Chicken Nail Trimming FAIL

So today I decided I would try to trim my Gold Laced Wyandotte's toenails. I decided to use her for my first attempt at this job because she is my quietest hen when it comes to handling, and because I happened to catch her more easily than any of the others...

A word of caution to anyone who is going to attempt to trim a chicken's nails. Don't!

No, seriously, what I mean is, don't undertake this lightly if you've never done it before. There is some basic equipment you should have on hand before you start and which I foolishly neglected to have and this is my cautionary tale.

So, before you even think of touching a sharp pair of nail trimmers to a chicken's claw, please gather the following.

Sharp Nail Clippers
Cotton swabs
Kwik Stop powder or Corn Flour
A prepared isolation pen
Bandages
A stiff drink! (medicinal)

The reason for the Kwik Stop powder and corn flour is to stop any bleeding should you do what I did, and take off too much of the nail.

I really only nipped off the very tip of the claw, but obviously nicked the quick and this bled. It bled a LOT. This photo was taken after I had been applying pressure on the end of the nail for about 10 minutes and it was only just beginning to clot.

I don't have any Kwik Stop powder, so we had to resort to using corn flour which will help to stop bleeding from this kind of injury, but it doesn't work as well.

We buried the injured toe in corn flour and it stuck to the injured nail quite nicely.

The poor victim was then put into isolation where she will stay for 24 hours to ensure she doesn't reopen the wound by scratching in the dirt.

I will try clipping nails again, but will be much more cautious next time and make sure I am fully prepared, including having Kwik Stop powder on hand for emergencies!

Pips!

We have pips!

Now to wait and hope that healthy, well formed chicks zip their way out of the eggs over the next 24-48 hours.
It's all very exciting, and right on cue, Bertha, our Light Sussex hen has gone broody. It is as if she could sense that the possibility for chicks was there. I may slip some of these under her if all goes well with the hatch.

Showing Poultry

I've been thinking about putting my Australorp pullet, "Chica" up on the show bench to get some feedback from a qualified judge about her type and form. It's a little daunting to think of this, but she is a very nice looking pullet and I feel she is quite close to the standard for Australorp hens.

Here is a photograph of "Chica" that I took yesterday. It is a little bit grainy as it was snapped through the livingroom window, which just goes to show how long it has been since I cleaned the windows! *blush* Please ignore my housekeeping and look at the fowl. :)

Of course, given that I hatched and raised this little girl by hand, I am possibly biased about her looks, although I am trying to look with clear eyes and put the rose coloured glasses aside.

The only real way to be sure, is to show her and find out.

Chica is 22 weeks old, not quite fully grown as yet, and still needs to feather out a bit more, but she has the shape of an Australorp to her and the lovely compact tail of her breed.

I've been doing some reading this morning on what it takes to prepare and train a young bird for show and I think I might begin prepping her at least. Getting her used to handling, and being penned in a small show box would be one way to start. I can also begin to condition her legs and comb and groom her feathers with a silk cloth. All of that will at least start to tame her down and get her used to being examined and judged.

The local "Agricultural Show" (similar to a county fair) is in June and I think I could have Chica tamed and trained in plenty of time for it.

Australorp Fowl Standards
Preparing Fowls for the Show Bench.

Rooster Boxes

I mentioned at the end of my previous post that my nextdoor neighbour had come over to my place on Saturday with an idea for a possible rooster box to put ChopChop our remaining rooster into at night time in an attempt to keep him quiet in the mornings. Not that Choppy crows all that much anyway, but I am interested in the idea of using a rooster box, both for now and for future roosters who may turn out to be just as dominant and noisy as ChopChop's brother, Boomer was.

The idea of a rooster night box, is to keep the bird in the dark until well past dawn and thus hopefully prevent him from crowing until a more reasonable time than say, 3am!

My neighbour came to ask me, initially, how to build the kind of box that I thought would work, but in the course of our discussion he had a brainwave. He hurried off back home to collect an item he had lying around in his garden shed to see if I thought it would be suitable.

