New Hens!

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Carly Rae

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Jul 11, 2015
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Location
Queensland, Australia
Hello!

Today we got 3 new hens! They are 20 week old Isa Browns. Its been so long since we last had chickens
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We got them mainly for eggs, and they are my new buddies. So far I have named one Duck. Shes my favorite.
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We are going to go get another 2 within the next few days. We spent all day yesterday building their coop, and today preparing it with bedding and we decided to mesh the roof in their outside enclosure so they dont fly away on us. We were told that they may not lay for a couple weeks yet. I also scrapped up some tree branches and 2 old bits of wood to make them a roost, I was pretty happy with my efforts LOL. We still would like to change a few things around, but its fine for now.

Toby didnt know what to think of them, he got to look at them through their fence and Willow was just jealous they had a bale of hay and she didnt.

They haven't eaten much yet, we bought them Layer pellets and we have food scraps and a chart of foods they can and cant eat. I have been researching about them, mainly just about the foods and general stuff.

I'll stop here before I type a novel.

If anyone has any tips that would be great!!

I can't seem to post photos.. Ill try tomorrow
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Thanks Marsha, we already bought a 20kg bag of pellets hmm, that stinks. Is the taste any different? If not id crush the pellets up for them to eat, i just dont want it to go to waste. Do you think that would work?
 
How expensive is it? Maybe put some in the food processor but don't make it into a powder. See if they will eat it that way. If they do, you'll know they don't like pellets. Pretty girls. I've never heard of that breed. I like the white on their tails.
 
Its not really expensive, I think we paid $17 for the bag. I sat in there with them and I broke the pellets up into smaller pieces and threw it to them. They went nuts for them that way. I think I might do that, cause I wont always have time to sit there and break them. Although I think if I put them in a container and shook it for a while it would break up enough. The next feed we get will probably be the crumbled ones.
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I like your new hens, very pretty!. I love the homemade roost, very creative! They will probably learn to like the pellets if they get hungry enough. You could probably break a whole bunch of pellet up at once by filling a pail 1/2 way full of pellet and gently grinding it with a shovel or even better, the head of a sledge hammer. I have done this in a pinch when surprised with newly hatched chicks.
 
Thank you!!

Really? I thought they were a common breed, maybe not
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Thank you AmySue! It was pretty fun to make
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Ill try that, I left them the rest of the pellets that I didnt break up and they were gone when I came back, so thats good
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Its been raining the past few days, so they cant really get out and wonder around their pen cause its so wet. They have pushed the hay up and made a 'wall' I freaked out cause I could only see straw, then 3 heads popped up
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They are so cute. \

I have a quick question. Can chickens grow bonds with humans? As in will they always be skittish and run away, or can they settle down enough just to walk up and pick it up without it running away? Isa Browns have a high family friendly rating. Mine are kind of skittish not overly, I dont blame them though, everything is probably strange for them right now, but Id love if they could settle down and trust humans.
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Once chickens realize you are the food source, you'll become their best friend. Just sit quietly with them, allow them to come to you at their comfort level. If you have free time, sit and read or draw or even nap while letting the birds scratch at the dirt and graze in your company to get accustomed to your presence. If you feed treats while spending time with them, they'll never leave you alone. My birds practically run me over every morning when I open the coops. Mine like veggie scraps, garden waste, bread crusts, old cereal, fruits and raisins. Yesterday my husband mowed quite a few acres of hay and the mower was covered in grass seed so I scraped it all off of the mower and gave it to the chickens and they went crazy over it.
 
We have over 30 hens, 2 roosters, in 2 different coops. Your girls remind me of my gold sexlinks. We have netting over their pens - not only to keep them from flying out, but to keep owls and hawks from flying IN. (Also have 3 ducks, but that's another story. LOL.) Oh, and check your fencing to make sure raccoons or ??? can't burrow or push through. I wish we could have them "free range" , but we have too many predators.

