Ah bugger. The poor little black silkies came up with coccidiosis the other day.

I suppose the conditions were ripe for it being quite hot and having had a lot of recent rains and these guys only being a few weeks out of quarantine in a new home but I was hoping it was a one off from a bit of heat stress. The good news is they don't seem much bothered by it and are still drinking, eatting and puttering about as normal back in their quarantine cages despite continued bloody droppings. Their water is dosed with sulphaquin so hopefully that should clear it up quick-smart and they are getting small amounts of soft layer mash with drops of blackstrap molasses in it to help. I'm trying to find some raw goats milk as well. I just hope the current 43 degree weather doesn't contribute to the stress too much. :-/

More pics! I'm on a roll!

Yep, more pics again! I got a fwe of the black silkies giving a better idea of their colouring, though I'm still not thrilled with how the beetle-green tends to look reflective/highlight as a bluey colour on this camera. One day I'll get it right!

Till then here are my bookends busy looking for bugs....

And here's a cute pic of the little chicks taking advantage of the warm day to have a stroll in the grass and a bug hunt.

Lastly, one of the Faverolle.

Holy cow you would not believe how difficult it was to get even a single picture of these guys! I haven't posted many pics of them as they've been very disappointing. I got them, same as my Wyandottes, because of their repute for good natures and placid tempers. Most Faverolle are... mine I suspect came from a line with dreadful tempers as the whole lot are nuts! Very highstrung and nervy, they scatter in a dozen different directions when they hear a footstep. This pic is courtesy of my 12x zoom and even so you can see she's got her mouth wide open alarm calling! Same environment, feed, number of feeders, space per bird and amount/type of handling as my lovely friendly Wyandottes and Silkies but man what a difference! I'd intended to keep a few to breed on but considering their temperments, they've all got about 10 weeks before they're sent to chookie heaven no matter how pretty they are. :-(

Merry Christmas everyone!

What is this?

Why, it's a partridge (wyandotte) in a pear tree of course! ;-) Oh dear, a rather bad joke but I couldn't resist!

I just have a few more pics I wanted to update... the first is an update picture of Cedar, the partridge 'dotte roo I got at Euroa... now free of scaley leg mite and feeling much happier out and about!

And update shots of the wyandotte chicks... gosh they are funny looking things at this stage! Their feathers sure don't resemble their parents beautiful patterns atm do they!

Believe it or not this little patchy looking boy will end up looking like the one above when he gets his grown up feathers! If this fellas comb comes up nice, he'll probably be nice for breeding.

His penciling on the wings is a bit neater but the markings on the chest is less nice than green. He's smaller overall with slightly less beetle green to his black and rich bay colour to his wings.

This fellow has a dark neck, darker chest with decent markings but penciling is quite messy. Below is their sister who when she gets her grown up feathers will have nice concentric pencilling instead of baby bars. She looks to have a nicer ground colour than her mum which is what I was hoping for but will depend on how her penciling comes up and how she turns out if she's better than mum or not. Hopefully she's at least equal.

Happy holidays everyone!

We had a lovely (if slightly soggy) solistice and beautiful Christmas day.

I got two rather unexpected Christmas gifts -

the first is that is looks like one of my little bantams is going broody so I have someone to hatch my Wyandotte eggs! I was so upset about having to turf them as their mum isn't broody and the incubator service I used for the last batch is taking holidays as well but now it looks as if I may not have to!


The second is this lovely chap... he's a teeny tiny necklace, only 1.5 cm tall in real life but I blew it up so you could see some of the detail in the fine metal work. (Sorry for the flash whiteout in areas!) DH got him for me as our jeweler sent us a $250 giftcard in thanks for our purchases over the years which was such a lovely surprise! Isn't he just gorgeous?!?

What the heck are we?

