City Girl - Needs Acreage
I am close to the city centre on a main road here in BrisVegas (aka Brisbane). Our home is an old Queenslander with a number of bottle brush trees, casias and lillypillies planted around. These trees encourage birdlife, so I of course, have included a bird bath in all of this. Five years ago a friend was leaving and heading down south and she asked me if I would like her 2 spoilt hens. An Australorp called Honkey, and a gorgeous Sussex renamed HennyPenny. So these two birds came to me, and along with them came their coop and pink cat carry-basket that they adore and is their nesting box.
Other chooks have joined the flock now.
Honkey no longer lays. HennyPenny had stopped but the stimulation of the new girls has started laying every second day. Honkey bless her heart is a strange little bird. She is very noisy (hence her name) and during the last year, year and a half she has started morphing into a rooster. First it was her comb and wattles enlarging, then her tail feather grew as well as the spurs on her feet. She became very bossy and I had to show her a couple of times that I was top of the pecking order. Then one day I heard this pathetic noise. I went outside and found her hiding behind the tree, trying to crow. The look on her face was so funny, she looked embarrassed.
Well she certainly became very good at crowing so as we are not allowed roosters here (though I argue the point -she is NOT a rooster) .Then a light bulb moment for me - I covered her pen door with shade cloth and wait till the sun is well up before I let them out of their coop. This seems to have corrected the early morning crowing.
So getting a coop together has been an issue. I have free ranged them for some time - No predators at this stage to worry about, so I am pretty lucky about that.
I tired of their poops and destruction of my gardens. And then when my dog killed one again I thought enough is enough. My dog isnt a predator but wants to play with them and tackles them. Unfortunately because of his weight - they dont get back up again from his tackle. So I separated my girls and put them into 3 separate pens. My last pen was a quick get to gether,built entirely of wooden tomato stakes, chicken wire and stapled together. Its standing...
I have been fortunate recently to get a couple of lavender Araucana hens. They are still babies but I am loving their attitude and them.
. A couple of "homeless" red sex link hens, found their way here. Poor little girls were starving, I think they were dumped when their owners moved from down the road. My total of chooks is up to legal limits of six chooks. Sometimes this legal limit might actually be numerically higher than six but as six is my legal limit thats all i have... if you get my meaning... It has been such an eye opener for me to own these girls and they really do consume my life but I am not complaining, just stating the facts.
I am close to the city centre on a main road here in BrisVegas (aka Brisbane). Our home is an old Queenslander with a number of bottle brush trees, casias and lillypillies planted around. These trees encourage birdlife, so I of course, have included a bird bath in all of this. Five years ago a friend was leaving and heading down south and she asked me if I would like her 2 spoilt hens. An Australorp called Honkey, and a gorgeous Sussex renamed HennyPenny. So these two birds came to me, and along with them came their coop and pink cat carry-basket that they adore and is their nesting box.
Other chooks have joined the flock now.
Honkey no longer lays. HennyPenny had stopped but the stimulation of the new girls has started laying every second day. Honkey bless her heart is a strange little bird. She is very noisy (hence her name) and during the last year, year and a half she has started morphing into a rooster. First it was her comb and wattles enlarging, then her tail feather grew as well as the spurs on her feet. She became very bossy and I had to show her a couple of times that I was top of the pecking order. Then one day I heard this pathetic noise. I went outside and found her hiding behind the tree, trying to crow. The look on her face was so funny, she looked embarrassed.
Well she certainly became very good at crowing so as we are not allowed roosters here (though I argue the point -she is NOT a rooster) .Then a light bulb moment for me - I covered her pen door with shade cloth and wait till the sun is well up before I let them out of their coop. This seems to have corrected the early morning crowing.
So getting a coop together has been an issue. I have free ranged them for some time - No predators at this stage to worry about, so I am pretty lucky about that.
I tired of their poops and destruction of my gardens. And then when my dog killed one again I thought enough is enough. My dog isnt a predator but wants to play with them and tackles them. Unfortunately because of his weight - they dont get back up again from his tackle. So I separated my girls and put them into 3 separate pens. My last pen was a quick get to gether,built entirely of wooden tomato stakes, chicken wire and stapled together. Its standing...
I have been fortunate recently to get a couple of lavender Araucana hens. They are still babies but I am loving their attitude and them.
. A couple of "homeless" red sex link hens, found their way here. Poor little girls were starving, I think they were dumped when their owners moved from down the road. My total of chooks is up to legal limits of six chooks. Sometimes this legal limit might actually be numerically higher than six but as six is my legal limit thats all i have... if you get my meaning... It has been such an eye opener for me to own these girls and they really do consume my life but I am not complaining, just stating the facts.