Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Must be the angle I'm looking at . I see a kangaroo.

Goose looking right in my opinion.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Goose looking right in my opinion.

Haha, it's like laying in the grass and looking at the pretty shapes in the clouds. My husband never could see what I was seeing. Imagination.

 

[vehve]

Haha, it's like laying in the grass and looking at the pretty shapes in the clouds. My husband never could see what I was seeing. Imagination.

Or prescription pharmaceutical substances

Now I'm going to bed, need to fetch some timber from the cottage tomorrow.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Lol I'm heading out to give the chooks their brekky.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hi team, just a real quick note. I am alive, I am way behind and I didn't even get to run. I have been away cramming in a heap of 'mates rates' reno's ina small country town.

I have much to read and quote but I will quickly like to say thanks for the badge and the warm welcomes. Thats as far as I could get. I need a hot shower and some home cooked food then be back to catch up, quite a few posts to read, and even a bit of news to share too.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hi team, just a real quick note. I am alive, I am way behind and I didn't even get to run. I have been away cramming in a heap of 'mates rates' reno's ina  small country town.

I have much to read and quote but I will quickly like to say thanks for the badge and the warm welcomes. Thats as far as I could get. I need a hot shower and some home cooked food then be back to catch up, quite a few posts to read, and even a bit of news to share too.

I was starting to worry about you Ben. Been waiting to give you a

 

[vehve]

Glad to hear you're okay, Ben! Shower and eat and then start typing away

 

[Bens-Hens]

Woohoo, Veera laid an 30g egg in the morning, and I just heard a bit of an egg song coming from the coop and went to check, what do I see? Viiru exiting with a very puzzled look, and a beautiful 33g egg in the nest!

The culprit.


And her end product (no pun intended). It's the one in the middle.

So I can now say, that we have laying chickens!

Plural! Thats some great news, won't be long and they will grow in size and frequency! Hi five to your flock

@Bens-Hens & @Fancychooklady

congrats on your awards!!!

nice badges

Thanks, I forgot all about the nominations. I nominated Fancy, so glad she got one too!

Congrats Ben & Fancy! It looks like your shiny badges go on your older posts as well.

Thanks, I hardly earned it lol Must have just talked the right amount of chicken hahahaha

How exciting! We're acquainted with BYC royalty

Congrats to both of you!

**Snort** Royalty hahahaha, took me a couple of days to find out!

Cheers K.....taking the royalty thing a bit far there lol Hi fives all around hahahaha.

Lol, bens really making me hold out for this

Yeah sorry!

Ben is really neglecting us now. We need our dose of Australia based chicken entertainment!

Either he's out scoring unicorn eggs to put in his incubator, or then he has finally found the Mondeo of his dreams and is finalizing the deal. Unless he's running around the continent again.

I was on a loooooong run ti find those unicorn eggs, failed and then had another looooong run home again. I am getting sick of thinking about Mondeo's, you can add sick of car yards to the list too.

Option 3 - school holidays and the boys have finally sent him over the edge.

High on my list, must be the age of the boys, but they have been very trying these holidays. I am sure the neighbours think my youngests name is "Rileyno"

I think he's gone on one of his looong runs. So I'll just leave this here while he is away.

http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/a-non-runners-guide-to-runners/

I have not been able to read it all, but I have saved it for later....and sharing with my other bat poop crazy running buddies!

Well, since we aren't getting anything out of Ben, it is apparently my job to keep the discussion going.

How much water do your chickens consume? We have a small half liter container in the run, which barely gets touched. I check it several times a day, but usually I'd say they only consume about 3-5 dl out of it daily. They do drink a bit out of the dog bowl in the yard, but that's even less. Maybe 1 dl. The nipple waterer inside the coop is only really used by Virpi (She goes in to eat and drink a couple times a day, while the others just stick to free ranging. She's our pig, and has found a way to spread around feed from a no waste feeder, but luckily the others clean most of it up before going to bed). We do mix about a 0,5-1 liter into their mash, but they don't always finish that either. So are they really just taking care of their water intake by free ranging? I'm reading stories about people going through gallons of the stuff daily with a dozen of chickens, while ours don't seem to drink anything at all. You ozzies might not be the best demographic for this question with you sauna-like climate, but maybe the Merkans have some input in case the down underers don't. How much should 8 chickens actually drink in a day?

