So I have a few Chooks!
They keep things simple, they simply do what they do and it doesn't get any simpler than that!
When I started my chick hatching business in Sydney (2005) I had no idea how much a part of everything these little cute chicks would be:-
1. My life
2. My cat
3. My boyfriend
4. My dog
5. My clients & customers6. My backyard
7. My work life balanceIn more ways than 1 they have added too every aspect of the world in which I live, the way in which I live now and why I enjoy it this way!
The first photo is of my 'First Hatch' which would have been about February 2005 ( I entered this photo into an amateur online photo competition and was picked to be printed in a "Coffee Table Collection" hard cover book printed in USA annually )
**I'd had a photo of a young Cheddy I'd previously submitted WIN too and it was printed in an earlier edition Wandering Spirits (03) of this lovely book... I purchased a copy of that edition, but I didn't get one in 06 with the chicks! **
So began... hatching, sharing and keeping chicks that within a few months are lovely friendly chooks that provide delicious fresh eggs!
My first keepers were: BlackBeauty, Cheeke and Whitechook as well as an adopted Fatima (RIR) ! (2005)
when I relocated from my rental to Penrose in end 06 I put the girls out to pasture at the farm for a temporary stay while I setup their backyard!
Cheeke was such a proud pet that she refused to go to Roost with the other hens at sundown.. inevitable disaster struck when sleeping outside the safety of the roost when a greedy fox got her!
Blackbeauty was gorgeous and a true Australorp amongst the xbreds that were hatching - I've not had another since with her beauty.. well Beauty had a case of mistaken identity and when my mum went to get her from the yard to load her up on a return trip to Sydney - well lets just say the black hen mum thought was beauty wasn't and Blackbeauty inadvertantly had been sold to a household / farm out there...
Whitechook came back to Penrose with a Black 'lookalike' hen and another RedX (Nelly) , Fatima stayed on at the Farm and is still well, when I got her from a work colleague who had her for about 5yrs -all they had ever fed her was Layer pellets and kept her shut in a pen without any access to greens or scraps - she was very FAT! Nowadays as she isn't laying and is spoilt she gets to hang out around my parents house garden and camps in with the Ducks at night - if she could she would be inside the house or at least on the verhandah!
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I've been hatching sharing and raising chicks to chooks now for 6 years and find that the Layer XBreed Stock that I use for the business are lovely friendly reliable xbred layers and I easily rehome the chicks that return from Venues - I sex them by the standard colour/feather sexing method with good accuracy! The males are sold at a local poultry auction and recoup usually my fuel costs to drive out there but it is the most ethically acceptable solution. Sometimes I get too many pullets for my backyard setup so they go out to my parents farm and they on-sell them when they are approach Point of Lay (POL) age.
I've also had a few project hatches: Ducklings, Aracaunas (lay light blue shelled eggs) Australorps (and other unknowns) the most recent Buff Orpingtons
Ducklings are tricky - they take alot longer to actually hatch from the egg and their absorption of the vital last nutrients inside the egg can be disturbed if you get impatient and help them! (we learnt this sadly from experience..) But they are Cute! Our biggest success was Tiger and Goldie who after hatching were fostered to be raised by a friend (who lived in a Unit complex in Mosman!!) thereafter they relocated out to the Farm with their own creek..
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| Goldie and Tiger - relocated to the Farm |
Aracaunas - caught my interest while I was in the UK (05) where I saw what was called "easter eggs" for sale in the local stores, I did some research and found they were a Smaller bird that were available in Australia and came in a variety of colours.. I had a dozen eggs sent via Australia Post from QLD and set them so they would be due on the 1st of June 06. Out of the 12 eggs we had 7 hatch and they were very pretty colours!From the 7 we ended up with 4 roosters and 3 hens. I kept 2 hens here at Penrose " Ara was black " and Cauna was grey"
* Cauna was around until the end of 08 but had to be culled as she stopped laying and then transformed with male traits and was harrassing the other girls to the point of being a nuisance.. and lost her looks!
** Ara passed away in May this year - caught me by surprise and I hadn't realised she wasn't getting up of the ground to perch at night.. until it was too late.. in early 09 she was eggbound but using all the oldfashioned remedies she got past that but then I lost her to miserable mites..
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| Suzie absolutely adores the chicks and babysits |
Buffs - Earlier this year a work colleague asked about incubating some fertile eggs from his neighbours flock (purebred Buff Orpingtons) that he is just so envious about.. I figured I may as well set them while my E2 incubator was going to be running > 3wks at a time BUT then the hens were off the lay.. Then they came back on and we acquired a dozen Buff eggs + he also gave me 6 mixed crossbred eggs ready to set! From the 12 buffs 10 hatched but two died within 24hrs, from the 6 mixed 4 hatched. Early days yet but I may have 4 crosspullets BUT the Buff's are looking like a 5 / 3 ratio in the cockerels favour or more ;-(
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| Backyard Cross bred Mixed 3 black and 1 red + 1 of my yellow cockerels and some of my Xbred pullets |
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| Buff Orpington Chicks 2 weeks old |
So over the years here at Penrose I've had a few combo's of chicks and kept as my own backyard Layers - although I find that I cull now and then mostly due to a Hen becoming over dominant in the flock and scruffing the others girls in the flock!
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| Got broody so I put 2 eggs under = 2 days later a proud Mother Hen |
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| 3wk pullet chicks and 8wk pullet growers |
My Pullet chicks sell at $1 per week of age
Recent addition: a real "Isa Brown" that is what my xbreed layers are commonly mistaken to be and I've given up explaining that the term is very much a generic term for reliable sexlinked xbred layers that are easily sourced... and not all reddy brown speckled hens are Isa Browns (ie: My xbred stock) This hen has obviously been re-homed from a commerical chook farm or a Produce supplier that onsells them, as she has been 'de-beaked' which is what they do in larger commerical environments to prevent excessive pecking and flock loss from distress and this is generally due to the birds being bored and over stocked in confined areas!
She was found wandering in the street and a neighbour across the road put her over into my yard as they were not sure whether it was one of my girls or not - it wasn't and I found her that night after work sitting amongst my parsley.. She is very quiet and I kept her in a separate pen for a few days + bonus she laid an egg the very next day. Guess who already wants to be TopChook and is succeeding!
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| Stray "IsaBrown" Hen - 'de-beaked' (not by me!) |
