Incubation dos and don'ts

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday morning than dust bathing in the sunshine -- with your sister and her chicks.




These two first time mums are doing a great job. 



Last year they were both good aunties; and now that they've been allowed to hatch some chicks of their own they've turned it into a bit of a team effort.

Look at the tail feathers on the little black chick.  That's definitely a pullet! 

If you have girls setting eggs this season a few rules to follow:

• Ensure they have water they can dip their underside in (not just your usual drinkers) -- they may need to raise the humidity in the last few days before the chicks hatch
• Remove the water dish when the eggs begin to hatch or fill it with stones -- chicks can easily drown
• Ensure you clean up the broody's horrendous smelling poo every day -- it will attract flies which can then make her flyblown as her skin is fragile after spending week incubating the eggs
• Don't feed her a diet too high in protein
• Ensure she has access to plenty of fresh greens
• Dust her chest and under her wings with Pestene when she begins to incubate then again once the hatching is over
• Remove any eggs that fail to hatch within 72 hours of the first chick hatching -- she needs to get the chicks out and drinking; don't sacrifice their health and well being on a 'maybe' that hasn't hatched yet
• It's the longest 21 days of your life but don't interfere with the hen in the last few days -- picking her up to check the eggs will just spoil the perfect humidity and temp she's working ahrd to achieve
• Enjoy!

Gold! Gold! Gold!

It has been a while between posts so there's much to report on...

Introducing the first ever gold designer backyarders.

There is a silver laced on the left for comparison, but her brothers and sisters are the first gold laced.

They're going to a lovely garden in Montmorency when their mother decides they're big enough -- right now they lift her right off the ground when they snuggle up for a nap.

I splashed out on new accommodation this season for the broodies to sit in peace and raise their babies for the first few days.

The problem with keeping them separate is that when they all head in at dusk there's a bit of confusion about who belongs with who.

It think some of the cousins have been having few sleep-overs but no-one seems to mind.

We have lots of chicks at the moment (I stopped counting at 40) -- but Miss P is making it her business to ensure they all receive an equal share of love, handling and attention.

Note to self: must buy MORE watermelon today.

She cuts it into tiny pieces then rolls it in chick crumble for their special snacks.  I really should plant some as it's costing a fortune.

Speaking of gardening...

Plant mint -- I have discovered that rats and mice hate the stuff, which is great news for us!

Your comfrey and tansy should be growing at a great rate right now too -- as soon as the tansy begins to flower put a bouquet in the layer boxes to make it unattractive to lice and mites.

Mites are cunning little things that only come out at night so the first you'll even know they're a problem will be because the chooks are suffering from anaemia.

Bunnings also have a new triple strength pyrethrum spray that remains effective for 20 days. I bought it on the weekend and am going to make it part of my routine to spray the inside of the chookhouse whenever I do a clean-out -- just in case.

Some of these little lovelies may even be yours if you're on the waiting list.

My plan is to touch base with people this week. Keep your fingers crossed that there are plenty of pullets and not many cockerals.

Heading out into the world.

It is hard to beleive that 6 weeks have flown by and the girls were ready for rehoming on the weekend.

They went to lovely homes but it is always a bit sad to say 'goodbye'.

It was nice to see the little girl at one home pick them up ever so gently and carry them around the garden whispering to them as she went.

I know they'll be happy and loved!

I know they were ready to go. Salt and Pepper being her very predictable self went back to roost in the main chookhouse on the Thursday night before the girls were leaving.

She heads off top roost with the roosters, calling them with her gentle motherly cluck but doesn't look back if they don't follow -- and doesn't go back to collect them.

That's a sure sign that her mothering is complete and they are ready to head out into the world.

I just have to share this!  It's a cake a talented colleague of mine made me for my birthday. She's silver laced (the cake, not the colleague)!

The next chicks are due to hatch on Sunday.  Keep posted for some super cute photos...

Inundated with eggs

This pretty little designer backyarder will help me move through that waiting list. (She's one of yours Denise)

On the weekend my curious 3 year old son was peering through a crack in the veranda and sat bolt upright screaming "Eggs, eggs."

My first thought was blue tongue lizard eggs becasue I know they live under there but to my surprise we pulled out 26 smallish white eggs. It seems Sunflower started to lay a lot earlier than expected.

We might have to change her name to Sneaky.

It was the weekend for finding eggs.  I also found a dozen or so in an old box in the laundry tucked up beside the hot water cylinder.  It kind of made sense to nest there so I have turned it into a proper broody area.

Hopefully the warm, humid environment will prompt a few more hens to sit and hatch some of these gorgeous eggs.

The initial results of the great commercial layer pellet challenge are almost ready for release...

Are you my mother?

This fluffy chicks has no dobuts about who its mother is.

She is the one who keeps it warm.

She warns it if danger threatens.

She teaches it how to behave.

She feeds it every morsel it consumes.






Watch this video to see how, despite sometimes standing ankle deep in food, the chicks wait for their mother to select every speck of food for them.

No incubator or brooder box can every replicate or adequately replace this care and affection displayed by a mother hen.

They look to her for guidance, protection, food and water.