The above picture is what he brought back. It is a collapsible canvas dog kennel for a small to medium dog, complete with a nice, soft cushion for the dog to sleep on. It is lying on its side in this image because it has a mesh bottom and we thought that would be good for airflow. The rooster could sleep inside this, with the cushion and some wood shavings underneath him for comfort and hygiene, and the mesh bottom could be faced toward the wall to allow air through without letting in too much light. I thought this was worth a try and R went back home to find something to use as a door for it.

The door is fashioned out of an old cargo pallet R had 'in the shed' as well.

R attached an aluminium bracket to the top of the wooden door.

The bracket neatly hooks over the metal framework and the bottom of the door
Pushes in flush against the front of the kennel.

The Rooster Box installed in the chicken coop ready for its occupant.

ChopChop checking out the new digs.

We have used this for three nights, so far, and it seems to work well, except for the second night when I had not quite blocked all light from getting into the box. Last night, I made a couple of tweaks to the coop area where the box is, and as far as I know, Choppy didn't crow at all. In fact, he has not crowed all day today. I wonder if he thinks being quiet means he won't need to go back into the box again?

So far, so good.

Next time: "Uh-oh, I'm broody again!"

Of First Eggs and Soft Shells

 As you can see from the image, this shell is very thin and brittle. I was able to make an indent in it by gently pressing my thumb against it. If I'd pressed any harder, the shell would have ruptured.

It has been an interesting and exciting week at Hensington Palace. First the good news. Our little purebred Australorp pullet laid her first egg on Friday morning! I was so happy and proud to see it. I've raised this little girl from egg to egg layer and was so pleased to find her little gift under the roosting perch. She has laid each day since then, one smallish, perfectly formed brown shelled egg each day like clockwork.

In other, not so great news, our problem crossbred layer hen is having laying issues once again. She had been doing so well, and I was beginning to hope that all her troubles were behind her. For those who haven't been longtime followers of this blog, I will recap.
We got this hen as one of our two original laying hens back in 2011 as a gift for mother's day from my children. Neither of them was laying yet when they first arrived. They were little, cute POL hens and we eagerly awaited our first eggs from them.
It seemed to take forever for them to finally lay, because we got them in winter and they didn't start laying until the spring.

Anyway, eventually they did both start to lay, but before too long, "Bossie" as we had named the black hen, began to have trouble. It started off with a nasty prolapse. I was horrified the morning I went to the coop and found the poor girl with her bottom all red, and seemingly turned inside out. I put her in isolation and sent out an urgent message to a chook owning friend, asking what I ought to do. I was told that if the situation didn't revert by itself, the alternatives were vet treatment, or culling. My heart was heavy. I didn't want to have to destroy my lovely little hen so soon after getting her! Fortunately, with a little time alone to rest and be quiet, the prolapse reverted of its own accord. Bossie had one more prolapse after that, a few days later, but it was less severe and reverted as soon as I picked her up.

She seemed well after that, but a couple of months later, I started to find broken eggs in the nesting box each morning. At first, I thought the hens must have developed a habit of egg eating. (A big no no in laying coops!) but then I realised that these eggs had very thin, brittle shells. Again, it was Bossie that produced these flimsy shells.

The advice for this situation was to insure that the hens were getting enough shell grit (for calcium) and sunshine (vitamin D) both of which they were getting plenty of, being free range hens, and also having a dish of shell grit available free choice in the coop.

Another piece of advice was to try and get boss to stop laying, to give her system a break and reset everything. I tried everything I could, but Bossie is a commercial hybrid and is programmed to lay, lay, lay... She did not go off lay even for one day, despite my best efforts. She did, however start laying hard shelled eggs again and I finally thought her troubles were behind her.

Alas, this morning, I found another soft shelled egg under the roost. She usually always lays in the nest, so I think this egg may have 'slipped' out while she was sleeping last night.