Ours don't like pellets either, so we feed a layer crumble and I mix a little wild birdseed in, which they enjoy. They come running up to me and circle around inbetween my legs when they see me with the feed bucket. I let them peck out of my scooper initially before tossing it, which encourages them to come around me.
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Never thought I'd enjoy having chickens so much until my daughter got involved in 4-H.

I keep the feed bucket(s) in the kitchen to throw vegie and fruit scraps into them........Some folks feed meat scraps too, but I never have.

As for you having already bought pellets, you could buy a bag of crumble and blend them?

You are going to have so much fun with your new enterprise! Enjoy! Look forward to hearing how things go for you.
 
Some chickens are friendly and some aren't. Ours are all handled as chicks but as soon as they get a little older, some act like the sky is always falling and some are underfoot. We put colored bands on the legs of ours so we tell them apart at first. Their names are Reddy, Pinky, Orangey, Bluey, Browny, Whitey , Blacky...

Be careful if you let them close to your eyes if you don't have your glasses on. I almost had a very bad thing happen last spring with our chicks. I thought it was so cute that they sat on my shoulder--until one pecked my eye. Not good.

My husband is embarrassed because I take restaurant scraps home in a to-go cup. Their absolute favorite is shrimp tails. Second is watermelon. Noodles? Oh my!
 
My MIL cooks macaroni for her chickens and they go nuts for it. [My BIL doesn't like the macaroni that comes in MacNCheese, but does like the cheese, so he gives her all the macaroni, and she cooks it for the chickens.]
 
Thats good then! I have been sitting with them every day for a while when I feed them. They all have names, we have, Duck, Cow and Henni. I named Duck and Cow and Mum named Henni. We might get ducks somewhere down the track and I want to call it Chicken. We are also getting a cat for the mice problem and my dad said its name will be Dog.

They are eating the pellets now without having to break them up. Cow has runny poop, but I searched it up and it said it could be stress from the new environment or the sudden change in feed, or a mixture of both. I'm so excited for them to start laying though!
 
Coccidiosis is a common thing with poultry. You might want to put them on a preventive dose. Here, the product is called Corid. Not sure what you have there. It can cause diarrhea.

I have a broody girl and am off tomorrow to get some fertile eggs to put under her. I wasn't sure she was "committed", but she seems to be so we will go for it.
 
How old are they? Just from my experience, they won't start laying until they are about 6 months old.

Right now I have one duck and two chicken hens sitting on eggs.......Will start looking for chicks/ducklings in about a week?

We've already had one clutch of ducklings hatch out this year. All 8 went to good pet homes.
 
Thanks, we got ours for eggs to eat, so none will be fertile, sadly. I'd love to have chicks here. They are 20 weeks old now, well probably 21 now, which is around 5 months? and the lady we bought them off said they could lay any time from now to 5 weeks away.

So cute!!! How long do they take to hatch?
 
The chickens usually hatch at around 28 to 30 days......Ducks take a few days longer.

Yesterday I prepared our "nursery" for all the possible chicks.......We have a good sized deep metal water trough in the barn that I bed with shavings and have a heat lamp hanging over one end ready to go.....plus shallow food and water dishes ready too.

It's summer now, so they won't need the heat lamp until night time.

Just a thought......if one of your girls ever get "broody" (want to just sit on eggs) and you do want chicks, you can always buy fertile eggs and let

your hen sit on them. Have a young friend who just did that and her eggs just hatched out yesterday!
 
I have a flock of bantam cochin hens who will hatch anything...if you put a rock under them, they'll sit on it. I start all of my pheasant and peacock eggs that way. I tried goose eggs but they are so big that my hens were piggy piling eachother to sit on them. I think most chicken eggs incubate around 21 days, goose, duck and peafowl are 28, I think muscovy ducks are around 30 days. If the temperature in the incubator or under the hen fluctuates, it can shorten or extend the hatching time a bit.
 

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