This is the question I posed the other day on BYP for Tiger and Lily. They're obviously Silkie crosses but I wasn't quite sure what the cross or crosses might be or what you might call their colours/patterns other than "pretty". It's easy to guess the cross might be pekin. It's a common enough cross with silkies and they rather look like it. But take a look at this pattern... it looks kind of like spangled doesn't it? Besides it's funner to try and pick the genetics apart!


And then there's this one who someone guessed might have some Japanese bantam in her because she's a bit smaller, narrower and has a jaunty set to her tail and if so the colour might be called brown-red or golden birchen.


Now... for what you've all been waiting for - the chicks! I picked up my new little ones yesterday and they're so cute! Unfortunately the 5th baby didn't absorb it's yolk correctly and passed away. After letting them settle in I banded them and weighed them up. They're already starting to get some of their bloodfeathers in. So here's the kids at about 4 days old...

No band - the smallest of the lot at 1 oz. and obviously the aforementioned "light chick". ;-)

Red band - 1 1/2 oz

White band - the lunker of the lot at 2 oz., has a tiny speck of down in the middle of his legs.

Yellow - also 1 1/2 oz. and also having one speck of down in the rear of his leg.

An example of size difference between the last lots male and female! Green is male, non-band is female! LOL At about 29 days old I think? Will post some more of the growing up photos later tonight when I've got some time to resize them!

Results

I got a nice e-mail this morning - from the fresher dozen, of 5 fertile at 8 days there are 5 chicks. Of the old dozen, several were candled as being fertile but apparently but in hindsight the best guess is that the age of the eggs probably made them look as dark as a fertile egg. Ah well, we gave them a shot. Apparently they exploded when cracked to be checked. I really hope it didn't make a big mess... ew!

I should pick them up on Friday so be watching for pictures!

Now I've just got to coax my darling hen back into laying at least a few more eggs and keep their bums defluffed. I think nutrition is all right - they get a mix of layer pellets, a free-range scratch mix (seeds, grains, lucerne bits etc) both of which are stored in airtight containers in a cool, dark, relatively low humidity area. Plus whatever bugs and such they gobble from the garden, fresh greens/veggies/healthy scraps in small amounts in the evenings, diced garlic and occasional dobs of yogurt (real stuff), honey or blackstrapmolasses in a mash, applecider vinegar in the water in small amounts. Going to start some codliver oil as soon as I can find some. Plenty of space and free-ranging as they follow me around the garden and we've got heaps of bugs in the mulch. Been wormed so parasites aren't the problem. I think it's just bum fluff and maybe some to do with the recent bout of heat we got for a few days even though they had a shallow tray of water to bathe in spoilt chooks!

Waiting is *so* hard!

My new batch of chicks was due to hatch around the 10/11th but all was quiet. I've been so nervous about them because one box of the eggs was quite old (14 days!) and I didn't expected them to do much but chucked them in because I was paying for 2 dozen to be incubated either way. Natch' it turns out 7 of them were fertile at 8 days.

I got a quick text last night, 3 from the second (fresher) box hatched!

So of course now I'm sitting at my e-mail pathetically hitting the refresh button every time I pass the room hoping for news of the rest and *trying* to be patient! ;-p

I figured I ought to put up a bit of an update. My "baby chicks" are now looking distinctly more like young chickens and it looks like it's going to be 3 boys, 1 girl. Figures!

Sir Green Band Chick... who looks very much like his brothers, though they've all got varying amounts of black/redish colouring.

And the little miss! They're still all pretty sweet and tame and will accompany me on weeding sessions in the garden on the hunt for bugs which they quite enjoy.

The eggs I sent off are due sometime Monday/Tuesdayish hopefully and I'm really hoping all of them have made it. Cross your fingers everyone!

Silly Penny had started laying quite steadily, got to about 6 eggs, started acting clucky, I told her she better keep laying and not just sit on 6 eggs. Well... teach me to say something like that! She not only didn't keep laying but stopped sitting as well. X-) If she doesn't start laying again that will bring my season to (hopefully, cross fingers, knock on wood, rub a lucky horseshoe) 16 chicks which isn't the most spectacular number ever!

