The chicks had a big "day" out, today. I took them outside in the late afternoon
sunshine to have some sun on their little bodies while I cleaned out
waterers and other stuff. They loved it, but are very tired after their
big adventure!

I bathed our ex-broody hen, Bertha yesterday, and decided to make the following video demonstrating how it is done. Bertha was very patient with me and seemed to enjoy having a wash on such a hot day.

You can download the music used in this video, legally through the links below.

David Arkenstone
"New Day" (mp3)
from "Sketches From An American Journey"
(Domo Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

We had a the rare privilege to be right at hand with a camera when the last of our three viable eggs hatched today. We have named this last chick, N00bIRL (prounounced "noo-burl") which is gamer speak for "Newbie/N00bie In Real Life" and is applied to anyone who is new at something not related to game play or the gaming world. for example, a new baby could be considered a n00bIRL because it is new to everything.

From Urban Dictionary:

These are the first two chicks out of their eggs. Tentatively named after my friends Lucy and Vicki. Their names are Lulu and Vickie. One more egg has pipped now as well!

This afternoon I had to step in and rescue the unhatched eggs from the broody box. When we checked on mother hen and her eggs the night before last, one of the eggs had either gotten trodden on by mum, or had pipped, I couldn't be sure, but left that egg in the nest anyway and left her to it until today when we went up to have another check of the eggs which are due to hatch from tomorrow onwards. The one that was broken/pipped the other night was gone, and there was no trace of a chick, or of the egg, apart from some blood on the shells of the other eggs. Another egg appeared to be cracked and was leaking yolk and white all over the nest (and it ponged!) another egg was pipping and chirping! My goodness! I had forgotten that eggs chirp when the chick inside is getting ready to hatch.

I took the decision (on advice from some more experienced friends) to remove the eggs from under my broody hen and bring them inside to continue hatching in our incubator (which arrived in the mail last week, thank heavens!) Since bringing them inside, another egg has pipped and is chirping! I candled the 7 remaining eggs and of the seven, I think definitely three and possibly four will hatch. I am happy with that, although it would have been nice if more of the 12 I initially bought had survived. Sadly, they had a rough ride getting here with two already broken when they arrived, two lost during the incubation to breakage and whatever carnage went on yesterday/last night.

Poor Bertha is now sitting on one fake egg and I am looking at what I will need to do to brood these chicks myself when/if they hatch! Talk about being tossed in at the deep end! I'm not really complaining though. I am excited to see what we get from the eggs and who knows, I might get a surprise and more will hatch than I think!

And on the subject of protecting chicks, here is a video of a dog taking care of a chick!

Bagurk, Munkeys! My name is Rosie Red Hen and since I was the victim of the series of events that took place yesterday, I've been asked to cluck you the story in my own bawks. 

It started out like any other day in Hensington Palace. Me, Wynona and Boss were up with the sun as usual, and looking for something to eat. We chatted like we usually do, about the state of Chickin poluhtucks, whether Bertha is ever going to get out of that funny looking bawx the munkeys gave her weeks ago, and what is she doing in there sitting all day anyway? We gave up asking her about it buckaws all she does is growl as soon as one of us even looks at her!

After many many hours, the munkey that looks after us, finally came to open the door for us so we could get out of the boring shed and go exploring the wild jungle outside. I really don't know why the munkey keeps us locked in all of the time anyway! We are jungle birds and jungles is our thang! Anyway, she opened the door, but then she came inside our prison and shut the door behind her! What was that munkey up to?

Well, that cheeky munkey stole the eggs out of the nest, but I was clever and had not left one in there yesterday, well not at that time, anyway so she didn't get mine. But then she went out of the jail shutting the door behind her! and went into the other shed where we used to roost. She came back after a while, carrying a big white thing that smelled like a food bucket and made a noise like leaves blowing in the wind. The munkey scratched at the white thing with one of those funny claw things they use that are sharp, and sparkle like when the sun is flashing on the water in our drinking bucket. After she scratched the white thing lots of times, well the most amazing stuff came spilling out onto the floor. It was soft and rustly like the gruss gets when the big munkey on the roaring animal comes and makes all the gruss fall down on the ground... I like it when that munkey comes to our jungle, we find lots of juicy things in that fall down gruss after he's gone!

