Operation Chicken

A few months ago, we raised some baby chicks from a school in Melbourne. As we already have chickens, these ones were to go to Tom's parents. However, due to the chickens being hand raised and very friendly, I soon missed them!
So, this week, Tom did a chicken swap for me! A bantam chook and the 4 chicks raised by Henrietta and Molly were changed over for the 3 Isa Brown hand raised chickens!
I've loved watching my little "cheepers" grow.

Chicks update

I was checking the chicks this morning, and to my surprise, two more eggs have little holes and cheeping chicks inside. I am home alone, so it is taking me a lot of self restraint to not sit in the hen house and watch them pop out of their shells!
The two oldest ones are now only a week old, but have started to get little feathers on their wings and are starting to lose their beautiful fluffy down!

First feathers

Peek-a-boo!

Another Chick!

Tonight, 3 days after the other two, we had another chick hatch. I got some photos of its progress, and still marvel at the fact that such a beautiful fluffy chick emerges from a tiny little shell that began at only 35 grams!
I know it looks dead in the photo, but it is just finding its feet and is happily chirping away.

Chicks!

Today we had two chicks hatch. I'm so happy that these ones hatched safely. There are still a few more eggs, but I'm not sure they will hatch. Henrietta is still sitting on the other eggs, so I will leave them there until I can be certain they are not going to hatch.

Hatching time

The chicks are now due. I rushed to the chook house tonight to find one egg with a small hole in it, and a cheeping chicken 'stuck' inside. I carefully helped the chick get free of the shell, but when I saw blood on my hands I knew something must be wrong. I put the chick back under the hen and jumped onto the Internet. I am now more educated and have discovered that you should almost never help a chick hatch, and that the hatching process from that first hole can take 24 hours. Unfortunately the blood vessels seal over in the last few hours, and I was clearly too early with the chick.
I'm upset that I jumped in to 'help' and ended up killing our first chick. I can hear cheeping from another egg right now and will definitely be leaving these ones to their own devices.

Growing the family

We may be recently married, but a larger family of the human variety is not on the agenda yet! However, whilst we were away for the week on our mini honeymoon, Henrietta took it upon herself to start growing our family.

She is sitting on 7 eggs, and the 'torch test' showed me that there are at least 2 embryos. Fingers crossed we have some chicks in another 2 weeks.

Taj McCoop 1 : Fox 0

Within a week of the chook run being complete, a fox tried to test the boundaries. With the corrugated iron in the ground, the fox didn't get too far. He must have been determined, as he tried in 3 different spots.

With better climbing skills, a rat has had more success in getting into the hen house. In an attempt to scare him out last night, Tom also managed to scare the rat into jumping off the hen house through the air ... and right towards me. I think I may have pulled a muscle in my stomach trying to move at lightening speed to get out of the way of the airborne rat!

Welcome Chooks!

After losing all of my Chooks including the rooster to a fox a few weeks ago, I now have a new group of ladies and a man about the hen house.
The rooster was free to a good home after being hand raised with hope that he was a hen.
Although the rooster (who we've named Leo) is bossing the girls around at the moment, I hope he will settle down soon enough.

The chickens are now safe in the fort-knox like chicken run. With corrugated iron in the ground and chicken wire 1.8m high, hopefully they will be safe during the day. 20 square meters should be enough for the hens to get some sun during the times that we are not home to supervise.

The rooster is an Araucana, and the hens are bantam Wyandottes.

A massive thank you to my helpers for making my ladies safe ... you know who you are. xx

Broody hen

Last week one of our hens started sitting on the nest. I followed some advice given on various websites, including sitting the poor girl in cold water, but she kept returning to her nest.
After a week of sitting, I figured she could at least sit on some eggs, so I got Tom to bring home some eggs from his parents' house from two hens that live with 'Zorro' a black Andalusian rooster.
With some luck we might have some chicks in about 3 weeks time.

New Chooks

Late last night we welcomed some beautiful new Cuckoo Chickens to our hen house.
Although we were told they had finished laying for the season, there were two eggs waiting for me when I got home.

Bad fox

Today I lost my two remaining chickens. The feathers left behind show the unmistakable work of a fox. When the two girls didn't come running up to my car I knew something was wrong. I will definitely miss them.

Rainy Sunday

We have had plenty of visitors over the past week. It has been lovely to see some Melbourne faces come past and some local ones pop in too.
Over the past four days Tom and Bruce have started putting the fence posts in after months of cutting down trees, ripping out old posts, pulling up wire, slashing the fence lines and plenty of burning. There is still more to go, but it is nice to see some posts in the ground to be able to see where the paddocks will be.
Today was wet and cold and I stayed warm and sheltered in the house. The chickens were also looking for shelter on the back door step - I shooed them away, but they didn't move far and took shelter under the wheelbarrow. The rain didn't deter the fencing efforts and more posts were put in by Tom and Bruce. When the rain clears I'll try and get some photos.

Grace is growing up

Grace (the rooster) has recently been trying to crow - It sounds more like his voice is breaking than anything, but hopefully he'll get there, as his current one sounds quite pathetic!
He has taken to flying up onto things now he has discovered his wings, and often frequents the outdoor table. Last night I found him roosting on the wheelie bin...hopefully he grows out of it!