A Sad Tale

This week it is time for me to introduce our seven new pullets and cockerels. But I have some very sad news indeed.

Yesterday, on the first morning out of the secure hen house and into the fenced off run, one of our older cockerels went missing.

His name is Big Red. We have no idea if he was taken by a python, a bird of prey or he scaled the hen house roof and made a break from the run.

All of us are upset. We have only had him for a week. It was only his second time out in the run. He and his six friends were kept in the L-shaped section of the hen house for six days before we let them out into the run with our original seven chickens. He was happy there.

You can see how secure the chicken house is - a double layer of wire.

From the first time we bought him home I knew he was special. He was attentive and kind and less fearful than the other teenagers. 

He was a Rhode Island Red x Barnevelder. He got along well with everybody.

Big Red is on the Right

We looked for him all day yesterday and he never came home. This morning there is still no trace of him.  I feel so guilty and sick with worry. 

And then there is still the mystery. What happened to Big Red?

Sunday Stash #86

Today Sunday Stash is being hosted by Michelle of Squeak Crafts. So head on over there to link up.

Next week Sunday Stash will be hosted by Rachael of The FLoral Suitcase.

Last week's most visited stash link was the Don't Judge Me post by Molli Sparkles.

Slightly Halloween-ish

I do love Halloween decorations and craft. Halloween is not really celebrated here in Australia. As an event, it  is more suited to the colours of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere though. The orange, red, yellow and green of the Fall make it perfect for dressing up the front door or porch - or even the hen house!

I have so enjoyed the photos posted by Kathy - the Chicken Chick on her blog this season. She even has a tutorial to make the Wicked Witch Ruby Slippers above.

So here is a $4 pull of some slightly Halloweenish fat quarters. Some cute cats and rats, spots and wheels of orange. No Halloween chickens I'm afraid though.

The Halloween Quilts I made for the kids are sadly still packed away since we moved last December. I think it is time to pull them out again. I did buy the big pumpkin to carve though.

See you over at Squeak Crafts for the linky party.

A Peep at our New Peeps

Finally the time was right to get ourselves some baby chickens (and some pullets - but more on those later). Springtime is a good time to buy day old chicks as the weather is warming up.

So I put together a nursery made from an old crate. It is furnished with:

• A ceramic heater with a clamp (will not blow a fuse or keep them awake with light),
• A small water container (one that they cannot drown in),

and 

• A second hand container for the chicken crumble.

But already some of the older chickens, with wing feathers, are able to hop up and out of the crate - YIKES! - so I have made a makeshift lid.

Meet the Peeps

Currently they have only last names - all Presidential - but the kids have little nicknames for them already - Goldie, Lucy, Loveheart etc.

Aren't they all so individual? I have never had baby chicks before in my life. I have been missing out. 

Chicken Coop Spring Clean

Spring has brought warm days in the 20s so I tackled the chicken coop. 

We have a lot of native birds that feed around the chicken run and consequently they bring lice and mites to the chickens.

I had read online that a White Wash (builder's lime mixed with salt) is a lice and mite inhibitor.

I mixed up a batch for the inside of the chicken coop using 4 cups salt, 12 cups lime and 9 L of water.

 The first mix was too runny and so I added less water for batch two. 

It also brightens up the inside of the coop. 

I also used some of the excess decking oil to paint the timbers inside the coop.

And sprayed the door.

There is more to do but it is looking better already.

Just in time for Spring!

Sunday Stash #80

Thank you to Vera of Negligent Style for hosting Sunday Stash Last week. 

This week Sunday Stash is hosted by Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts so please head over there to link up.

Feathered Companions

Life around Highlands has been keeping me super busy these past few months. I find that I have less time for sewing. Managing house repairs and five acres is very time consuming.

The chickens have been keeping me company out in the garden this week. So I am dedicating this Sunday Stash to the chooks.

I found these two prints recently at Spotlight and bought half a metre of each.

Farmyard Prints

These two I inherited from my mum's stash a few years ago.

This one features some chickens.

This one features none!

So what's new in your stash this week? See you over at Hot Pink Quilts for the party.

Chook Chat #2

Back on the Lay

Sometimes things move fast in the flock and I am the last to know. Two weeks ago I was having a Chicken Revolution with chickens NOT laying in the nesting box.

So I decided to change my tactic. I took the same tactic as was used on Swiffer the chook by City Boy Hens. Leave the girls in the chicken run until lunchtime and then only let them out to free range after that. 

I knew about the nest that Freckles had made in the lomandra bush near my clothes line. She would fly over the fence to lay there regardless of the lock down.

I also knew that Bluey was laying in a similar lomandra inside the run. 

I had ONE day where I found five eggs in the nesting box.

Unfortunately the past two weeks have been school holidays and the chooks have been let out a few times before lunch. I can't really get mad at the kids for emancipating them. But in this state of confusion weird things have happened.

Washington

Has started laying again. But all over the place. In the nesting box and in Bluey's nest. One morning I was carrying her and when I put her down an egg dropped out. Unbroken. Weird!