That is the biggest problem with such eggs. The shell of an egg is subjected to a lot of pressure as it passes through a hen's body to emerge from the cloacca.

Should the shell break before the hen is able to pass the egg, this will lead to a painful and fatal infection called Egg-Yolk Peritonitis. It is dangerous for a hen to be afflicted by soft shell problems as she can get into dire straits!

My decision now, is whether I try to fix this, whilst running the very real risk that she will wind up with peritonitis, or do I write her off as high risk and cull her. It's not an easy decision to make, but I need to consider the hen's welfare as well as my own feelings about this. I already think I've made the decision.

It's just not going to be easy.

Something to crow about

Yesterday while I was drinking my morning coffee, I could hear a faint sound which I couldn't quite decipher coming from the direction of my chicken coops. I couldn't decide, sitting in my study, if it was a hen announcing the arrival of an egg, or some other strange commotion. I decided to get up and go to the back patio to listen more closely.

I didn't actually make it out to the patio, but froze, listening just inside the back door with a big, sloppy stupid grin on my face. Yes one of our young cockerels has come of age, and was letting the world...well, the backyard at least know about it with a soft, rusty sounding "Err-uh-errrrrrr!"

I don't know which one of the boys it was. When I went up to the grower pen to ask who was crowing, I was met with sealed beaks and innocent looks while the young pullet softly suggested a solution to the 'problem.' 

"Chop-chop!" she clucked under her breath. "Chop-chop-chop!" She is always suggesting that her brothers should get the chop! She's such a meanie.

All of the other hens, both my own, and the guest hens we are chook-sitting were in a state of high excitement, calling out to let the 'man' know where they are.

So, our 'babies' are all grown up. 12 weeks old, today and I am already starting to plan for next season's hatch. I love the rhythm that these lovely birds have brought to my life. Yes, they're hard work, but they repay my efforts in eggs, and more than repay it with the enrichment they bring me.

"Chop-chop!"

Maggie

Changing Coops

With the warmer weather here in force, I decided it was time to move my chooks out of their winter coop and into the summer one, today. The chooks were turned out into the yard for free range early this morning and I got to work after breakfast.
Until today, the chooks were housed in the coop at the top end of the sheds, where you see the wheelbarrow in this shot. I took 5 barrowloads of litter and old, composted manure out of this coop. There was no terrible smell, either. I just love the deep litter system. Everything falls through the straw and hay onto the sandy floor, leaving the coops smelling fresh and barny while the poop decomposes underneath.  It wasn't too hard to clean out, either as the bedding was dry and quite light to handle. It all went onto the compost heap up the back.



The winter coop after all the litter was raked and shovelled out. Tomorrow or the next day, I will wash the perches down and then spray the wooden areas with a permethrin solution to kill off any lice and mites that might be still hiding in there and then the coop and roost will be rested over Summer while the chooks move into their cooler runs for the duration.
The summer coop is a lot more open and has wire sides to allow better airflow so that the




chooks won't suffer so much from the heat of our summer. There's even wire next to the nesting box, so anyone who is laying can get a cool breeze while she does her hard work. The greenery you see in the top right of the photo is sprouted wild bird mix which we have been growing to make the transition to the new run less painful for the girls. It is in a run that has a wire roof and will be lovely for them to get some sunshine and fresh air, while still being able to find shade in the other half of the coop which has an enclosed iron roof. I think they should be pretty happy in there!

Bombproof Broody!

so, today we went to the local council recycling center and picked up an old dog crate for $15! When we got it home, I cleaned it thoroughly with water and disinfectant (note: I have since found out it is not advisable to use disinfectant to clean equipment for backyard poultry. Warm soapy water will suffice) and let it dry in the sun for an hour or so.

