started laying 7 or so weeks ago- our big fat black one is an "olive egger", just to add variety. Our bantam has been stubbornly broody for a few weeks now, so dear hubby is now building an extention on the chook pen so we can try our hand at hatching some fertilized eggs. Big fat black chook also went broody yesterday, so are looking at getting a broody cage to try and snap her out of it.
And to add to the mix we bought 3 moth-eaten 16 month old ex-battery hens a fortnight ago. Wow - have they stirred up the pot! Our placid little crossbreds have been learning the concept of pecking order from the aggressive little brown girls. But what a joy to see the battery girls learning to stretch,scratch and dustbathe. For a couple of days we had them laying on the ground, but have not had any eggs from them in a week. I have a suspicion though that one of them might be an egg eater, as I did find a broken shell a couple of days ago.
We have a super enthusiastic German Shepherd Dog, so the chooks don't get to roam the yard, but seem to be happy in their pen. We have a huge vege garden, so there's no shortage of interesting cuttings for them to scratch through all day long.
Wow, turning into quite the novel - I'll end it here for now!
cheers,
Jane