Two halves of a galvanised water tank asking to be used......
We took one half into the old holding yard, next to the crush and construction began - digging a trench, about 30 cm deep, placing the tank into the trench,
and then securing it even further with a makeshift gabion.....
...door and planting to provide some insulation as the ivy grows.....
voilà...chicken coop made-in-a-day. We received our first chickens the very next day after we'd prepared.
The seven 'new' chickens.
They were a year old already when we purchased them as our 'trial' flock. We bought them for only $3 each as they weren't meant to be very productive any longer. We found our Isa Browns at a free-range poultry operation (chickens everywhere). The Isa Brown is a cross between a Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White and renowned for its prolific laying.
With our loving care and extra rations of high-powered, nutritious food.....there was a day when even EACH hen produced an egg....
They're cheeky things. They're now so used to us that they flock to you in the morning when they first are let out from their coop. Of course, it's all about the food.
Not content with the 7, M. came home with 2 more hens. These are beautiful Australorps. They are larger than the Isa Browns and rather pushy. A dual purpose bird, they're good for egg and meat production.
We got them only a wee while ago and they were sold to us at 'point of lay'. We now have the evidence that they're past that point. ..... mind you, it's so hard trying to work out which egg is which.
Zwickal isn't so bad with the birds. She leaves them alone unless they create a bit of a squawk or a flutter and then that gets her all excited.
We attended an auction a few weeks ago. We weren't successful and luckily so. At $27 / bird, we were lucky to be the underbidders since a week later a poultry auction much closer to home (Lithgow) was held with a much better offering and economy of price...and now there are some smaller birds on the scene. Zwickal's absolutely intent on getting closer to one.....especially with a whole lot of 'peep peeping' going on.
2 x (hens?) Japanese Bantams.
M. was very excited to come home with 5 new birds. All bantams, they are not easy to understand at the auctions. They're all lined up in individual pens with no instructions/explanations attached. We suppose that it relies upon expert understanding. One is meant to know one's birds. But when you don't...you go by the look, don't you?
Isn't this one gorgeous....!
He's our rooster. We finally have one. He's only young and is learning to crow (it's a half-hearted, barely audible effort). We have called him 'Lagerfeld' (ze looks, ze looks - thank you, Stefan). He, and the hen furthest to the right, are 'Japanese Bantam' crosses. Who knows what they're crossed with..
Luckily looks count for something in our chook yard, apparently Japanese Bantams are rather ornamental beings. The eggs that they produce are tiny and few and far between. However, they do like to sit on them and so we hope that they'll serve as exemplary mothers. Lagerfeld has just got to catch them.......
