Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[MyHaven]

I hope all our Mothers and Cluckies have a wonderful day.

Cheers

 

[Fancychooklady]

That type work as well. I find them easier to manage. But pleas remember - a little at a time.

You see I tried these and still find plain old nail clippers more appropriate for the job.

 

[Teila]

Happy Mother’s Day To All The Pet Mom’s Too Because Pets Are Family

MyHaven good to read that all are fine after their health check yesterday morning.

Congratulations on the first eggs Chook Newby. I see you have had some great advice regarding Harriet’s eye and Sybil’s beak so I will just wish them and you the best and hope they are both fixed and good as new.

potato chip I see that your question regarding babies has been answered also. I will just add that none of my big gals, including Cilla eat or chase flies but with each of her hatches Cilla has used flies as an educational tool, catching them and feeding them to the bubs until they catch them themselves. But, as mentioned, once the lesson has been learnt, flies do not get eaten.

Cilla does not eat until after the bubs have. She will call them over, take out little bits and drop them for the bubs until they have worked out how to do it themselves.

ChristieB good to see you back. I was a single mum for over 10 years but just with one son. I know you have more than one and how hard single parenting can be. I am pleased that you have sought some help .. nothing wrong with that. As Fancy has mentioned, hopefully the selling of the house and a fresh start will help.

Anniebee OMG! Here I am, scrolling through and reading posts and all of a sudden there is the most adorable little puppy face looking at me! Sonya is beautiful

Update on LuLu .. she mooched around the garden yesterday with the flock. Again, no loss of balance or head jerking but still the occasional sneeze and while to anyone else she probably looks and acts OK, I can see that she is not 100%.

It does not help that she is not drinking the antibiotic water, that I can see anyway so we droppered some into her last night before bed. I am concerned that the dropper is not getting enough into her. However, we made the mistake of putting out some watermelon yesterday and because it was not hot, I think they all pretty much used that to rehydrate and stayed away from the water. Except for Blondie that is, she does not seem to mind it.

They all had a treat of yoghurt at lunch time.

Anyways, overnight poops were OK, colour is still good this morning and there are definitely no problems with her appetite

… no watermelon for them today and a close eye being kept on all.

 

[Teila]

I had to share this one!

While Blondie is not currently broody, who knew that putting the sign over the viewing door would make for such a good photo opportunity

 

[User395221]

So, I go outside to feed everyone and see a crow taking off from the chook yard with something in its mouth. What's THAT, I think, it looks like the clear water container from the budgies' cage (which is not outside). I think for a minute and realise that this crow has stolen a plastic pack of "thingies" from my new mousetrap. Luckily, most of them fell out and because they are bright green I didn't lose them all. It's bad enough that they hang around looking for food, but now they've started stealing my stuff! Enough is enough!

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Update on LuLu .. she appears just fine; no head jerking or shaking yesterday, no sneezing, back to normal. I still have no idea what was going on but truly grateful that she is OK.

potato chip Ah yes, those evil black *&%$#’s

As you might know, I have had an ongoing battle with them for a couple of years now and yep, if they can pick it up and it looks interesting they will steal it. I have found heaps of stuff that was on our outdoor table, under the gazebo ending up scattered around the garden.

They would steal bones from the neighbours' dogs and leave them in our driveway or garden.

They have not been as bad the last couple of months and this may have something to do with me making their life h#ll and Dusty bashing them up. I can hear them in the neighbourhood trees as I type but they appear to no longer be brave enough to land in our garden.

One trick I do think works is to not let them roost in your trees overnight. I built a long, thin, rod out of plastic tubing and a balsa rod on the end which would reach up into the trees. Each evening, I would go out and gently convince them that our trees were not a good spot to sleep.

 

[User395221]

Update on LuLu .. she appears just fine; no head jerking or shaking yesterday, no sneezing, back to normal. I still have no idea what was going on but truly grateful that she is OK.

I wonder whether she might have eaten something that she was sensitive to, some kind of poisoning?

