DDU / klarry

[clair.de.lune]

DDU can I ask you about your chooks? You do have chooks don't you?
Roughly what sort of cage do you have i.e. wooden? How many chooks & what/how much do you feed them? I searched chook houses on ebay, do you suggest a good one?


Klarry what is needed to fox proof a chook house? We were thinking wire underneath and perhaps sleepers too? Are snakes & rats a problem?


Any information would be good 🙂

[clair.de.lune]

Oh my mad cats!

Nah we even got snake/vermin proof wire for the bottom of the cage, dig it into the ground etc

[azureline**]

clairdelune the chikkyduk farmer......

[clair.de.lune]

coop half up

[annies_fancy_dress]

coop half up

Go Clair!!!

:-D

[clair.de.lune]

Thanks 🙂 I got the section of yard ready, all good

[toothless-dog]

The rule of thumb about how many hens you should have is one less than each member of the household. It is best to buy from a person who sells point of lay hens, guaranteed to be sexed as hens and these are usually vaccinated with two vaccines.

They are bought at 16 weeks old and should lay at 20 weeks old.

It is no fun watching your hens die of respiritory problems when they havent been vaccinated.

Where we live the chooks are advertised in the paper and the person does a run up the coast and you can order 4 different varieties of breeds. Isa Brown I have had no problems with, but they tend to lay mostly every day until aged 18 months and that is it, they dont lay anymore. The cost of these hens is $13.00 which is very reasonable.

Most chooks go off laying in the winter and when they moult.

Silkies eggs are tiny but if you want to breed chooks you need a rooster and the silkies go clucky and off the lay very often, but you can even put duck and turkey fertile eggs under a silkie and they will sit long enough for the extra hatching time for these other breeds of poultry.

If you want to set eggs under the silkie remember that you will end up with roosters that you may not want to keep.


Regarding the chook house. Make sure the doorway into the outside area is big enough to take your wheelbarrow so you can put mown grass in the outside area. If the grass is not dusty the chooks will eat it and poop on it and turn it into great stuff for your garden. The outside run should be big enough to divide into 2 halves so you can divide one half off to regrow grass for them to eat.

[toothless-dog]

Never keep ducks with chooks!

Ducks contaminate the drinking water and the chooks will end up dying. House your duck seperately.

[clair.de.lune]

How do you vaccinate them or is that done before you buy them if bought from a reputable seller?

Yep we have quite a large area for them so can easily be divided in half

Someone told us to put the food & drink up so they dont spoil it

[toothless-dog]

They are usually vaccinated at 3 to 4 days old. But you can get the vacs from a stock feed place or your vet and DIY, if you are game enough!!!

[toothless-dog]

Ducks need a constant supply of fresh water and they cannot swim until they have their full feathers.

They need a kitty litter tray or two full of water , they will paddle and drink but not swim until they are older. Then they need a kids paddling pool but you must ensure the water is up to the top of the wading pool as they cannot get out of the slippery sides of the plastic wading pool and can drown.

You need to seperate the duck and chook now, Better to have two of each kind.

Last post, I only have a lousy 10.