So, all the stuff came spilling out on the floor and we just couldn't help it! We had to get into it and start scratching and kicking it around. There were some good bits of grit in amongst it, and lots of little things to peck at and taste. That was fun and it must have lasted about 12 hours I think, and then the sun came out and the munkey opened the door! We was free!

But, that's when the strange thing happened!

I was down near the shed with the funny yellow thing in it that sits over the deep deep hole that smells like water is all the way down in there. I was scratching and pecking and having a debate with Wynona about whether ants taste better than bees, when suddenly, something came falling out of the sky and hit me right on the middle of my back! Baguuuuck! I flapped my wings and jumped turned around to peck Wynona buckaws I thought she sat on me... There was a thing lying on the ground. A yellow thing, that looks like the things that grow on the trees near that shed with the deep water hole. I have eaten those things before, so I thought I might as well have a taste. Sure enough it was one of those things. It must have falled off the tree.

Wynona said it was not a fall down thing, but she saw one of the munkeys have a taste of it, and spit it on the ground, and the munkey was squawking about it and making a racket so the other munkey took it off her and made it fly up in the air and come after me. What silly chick stories! Munkeys almost never spit tasty things on the ground, and they don't make things fly and come after chickens! Well only things like cawn and wheet, sometimes.

I think the yellow thing just falled off the tree and hit me because my munkeys would never hurt me on purpose...and anyway, it was just very big chick story Wynona told me to distrakt me so she could steal my yellow fall down thing and go and eat it up the yard all by herself, that greedy chook!

Oh if you munkeys don't know what kind of yellow thing I meant I will get the munkey to put a pickcha of one here.

So that's my story in my own bawks. I hope you liked it. Peck the button to cluck back if you did!

Rosie Red Hen

We have had a little bit of rain since I put the chooks into their summer coops and I find that the roofed run is getting slightly damp around the edges because it's got open sides, even though there's an iron roof over it. I felt the need to do something about it, and went to my local produce store with the aim of buying some straw to scatter as I had finished my old bale when I set up the broody box for Bertha.

Alas, the guys at the feed barn didn't have any straw, so I asked for a bale of lucerne. I told the guy it was for my chook run, and he said "Well, you're going to find lucerne a bit expensive for that, what we use with the chooks we're selling here, is Cane Mulch. It's a good bedding and they like to dig around in it, and it won't cost as much as hay.

I had already gone over to their pens when I arrived, to admire the lovely little POL pullets they had. Very nice little ISA Browns and Australorp Commercials. Healthy, calm, happy and mildly curious about us, which is what I look for when I am buying chooks, but I don't need any POLs atm as I am hoping to get some nice ones from Bertha's clutch.

Anyway, the cane mulch was in use in those pens, and the little chookies were indeed having a lovely dig and scratch and dust bathe in it, so I accepted the guy's advice. (It was cheap, too only $9.90AUD for enough to cover 7m². That is more than enough to do my little run a few times and I have read that this type of mulch doesn't go soggy, so that will be a plus.

I went up and tossed some into the run this morning and then was going to get my rake to spread it out with, but I changed my mind when I noticed the petticoat gang's reaction to it. Oh! The digging, the kicking, the scratching and wing flaps of excitement! This was the newest sensation since Kangaroo meat as far as they were concerned!

My dismal, rainy day depressed chooks turned into jolly scratching machines as they cooed and clucked and raked through the sweet smelling mulch for anything of interest. I'm sold! I will continue to buy this mulch when necessary to supplement the leaf mulch I use from the gardens and keep the hens entertained with something to scratch and roll around in.

I also was lucky enough to be near the nesting box with my camera today when Rosie was making her "Egg laying purr" sound. I recorded it to share.

Today marks the 11th day of Bertha's long incubation of her eggs. It seems so much longer since we set the eggs under her, but I have checked and double checked the date we set her, and it is definitely day 11. I am tempted to candle the eggs, but as I wouldn't even know what I am looking at, I have refrained from doing so. What will be, will be. I just hope they're progressing and we will end up with chicks out of all this.

I went up to the coops today with some kangaroo mince which I fed to the other three girls, and when Bertha smelled it and heard the special "Ohhhh we have goodies!" call of the other hens, she decided to get off her nest. I gave her some of the mince, which she gobbled down happily, along with some grains and then she proceeded to have a drink, and a leisurely dustbath. She is looking quite scruffy because she has pulled out a lot of her feathers to line her nest. I was going to snap a photo to show everyone, but by the time I went back up there with the camera she was just settling back on her eggs and I didn't want to disturb her again. She looks well and happy otherwise, so I think she is going to see this through.

