Goodbye, ladies

It's a sad day as I farewell all 14 of my remaining chooks, including Vladimir the rooster. They are all safely packed in boxes, cat carriers and crates and on the way to their lovely new home as I type. This time next week we'll be moving into our new place "in town" with no room for chooks. This morning I threw their favourite leftover rice and curry out for them, gave them fresh water and felt a little sad watching them peck around in excitement.

I felt even sadder when I closed up the empty shed tonight. No-one left on the perches. But I am so happy that they going to such a nice new home in the Huon and all staying together as a flock. In other good news: the two friendly New Hampshire hens I gave back to the people I got them from as chicks have settled in well. They are now known as "The Suzies". That really makes me smile. Longer term, I will definitely miss eating an egg that was only laid yesterday for breakfast! It's the best.

Surprise chick

We've had a few broody hens in the shed over the past few weeks, including one that was found to be sitting on 49 eggs!! Needless to say she couldn't keep those warm enough to hatch and they were removed. Then a week ago, I went down to let the chooks out in the morning and heard cheeping coming from under one of the hens, and a healthy chick emerged from her feathers.

It was a complete surprise, as I didn't think any of them had been sitting for the 21 days required for eggs to hatch. A week later and there is still only one chick and some interesting co-parenting arrangements between the three sitting hens. If nothing else happens in the next week, I'm going to remove those hens from their eggs and move them to the 'summer shed' (see previous post) where the nest boxes seem more conducive to happy brooding.

Chook jungle

Over winter, the chooks were housed in the lovely old pickers-hut-converted-to-henhouse which is warmer and drier and better able to cope with snow than our fancy new chook mansion (above). The soil in the mansion's yard had turned into a barren clay bog, so over winter we added wood mulch and grass clippings, and I added handfuls of 'green manure' seeds - a mixture of grasses, peas and beans designed to add nutrients to the soil. Then spring hit, and the grasses, peas and beans took off, creating a small edible forest for the chooks to move back into last weekend! In one week they've managed to flatten most of it, but it has given them a lot of nice insects and tasty leaves to peck. The only downside to having them in the lovely clean and new house is that it's closer to our house, and we can now hear Mr. Vladimir Putin the rooster crowing at sun up. Which at this time of year is pretty early. Oh well. Meanwhile, we still have three roosters disguised as Barnevelder hens. I'm hoping that by moving the dominant male (Vlad) into a different house, they will start to show their true feathers.

Dust bathing

The chooks dig holes in the dirt anywhere they find a nice dry spot to bathe in. They writhe and wriggle around, it's quite comical to watch. Chickens use a dust bath to absorb excess oil and moisture and prevent parasites such as lice and mites from taking hold in their feathers and legs. This pair found the remnants of a bonfire in our front paddock and thought the ashes would do very nicely as a dust bath, thank you.

Fairy egg

One morning last week I checked the nest box in the chook shed when I went to let the girls out for the day, and found a teeny tiny little egg in the straw. It looks like a classic brown speckled Barnevelder egg, only smaller than a quail egg! Turned to Google and discovered it's a common occurrence called a "fairy egg", or its less attractive name, a "fart egg". When young pullets first start laying, their first few eggs are often small, but not this small... apparently, it's due to some kind of disturbance in the hen's reproductive system, disruption to their normal routine or stress.

 

Roosters pretending to be hens

Here goes. I know this sounds weird. And maybe you'll think I'm silly or stupid or both. But there are three "hens" in my flock of 16 birds who are actually roosters. At least, they definitely WERE male. They are now camouflaged as hens. I want to dispatch them, as I'm not keen on feeding three birds that are not laying eggs and there are enough of them in the chook shed... but the problem is, I can't tell them apart from the hens, so I might not be dispatching the right birds!

That's the short story. The longer version is this. Of the last little batch of four Barnevelder chicks hatched back in March, unfortunately three turned out to be male. They were clearly boys - stood taller, had thicker yellower legs, their combs developed quicker. When they outgrew their little chook tractor, I didn't want to move the girl in with the older birds on her own, as she was smaller and I thought she would get picked on. Chooks are nasty that way. So I decided to move all four young birds in with the flock, where they pretty much kept to themselves and seemed to get on fine.

