Chooks

Fairy Blue I put a photo of your chicken up on the Back Yard Chickens forum and it appears she might be a Cornish Chicken.
I looked up some photos and the face is a cornish without a doubt, I think the Cornish breed was first known as Indian Game Bird, that would explain the strong legs she has, I will keep you posted.

this would be a good project for the kids at school to see if they can identify her breed

Thanks for your effort. You're right, it would be a good project for the kids, much better than calling her ugly chicken!!

Thanks!! They are full size but in those photo's they were still less than 16 weeks old possibly even younger. They are heaps bigger now

I just had to post this








how times have changed, today your lucky if you are allowed to have chickens in your yard

Sorry silly photobucket (or me) i cropped the top one to just show the one poster of 1918 but it posted with the two joined together

the second poster had the date 2010 on it, so they could try and change the laws in America

^^^ There are so many benefits of backyard chooks-it's a shame more people don't have them!

I know, I agree Deemaree, i get so much pleasure sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and having my chooks, ducks and Guineas scratch around nearby, I have them to control bugs but they do much more than that.

Oh, love this thread!
We have 3 pekin bantam chooks (also from Abundant Layers). We raised them from one week old, and they are soooo friendly. If we're sitting outside eating breakfast on the weekend, they'll come right up and jump onto our knees (if we let them).
I don't have a current pic, but here's one from about a year ago when our second pair were still immature.


We have a 2.4m x 1.2m rectangular enclosure, and in our new backyard we plan to build 6 vegie patches exactly that size, so instead of moving the chook poo and straw, we'll rotate the location of the chook enclosure each season.

We just sold our last rooster, bought three more hens plus seven baby pullets to keep the kids amused. So now up to 7 babies and 11 hens (suffered a few losses with the persistant wet weather late last year)

That's a great idea bronj, can you just lift and move the pen or do you dismantle?

I love your girls they are very pretty.

How's your egg production been?

Thanks excited, we love them too

The pen is fairly solid construction (actually it's a dog cage lol), and will just be bolted to the timber garden bed, so we should be able to lift and move it fairly easily - we'll just have to undo the bolts.
Of course this is all still in my head, so it's working perfectly. We'll see how it really works later this year when we build it all. I'm hoping the chooks don't get confused and try to get into the wrong patch -

Mrs Dorking would like to announce the arrival of her little ones

She is a first time mum and doing very well

Glad to hear that mother and babes are doing well! Photos?

This is the broody house, it is perfect , I have it set up inside a bigger pen, so everyday the have a bit more room to roam around in and at night I lock them back up into the broody house, it is totally fox proof.



Mrs Dorking is a silver gray Dorking, a very rare heritage breed that was around in Roman Empire days, trouble is Mr Dorking lost his head because he turned very nasty and I think our bantam roster is the father (whoops so much for saving the breed) maybe I will invent a new breed haha

Little Dorkings?

awww they are so cute!!!

Do the chicks have the Dorking 5th toe?

Hope to set up chook house this summer. Is 2 enough forbtheir social needs?

Chooks have a pecking order so it is better to start your flock off at the same time rather than introduce more into it at a later date, I didn't do that but I have different pens to start my new birds in and they slowly get used to the new birds when they are out free ranging. it's best to work out how many eggs you need and go by that. I think there are other people on the forum that have 3 or 4 chooks, maybe they could give you an idea
I think the more the better, then you get to see their different personalities but I am chicken mad



I had a quick look this morning ( but it's freezing out there) I think some have 5 toes and some don't, it will be interesting to watch them develop