The crate has "Pepsi + Diego" written on the top of it. It makes me wonder what animals used to use this before it came to us. We have set this up in the coop for our broody Sussex, Bertha. She seemed to tolerate the disturbance okay. We went up and did this just after sunset and I got her off the nest she had been using and put her near her water bucket. She was a bit stiff from sitting and kind of fell face first into the bucket. Note to self, put her further away from the bucket next time! She then proceeded to have a big drink of water. The other chooks in the pen next door were on the roost, but when they heard/saw her drinking, two of them came down and had a drink in their pen, too. It was rather cute!

We put fresh straw into the dog crate, and put her fake egg into it, then when she had eaten some food and had another drink, I tried putting her inside the crate. She fussed and clucked and then came out, acting frantic as though her egg was missing. I put her back in. Same deal.

Then my partner suggested we should get the straw from the old nest she had been using and put that into the crate. We did that, put her egg in there, put HER in there and waited.

There was some more clucking and fussing, and then a little noise that sounded like a cry of joy when she spotted her fake egg. She immediately settled on the egg, and that's how we left her.

She seems very determined to set, so I am going to organise some eggs for her early next week.

Oh, and while she was off the nest, she did a poop right at my feet, which was huge and omg!! The smell!!! I'd heard about these 'broody poos' but they seriously have to be smelled to be believed.

I suppose that was my just desserts for dropping her headfirst into her water bucket!

Tis the season...

to be broody, it seems! My light sussex hen, Bertha is all grim determination to have chicks even with being flogged off the nest three times by her coopmates who wanted to lay their eggs, today. She would just wait by the nest hopping from one foot to the other, making her little bok-buk-bok-buk noises until the hen laying was finished, then back in she would go.


I've been chatting online with some of my chicken breeding friends and they're encouraging me to try setting her with some eggs as Sussex are usually reliable brooders which, once they're settled don't break until the eggs hatch. One suggestion is to let her sit for a week or two on fake eggs and then go in at night and swap the 'eggs' out for day old chicks, which she should happily mother without too much fuss as she will think they are her own. This is tempting as I really would love to get some Australorp chicks to raise for next season and gradaully switch to breeding just Australorps and maybe having Wyandottes for color and variety in the coops.

  so tempted am I, indeed that I have emailed a breeder of Australorps already about getting some fertile eggs.

New Council Rules for Poultry

Image from Come Home to Health

I spent most of last night, drafting a submission to my regional council in response to some proposed changes to the local bylaws for keeping animals in our region.

Currently, the rules are that anyone may keep up to 20 head of poultry on their property, with provisos made for the type of enclosures that the poultry should be kept in, including distances from boundaries and adjoining properties. The current rules are very reasonable, and there have not been huge numbers of complaints relating to poultry in the region, but because the council was recently amalgamated from about five separate shires into one, the rules had been a bit higgledy piggledy with all five regions having a different set of rules. The council, understandably wants to change this so that it is easier to administrate, which is quite acceptable and reasonable.

What is not reasonable, though, is the severe reduction of poultry numbers under the proposed new rules. The council proposes reducing the number of poultry permitted from 20 head down to only 6 head.
My submission to council on this change is below.

In their vision for the Sunshine Coast, the regional council states that the aim is to make the Sunshine Coast: "Australia’s most sustainable region—vibrant, green, diverse." I support this vision 100% but I have to say that I question how this vision can be held on the one hand, and yet the proposed new rules for animal management within the region appear to counter it.

Local Law No 2 (Animal Management) 2011 Subordinate Local Law No 2 (Animal Management) Schedule 3  2011 will preclude the ability of the average family to raise their own poultry for eggs and meat.

The average chicken lays eggs for a maximum of 2-3 years and then must be replaced with new point of lay or laying hens. Purchasing new hens as older ones go off lay is not sustainable.  In order to operate in a sustainable and self-sufficient way, roosters are required for the purpose of breeding more chickens so that a reserve of chicks, pullets and hens is readily available.

Residents should have the right to grow and produce their own food within reason and should not be subjected to overly punitive rules which make it difficult, if not impossible for the average family to provide an adequate living from their own property. I believe that a middle ground can be found which will satisfy all Sunshine Coast residents and contribute in a real and positive manner to council's stated vision for a sustainable, green and diverse future.

