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Pets chickens

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Kram81 said:
Pure breed eggs seem to be usually around $30-35, the bloke I got some off only wanted $20 though which was good. Young adult laying hens look to be around $30 each.

If they are good silkies maybe you sell a few of your eggs to try and offset at least some of your astronomical feed bills :D
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I sell a dozen or two dozen eggs per week (for eating) for $4... Perhaps I'm in the wrong game? Should be selling that many mix-breed chicken eggs for $10 per dozen!

My silkie hens are in an area with a dominant Polish rooster and an older silkie rooster. Guess it depends on which rooster gets to them first ;)
 
When we found out it was a male, I was hoping for something like this:
non_bearded_white_crested__black_polish_roo.jpg


or, better, this:
polish_silverlaced.jpg

... but it was not to be :(
 
Teriyakicat said:
Here's my Polish rooster :)
(We call him Einstein, though "Johnny Howard" was my first choice (check out the eyebrows))

I wonder what his offspring would look like if I mated him with my silkie hens?
View attachment 91045
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Interesting bird, I quite like the look of him.
 

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5 days to go.

I don't think any of the 3 under the old one will hatch, 1 got cracked and a couple of times she's let an egg roll out and get cold when I've checked in the morning. Don't blame it probably had enough of sitting around for about 2 months at that age.
 
That's a bugger. :(
Hopefully the ones that have rolled out will be ok. The clucky chooks do leave them for a bit and wander out to get food and water, usually. Even if for 15-30 mins, they should be ok.
Wait and see! I have fingers etc crossed for you.
I assume the other "mothers" are going ok? You had 3, IIRC?
 
Mattrox said:
Yes she is.

She is the surrogate for the ducklings. Good mum too.
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So was mine- unfortunately no longer with us :(
I think she died of fright after we put a fake hawk on top of the chook shed.
First of all, we put up a hawk to scare the pigeons away (can't find a pic but it's like my owl pic below). To fool the pigeons into thinking it was real, we snuck into the chookpen when it was dark and tied the hawk to a post. The next morning at sunrise, the chooks went absolutely mental! The noise was deafening! I'm thinking, "Great! If it's fooled them, it'll sure fool the pigeons!"
A few hours later, I went to feed the chooks and found our beautiful Australorp dead as a doornail next to a bush. :(

The stupid hawk thing didn't repel any pigeons- though I wasted time shuffling it from position to position under cover of darkness for a few weeks, so I gave up on it. It's now just a garden decoration. :)

The pigeons continued to eat my chookfood and the hawks began to soar overhead. They'd been doing this for a few years but only very occasionally. Stealing my favourite Silkie rooster was the last straw.
My son went and bought me a fake owl from Bunnings- to scare off the hawks...



image.jpg

I think the hawks think it's a long lost cousin- they don't take any notice of it.
But the real hawks, when they hover around overhead, seem to scare away the pigeons....

Sigh. Make that 2 garden decorations..
 
My Austrolorp has gone broody, which is strange as I am rooster-less. She is only about 18 weeks but has not budged off her eggs for 2 days. She didn't roost last night either.

I picked her up late yesterday and notice that all of her feathers on her abdomen are missing.

Any thoughts?
 
PastiesPeake
Chickens pluck their chest feathers so as to lay skin on their eggs to keep the eggs warmer. I've noticed my silkies do it.
And I agree with Kram- no need for a rooster for them to go clucky.
Some people think you need a rooster for a hen to lay eggs, too- just one of those myths that's grown legs.
There are ways to stop your hen from being clucky - or you can just let her go.
 

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Cool, thanks for the replies. I will let her be then and with a bit of luck she gets over it soon. I have got 1 lonely Leghorn pacing in her pen missing her mate.
 
PastiesPeake said:
Cool, thanks for the replies. I will let her be then and with a bit of luck she gets over it soon. I have got 1 lonely Leghorn pacing in her pen missing her mate.
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It takes 3 weeks to hatch eggs- because she's only young (and I agree with Kram81 that yours is unusually young to brood), she might get off her nest in a shorter time- because she could be a bit fickle at her age.
You can move her out and restrict her access to that area- and she'll pout for a day or so but eventually accept it and move on.
 
Kram81 said:
5 days to go.

I don't think any of the 3 under the old one will hatch, 1 got cracked and a couple of times she's let an egg roll out and get cold when I've checked in the morning. Don't blame it probably had enough of sitting around for about 2 months at that age.
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2 days to go!! Woohoo!
Tonight, go and sit out near the mums that you can get near and listen for tapping and "peeping" from the eggs. And go out again tomorrow night and listen.
It's a really exciting moment! We were so lucky to have heard the noises from our eggs- probably only the night before they hatched but it's worth trying to listen a night early, just in case :)
 
PastiesPeake said:
Good idea. I might do that over the weekend. I am worried that she is not eating or drinking.
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Yeah being young might be easier to discourage but sometimes they are determined and will just sit there forever. First thing to probably try is to move it somewhere else away from their nest, I usually put them in a spare bird aviary or something.

They should get off the nest briefly once (or sometimes twice) a day to get a drink and a bit of feed.
 

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PastiesPeake said:
Good idea. I might do that over the weekend. I am worried that she is not eating or drinking.
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She will come off when she's hungry/thirsty. You'll notice that her poop comes out in a large ball instead of the usual.
You can lift her off and put her next to the water and food- or carry a handful of food to her, just to ease your mind.
I worried a lot with my mums, too, but noticed they did move off and on again. Then I worried when they were off their eggs, if the eggs would get cold because they seemed to be off the eggs for a long time!!
The only drawback to having a broody hen is that she won't lay for you for a while. If you rely on her eggs, the sooner you break the broody cycle, the sooner she'll get back to laying :)
 
Teriyakicat said:
2 days to go!! Woohoo!
Tonight, go and sit out near the mums that you can get near and listen for tapping and "peeping" from the eggs. And go out again tomorrow night and listen.
It's a really exciting moment! We were so lucky to have heard the noises from our eggs- probably only the night before they hatched but it's worth trying to listen a night early, just in case :)
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Yeah well this is about the first time since about 20 years ago as a kid that I'll have been able to have a good look at them hatching as mine always escape and hide in some dark corner under the house with their clutch. lol when I had the rooster I even once not even noticed a hen has been missing until it's suddenly reappeared with a heap of chickens one day.
 
Teriyakicat said:
I got excited and thought "CHICKENS!!!!" as soon as I saw that you'd posted, Kram. Congrats!!!!
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I guess being from a full size breed the 3 Sussex chicks hatched look a lot bigger and stronger than the little ones from my bantams I usually see emerge from under the house on day 2! 3 of the 5 eggs left under her are Pekins, hopefully they hatch tomorrow.
 

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