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

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vehve said:
Perhaps yeast would be a better comparison. All the alcohol fumes...

Ben, I hope everything is going well over there, you seem to be keeping busy.

Scott, another one for you:
Click to expand...
I do thank you Felix! Does that area get much sun? The last few pic's have all been overcast. I think that the last time I seen a bit of blue sky was back in the summer.
Scott
 
Sorry team, I have been awfully busy, but I can report in now!

As some may know I have been in training for my first 100 km foot race, which was held on ANZAC Day. We raised a bucket load of cash, and I am relatively happy with my result on the day. I had to travel interstate, fundraise and since being home I have been kept busy with work, family and recovery. More on that later though, first the CHICKENS!

We had been rather disheartened with illness recently, in the day old flock we were raising. I still don't know exactly what we were dealing with, but I am confident the bedding we had them on was contributing. The more time they were away from the brooder the healthier they (8) got. They have been on grass full time for a couple of weeks now and all but one symptom cleared. One little cockerel had a sneeze from time to time but that is no longer an issue either.

Our blue "Bell" is a girl, and she is a little fighter all the way. A few times I was ready to cull her and she pulled through, easily the family favourite being very affectionate. First there was Cocci, then the respiratory problem that included a swollen eye that would weep and bubble. Nearly two weeks ago she was well behind in body size and very light. We found she had a large squishy crop and would vomit if handled. I thought it was the end once again and I was half a day off culling her before we set off interstate as I didn't want her to die on our house sitter and kids. We vacated her crop a couple of times and added a little more AVC to the water and she has bounce back once again!

We returned home to the same amount of birds we left with, tons of feathers and they laid zero eggs while we were gone. Everyone has molted heavy this year.

After work yesterday I had been catching up on chores, moving the tractor, cleaning up poop and feathers.....oh so many feathers!

The cockerels (3) were culled before we left. A hard choice for me to make as they were good breeds, but I could not sell them and we were not going to keep them long term so I reduced the flock size before leaving.

We were left with 1x Blue Aussie, 2x Welsummers, 1x SLW and 1x FWM in the mini flock that is still segregated from the main flock.

Its been an exhausting chicken ride, hard on the decisions and the wallet but everything seems to be travelling well again. Sorry but I have not taken any pics of them, but I did download Alicia phone pics of the race!

As for my race, it was supposed to be a 100km trail race in Sydney, but in the days before the race Sydney had some terrible weather, and the race was changed to a lap race around a gravel showground park. 155 laps of a 646m cambered track. It was a different kind of hard! I ran really well in the first half, but ultimately made some poor choices which cost me. I dropped from 5th overall to 10th (7th male) in the last 30k. Finished in 10 hours 21 minutes. I wanted to go under 10 hours but I am happy with a top ten placing.



A pano shot of the surface


 
Grats on an EXCELLENT finish! that's awesome! A valid reason to be proud. Especially since it changed from a trail race to a gravel track lap race! What a huge difference that makes! Glad the chooks are all doing better. Good to have you back.
 
Great job Ben, good to hear that you were slogging it out on Anzac day. I'm glad your little
' Bell ' is on the mend. I just got back from Sydney too. It rained from Sydney to dubbo and all the way back. Our little songbird is loving your weather.
 
Nice to hear it's going well. That track looks like a comfortable surface to run on, but I think sometime around the 78th lap I might start to get a bit bored with the scenery...
tongue.png


Bell sounds like she's inherited your toughness.
 
Congrats on your race Ben! You would think that they could find a slightly longer track for you guys to run around considering the length of the race though. You must be enjoying all your free time now that it's over. : )
The chicks are looking good, especially the wellies.
big_smile.png
Nice that they are a bit different & so easy to tell apart.
 

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