My 16 week olds (Leghorn and Australorp) are pumping out the eggs. So far I have had 2 x double yolkers. I now know how it feels to be a proud father!!
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Yeah I just kicked her off the nest then. I actually wouldn't mind buying some light Sussex and Orpington eggs to put under a hen but I have to go the Perth to get them plus I'm not sure about trusting such an old first time mother looking after them.
The chicken under the house has 8 eggs under her from a Pekin cross that I got from Dad's mate, should be hatching in a week or so if they are any good.
6 little ones 2 weeks old.. Might just keep 1 hen and give the rest back to the bloke that gave us the eggs.
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6 little ones 2 weeks old.. Might just keep 1 hen and give the rest back to the bloke that gave us the eggs.
SO CUTE!!!
Hopefully the one little black one doesn't feel too out of place with all the whiteysSO CUTE!!!
I will definitely keep that one if it's a hen.
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Hopefully the one little black one doesn't feel too out of place with all the whiteys
Hopefully most are hens. The dark one certainly is the odd one out. I guess they don't all come out yellow.
Do you need to supply any extra heat or does the mum keep them warm?
Nah mate hens keep them warm under their feathers and this one is a very good natural mother that knows exactly how to look after them, it's good weather here anyway and they sleep under the house. Unfortunately and I'm not sure why but you almost always tend to get more roosters than hens.
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Hope you don't mind me butting in on this chook thread. I've just had a quick read through from the start and have enjoyed the great chicken stories.
I've got about a dozen roosters and a dozen hens of different varieties. Don't think I will ever make a good chicken farmer as I'm much too soft and can't kill my roos. We hatched 11 eggs out a couple of years ago and ended up with 7 roosters, 4 hens. All silkies - but mothered by a little Pekin and a big Australorp. Their real mother was laying at the same time that the two other chickens were clucky so I just tossed a dozen fertile eggs under them- 5 under the Pekin and 7 under the Australorp.
You mentioned getting fertile eggs in an earlier post. You might be able to buy them online. Or have you looked on Gumtree to see if there's someone closer to where you live? What part of WA do you live in?
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Yeah culling roosters is definitely the hardest part. You have to keep your hen ratio high for a happy flock and of course in the city you can't have roosters at all due to council regulations.
If I was in the situation I would do it but I wouldn't like it. You end up with stressed out hens from over mating and utensil fights because not all roosters can get along with each other. This is what I've heard anyway, I have no actual experience with roosters.
If I was in the situation I would do it but I wouldn't like it. You end up with stressed out hens from over mating and utensil fights because not all roosters can get along with each other. This is what I've heard anyway, I have no actual experience with roosters.
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The roosters that were brought up together from hatching, all got along fine. I have 4 running around the back yard with no hens. Poor, frustrated young men!
In another pen, I introduced 3 Polish chicks (one male) where I had an adult Silkie rooster. The Polish roo became the boss - unfortunately pecked out an eye of the Silkie
but they are still in the same pen now. The Silkie occasionally loses some tail feathers when he gets too close but they get along otherwise.
Have you tried just advertising free roosters to give away if you have too many? Took awhile but I found people to take most of mine (even some pretty mangey mongrel looking ones lol) and only had to give a few away to get eaten.
I live 3 hours east of Perth, lady in the next town sells eggs but aren't the breeds I want. I think there is a bit of a shortage of chooks around here because I pretty much sold my hens instantly and the lady at the farm supplies place reckons there is always people coming in asking for them so it wouldn't hurt to breed a few.
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I need to sell them as we're moving closer to the city next year and can only have a handful of girls but I'll be able to give mine away to a friend- we don't have a lot of backyard at the new house ;(
I did advertise on Gumtree when we hatched all the boys- got one call from a bloke asking if he could borrow one to mate with his girl, then return it.
No thanks!! At that stage mine were clean- now they've got stick fleas.
Dammit!
I did advertise on Gumtree when we hatched all the boys- got one call from a bloke asking if he could borrow one to mate with his girl, then return it.
No thanks!! At that stage mine were clean- now they've got stick fleas.
Dammit!
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I now see why you don't want to drive to Perth...
I think you can have eggs mailed out to you- have you looked into that?
Edit- have a look through the ads here on chooknet. Beware of scams- ie check they're a registered breeder.
http://www.chooknet.com.au/component/adsmanager/?page=show_category&catid=31&order=0&expand=0
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Heard of people mailing but the ones I noticed recently said they didn't.