Recommendations:

I submit that the council revise the proposed rule on the keeping of poultry to reflect the following:

Up to 20 poultry or birds can be kept on an urban property if they are adequately enclosed to prevent escape and the enclosure is not within:

1 metre of a side or rear boundary
10 metres of a residence or any dwelling on adjoining premises
10 metres of a road.
Feed should be maintained in a manner which prevents vermin access

The enclosure must have a minimum floor area of one square metre per bird and be constructed so it can be hygienically cleaned.

It is recommended that a deep litter system be used to absorb any potential odours. Deep litter should be replaced at least annually and disposed of as garden mulch or in a tied bag in waste bin.

On any other land than rural land, a license is required to keep a rooster. For such a license to be granted evidence of a suitably constructed and attenuated enclosure including night boxes for management of noise and membership of local poultry club or online forum must be provided.

I know that I am not the only resident making a submission, and so far, the ones I have seen are quite similar to mine. I really hope that the council will see reason on this and revise the proposed rules to properly reflect their vision for the region as far as sustainability and diversity is concerned.

Image via Come Home to Health

Omnivorous Chooks

Green Jungle Fowl

When I posted on my blog recently about my chickens going nuts over canned sardines, my friend DivaJyoti commented that she hadn't known chickens would eat fish.

Chickens actually prefer to follow an omnivorous diet. The chickens we know today, that scratch around in barnyards or (sadly) rot away in battery farms, for shame! tend to be fed on a grain based diet, more because it is convenient for us. The domestic hen, gallus domesticus is actually descended from the Jungle Fowl:

• Gallus gallus
• Gallus lafayetii
• Gallus sonneratii
• Gallus varius (pictured)

Jungle Fowl originate from India, Sri Lanka, South East Asia, and Indonesia. In their wild state, jungle fowl eat a varying diet consisting of fruits, grains, vegetation, small rodents, lizards, bugs, slugs and insects. When allowed to 'free range' our domestic chickens will do much the same. I've heard of domestic fowl eating mice, lizards, beetles, worms, caterpillars snails and slugs. In fact, a flock of chickens let loose in a matured vegetable garden will nibble little bits of the veges, but will also keep the garden almost completely pest free. They particularly favour the larvae of coddling moth! Yesterday, I gave my chooks 100g of kangaroo mince.

Someone mentioned on a poultry forum I frequent, that feeding kangaroo meat to chooks is an extreme sport. After trying this myself, I'd have to concur. There was none of that hesitant peering at it before taking a small peck to taste it that you normally see when offering a new type of food. Rosie tried to rip the meat out of my hand before I even got the wrapper off it! 

Velociraptor

Then it was on for young and old as my gentle, 'boking', scratching hens turned into miniature velociraptors, jumping up, flapping at me, trying to snatch beakfuls of meat out of my fingers (they rarely eat from my hand) and chasing each other all over the chook pen trying to snitch pieces out of each other's mouths. All the while, they were making that special high pitched muuuur-uurrrrrr! sound that chooks reserve for only the best and tastiest morsels.

I think they like it!
Images via wikepedia

Rainy Day Ramblings

The chooks were going absolutely stir crazy today after days being pent up because of wet weather, so I decided to let them out despite the rain. I'd been keeping them in, thinking that young chooks can get sick if they get wet, but after asking advice from some of my more experienced chicken keeping friends, I was assured that this only applies to chicks and young fowl less than 20 weeks of age.

All my girls are past 20 weeks, so I decided this morning, to let them out.

When I got to the henhouse, there was a pleasant surprise awaiting me. Bertha had laid her first egg! My 'baby' sussex is now a big girl.

 Hers is the egg at right in the picture. Sadly, it got a little fouled in the production, which can happen occasionally, but it was easily washed. The plastic eggs at either end of the real ones are 'dummies' placed in the nest to encourage the hens to use the nestbox rather than laying out in the yard, or on the ground in the chicken run.