This is why every one of my designer backyarders are hatched, raised and taught by specially selected mother hens. The alternative ways of hatching and raising chicks are too awful to think about.

Here we go again!

This first pipped shell for 2012...

Closely followed by the first chick of the season...

And I knew there had to be more under Daphne when I found these...

They were having a bit of a meet & greet at the back of the mower catcher...

These photos had to be taken in the dark so as to not frighten them or their slightly anxious mother.

There are 9 more eggs in this lot yet to hatch, and Salt&Pepper's eggs should begin to pip in the next few days so an exciting week ahead.

This will help get that waiting list moving! 

Let's all pray there's plenty of pullets and very few cockerels.

Why keep chooks?

Someone asked me the other day, "Why do you keep chooks?"


A picture is worth a thousand words and this one speaks for itself.

The children feed the chooks last night's left overs for breakfast and in return the chooks provide the children with breakfast!

These eggs are an hour old.

We know what has gone into them. They are loaded with Omega3.

They have zero food miles.

My question is: Why wouldn't you keep chooks?



Bringing pullets into lay

I've had some feedback this week that some pullets I rehomed that are about 22 weeks old have not come into lay yet!



Here's Salt & Pepper settled down to lay (sorry about the photo quality but it's lovely and dark in the laying boxes).



Today's haul!

Despite a serious flood and minus temperatures overnight every single one of the girls at my place who is old enough to be laying is laying. 


If your Designer Backyarders have not come into lay and you're buying eggs at the supermarket this is an issue with a simple solution...

1. Up their protein intake.

Cat biscuits have 30% protein compared with premium laying pellets with 16% so soak a handful of cat biscuits in hot water or milk for their breakfast. 

Ask you local butcher to put the band saw dust aside for you at the end of each day then collect it once of twice a week. Feed each girl a walnut sized peice every day for a week then every second day for a week then twice a day -- when they begin to lay use it for treats only.

Meal worms are great and contain a massive 67% protein -- get freeze dried ones if you're squeemish.

2. Warm them up on the inside by increasing the oil content of their diet.

Black sunflower seeds (no matter how many you have left don't feed them these after they start laying and definitely NEVER feed them these when it's not winter).

Treat them to a few tins of sardines -- Aldi sell them for 60cents.

Together these two strategies should bring your girls into lay. And we're only 7 days away from the shortest day of the year so the sun will be on your side soon too.  Longer days will also encourage your girls to do what they do best -- provide you with breakfast!

One brown, one toffee and one green.

If you have a Designer Backyarder that is laying pretty green eggs I'd love to hear from you.

Nice weather for ducks!

You would expect the chooks to be a little excited at the prospect of a new raw straw house but it appears they are not alone.

These 3 little monkeys seem kind of thrilled too!

But then the rains came and didn't stop so work will be delayed for a week or so.



This is our road in flood.



You would think that would mean the chooks are pretty wet and miserable but soneone had other plans. Unable to get to school becasue of the water Miss P spent the day taking turned to warm and hand feed each one in front of the heater.

 

New pens

So before I can start the trial to find the best commercial layer feed on the market I need to divide the flock up into 4 separate pens.

That way I can accurately record how much they eat and how many eggs they covert that food into.

They will have to take turns free ranging -- but they do have 11m X5m in each pen.

At the end of the season I will know which feed to recommend to new mini-flock families.



This is the first of 4 new pens (I'm going to have to start holding my camera sideways to outsmart Blogger).



And this is the second pen.

Next will come the coops. 

I'm planning to build a raw straw house.  The bales will be stacked like bricks to stay strong and stable without the need for any other infrastructure.

The bales will be easy to disassemble when the floor needs cleaning.  This will also air the straw regularly so mould and parasites don't start thinking it's a cosy place to move into.

The raw straw house will provide a nice warm place for the hens to lay and brood -- although some may need to be reolcated when they are broody if the other hens in the pen insist on adding to their clutch of eggs each day.

A pitched iron roof will keep the rain out but will be light enough to move during the cleaning.

In a year or two when the raw straw bales begin to break down they will become mulch for the comfrey, tansy and lavender garden.

With the shortest day of the year fast approaching I am looking forward to having some hens go broody. 

Food for thought -- literally!

While re-homing my mini-flocks this season a common theme emerged and it has given me some food for thought.

Families were surprised that the chook food would need to be prepared and cooked each morning. But rather than seeing that as a negative I'm look on the bright side...



Lovely rainbow if you turn your head (becasue Blogger won't!)

I grew up in suburban Melbourne in the 1980s and we always had chooks – no-one else I ever knew did. We also had ducks and pheasants at different times.  My mum, depending on which way you look at it, was either a trailblazer or stuck in the 1940s.

Every morning our kitchen was filled with the lovely aroma of pollard simmering away with last night’s leftovers.  Mine still does now -- although these days it's also loaded with spiralena powder, fish oil, milk powder and other nutritious goodies. 

It seems many people’s lives are too busy for this additional morning task and so not wanting the chooks to seem like a chore, I am committed to spending this season finding a simpler feed solution.