She has also become the target of some comb pecking in the roost at night. I don't know who is doing it but it signifies that Washy Wash is no longer head chook. 

Breanna

Has finally started laying again after a four month break. I find her eggs in the nesting box and in Blueys nest. She does this pre-egg laying song as well as a post-egg song. Washington and Breanna lay identical sized and coloured eggs so it is impossible to work out whose is whose unless I catch them after they lay.

Obama

I have found her eggs in the nesting box but this week I caught her laying in Freckles nest. Then yesterday morning she layed twice! I have never heard that a hen can lay 2 eggs in a day.

Bluey

I can not find many of her eggs at all but I find them in random places. Nesting box, her nest and even on the chook house floor!

'L'il Roosey

She lays the smallest eggs and is the only one who lays consistently in the nesting box. God bless her fluffly bottom.

Freckles

Since the other chickens have been laying in her nest, her egg count is down and I think she is laying them elsewhere too.

So I think that all six of my hens are back on the lay. Now I have a glut of fresh eggs and need to give them away. Not a bad problem to have.

Lice

We have done a follow up dusting with the lice powder on four of the chickens. We need to do the rooster, Bluey and Freckles but they are impossible to catch during the day.

Thankfully I saw less evidence of lice than last time and I have noticed that the girls are dust bathing with the diatomaceous earth more than before. I think they are catching the lice from the local lorikeets, Noisy Minors and Blue Faced honey eaters with roost in the trees in the run.

Chook Chat

A Chicken Revolution

Currently I have four hens laying out of six. But things are changing and it is not all good.

Breanna 

Our Isa Brown has not layed since the dog attack in March. Then she went through her first moult. Her wattle is still pale. But twice I have found eggs, like the ones she used to lay, in really weird places on the property far from the usual haunts of the flock. So is she really 'off lay' OR is she hiding them?

Washington

Our Light Sussex continued to lay after the dog attack but then she contracted a serious case of double bumble foot. She had two vet operations and a long recovery. Her foot has only just finished healing but she still limps. She started her first moult through this time and so the egg laying stopped. 

Unfortunately she also lost more than third of her body weight during all the trauma. Plunging from 3Kg to 2.2 and then down to 1.8Kg! As I was on a three month weight loss journey (deliberate) myself, she was pulling bigger numbers than me! Thankfully she has now regained 600g and back to a safer 2.4Kg. She has not resumed laying.

Obama 

This little black  Australorp X Lohman Brown is our HUGE egg layer. Usually every second day the kids find hers in the nesting box. I started noticing that she would chorus afterwards and learned that this is an egg song. Not uncommon. (I read a funny Egg Song story about them over at City Boy Hens last month).

Bluey 

The Barnevelder is my regular layer of chocolate brown eggs but in the last two weeks her eggs have gone missing from the nesting box. She is not moulting and her comb and wattle are still red. I found one of her eggs at the bottom of the Freckles stash but no more. She disappears at times during the day and I think she is stashing them somewhere in the chicken run amoung the native grasses.

Freckles 

Our Ancona has been laying since May but started hiding her eggs in June. I discovered her stash site. I take out all but two and collect the rest lest she move sites.

Little Roosey 

Out Lohman X Sussex has not been laying long and used to lay her little eggs in the nesting box until last week. Then I found one of hers in Freckles' nest stash this past week. 

The Solution

I am not happy to lose 3 out of 4 layers to the secret stash movement that has gripped my flock. So I am taking evasive action. (inspired by City Boy Hens' solution to his Swiffer egg problem).  I am putting the girls in 'lock down' until lunch time every day. No more free ranging until I see the eggs back the nesting box! I feel a bit mean but they will have the large run to range in. IF things don't improve I may have to lock them into the chook house. 

Lice

We have found the occasional one on Obama and Breanna and they were dusted two weeks ago. But I was not aware of a huge infestation until last night. We had brought in some of the chickens for a twilight blow dry as it had been raining all day. I was feeling under Obama for wet tummy feathers when I felt stiff feathers. Closer inspection (with a torch) revealed she was riddled with lice eggs on her feather shafts! Poor girl. I know she dust bathes but we flipped her onto her back and gave her a serious dose of lice dust.

The Culprit

Last to be dried was Silver MacGregor our rooster. I checked his belly and found the same stiff feathers. Onto hhis back for a closer look. Not only was he carrying eggs but  many many live lice. Yuck. He stands on the girls' backs everyday to mate them and so is infecting them all. I feel so bad that I had not realised until now.

Last night I read up on all things lice (are you scratching now?) over at Tilly's Nest and The Chicken Chick and learned three very important things.

1. They can make chickens stop laying and their combs pale. Could this be Breanna's problem?
2. They bite the feathers so it looks like a moth has eaten them (I have noticed this on the backs of my girls and just assumed that they had been pecking eachother or it was due to Silver standing on them).
3. The life cycle is two weeks and so follow up treatments are necessary.

Far out! Chicken keeping is a relentless learning curve. Lucky I love them.