There was also a visitor in the yard, today. A little scrub turkey had come to call.

I think this was a male bird and only young as his wattles aren't fully developed as yet. I don't know if he was just passing through, or was checking out our yard with a view to building his nest mound here. He seemed a bit confused, thinking my birds were female scrub turkeys. He kept following them around, making his soft little Goob? Goob? call, but if he got too close either Boss, or Rosie chased him off. I left them alone as the chooks seemed to have the situation under control. The last I saw of "Goober" he was heading down the driveway at a jog after I shut the hens in for the night. I wonder if he decided this wasn't the best place for a nest after all?

The chooks seemed to enjoy their rainy day ramble and weren't too wet when I put them in for the night.

Bertha got a little muddy, though it is hard to see here.

Wynona looked the most bedraggled but Boss's
gloss is still present. 

Nosie Rosie has wet hackles but the rest is fairly dry.

Waiting for dinner.

The wild bird mix that we have scattered for sprouting in what will be the summer run for the chooks is loving this wet weather!

So, that was the rainy day that was, here at Feathered Petticoats.

Weighing In

I had to take a trip to my doctor this morning for a general checkup and to get some prescriptions renewed for my meds, so when I got home, I decided I would do a quick checkup of the chooks.

I had bought some Colloidal Silver while I was out, having heard this is a handy tonic for either bacterial or viral infection and with Rosie still a little bit lack lustre, and Bertha occasionally still coughing, I decided to give both girls a dose (just one or two drops from an eyedropper) of CS internally.

After that was done, I thought it might be a good idea to weigh them all as I hadn't got a baseline weight since getting them. Rosie has filled out a bit again since I've been treating her for her mysterious weightloss and lethargy, so I thought it would be good to know just what she does weigh.

Each of my hens are what's known as 'first years' so they're probably not at their full adult weight yet, particularly Bertha who is a Light Sussex, a late maturing breed.

So, how do you weigh a chook? It's not as simple as just asking her to step onto the scales, after all and I don't have a hanging scale like my dad used to use for his chickens. I decided I'd have to do it the old fashioned way and step onto the scales myself, holding each hen by turns.

That actually worked out very well, and their weights are as follows.

Rosie (ISA Brown): 2.2kg (4.8pds) About right for the lower end of the scale with her breed. Would like to see her put on a little more though.

Bertha (Light Sussex): 3.5kg (7.7pds) Within a healthy weight for her breed, but there is no upper limit on weight in the standard, so she could put on more without it being too worrisome.

Boss: (Australorp Utility): 2.6kg (5.7pds) Again, not too bad for her type.

Wynona (Gold Laced Wyandotte): 2.8kg (6.16pds) She is close to the right weight for an adult of her breed, needs just a little fattening. More canned tuna for her!

Of course, I am not too obsessive over the weight of the chickens really. It's only a part of the picture and health in chickens is judged more by their laying, feeding, and sociability than their weight. All of them are eating well, foraging happily when they get the chance to free range, and are happy to scratch around and gossip with each other in their coop.

As for interest in food? Well, if the way they chased me all the way to the henhouse when they saw me with a can of sardines this afternoon is anything to go by...

Giving Pills to Chickens

From time to time, chickens can and do get ill, just as humans do. This can range from something as simple as eating something that disagrees with her, right up to life threatening illnesses such as cancer or a form of paralysis called Marek's disease.

Sometimes it is easy to diagnose the problem, and other times, it is really just guesswork and or acting on a hunch.

I have been watching Rosie (pictured) my little ISA Brown for about a week now, not entirely happy with her state of health, but unable to decide if she had anything really ailing her or not.

She's been just... different. Not her usual self. She's lost a little weight, has had some diarrheoa, and keeps shaking her head, all of which can be signs of a respiratory illness in chickens, and yet, otherwise she's been well. No sneezing, no sniffles, no wheezing, no signs of lice or intestinal worms. I'd been treating her symptoms by feeding her a little extra protein, and just making sure there was plenty of fresh, clean water available, and monitoring her condition for any deterioration.