A couple of weeks later, I passed the chook shed on my early morning walk and heard one of the young cockerels trying out his (kind of pathetic) crow. I remember thinking, "I'll have to catch and dispatch those boys soon before they cause trouble." Then I was away for work, and we had some atrocious weather... no time to spend my weekend butchering birds for the freezer. But in the few weeks I delayed, the three young lads stopped looking like lads and I couldn't tell them apart from the Barnevelder hens! Every now and then I think, that one's comb looks particularly red, or that one has a tinge of green in its feathers. Then I look around and see a bunch of other chooks that look just the same. And at night, high up on their perch, there is just no way I can tell them apart with enough confidence to kill them. We have one mature rooster, Vladimir Putin, and my only guess is that to avoid his wrath they are somehow pretending to be hens. Seriously, they do not have thicker yellow legs, spurs, large combs or colourful rooster plumage at all.

A Google search revealed quite a few stories of hens who have turned into roosters, like Gertie who became Bertie. But not so much about spontaneous sex reversal the other way around, such as Gianni the cockerel who started to lay eggs. I'm starting to think I'm going crazy! Any chook experts out there ever seen this before?

The power of mulch

Last week, David asked some blokes who were trimming branches away from power lines on our road if they could dump a load of their mulch at our place. They delivered.

Past deliveries have been put to very good use in the chook yard, around the raised veggie beds, around trees, stabilising clay banks. So now we have a huge pile of beautiful smelling mulched wood and leaves next to the driveway. The chooks were onto it immediately, kicking it around with their powerful little legs.

Some years ago I went to an open garden scheme day at a beautiful garden in the hills of Glen Huon, very close to our place as the crow flies, but about 20 minutes by car. I couldn't believe how beautiful their soil was, rich and dark brown, sustaining both native trees and a huge range of non-natives. And yet they were so close to us, and their altitude was not that much lower than ours. Our soil is mostly clay, soggy and wet in winter and hard and dry in summer. When I asked one of the owners about their soil, he said "mulch." Over the years they had added tonnes and tonnes of organic material to build up their topsoil and boy had it paid off. While I don't have any intention of developing such an incredible garden, I now believe in the power of mulch.

Egg supply

A month ago we were getting on average one egg per day. Now production has ramped up and so far this month the hens have laid 110 eggs. We've eaten plenty, given some away and next I'll have to go looking for customers, now that we have our little stamp of accreditation. Thank you, ladies!

Saturday night chook abduction

The fancy new chook mansion that has housed 14 birds for the past seven months or so needs a big clean out. After the recent heavy rains in southern Tasmania, the yard is a smelly mud bog, and despite removing the bedding and nest box material upstairs regularly, it is disgusting again. So on Saturday night after dinner, David and I ventured out into the dark and windy night to snatch the hens and roosters from their perch and relocate them to the refurbished old picker's hut for the winter. One of us held the door or nest box lid open, while the other grabbed the nearest bird and (despite protestations) tucked it neatly under one arm for the march across the front paddock to their new home. Return and repeat seven times. It was a far more efficient operation than our early efforts at chook catching. All birds neatly deposited on their perches, we retreated back indoors to the fire and a glass of red. It's probably not how we would have imagined spending a Saturday night ten years ago!

As the chooks woke up in their lovely clean winter house the next morning, were they thinking 'how did I get here? Was I abducted in my sleep?' More likely, knowing their generally limited brain capacity, they just got back to the business of pecking, crowing, clucking and flapping. I feel happier knowing they will be warm and better protected from the cold wind and snow when it comes this year. After a week or two of getting used to their new location, they will be able to go out free ranging again and hopefully return to the correct home in the evening.

Curious chooks

I heard the alarm cry of the plovers and rushed to the window to scan the sky, just in time to see the wedge tailed eagle fly past. By the time I reached the chook shed, all 14 of them were safely inside the yard so I shut them in. I thought I'd take the opportunity to get a few promotional photos of the four 16 week old cockerels, to see if I can find homes for any before they start crowing and create trouble in the hen house. But my shots were chook-bombed by curious hens and one loud rooster! They all came up to peer at me as I crouched to take a photo. Funny.

