[~THE~MAGICIAN~]

I'm a newbie with our first egg yesterday, so very excited!

So, who here has chooks and what do you have?

We have 4 at the moment:

A Wyandotte bantam
1 x Isa Brown that was given to us
2 x Hy-lines that we got at 15 days old.

Looking for 2 more purebreds.

Looking forward to hearing about everyones feathered friends.

This post has been edited by ~THE~MAGICIAN~: 25/07/2012, 09:03 AM

[missy78]

Congrats on your chickens! We haven't got any chooks at the moment- but hoping to get a couple when we move into our new place (buying; we have been renting so far and frankly 1 cat is enough when you are trying to find a rental! Will be watching this thread with interest! We thought we might get 2 for a start, maybe 3. What sort of pen do you have? Did you make or buy it?

[Gumnut82]

3 Isa Browns we got at point of lay, then we got 2 Australorps and a Rhode Island Red as day-old chicks 6 months later. The purebreds have just started laying (little eggs!) and one of the Isas has gone into molt, so we're averaging 4 or so eggs a day. We had some issues when we integrated the two groups and the Australorps are currently very defensive when they're in the nesting box - sooooo noisy!!
DH likes bantams, so if we get any more we'll prob try one or two of those. For now, 6 is enough in our backyard coop!

[TheGreenSheep]

I love talking about chooks!

We have 6 girls.
2 Marans
1 Welsummer
3 Isa Browns

Our girls all get along pretty well so far. We recently lost 3 to a daylight fox attack, so we are keeping them in their run most days until its summer and the foxes bugger off.

We have had a variety of different breeds and so far the best layers have been the Isas and Welsummers.

ETA I cant add up my chooks, so came back to say I have 3 isas. Doh!

This post has been edited by TheGreenSheep: 25/07/2012, 08:18 PM

[nen-c]

We have 5 - currently complaining as I haven't taken their scraps down yet!!!

2 x Isa browns (maybe 4 yo now? given to me when their owners had to move)
1 x black bantam - not sure exactly what kind (given to me when a friends Golden Retriever ate her 2 friends, she must be at least 6 now)
2 x feral honey coloured bantams (given to me by a friend with property who had too many feral bantams running around her property). These ones are pretty feisty - the dog is scared of them!!! There were 3 of these ones but the smallest one used to just come and go as she pleased (over and under our backyard fence) and one day she didn't return I like to think she found a home she liked better, but in reality I'm not so sure.

They all get along OK, with a definite pecking order, although I feel sorry for the little black one, as she is right at the bottom of the pack.

[la di dah]

I don't have any nor will I for another year or two but I love hearing about them.

I haven't picked breeds yet. Do you order them from a hatchery or is it more a "neighbour had such and such, now so do I" sort of thing? I would like to be able to know I was getting a laying breed and the local pet stores all just sell "chicks" and I'm not sure I want to go to a petstore anyway.

[Chelli]

I now have about 13 chooks after I put some fertalized eggs from our local hatchery under my broody hen. That experience was awesome, the kids got so much out of watching the chickens hatch and seeing them grow. Mine are all Isa breeds, both black and brown. I've had white ones before but they were not as friendly. My brown ones would jump up onto my lap when I sat down outside and I found one sitting in the carseat one morning when I had the car door open ready to take the kids to school. Because of getting eggs, I didn't know what would hatch, so now I have two roosters for the first time.

Mine are all free-ranged and locked securely of a night. I found out the hard way that native cats will decimate them if I don't I need to finish a roof for their yard so I know they will be safe if I'm not at home right on dusk when they put themselves to bed.

La di dah, I purchased mine from a local hatchery and mine are a good egg laying breed. It took me two years to want to get more chooks after the native cat killed all of mine, and in that time I really noticed how much food scraps went to waste. My chooks devour everything and it makes cleaning up after a meal really easy. They are huge fans of the crusts of bread that comes home in school lunchboxes

[Bigfatbum]

Dh and I are just talking chooks, great timing.

How do you all choose your breeds?

We have a old chook pen in the yard from when we brought - over 4 years ago now, we need new laying boxes and feeders and water, what else should we be looking at for set up, we were thinking three. Do we need a rooster as well?

Sorry for all the q's! It's Ben on my mind the last few daysso this seems like divine inspiration!

[smelliecat]

Umm, I have no idea what mine are! We have 4 that are about 3 months old, one of which is a rooster that is just starting to crow and sounds like a preteen whose voice is breaking! We also bought 5 females from the local market when they were about 1 week old. They are still in their own pen as they are little at only a month old now.
I want more but will wait to see if we end up with fertilised eggs in the future?

[3_for_me]

We have:
4 Araucana hens(lay blue eggs)
1 Araucana rooster
4 Bantam White Leghorns
1 random ring in that turned up in the yard and never left (hyline maybe)
4 Belgian bantam hens
1 Belgian bantam rooster



If you are only after eggs you don't need a rooster.