Today, deciding it won't kill her, even if it doesn't cure her, I decided to give her a dose of tissue salts combination 12. This is a homeopathic remedy which I take when I feel the onset of a cold and find that it helps to fight off the virus/infection before it takes hold, so I figured it might be worth a try for Rosie. It is a general tonic which is useful in the treatment of overall fatigue and exhaustion.

Given the tiny trace amount of active ingredients in these pills, I decided to dose her with a whole pill and see how she goes.

I was a bit nervous going up to the pen to get her, having never done this before. I caught her and took her into the coop, away from the others and got her settled on my lap. I then calmly got hold of her head and opened her beak, to which she objected a little bit, but not strenuously. I looked down her throat and then tossed in the pill and closed her beak again. I felt her swallow as soon as her beak was closed. She sat on my lap and turned her head to look me right in the eye as much as to say "Hey, if you wanted to give me a treat, you could just give it to me."

She sat and cuddled a little while and I gently scratched her belly under the feathers which always makes her close her eyes and drift off for a short nap. After a while she lightly hopped down from my lap and went off to eat some greens, neither of us the worse for wear.

The other hens crowded around her, asking "What did you get? Is there any for us?" Rosie seemed a little bit smug about getting something that the others hadn't been given. (Typical chook politics!)

I got several 'no fair!' glares from the other hens as I left the coop. hehehe

Wow! I wish it was that simple to worm my cat!!

Somebody think of the children!

Image from Stock Exchange

This is probably not bizarre or weird behaviour from the hen's pov, but I thought I would share it anyway because I couldn't believe how much of a duh! moment it gave me when it dawned on me why my chook did what she did, this morning.

I went to get the eggs and then noticed one of the chooks was acting a bit strangely. So...

I set the two eggs I was carrying down on the floor of the coop and went to pick up the chook in question, forgetting about the eggs as I examined her. After satisfying myself that the chook was healthy, I put her down and turned around to notice Rosie standing over the two eggs kind of half crouched, actually, making little cooing noises and trying to tuck one of the eggs underneath herself by pushing it with her beak. I went over to her and reached for the eggs. She stepped aside quickly but made a snippy little Brrrrk! noise at me as I picked up the eggs and carried them outside the coop.

Not my chook. Same breed, though.

It didn't occur to me, until I was almost at the house, that of course! DUH! Those eggs represent a huge investment to the chicken and the egg she had been trying to tuck under herself was actually HER egg!  It was her way of trying to protect her 'baby.'

I tend to forget, that eggs are more than just a yummy snack for me. They're the chooks' investment in the future.

Australorps: Black Beauties

Illustration from American Australorp Breeders website

In my daydreams, where I live in a perfect world and have unlimited time, budget, space and most importantly, health. I breed these chickens.

Australorps are a breed of chickens which was developed in Australia and is suited to Australian conditions, particularly extremes of heat. They are a dual purpose chicken.




Colour of Australorps is predominately black, with a 'beetle green' sheen to the feathers in sunlight, but there are other colours as well, including blue. They come in standard size and bantam and their temperament is tame and shy. They're great chickens for backyard laying birds.

I have one hen in my flock which is an Australorp "Utility" meaning that she is a hybrid/crossbreed with another variety, possibly brown leghorn or Rhode Island Red. My black hen is the 'alpha' hen of my flock and her name is "Boss," accordingly.

Boss not long after we got her as a POL hen

 This is a photo of Boss not long after we got her.  In this photo, she had not yet developed a big red comb because she wasn't yet laying. She is very close to the look of a 'standard' Australorp, but she has orange eyes (most 'lorps have dark/black eyes) and there is some brown feathering on her chest, which is not very clearly visible in this photograph.

She is a sweet little thing and takes her position as boss hen very seriously. She has even pecked me once when she thought I was taking too many liberties in the hen house!

