So much has happened since I last blogged - here's a history of my Chicken keeping.
After much trial and error, I seem to be having luck with the chickens. Of my original 6 I only have one left. The Jap Bantams were a pair, so I gave them to my good friend Amanda. The Belgians - well the dog killed two (and promptly received an education), two got a mystery illness (baffled experienced Avian vet & cost $$$) and died, one was a rooster who we gave to a school to restart their breeding programme after the flood killed much of their stock, and we still have the last one - the plainest of the lot, the one that seemed most flighty, but lived through the dog attack because she ran for it, and is now very placid - very beautiful after all. Lesson learned. I then got Lacey - blue bantam Langshan, and Sooty - black bantam Australorp, but Sooty was a rooster & promptly renamed boofhead (boofhead by name, boofhead by nature) & sent to live with Mr Ha, who might or might not own a chinese restaurant. Then got 12 eggs & hired an incubator. Incubator broke, and Whitey finished the job, but the incubator had killed most of the eggs, so there were just 2 chicks. Whitey was a wonderful mother. Of the two chicks there seemed to be a rooster and a hen. Kookaburra took the hen (I am not making this up!), so then we were left with a rooster which was rehomed easily.
Are you keeping count? We're now back to two hens - Whitey & Lacey. They went clucky this spring, so I sent for some eggs & had them express posted from interstate. They sat on some pretty blue eggs - Bantam Araucanas. Each got six. Whitey almost killed herself by not getting off the nest. She was literally hours away from death when I noticed she was so ill, and I gave her water, and force fed her grain mixed with honey. I put all the eggs under Lacey (poor Lacey) until that evening when I put all of Whitey's eggs back under Whitey.
We ejected her from the nest twice daily from then on and she recovered nicely. All her diligence paid off. She hatched every egg - and we now have six gorgeous chicks from her. As for Lacey, it's her first time. She hatched one. We called it Lucky. So far it looks like Lucky might be a hen too - so we might re-name her Very-Lucky. Whitey got very frustrated with her chicks & started pecking them. She was ripping all their feathers out and tossing them around by their wings, so we took them away from her. I felt like someone from DOCS - department of Chicken services. I let her have visits & free-range with the chicks once a day for a week or two, and then took them away permanently. She is back laying already & although she seems to recognise them she doesn't really care they're not with her anymore.
Lacey was a gentle mother. Very lovely and very caring toward her chick. At 2 weeks I decided to put all the chicks in the run together. Lacey was worried and upset for a day, and then calmed down, especially when she could see her chick in the run next to her.
So far it looks like the most of the chicks are female. So perhaps our luck is changing? Won't hold my breath though!!!
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| Grey Chick in front - Phantom. Black chick with brown face - Earl. |
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| Lacey's Chick - Lucky. |
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| Earl in front (Early Bird as he/she was born 12 hours before the others). |
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| Bunny get's a cuddle. |
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| Before Whitey started attacking them. |
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| Gorgeous Day Olds |
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