Anyway I do go to Perth fairly regularly for stuff like visiting family, should be able to sort something out one day hopefully. Just need to time it when there's one on a nest this spring/summer. 'Senior' the 8 year old brown Sussex is currently clucky but I'm not sure I could trust her at that age and for the first time
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I'm not sure about your Sussex- I guess at 8 she's probably not going to move off the eggs a helluva lot anyways!Heard of people mailing but the ones I noticed recently said they didn't.
Anyway I do go to Perth fairly regularly for stuff like visiting family, should be able to sort something out one day hopefully. Just need to time it when there's one on a nest this spring/summer. 'Senior' the 8 year old brown Sussex is currently clucky but I'm not sure I could trust her at that age and for the first time
I've found my silkies get clucky regularly. In fact, they seem to get clucky all the bloody time!
I can't remember how long fertile eggs keep for - a week or two, I think- but you'd have to time it right if you're going to make a 6 hour round trip to buy your eggs!
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I have heard Silkies are among the very best for raising chicks. You're probably on a breeding gold mine
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Dammit!!! I think you're right!I have heard Silkies are among the very best for raising chicks. You're probably on a breeding gold mine
Now I regret not breeding them up and selling off the babies, unsexed! Silkie eggs are very tasty, too- and I hear the Asians love them!
I'm a real softy- had a rooster with an ear infection that I nursed (cleaned the ear every night by syringing the dog's ear-cleaning solution into the ear), another rooster had his eye pecked out and I syringed the eye socket with saline solution twice a day for 2 months, and a third rooster had got fly blown underneath and that needed nursing for a week... Shoulda sharpened the axe!!
All of the stupid things attack me every time I go past them- they deserve having their head chopped off!
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Dammit!!! I think you're right!
Now I regret not breeding them up and selling off the babies, unsexed! Silkie eggs are very tasty, too- and I hear the Asians love them!
I'm a real softy- had a rooster with an ear infection that I nursed (cleaned the ear every night by syringing the dog's ear-cleaning solution into the ear), another rooster had his eye pecked out and I syringed the eye socket with saline solution twice a day for 2 months, and a third rooster had got fly blown underneath and that needed nursing for a week... Shoulda sharpened the axe!!
Off with their heads!!! Especially the nasty ones with sharp beaks.
Sunday roast?
lol.. the roosters are generally the tamest when you hand raise them. Makes it hard to see them go.
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Not much meat on those silkies- they look so scrawny!Off with their heads!!! Especially the nasty ones with sharp beaks.
Sunday roast?
On the other hand... Lucy would make a meal fit for a king!
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I made the mistake of going on holiday for a month and leaving my daughter home to look after them. I returned to find that they'd been attacking her and she was too scared to go near them, so she had someone else some over to collect eggs every day. After that, the roosters turned on me and I now have to take a weapon in with me, to avoid getting pecked to death by the biggest rooster.
The little ones I just kick away.
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Lucy looks too pretty to eat. I would give her cuddles.
The roosters on the other hand the smaller the better, you can fit more in the oven
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Oops- I should've said that Lucy is a roosterLucy looks too pretty to eat. I would give her cuddles.
The roosters on the other hand the smaller the better, you can fit more in the oven
I posted the pic as a fingernail as it was too big for the page, otherwise. He's probably big enough to feed a whole (small) third world country!We bought him/her as a day old chicken (supposedly sexed by the breeder), along with a dozen assorted baby chickens (Australorps, Pekin, Silkies) and about 4 of the dozen turned out to be boys, thus Lucy's 'girlie' name. Luckily the other boys had names like "Spikey" and "Teriyaki".
They're all getting a bit old for roasting- most likely soup, curry or casserole would be best.
Papa Juggs
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Oops- I should've said that Lucy is a rooster
We bought him/her as a day old chicken (supposedly sexed by the breeder), along with a dozen assorted baby chickens (Australorps, Pekin, Silkies) and about 4 of the dozen turned out to be boys, thus Lucy's 'girlie' name. Luckily the other boys had names like "Spikey" and "Teriyaki".
They're all getting a bit old for roasting- most likely soup, curry or casserole would be best.
Well Lucy looks like a good breeding rooster in any case. I'm sure he'll find a home.
Eat the rest.