I'm also thinking of where to source more hens. I'm most inclined to go back to Jarrah and Penny's bloodlines and just get more that are at least somewhat related to them and owned by someone who knows the lines. The downside to that is that the old chap had sold out of his birds and is now in the process of building up his own numbers from some birds he reckons will take him a few years to work back up to par. My other option is to write to some of the breeders in my Wyandotte book, most likely in NSW and plan a trip up there if someone has some to sell or will put me on a waiting list or less ideally if I can at least get a couple dozen eggs of a good line which then of course means having to hatch them out and raise them up before choosing the best... a bit luck of the draw but may save me driving 16+ hours! So hard to know what to do!

And while not chooks, I thought the bird lovers among us might enjoy these guys, two of the local parrot population on our property.

Just got an update from the fellow who is incubating my eggs - 2 dozen eggs, 1 had hairline cracks so not set, 12 of the remaining 23 fertile. The interesting thing is 7 of the 12 are from an "old" batch aged 10-15 days after lay. He figured they were unlikely to be viable and even I figured it was a long-shot. However I figured if even one was more than I'd have otherwise so might as well try - especially as Murphy would dictate if I composted them, they'd have all been fertile and big winners. ;-p

The fresher batch which I expected far more out of is 5 of 12 fertile! Methinks I know a chooks about to get their bum-fluff plucked!

The hen who laid the eggs has five eggs under her at the moment and is acting broody. I've told her she is absolutely, positively NOT going to go broody and sit there for a month on just five eggs!

Oh. And for any who might be wondering, the silkies in the pics below are definitely black... someone brought to my attention that the way I photographed made them look dark blue when they're not. Oh for a grey-card... ;-)

To show the chookies off better, here are some that show true colours under natural lighting conditions! (Also a fun excuse to mess around with macro.) These guys are SO hard to get a focus on though, they MOVE every other nanosecond!!!

Ladies first... here's the little black girl 5 months old.



Okay so this is me having a bit of a photographic joke - this is a colour picture black and white. It IS a colour photograph though! ;-) She is looking over her back here.

Head shot


Side shot

Side of head shot

Closer picture of her feet... this is probably the one area I will need to do a bit of work in breeding. She has virtually no middle to feathering (few tufts on the side of the middle toe) and the seperation between the 4th and 5th toe isn't great. His is much the same though he has slighly less seperation between the toes but more middle toe feathering.

The cockrel from the front

Side portrait shot. (Look ma, I have EYES!)

Side shot.

Cedar (wyandotte roo) was less cooperative about staying on my table and I didn't want him hopping down while they're still in quarantine so I'll try again later.

It's been a bit over a week now. I'm not sure if it feels like longer than that or shorter.

It's weird, there is still this outlandish hope that someone escaped and they're just lost, maybe the fox dropped them in the underbrush across the road or something. I find myself watching the sides of the roads when I drive home or scan the edge of the fields even though I know there is no way this is going to happen.

The day after I went on a bend of discovering even more and better ways to guard against foxes and further secure the pens.

I have made a few half-hearted attempts at gardening but it just seems empty without someone softly clucking at me from their perch on my lap.

I never expected to get so attached to them. I've had chooks and ducks before but they were pretty wild and while I was fond of them, I was fond of them in the way I'm fond of my sheep. They're beautiful, lovely to watch, I enjoy giving them tidbits but there's no bond beyond generally accepting I'm benevolent and my appearance usually indicates food is forthcoming. It's still lovely to interact with these and come a bit into their world but it's on a different level than say my dogs or cats where there is an actual relationship and genuine bond extending far beyond pocket love. Especially with my silkies though, they were just the most amazingly affectionate little souls and to bond like that with a chook was just an amazing, unexpected experience.

