Recent content by WombatChook

Quick update on the egg situation here: no eggs yesterday, although she did hang out in the nest box for a while, but this evening she stood in the corner of the yard and laid one. It appears to have broken inside her, but yolk, white and shell all accounted for. Shell softer and thinner than...

That's quite curious, then. 🤔 The weather in Melbourne has been cooler and more unpredictable than average, and the timing of their feather loss/moult did seem weird because I presumed they'd get sunburned or something. We don't use supplemental lighting, sunrise is currently close to 7:30am...

She's about 20 months, and after a couple of weeks of looking decidedly scruffy she's soft and glossy again. I thought the summer moult was due to their age (the oldest one is 2 years now), and the weird weather we're having in AU, but I really don't know. Hopefully it's not a reproductive...

Hi all, I have 3 isa brown hens, that usually lay light brown, sometime speckly eggs. They have all been going through various staged of moult over summer. Two have continued laying despite the moult, and have been giving me eggs every 2 days. The third chook stopped laying for a couple of...

Thanks for the replies! The flock started out with Rocky/Sparkle and Pippi/Steggles paired off, but over the last few months (in hindsight, it was probably when Sparkle started to get sick) it switched to Rocky/Steggles - the prolific layers - and Pippi started hanging out with Sparkle more. I...

Hey all - been a while since I posted here! A couple of weeks ago, we lost one of our chickens (Sparkle, also known as the World's Most Expensive Chicken thanks to vet fees!) to (hidden for potential health trigger ) She'd been unwell for a little while, but while we did everything we...

Update:. We let Sparkle out of Broody Jail on Friday afternoon, and she was back to normal. Has not started laying again yet, but hasn't gone back to sulk on the nest either. I'm keeping an eye on two of the others because they're in nesting mode, throwing sticks at their back , and one did...

Thanks for the feedback. We'll see if we can turn the cage over tonight so she is more exposed. As it is at the moment, her cage is outside with the rest of the flock during the day, and the weather is relatively cool, so hopefully that will assist in her cooling her jets. Thanks for letting...

Thanks - I managed to boot her out of the nest and coop altogether (after the other 3 had laid), but she was a cantankerous fluffball attacking the other chooks. So I've put her in Chicken Quarantine / Broody Jail ( a largish chick cage like this...

My dramatic chicken, Sparkle, has gone broody. She has taken over one of the nesting boxes (the popular one, of course), and sits. And sits and sits and sits. And swears like a seagull any time the other chooks come near. The problem is, I don't want her broody. She's only just gone back...

I have 4 pullets in my backyard. (We did have cockerels, but they were rehomed due to suburban ordinances). They're all clearly pullets, and they all lay eggs. Late last year, our then-boss pullet (Sparkle) got sick and was given medication to pause laying while she recovered. When she was...

Thanks :) I think we'll all miss the goofy little guy, but hopefully it won't take the girls long to adapt

When we got our chickens, we ended up with 4 pullets and 2 cockerels. About 6 weeks ago, I rehomed the louder, more dominant cockerel. The second one has come into his own, and is a delight in the backyard (loves skritches, and has never been agressive ever) - except I live in suburbia, and...

I have two 7mo old pullets and two 5 month old ones. One of the 7 month olds has had her egg production paused due to illness. The other 7 month old consistently lays double yolkers, a couple per week. One of the 5 month olds has started laying 2 eggs per morning, no more than two hours...

4 this morning. From 3 layers. 🤔 One goes back into the nest box after *an hour* or so and sits until she's laid her second egg. The first time she did it, it had no shell (and I was envisioning another vet trip 🤦‍♀️), but since then shes popped out two perfectly formed eggs each day.