Mother hen

Of the three broody hens that were sitting a while back, one managed to hatch four chicks and is now happily raising these tiny feathery tufts in our enclosed orchard. Isn't she beautiful? She has super-powerful legs for kicking up dirt and digging huge holes under the apple trees, teaching her charges to forage for food. It's our second batch of chicks for this season, both hatched and raised by hens. For once we haven't used the incubator. Unfortunately, from the first batch of five that are now 14 weeks old, four are male. Over the years we've had pretty bad luck with the hen-to-cockerel ratio. I'm crossing my fingers that we get at least a couple of girls this time. P.S. Anyone want a nice young Barnevelder rooster?

The circle of life

In the land of poultry-keeping, you lose some, you gain some.

One of my hens recently lost use of her legs. She spent a lot of time sitting down, or making strange stamping motions with her feet. I first suspected bumblefoot, but on checking her feet there was no sign of swelling or infection. After separating her from the flock and checking her over thoroughly again, I couldn't find anything broken and started to suspect Marek's disease - not good at all. I could have dispatched her myself, but she was eating and drinking just fine, her eyes were OK... so I took her to the vet yesterday. He said it was some kind of neurological condition, with messages from her brain not getting to her legs, and unlikely to improve. We could try generic kinds of treatment - antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and the like - and then end up having to euthanase her anyway. She wasn't laying eggs and may have been in pain. So long story short, she didn't come back home with me from the vet today.

When I got back from the vet, I decided to go and check on the broody hen whose eggs were about due to hatch, and lo and behold - four healthy-looking tiny chicks were standing next to her cheeping! By the time David and I collected some chick feed and a water container to take down there, along with the camera of course, five little chicks were visible and mother hen was off her nest. I couldn't see signs of movement from any of the other eggs, but you never know. Either way, five new chicks is great news. A sad and happy day in chook land.

Sitting hen

Surprisingly, one of our Barnevelder hens has gone broody. The breed isn't known for it. We discovered her sitting in one of the nesting boxes on the weekend, and based on her reluctance to move (I got a healthy hiss and peck on the hand!) I decided to leave her there and put more eggs under her. I don't know how many eggs she is sitting on in total. Many chicken owners don't want their birds going broody because they want them laying eggs. But now with 12 hens, we have more eggs than we know what to do with. So hopefully Vladimir has been doing his job (he certainly seems to be kept busy in this department) and she will hatch some chicks. But it's very early days and I'm not counting... well, you know.

Eggtrepreneur

I'm excited to have my first few egg customers this week. It's great news, as the eggsplosion continues... we're getting 8-10 eggs a day at the moment, and as much as I'm enjoying an egg for breakfast and making custard ice-creams, there are still too many for us to consume. And they are so lovely, I'm very happy to share them. Here are the first lot packed up and ready to go.

Chook mansion

No really - it IS a mansion. It even said so on the box. On Saturday we finally had a day of beautiful weather to be working outdoors, and spent it constructing a kit chicken coop ordered online from Backyard Chicken Coops. It was surprisingly easy to put together. Whoever designed the kit really thought of all the little details and the instructions were clear. The finished house looks fantastic and now I just need another day of clear-ish weather to add the straw bedding and move in our 12 hens and Vladimir the rooster. Can't wait to see them all settled in!

Eggsplosion

This year's pullets (all 10 of them) have started laying, albeit mostly tiny little eggs. Their eggs look so cute next to the bigger brown eggs laid by the two older Barnevelder hens. So for us it's time to eat more yummy eggs for breakfast, custard-style ice-cream (it uses five yolks), omelettes, patties, fried rice, cakes, quiche, frittata and anything else that uses eggs! I have sent off the forms to register as an unaccredited small producer so hopefully I can sell some of our eggs via local shops, markets or to friends. Want any?

Curious chickens

Currently we have eight pullets living in the chook tractor in the orchard. They are very curious creatures. When I open the door of the house, they hear me coming and all run to greet me. They follow me up and down the run. The dogs like to sniff at them through the fence (I still don't trust the the dogs not to chase) but the funny thing is - the curiosity is mutual. The chickens come over to the dogs and peer at them. On a frosty morning this week, Baerli came with me to feed the girls and had a chat with them while she was there.