That said, I did go to the auction I'd planned to go to before this all. DH had some wise words and while I had a few wobbly moments, I also had a lovely day in some lovely company. I came home with two 5 month old black silkies (Jessamine and Cereus)

a std pb partridge wyandotte roo who was quite a surprise to see now named "Cedar"

and a trio of broodies - two silkie crosses Tiger and Lily and a wyandotte bantam (thinking of a name still).


I'm not sure what the X is in either of the silkie crosses. Any ideas? They're pretty little things though even if particularly fond of attempting to nip at this point! (Tiger is aptly named!)

All have various degrees of scaley leg mite, so the first thing after getting settled was a healthy dose of moxidectin which seems to have everyone much more comfortable.

The black silkies, while I'm not hugely interested in the black colour as such are necessary if I want to create lavender ones, so hopefully in a few years time I'll have some lovely lavenders. I need a lavender pekin for that and while I've got a good lead on where to get one I want to breed a few batches from these guys first to improve middle toe feathering and degree of separation between 4th and 5th toes. I think partridge colour will always be my first love though.

My little chicks are growing like weeds, the smallest is still very much smaller than the others but thriving.

I sent batch of eggs to be incubated on the 20th, one had a hairline fracture so wasn't set but fingers crossed for at least a few chicks out of them. Their mum has continued laying, has 4 in the nest as of today and looking as if she may want to go broody. Not sure if I should let her or keep removing them to set in an incubator as I really want to get my numbers up this year so I have a nice selection available to make my choices from.

Fox... all my little chookies gone

I went out Wednesday mid-morning to find all my babies gone. Blossom, Petal and Basil - my silkies. Martha - my cheeky Aylesbury girl. Rosie my wyandotte pullet. Just gone. I thought maybe Nic had moved them until I saw a few feathers and the hole. As best I can figure it was a fox. I haven't found anything except a few feathers near a hole that was dug under their pen... under the patio tiles and sunkwire meant to stop attacks.

They were maybe 3 meters from my bedroom window. I looked around the whole property hoping someone had gotten away or thinking maybe they were hurt... I couldn't bear it if they were out there and suffering. I tracked through the grass out to the road across the neighbors field but lost it after that.

I spent all of yesterday just bawling my eyes out. I don't think I've cried so hard since I lost my Collie suddenly to heartfailure as a college freshman... I've lost 2 other dogs since but they were ready and passed away peacefully in my arms, loved and completely unafraid. I've been randomly bursting out all day today, couldn't sleep last night, finally gave up about 5 am. I went out to the garden to do some weeding and started crying when I realized they weren't sitting with me the way they always did when I weeded. My mind just can't understand how my littles are gone when the evening before they were sitting in my lap, getting treats, Blossom preening my hair and lowering her head for scratches 'chuc chuc chuc'ing at me softly. Petal sitting on my leg and hopping off to peck a bug when I turned one up as I weeded, then hopping back on to wait for another. Basil sitting nearby and watching for me to hand him sowbugs before the greedygut girls gobbled them all. Martha looking like a duckie bulldozer poking about for snails under the mulch, tail waggling and qwocking constantly under her breath and Rosie trying to gobble up more bugs while Jarrah, my roo did his little dance and Penny napped. Anyone who has seen the pics on my blog from a few days back of my son cuddling and giving them rides on his pedal tractor knows how friendly they are. I'm just sick every time I think of how scared they must have been, they're completely tame, theyve never known anything but gentleness.

I still have Jarrah and Penny, my wyandotte roo and hen and the chicks which were all in my house still under lights. Jarrah and Penny had been seperated from the others as I wanted them to breed but not with the silkies of course and Rosie would scatter Penny's eggs if she had access.

I *thought* my pen was pretty safe, I'm not sure what else I can do to proof it besides weld avairy mesh to the bottom of their nightshed inside it. The pen is sided with a tough wire mesh (think like sheep fence but smaller squares and an additional wire along the ground to prevent it being pushed up) and chickenwire over it along the bottom, netting on the top to prevent hawks/crows/cats, sunk wiring, 12x12 patio pavers surrounding to discourage tunneling. Jarrah and Penny are in my garage/shed which has cement floors and colourbond walls so hopefully htey're safe at least.