Quote:
Well, after I witnessed the theft, the crow sat in next door's jacaranda and I saw him drop the packet. So the neighbours might find it in their yard. If it still has one of the "do-dads" in it, they'll wonder what on earth it is.... I have found lots of "stuff" in my backyard that I thought the little kids had chucked over the fence. Now I'm not sure it wasn't crow-carried.

I've only got one big tree now. I don't think they sleep up there, but there are trees at the neighbours' they could stay in. Otherwise, they just visit.

What I need to do is change the yard. I had intended integrating everyone, not having 2 chicken compounds. Now I'm stuck with 2, I want to cover the yard. At the moment, it's huge and uncoverable. If I make it long and narrow(er) I can stick some aviary mesh on top as well. It's no surprise that the crows like my yard because there are "pickings" to be had in the yard. I need to find some energy, or some money to get it done for me. sigh. I want a better house/arrangement for the yard/2nd compound, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, because the ultimate aim is to only have one lot of chooks, not 2. sigh. It's a bit of a dilemma. None of the "cheap" (none of these things is cheap) and easy options please me.... I'm thinking I'll just get a shed and make do with that. I've found a handyman who could make me something, but materials and paying for labour would still cost heaps....

Teila, did you cost your new "palace"? How many millions did the materials set you back, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm glad Lulu is better, I hope MyHaven's girls are also.....

 

[Teila]

Hey potato chip, yep, I had considered the possibility of some kind of poisoning. As mentioned before, the death of KiKi, the dead gecko and dead rat which may or may not have been killed by the trap hitting him were a little concerning but nothing conclusive to work on.

They all could have eaten something or the rat could have tried to eat the gecko which had eaten something .. yaaada, yaada, yaada.

Hopefully I will not need to dig any deeper into the ‘how, what or why’ and everyone stays healthy for a while now.

I do not mind you asking and yes, I did keep a costing spreadsheet as I was also intrigued as to how much it would cost.

The kit coop closest to what I kind of wanted was $1,000 and the one I really wanted was around the $1,800 mark I think. I do not think they would be as big as the Princess Palace and had lots of ‘bells and whistles’ that were really not needed. Also, the Princess Palace is definitely a lot sturdier and will hopefully last a lot longer than the kit coops did.

The Princess Palace cost $632.48

That was everything .. posts, wire, panelling, roof, floor, stain, screws etc.

We did repurpose a small amount of timber that we already had and some wire staples, some screws etc. The little door you saw in the Blondie Broody pic was from the old coop and some of the old coop panels were used to create the decorative door.

For the 6 bantams we had at the time, the coop is huge! Lots of room for the remaining five to have their morning meetings

Edited to add: I love the slide out coop floor, it is such a doddle to clean. On the weekend I just pull out the floor, wash it, dry it in the sun and put it back.

 

[User395221]

The Princess Palace cost $632.48

That was everything .. posts, wire, panelling, roof, floor, stain, screws etc.

Thanks. Adding back labour costs to have someone else build something similar brings it back up to (at least) a grand..... The company that makes my small house makes cubbies and houses. They do an aviary/chook house for about $900/$1000 which is reasonable for the quality of them, but they don't have any "enclosed room" which I'd want. They can build it however you want, but the minute you start wanting, that price goes up. And up. And up. My problem is that I don't really want to compromise..... sigh

I could source secondhand materials but I've got no means of transport, paying "a guy" to transport then makes them not free/cheap any more. And I really want it up and usable ASAP, I'm sick of those bloody crows, they can <rude words for go away>

EDIT: I finally got around to attaching the roof to the other little house I've got, I might try attaching that to the other little house and see how that goes. Trouble is, they won't necessarily use the other house/space they've got.

 

[Chook Newby]

Please if you decide to wash the eye, just irrigate it with saline. Water has way too many contaminants. I use a syringe without needle draw up and squirt from the beak out.
The saline at chemists used for cleaning contacts is fine.

Thanks Fancychooklady, I will go to the chemist tonight. Im pretty sure she is the one laying the eggs too so she must be in too much pain at this stage which is a relief.