AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Lovely mosaic. Did you make it yourself? A very creative touch!

No, no chooks. I am trying to be sensible
We have to build a chicken fence around the coup, then I can look for chooks.

Love the look of your chicken house, and it seems practical too. We are also just in the building phase and are sticking to being sensible and not getting them until we are completely finished. It's hard, isn't it?!? Meatime this forum continues to keep me fuelled with good ideas and tips for the future.

All the best for your finish
Bobkat

VERY hard

Barbara

I know it's hard to resist the temptation. You'll be like a kid in a candy store when you finally get to buy your chooks.

So....what type of chookies are you looking to get? What's on your wish list Barbara? And, how many are you thinking of getting?

Cheers
Chicka-Dee

Simply FABULOUS especially the mural

Hope you get your fencing up soon and you chookies too How many chookies does your council let you have?

Fantastic coop you have built there I also love the mural a nice touch

I am glad you like my mosaic, it was the first mosaic I ever attempted

The plan is to have maybe 6 chooks. I mainly want eggs (and poo , but like nice, big looking chooks that are friendly, can take confined area (it's quite large, but not free range). We are on 5 acres of bushland with a fenced garden around the house. The chooks will be within their own fence inside the dog fence around the garden part.

Researching the breeds, I put on my list:
Australorps, Wyandotte, Playmouth rock, Sussex. Australorps as the main type, at least 3 of them and some others for pretty looks. Probably will end up with whatever the person I get them from sells. Once I get going, there may be changes to this

What do you think of this plan?

Hi b-m

Really - Your first attempt ever? WOW! I'm so impressed right now, you have no idea. You should see my lame attempt at mosaicing, you so put me to shame it's embarrising!

I like your wish list. I love, love, love Wyandotttes. Remember with your roosting (and the big girls) that you need about 30 - 40 cm per chook on the roosts, so I would measure where your girls are going to sleep each night and make sure they will all fit in there comfortably otherwise you may end up with behavioural issues and bullying. Which could lead to feather plucking and depression, which will equal no eggs

Big Girls are lovely, but they need space.

Johs (one of the other APF members) has Plymouths Rocks and Light Sussex girls and they are big girls, so he might be able to give you some advice on what they are like as egg layers and to house.

I have only one Plymouth Rock (Priscilla - she's huges - nearly 4kg) and my roosts are 150cm wide and she takes up one third of the roost and only one, sometimes two of my Isa's (who are quite little compared to Priscilla - but egg laying machines) will roost next to her at night, as she will peck them to get away from her to give her space. She hates being overcrowded. And she's a cranky chook too - bit of a bully.

Australorps are suppose to be really good egg layers (brown eggs) as well as Leghorns (white eggs), so maybe when your deciding which type of chooks you want you could get a mix so you can have a colourful egg basket. Apparently it's all the rage now to get a variance of chooks that lay different coloured eggs, so you get a colourful display of eggs and you know who has laid what egg and that in turn helps you know if they are off the lay or not.

Another thing to consider is if you want eggs all year round or if when the moulting season comes round that your happy to have no eggs as the heritage breeds don't lay eggs while moulting which can be about 3 - 6 months in total, depending on their age, as their egg laying capacity goes down after each moult every year.

Have a look at the below link I found really helpful when researching different breeds that I think is really quite helpful when deciding what type of chook to get.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/ ... hooks.html

Cheers
Chicka-Dee

Thanks Chicka-Dee, I have found this website with the breeds.

6 months with no eggs? That would be hard... I was hoping it doesn't last that long.

I have enough roost area, I think. Can always add some more if required.