Hi, We have almost finished putting together our chook dome/tractor. Just wondering what sort of chocks we should be looking to purchase??? As long as they are good scratchers and give a few eggs a week we would be happy (I think). Any suggestions would be appreciated
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? unless you've got white ones LOL chooks are excellent to have and surprisingly become a pet you will fuss over. anything you can get will be excellent for you and yours. try googling breeds to see what's available - all lay at least 2 or 3 eggs a week - some up to 6
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? you can order rhode island reds from the Samford rural store, another option is the Towoomba Poultry auctions on the first sunday of may. I haven't been before, but am heading there for a look, and to hopefully buy 3 chooks.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? My favourites are Silver-laced and Golden-laced Wyndottes. Possibly the most beautiful chooks around. They are gentle ( even the roosters) good layers and good mothers. Big plump chooks if you could ever eat them. Very hard to find now; there may be a specialist breeder in Qld. I gave up with chooks after loosing so many to foxes. After making the hen enclosure like Fort Knox the fox hypnotised the hens and bit their heads off though the wire.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Thanks for the responses guys. Did you have a problem with foxes in Sydney?????
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Personally I am very partial to Orpingtons and Australorps. Plump, friendly, gentle medium sized chookys with lots of personality and lovely eggs. Very Beatrix Potter........ Have fun with your chook planning!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpington_(chicken) https://www.australorps.com/18.html
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Yes foxes are everywhere. One early morning in Balmain, an iner-city suburb, I nearly ran my car up the ar.. "bottom" of a car that had stopped suddenly in front of me to let a fox cross the road! I was 90K north of Sydney with chooks, but always had foxes. You could tell sometimes at night, the dogs/hounds would start barking in the house pointing in one direction. They would gradually change their "barking direction" though 180 degrees though the night as the fox did his/her rounds. Occasionally you would hear a rifle shot and the dogs would stop barking for a few weeks until a new fox took over the new territory. Foxes are incredibly intelligent, are omnivorous, and fooled most of my attempts to keep my chooks safe. In the end it was just too heart-breaking.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Australorp, White Leghorn, Rhode Island etc ... Love them all live or cooked ! A great place to find some sellers: https://www.farmstock.com.au/Classifieds/Poultry/Sale/ Every kind of chicken is different in shape, color, need and behavior: This link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chicken_breeds will give you an idea. If you don't have time to go through tons of info : https://www.users.on.net/~greggles/breeds.html will do the trick. Personnally I have 2 Australorp, 1 leghorn and one cross breed. They all different in personality and I love them. Cheers. Parata
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? There is a guy named Tezza who used to be very active here. He is a chook expert, and has a LOT of information. As I recall, he was find of Rhode Island Reds. Another person who has a lot of experience, with chooks is Tam, but she left. She raisesa lot of heirloom varieties of chooks. Try sending a PM to Tezza and maybe we can get him out of retirement. I have RI Reds, and love them. They are prolific layers, scavenge for food well, but are lazy setting hens.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? I have Silver Dorkings, a rare breed over 5000 years old, first recorded in Britain in AD46. (they are listed as endangered - less that 200 breeding pairs in Australia) They are very hardy - they roost in my fig tree. If I may, could I suggest you get a rare breed? It is important for biodiversity that these breeds are kept going, and there is a breed for everyone. This is a great site: https://www.backyardpoultry.com/ The following breeds are listed as critical by the rare breeds trust, see page 40 of https://www.rbta.org/Pdf%20Files/Status% ... %20v10.pdf Standard Soft Feather Australorp (white) Autosexing Breeds Hamburgh (penciled) Langshan(Croad) Orpington (white) Plymouth Rock (other than barred) Plymouth Rock (light barred) Spanish Red Sussex Standard Hard Feather Malay Game Red Jungle Fowl I'd love to hear what you decide on, Good luck! Tamara
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Thanks for pointing out the rare breeds Tamara. In the next few months I intend to get a few chooks and I have had a look at those web sites and if possible I will try to get an endangered breed. Can you personally recommend any breeder, club or web site? Regards, Paul.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? This may interest some: Rare Chicken Rescue, showing at 8pm on Tuesday 6th May on ABC1. Rare Chicken Rescue is the heartfelt story of a passionate chicken breeder, Mark Tully, who after a long battle of depression starts a journey across Australia in search of endangered poultry breeds. visit this link for more information https://www.filmaust.com.au/rarechickenrescue/ Regards, Paul.
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Tamara, trhose are all great breeds. Good for you for that kind of work. It is our agricultural heritage, and every time aan old breed is lost, we lose all of the forethought and selection of previous generations. Onya!
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? I really did enjoy rare chicken rescue. So touching. https://www.backyardpoultry.com/ is where I get most of my information from regarding breeders. Sorry I can't make any prosonal recommendations. Another tip is to go to a local or capital city show or poultry club. You will find enthusiastic chicken lovers that can make recommendations. There are plenty of permies with rare breeds, so if you choose one, try advertising on the buy/sell section for some. If you do get some ex-battery hens (very cheap and good layers) make sure you choose ones with as much of their beak left as possible. I have had some difficulty with 2 of mine with the shorten beaks as winter has set in. Kind regards, Tamara
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? Hi I have recently got three chooks, two from an auction and 1 from a rural produce store not far from us (samford). We love having a variety of breeds and "personalities". We bought a "sessex light" and a "wyandotte columbian" from the auction and a "rhode island red" from the rural store. By far out favourite chook is the red one, my wife chose the chook from a batch of around 20 that had been ordered in for different people. She picked the one that was happy to just be near the guy who was getting them out of the pen, consequently she is the nicest little chook, she is happy to be picked up, and fed and patted. She keeps the other chooks in line a bit, which we don't mind. I think having a chook that is nice to have around is almost as important as the egg laying. We haven't had eggs yet since they are all pullets, but we are hoping for big things based on their diet of pellets, greens every day, caterpillars and free -range when we can be home (no fences on our yard at the moment). A note on the rare breeds idea.. it might be a good thing to get some of those, but you might find they're COMPLETELY out of your price range. We went to the toowoomba auctions to try to get somethign "different" from the usual ones you can buy at a produce store and people we paying >$100 per chook!! If you find something different in your price range, great, I'd go for it-- it was a breeders auction though... PPP
Re: Chooks - - Which ones to get??? I just got 11 chicks from my daughter's pre school. They had a hatching program. Most child care centres do this once a year and the chicks can go home with whomever wants them. Ask around. I think it takes 12 weeks til they start laying. I think I have 5 roosters from my batch, so if anyone from the Kurrajong area wants roosters let me know! I think I'll keep one, they are great at protecting the rest. Even from me! Don't know that I'd want fox bits on my car, I guess that would be a reason to stop. Nuff said. I had a chook when I was living in North Sydney. I did see foxes in the area when I was coming home in the wee hours of the morning, but mine never got done, I guess in retrospect I/she got lucky. I've heard if they have one sucessful attack they come back for more. I've also heard about a scientific experiment they did with foxes. They chained a dog up and put a bone just out of reach. For hours the dog pulled on his lead trying to get the bone. They repeated with a fox, except the fox knew to turn his body around, stick his leg out and pull the bone towards him. They don't call them cunning for nothing.