In the meantime, we have been busy in our garden again and spent yesterday planting seeds and seedlings. We finally got our seed potatoes into the ground, along with planting out the pumpkin seedlings I have been nurturing. We also planted rockmelons, watermelon, beans, zucchini and button squash.

 It was good to get the planting done, and relax in front of the telly with our special "Grand Finals" cheese and vege platters for lunch!

With the warmer weather here in force, I decided it was time to move my chooks out of their winter coop and into the summer one, today. The chooks were turned out into the yard for free range early this morning and I got to work after breakfast.

Until today, the chooks were housed in the coop at the top end of the sheds, where you see the wheelbarrow in this shot. I took 5 barrowloads of litter and old, composted manure out of this coop. There was no terrible smell, either. I just love the deep litter system. Everything falls through the straw and hay onto the sandy floor, leaving the coops smelling fresh and barny while the poop decomposes underneath.  It wasn't too hard to clean out, either as the bedding was dry and quite light to handle. It all went onto the compost heap up the back.

The winter coop after all the litter was raked and shovelled out. Tomorrow or the next day, I will wash the perches down and then spray the wooden areas with a permethrin solution to kill off any lice and mites that might be still hiding in there and then the coop and roost will be rested over Summer while the chooks move into their cooler runs for the duration.

The summer coop is a lot more open and has wire sides to allow better airflow so that the chooks won't suffer so much from the heat of our summer. There's even wire next to the nesting box, so anyone who is laying can get a cool breeze while she does her hard work. The greenery you see in the top right of the photo is sprouted wild bird mix which we have been growing to make the transition to the new run less painful for the girls. It is in a run that has a wire roof and will be lovely for them to get some sunshine and fresh air, while still being able to find shade in the other half of the coop which has an enclosed iron roof. I think they should be pretty happy in there!

Three of my chooks, Rosie (ISA) Boss (Australorp) and Wynona (GLW) decided that there simply is not enough excitement in my life, this afternoon, and set out to bring more thrills, spills and chills into my day. I swear when I checked on them, they were happily browsing among the undergrowth in our yard, at the back, underneath the mango tree...

I was inside, pottering about doing this and that, not thinking of the chooks again until the sun started to get a bit low in the sky and I remembered I had planned to dig a pot of sprouted grain into the floor in Bertha's (our broody hen) pen. It was when we headed up to the chook sheds with the pot of sprouts that I began to suspect all was not right, but I shook it off and kept on with getting the sprouts bedded in for Bertha, and then refreshed her water bucket. Then I decided that since the sun was going down, I should get the others in for the night...except...

They were GONE!

I searched the entire yard for them. No sign!

I looked up in the trees, I went into their coop, I called and called and called for them... nothing.

I kept looking over the back fence in the forlorn hope that somehow, they'd gotten over into the pineapple fields behind our property, but I couldn't see any evidence that they had. At one point, Sandra attempted to climb the fence into the pineapple paddock. Not a good idea, she fell and now has a nasty cut on her leg from the barbed wire, has ruined a pair of slacks, and has a sprained ankle for her efforts.

The longer we looked for them, the more my heart sank. I was beginning to think they had A. Been stolen, or B (perish the thought!) A fox had got them.

Finally, we resorted to going into neighbours yards asking if anyone had seen our wayward fowl. No one had, but everyone was very helpful, offering to call us if they saw anything. One neighbour went out in his car looking for them. Another walked up and down the street with his two kids, looking for them as well.

I met one lady who has 8 chooks of her own, and was very sympathetic, telling me she knows how attached we get to chooks...ah a kindred spirit!

I was getting tired, and Sandra was limping heavily on her injured foot so we decided it was time to get the car out and go looking.

We'd only driven about two doors from home (large semi rural blocks) when I spotted my three rogues on a neighbours front lawn!

We pulled the car up at the side of the road, and I climbed out while Sandra did a U turn and came back and parked the car.

Then we had to catch the silly hens! Fortunately Boss and Rosie curtsey for us and are easy to capture because of that, but Wynona is a bit more flighty and gave us a bit of a chase before she finally let me grab her.

All three were carried home in our arms, with Boss and Wynona being lectured all the way by one very relieved but also quite cross 'chookie mum' (me).

They are sooo grounded!