We have two 10l tubs of water, in heat they run low in the afternoon and get filled daily, ACV gets added every second day. In the cooler times like now they last our flock a couple of days, I usually change it due to needing a clean as they fill one with sand as they dust bath close by.

A merkan may get a liter or ml but dL will stump most.

If your chickens are not running out of water each day then they are getting enough. That's the best measure. If they are free ranging they may get most of their H2O needs without you realizing it

I have just recently found this with a 'found' chicken I called Newy, more on Newy at the bottom of this post.

Glad to hear you're okay, Ben! Shower and eat and then start typing away

....and here I am, not going to have time to touch base with the other threads I have to catch up on, will do that tomorrow.

Long story short, I have some friends who's father passed away some time ago, they have been dealing with the estate, and the house has not had much interest. It's a 'fixer-up-erer' located in a small town down south.

They asked if I could go down with the husband and have a look at a hole in the bathroom, maybe paint it if we get time. TUrned out to be a bit of an understatement. The floor was a hardwood floor, turned out the hole was extensive rot from lack of drainage. The lot of to be removed, a new floor made, sanded and painted before trekking back home. It's not prefect, but it's safe and far better than what was there.

I didn't get one of the old rotten floor, but imaging it not looking much better than this.


I have no idea how the bath had stayed where it should, everything under it was rotten.


New floor with a drain, repaired the bath and frame, shelf, trim work and painted it all up perdy. Once the walls are dry we will treat the jarrah and it's ready to go.




Back to the story of Newy.


We arrived at destination, had a look at the bathroom, a water leak and a few other little things, and I see what looks to me like a New Hampshire hen, strut her way past. The son in law is dumb struck "That does not live here!" I look around the yard, three hen houses and lots of holes in the gardens, the veggie patch was perfectly tilled. "Looks to me like she has been here for some time"

No food, no water, some old eggs under a bush but nothing fresh. A pile of droppings under a branch and not another chicken anywhere. I called her 'Newy' Partly due to my suspicion of breed, and also the gent I was with saying "Nah, she must be a newy" (Have to imagine the Aussie accent) She was friendly, and even found her in the house visiting me in the bathroom doorway.

I was secretly becoming attached. I struggled to get a better pic of her though, she first struck me as a RIR, but her collar was different, and the dark tail was a bit different too, although, I am no expert. Either way, she had finished a moult, and looked pretty stunning, although a little light for her size.

I considered taking her home, but when I heard the neighbours flock egg singing this morning I thought better not to risk taking a strange bird home, and gave her to the neighbours before packing up for the trip back home.

On arrival home, I found our girls had been laying a storm, 7 eggs the first day and another 6 today. We are getting close to our record!

Early start tomorrow, more training, no rest for the wicked.....

 

[CB and CG]

Congrats on the badge Ben!
Looks like u have had a very busy last few days. I have a feeling Newy is a 'he' and not a she. I see some rooster feathers.... I could be completely wrong as I'm looking at a small pic on my iPhone but feathers look rather pointy and shiny.

Edit****
Actually on closer inspection I might be talking utter garbage but it's difficult to see. I'm just seeing the shine on the saddle and a curly tail feather. I would probably disregard this post to be honest haha.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Thanks CB, was a definite she, but from that angle those shiny feathers are hard to look past. In 3 days no crows were heard either.

Definitely a full grown girl, and had some stunning colour. I first thought RIR but she has greeny black tips around the collar, and a greeny black tail. I will try find a NH pic that resembles her.

Similar to this one, but the collar tips were a bit darker.