Gwydion's chicken

Gwydion · **Posted:** Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:05 pm

I finished the fence posts for the new 50sqm chicken run yesterday. I have to let the concrete set until next weekend, clean the area and run some water for sprinkler before installing the wire...

btw effects of constipation on chicken... see pictures

Bender · **Posted:** Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:37 pm

Nice work with the chook run Gwydion. I find my chooks occasionally lay an extra large egg if they miss a day of laying. You may find its a double yolker

Charlie · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2014 6:50 pm

Any updates Gwyd?

How did the roost and basic layout of the enclosure work out?

I was lucky to have a massive enclosure already on my property, had to clean out about 12 wheelbarrow full of seed from it yesterday and clean out all the overgrown weeds and seed grass. Took a few hours. Im about ready to start setting up the roost etc and looking for any experiences.

cheers

Gwydion · **Posted:** Tue Apr 15, 2014 10:32 pm

Thanks for asking Charlie.

I think the chickens are very happy with the lot, but I still haven't added the bigger part of the run. I got two weeks leave coming up and it is on my list.

The roost worked out fine, they all fit next to each other on the top rung, I never had any poop in the milk crate nesting boxes underneath thanks to the shade sail wrapping of the nest box. There are there nest boxes but they all use the same every day, luckily the one which is the easiest to reach for me. On top of the boxes is a sheet of plastic which I can remove and just need to tip it into a bucket and so around 80% of the poop is out of the enclosure and easily distributed under the bananas.

One other upgrade I want to make is but some of these chicken water nipple feeder (don't know the right word for it) because the chickens are very messy with there water and I only have time to change it twice a day at the best. A small roof over the open troughs might help a little as well.

I know for next year that I only get 4 or 5 chicken because with only 2 people and 7 eggs a day even the people at work get fed up with eggs.

Sometimes I hang a corn cob on a strong into the middle of the run and the chickens go totally nuts until the cob is empty. Most of the time they have there little eyes closed because they know how messy it will get. :-D

The layer of sand in enclosure and run worked well during the wet but needs to be replaced soon. The ground turned from dry red to a rich brown color, I will transfer all that into the flower beds before I put a new layer in.

Gwydion · **Posted:** Fri May 16, 2014 5:36 pm

Our veggy patch is now safe for the chicken and they are enjoying the bigger area. The problem is now how do i keep my aquaponics save from the chicken, the wings are cut, but they easily jump into the grow beds and start eating the produce. Sometimes the dogs join us when we enjoy an after-work-beer sitting in the garden and watching the chickens doing their thing.

Maybe some steel balls like used in the movies to stop jail birds from running away could work here...

Gwydion · **Posted:** Fri May 16, 2014 8:44 pm

Speaking of it, the chickens just killed all my Kang Kong and the capsicum plant... *annoyed* and they left lots of fertiliser in the GB which I don't really want there...

Bender · **Posted:** Fri May 16, 2014 11:15 pm

Destructive little buggers aren't they. Lucky they lay eggs

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outbackjack · **Posted:** Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:53 pm

Any updates?

I am in Southport NT on a fresh block. We had 4 Keets, the dogs in the area at them all one night.

Would like to have another go with some chickens as well.

What did you use for the run? Poly pipe?

I also want to build an aquaculture/ponics system. But totally new and also not a handyman at all

Gwydion · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:09 pm

Long time no news... The chickens are still alive but have slowed down in egg production and for that reason do we have a new batch in the incubator... 12 Indian Game Cross chickens...

Bender · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:46 pm

Will be keen to hear how the Indian game crosses go. Am planning to get some Indian game to cross with our australorps for a meat chook.

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Gwydion · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:28 am

The first 3 indian game x have hatched and 2 off them have relocated in their new home for the next 2 weeks, the third has to dry off a little more first and we hope there will be more hatched by the end of the day.

We also added 3 turkeys to our farm, i hope one of them will be ready to join the christmas dinner. ;)

Gwydion · **Posted:** Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:39 pm

outbackjack wrote:

Any updates?

I am in Southport NT on a fresh block. We had 4 Keets, the dogs in the area at them all one night.

Would like to have another go with some chickens as well.

What did you use for the run? Poly pipe?

I also want to build an aquaculture/ponics system. But totally new and also not a handyman at all

Sorry, missed your post completely. That's not good to hear with your keets, just went to a mates place, they had 7 to repel snakes as adults and 4got eaten by snakes. ;) And the three grown ones are noisy buggers.

Yes, i used green poly 50mm as this fits perfect over star pickets, we have to work on it a bit too make it more secure, the galahs, peaceful doves, rats (if you have lots of animals there is also lots of rats i believe) and bandicoots get in and clean out all of the food When freeranging or in the night.

Aquaponics is the way to go for us, couldn't get any tomatoes or else to survive in the ground, sure it is expensive but that is my hobby and a better one than wasting all that money in the pub.

Sounds like you need good fencing, there are lots of stray dogs around and people leave their gates open here all the time.

Gwydion · **Posted:** Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:46 pm

One of our chickens broke her hip/leg last week and because we had new ones on the way already i thought the timing is right and butchered the lot (6). Two of them (they all were rather small between 900g and 1200g each) ended up in the soup pot today and made enough country French chicken for 3 meals for 2 plus lots of chicken stock for soup and sauces.

There is also a better picture of the 3 new ones (Indian game x), you can already see that the hip is wider and more meat is to be expected.

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