Sunday, December 14, 2008

New arrivals

Yesterday was a special day. Firstly, we had some relatives over for a nice lunch - secondly though, it was the day we got some new babies for the Bushland Project.

I saw an ad on Farmstock recently, and it was just a 5 minute drive away to pick up the chicks! So home came seven, 6 week old bantam Orpingtons. I know I've got at least 3 roosters there - you can tell by their little red combs and how they spar with each other. Fingers crossed the rest are girls.




I've only got one blue, which is the most boistrous boy of the lot! The rest I'm sure are going to be black. I know I've got at least one girl there, most likely two. So far the ratio of boys to girls isn't looking good, but I'll give away most of the boys when they start crowing. I want to keep the blue boy though, so I can have some blue babies.




I also got this little guy who is all alone at the moment:




He's a blue pekin rooster and only 8 weeks old. I've got him in with the three hens who don't like him very much. But he's quick and I've put little places he can hide from them in the coop! Which is where this picture was taken - from above the piece of corrugated iron leaned against the corner.

The a-frame tractor which was put out of commission when the coop was recently built, is now housing the 7 Orpington babies during the day. As they're only 6 weeks old I'm keeping them in the shower recess at night. It's funny hearing their little peeps just before they go to sleep.

Hopefuly they'll all grow up to be happy and healthy poultry!

UPDATED to include link to the Farmstock website: Farmstock

This link will take you to the main homepage with a menu of various livestock for sale and wanted. It's a national resource so you will get ads placed from around Australia. I look for the ones advertised in my region, although you do have to search through all the ads to find them.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Chris, what or where is Farmstock.
    Do they have a web site.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Stewart. The Farmstock ad I mentioned came from a website I visit frequently.

    I believe I saw the lady put more advertisements on Farmstock again. Her sign-in name is Grevillea Park. You have to be quick to catch the new ads (which is why I check almost daily) because everything seems to go quick!

    I'll update this post to include a link to the Farmstock website.

    Thanks for dropping by.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome to the new chooks!
    I am SO envious that you have the room to keep so many! I am certainly at my limit for chooks here.
    Those babies are so sweet!
    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the welcome. All the chicks are still doing well. Always hungry, peeping and pooping.

    My problem is going to be stopping myself. If you want to drop by any time with the boys over the holidays to see the chicks, you're more than welcome. :)

    Just check with Toowoomba CC if bantams are termed as chooks or avairy birds. If they are the latter, there a no limitation on bantam avairy birds. It's like putting a number on how many budgies you can keep in your backyard avairy. ;)

    Every Council is different though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. dont ya just lov the peeping sound from baby chicks
    i hope your new Blue shows those hens whos boss, he is a good looking rooster.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, I hope the blue grows into a fine rooster too. He seems more confident around the girls now, although won't take them on yet!

    I'll give him a few more weeks and he'll be strutt'n his roosterness all over them.

    ReplyDelete

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