I’ve decided to test four commercial chook feeds (I haven't chosen them just yet but have started some research). Whichever feed generates the best input by weight : egg output ratio will be declared the “best” at the end of the season.

Usually I’d also be interested in fertility rates, but as designer backyarder families have chooks for eggs so that’s what I’m measuring.

The first step will be to put four roosters into separate pens and see how much food each of them consumes.

That way then the girls are added to the pens I will be able to subtract the roosters’ food from the calculations. 

This way I know I’m making a fair comparison.

So here are the boys that will father the next generation of designer backyarders...

Mr Mister - I know two girls who like him already.

Simon -- hey isn't that the same girls?

Can-Go (great photo it's a real shame Blogger insists of placing it sideways!)

And Lilapple (rhymes with 'pineapple' in the same way his brother pictured above rhymes with 'mango' -- that's what happens when 5 year olds get to name the pets).

Now all I need is four new pens to keep them all separate...

Best ever chook feeder

I was looking for a chook feeder that wasn’t fiddly and time consuming to refill so Dine-A-Chook seemed like a good option for me.

To refill the Dine-A-Chook I don’t even have to bend over; the parts don’t warp and wear in such a way that it’s a battle to get it back together; and it sits in the sun without becoming brittle.

What I didn’t realise was that I was also getting a feeder that would simultaneously solve a heap of other problems I had come to accept as being part and parcel of feeding chooks – like the wild birds which come to eat then leave behind mites;  the vermin which carry disease; and the waste that comes from food going mouldy.

The first reaction people have when they see my Dine-A-Chook is “I reckon I can make one”—but I always explain that there’s much more to it than meets the eye.

You wouldn’t bother going through all the time, effort, cost and heartache of trial and error to get it right when you can just fast forward to the perfect set-up.

So refilling the feeder is now easy plus I don’t need to do it nearly as often as I used to because I’m going through so much less grain. My only regret is that Dine-A-Chook didn’t come along sooner!

I would hate to think back over the last decade and add up the money I’ve wasted in chook feed lost to mice, birds and mould. It has paid for itself many times over.

Dine-A-Chook is a healthy, easy way to feed gain and pellets that keeps both me and my chooks happy.

If you have chooks, you should get one!

If you have lots of chooks, you should get a few.

Dine-A-Chook

Housing problems, err, solutions.

We have moved into a gorgeous old house on a farm.

The plan is that by expanding how many girls we can house and care for broody at once, we can meet your demands for more Designer Backyarders more quickly.

But while where the humans live is great, we have to pretty much start from scratch for the chooks.

To keep these little girls happy and healthy I'm on the hunt for a solution with the following features:

• Quick and easy to install (winter is upon us!)
• Simple to clean out
• Able to accomodate a mother from laying right through to raising
• Good ventilation
• Attractive
• Non-permanent

And...

Have simple, child-proof access for egg collecting.

I'll keep you posted on my progress towards finding the best solution in Australia on the market today.

Any product reviews you wish to share will be received with tremendous thanks.

Also on my list of things to tackle before the next season takes-off is fencing solutions; feed for layers; and recipes for using up all those wonderful eggs. Over the coming weeks I'll cover the best, the worst & everything in between.

Cock-a-doodle don't!

These are the chicks. They're kind of grumpy at having been confined to a small make-shift run for most of the weekend while we were in Melbourne doing the last deliveries of the season.

As we have recently moved, fox-proof accommodation is still in the planning phase. I'm sure you will agree these lodgings are less than satisfactory.

I have to say I was very impressed with some of the gardens our girls moved into this weekend.                                          I hope all the families are happy and that the chooks are settling in well. We'd all love to see some photos!

Part of next season's preparations have included lots of gardening...



Wormwood



Lavender



Way too much comfrey

This will completely take over but is a good crop for use in the compost and it can be dried to become a winter feed.






And for some fallen fruit to keep them occupied, we've planted a little fig tree.


Fig tree

Then there is next season's layers.  A few of the stars I have picked out for next season include these little lovelies.

And next season's rooster is busy trying to learn to crow. He thinks he's the King of the Castle standing there on the Dine-A-Chook so his adoring girls can all get a good look at him.

Here's his performance trying to compete with Simon yesterday. This went on for about an hour! Fortunately, we don't have neighbours nearby.

No tail feathers left to shake.

This is a 60 day old chick.

Salt and Pepper is such a great mother they are all still together all the time.



You will notice that Salt and Pepper has lost her tail.  She is in moult and if you think she look ordinary what about Simon.


He has gone from this...

To this...

But with plenty of goodies in his diet over the coming weeks he will quickly return to his usual stunning self.

It's great when the girls stagger their moult so we get fresh eggs right through the year.

Don't ask me why those images are the wrong way around, Blogger won't play fair again today.

To those of you who have requested a wating list form, they will be on their way to you by this weekend. It's kind of a sad time here with lots of deliveries of mini-flocks going to new homes over the past few weeks. However, this Sunday we're expecting 10 super cute bubba chicks -- no, not a special delivery from the Easter Bunny -- a new hatch by one of out best mother hens, all going well photos to come soon!