Cold Snap in Spring

We have experienced an unexpected cold snap and for the last week have have lower than usual temperatures. Plus a little rain.

All makes for an unusual spring and a slight reprieve for the rainforest from the full blown heat of the other week. Chickens are going fine - we have "lent" the wyandottes to a generous family friend who is looking after them until they reach a size and age where they will not be overly pecked by the established flock.

Confidently, I have been letting the birds free range everyday for the last few weeks, and they have rewarded us with brilliant yolks and generally maintaining the block.

Not to say that last week I woke after a late night shift to hear the dreaded buzz of whipper sippers and chainsaws. I ran down to the garden at merewether life and met a half dozen council employees who were clearing a seven meter fire zone between the houses and the bushland. Fine.

We have maintained the zone independently for the last seven years and it would save the council the effort. Plus we have replanted exclusively natives, and managed weed regrowth very successfully.

Keep you posted, and good luck with your gardening...

Gold Laced Wyandottes

The Gold Laced Wyandotte - beautiful birds with natural camouflage

Since getting the twelve hybrid pullets in March, we have had great success in managing them and have been rewarded with dozens of eggs.

And hooking up with a local chef we have been sharing five dozen eggs with another grateful family each week.  It makes such a difference to have some help with buying feed.

Even though we have had a couple of incidents with the free rangers being attacked by dogs, things are going well and it appears the chickens themselves have adapted their foraging behaviour to make themselves less vulnerable. What they do is forage on the side of the hill so that they have greater visibility of approaching threats and are able to move to cover more quickly.

Also, my management of the lantana undergrowth offers less cover for the predators – the line of sight is improved for the chickens.

So, full of confidence and wanting to add to the flock, I was searching online for a local breeder of some of the more attractive varieties of birds.

After visiting Maitland Show earlier in the year, I identified Wyandottes as a particularly beautiful bird.

But the trouble is most breeders offer day old chicks for around $5 -$10 and the logistics of raising the birds up to the age where they can mix with the existing flock is just not realistic. I didn’t want to have to keep the chicks separately for almost four moths whilst they grew up in size.

Then I found a local breeder who had a couple of ten week old pullets and after a few calls the deal was done.

The Gold Laced Wyandotte is promoted as a great family bird with an easygoing temperament and good egg production. Plus, most importantly, it has a delicate lace effect on it’s feather edges which gives it a painted appearance.

I can’t wait to see the birds mixing with the flock and bringing some more colour. There is plenty of information about adding new chickens to and existing flock. I will give the new girls a brief introduction with the other birds, but then let the existing flock out to free range whilst the new birds can stay behind in the enclosed pen to acclimatise to their surroundings.

My main worry is that the new girls might be bullied once they go inside the night hen house and I’m not really sure what to do to protect them whilst inside. I have added extra perches and some bricks so there are plenty of roosting places, and I will restock the hay bedding so that there is as much distraction as possible.

But I have noticed in the last few weeks that the birds are showing signs of pecking each other, with bald patches and stripped quills on the nape of the necks.

Again, my inexperience shows and I am not sure whether this is entirely normal as the birds get older or if it is something more sinister.

Let’s hope again that it is all ‘just what happens’.

Photos coming soon – camera still not working.

Spring in the Backyard

The first days fo spring have brought all the emerging buds out and we can't wait for the new growth to come and freshen up the bareness left from the winter.
Unfortunately, my camera is experiencing technical difficulties so I will have some images for the next post.

Winter 2012

Welcome back! We have been busy (which isn't much of an excuse) but things have been evolving at a great rate since the last post (I can't believe it's been so long!). First of all, we have lost chickens through fox attacks and to be honest, a bit of mis-management on my part. It was so simple to have free ranging birds picking through the bush that it became a bit of a routine and sure enough I was letting the chooks out everyday. But to be honest it was too easy to be letting the chooks outside and expecting them to feed themselves. And with the busy Christmas season at our business, my attention was totally elsewhere when in early December first two, then three and finally the other three went missing over a week or so. Devastated, I abandoned the whole backyard sustainability project over the summer break. I didn't even water or plant any new plants or pull weeds. It all fell into disrepair. But I did rush out and but a half dozen laying hens at top dollar ($25) and, sure enough, much to my total embarrassment, the birds were taken too. Maybe by dogs, maybe by the fox again. Anyway, things hit a sort of rock bottom and it was a real turning point. I looked out the back and saw how overgrown and how it was such a waste of land to have the whole space just feeding weeds. So we bought another dozen pullets. Young egg laying hens at 16 weeks for $14 each. I told my wife we would get 8 but I brought home a dozen. It was like things were back to normal. God they are beautiful animals to watch... Now, about ten weeks after they have settled into living at Merewether we are enjoying their fruit. We are getting 8 or more eggs everyday and the landscape is completely devoid of weeds, insects and other things. The girls are confident walking around without shoes on! So let's share some more images and daily life...