I love her personality. She is indomitable and funny, and quite the larrikin when she wants to be.

Boss being a funny chookie!

The photo at right is my favourite picture of Boss. She was caught in the act of leading her coop mates into the out of bounds driveway. If it is possible for a chook to look guilty, then this photo is it!

Maybe one day, I will have my flock of 'lorps and by then, Boss may be just a distant memory, but in the meantime, I am happy to have this fiesty little hen in my flock and in my life.

Book: City Chicks by Patricia Foreman

I have been reading this ebook for a while now. (I am a slow reader) and found it a very enjoyable read. The book is based in the USA but I have found much in it that is useful in an Australian setting as well.

Foreman advocates the practice of keeping a 'micro-flock' in the urban setting not just for eggs and meat, but as little garden workers which assist by digging, scratching and fertilizing garden beds, turning your compost and keeping insect pests at bay.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter which details how to use the chicken coop as a composting system and have applied some of the techniques in my own chicken run, but there is so much more in this book that is handy to know. From building coops and directed runs that channel your hens to wherever you want them in your garden at the time, to hatching and brooding your own replacement chickens it's got some great information.

The only problem I have encountered is that there is quite a lot of repetition in the book, so you'll find yourself reading the same information in two and sometimes more chapters. There are also some typographical errors (more and more common in publishing today, sadly).

All in all, its an enjoyable read, and who wouldn't love that cover?

Get City Chicks for Kindle

Chocolate for Chooks

Today I made a special treat for my chooks which I call "chocolate for chooks" it is something that they go nuts over, even though it might not seem that appetizing to you and me.



This is about half a dozen egg shells which I baked in the oven at 120C for 30 minutes and then smashed up in a mortar and pestle. It is good for the chooks as it supplements calcium back into their diet. The small, sharp bits which would play merry hell with a human's digestive tract are actually useful in the chicken's gizzard for helping to cut up and digest food. Grit is an essential part of the diet for birds and especially for laying hens.

Here is a video of the reaction when I arrived at the coop with a dish of crushed eggshell. It is guaranteed to get them into the coop without too much trouble. Well, except for big, beautiful Bertha.



Betha's pretty but she's not too bright. She never can seem to understand why walls get between her and her food, poor darling, but with a little guidance, she finds her way. Sorry for some of the unsteady camera angles in this clip, but it is a bit complicated handling the camera, watching where the chickens are, and avoiding standing on them all at the one time. Hopefully I will improve at this lol!

Litter Systems in my chook pens

There is much discussion amongst 'poultry keepers' about the best type of flooring for chicken coops and that has been the case recently on the Backyard Poultry forum I chat on. I use two slightly different methods of flooring for my chicken pens and I thought I would post about them here in case anyone actually reads this blog and is interested.

Here are photos of the two different systems I've got going in my chook pen. The first one is of the deep litter I use in the roosting area.



This is leaves and sticks that I have raked up from around the yard when the weather was dry, and scattered into the roost over sand on top of a cement slab. It is dry and crisp and gives my heavier fowl a soft landing when dismounting the perches.


This one is the actual run and is done slightly differently. It has a dirt floor, again over a concrete base, and I scatter mulching straw over that, and add in weeds, vege scraps and some garden cuttings. I scatter left over laying mash from the feed hopper over this to encourage the chooks to scratch and peck at it. Every few days, I rake it over to get poo to settle into the lower layers as well, because the chooks can't turn it all over by themselves. This system keeps the chooks' feathers and feet beautifully clean and I am really pleased with it.

All of the food and water is either hanging from the ceiling, or otherwise elevated to keep them from kicking litter into it. It works really well and is low maintenance. The chooks are only in there from about 4PM-10AM each day and spend most of the time free ranging when the weather is fine. If it is wet weather or I am going out, there is an adjoining run the same size with a dirt floor that I open up so they can dust bathe and have some space to move around.

I've got one chook in moult at present, so there are also a lot of feathers in the mix.