Sorry this is so long and rambly. My mind is just not straight and I don't have the heart go edit and spell check atm. I may not be on much over the next few days. I'd been intending to go to Euroa on the weekend to buy more silkies. My husband reckons we should still go but I'm really not sure I wouldn't just be a blubbering idiot.

(I copied what I wrote on Backyard Poultry as I didn't want to try and write it all again. I went and looked again this afternoon in case anyone had been in hiding and too afraid to come out but only found some of Rosie's down feathers. I had to check again because I think the fox probably ended it for Blossom, Petal and Basil quickly being that they were small... gods I really hope it was quick for them and at least they didn't suffer... but the feathers I tracked from the chooks pen all the way across the front garden, across the neighbors paddocks and to the road the other day were Martha's and it looked like she put up a fight most of that way so I was afraid/hoping/I don't know that maybe there was a chance it let go of her. It's a long way and looks like she was attempting to fight most of it. With the clump I found today, they were Wyandotte down, in a clump, with scuffed marks in the dirt so I thought she must have got away at one point but I guess the fox must have grabbed her again as there's no other sign she got away or any further struggle.)

Which one is not like the others?

(L-R: Yellow band, Green band, Red Band. Middle: Blue band sans band)

The chicks are now 22 days old and growing rapidly into spindly raptorish looking things - except little blue-band who is not wearing it's band as it's so small even the "baby chick" size kept slipping off! It's not even half the size Green and just half of Red and Yellow. There is plenty to eat and no bullying plus they get plenty of bugs hunted in the garden so it's not as if it's for lack of grub- it's just plain small and has more of the rounded features of the baby chicks. Despite this it is feathering up faster than Green or Red but slower than Yellow band.

Meanwhile Red, Yellow and Green chicks have graduated from little chick leg bands to big chick leg bands. Green is the largest and imo going to be a boy. Yellow and red are pretty evenly matched size-wise but yellow is feathering up faster, having some feathers on her shoulders and just starting to sprout them on the sides of her chest. (You can barely see this in the pics.) All of them remain pretty placid little critters especially compared to the fruitcake Faverolle! For this photo I pretty much ploinked them on top of a towel on a table in the position I wanted and they calmly stayed where I ploinked them - neatly in order - and waited while I stroked their tummy up to a standing position instead of nodding off! (Yes, seriously, they nodded off after being ploinked! O_O)

This started out with me trying to take more recent "look at how they've grown" pictures of my silkies! Of course I had my "helpful helper" and so it quickly degenerated into a series of cute photo ops! Ah well!

"Look chook, a geen WEAF!" (green leaf)

Blossom gets a cuddle.

It's all about your Point of View

A different sort of chicken tractor! LOL Blossom goes for a ride on Bubby L's "geen tac-tah"

But quickly gets distracted with pats.

I did manage to grab two semi-decent and bubba free shots...

Petal (above) and Blossom (below), with Basil not pictured as he was being a gobbleguts on the grass - head down and bum up busy inhailing bugs!

One day old and two week old pics

Another picture of mum, "Penny" that turned out nicely and pictures of the four bubs at one day old. I'll be getting leg rings for these guys to be able to identify them individually but right now they're too tiny so they've just got marks where toe punches would be! First is red band chick.

Then green band

Yellow band

And blue band I think.

And below are the littles at 2 weeks old aprox. First is "blue band"... who is the smallest of them and has what looks like it *might* be a white fleck in the down on it's head?

Blue band with fleck below.

Now here is green band


Red band


And yellow band


They are friendly little critters. If I look into their box they start talking to me and if I put my hand in the come up to cuddle and hop aboard for personal attention, they like to be lifted to snuggle under my chin! ;-)