Went to Organic Feast for a Coffee on the weekend. As you do at Cafe's you grab a magazine. My wife found me a magazine named "The Owner Builder". I loved it. So many real life experiences of people building low cost but very interesting structures. By the end of the...
House and Garden
Maitland Waterproofing
I have just finished coding a website for a friend. He's running a Waterproofing business. I got him to do the waterproofing in my bathroom renovation, which he did a great job of. I was amazed at how neat the end result was (he used these cute little plastic dishes...
Isa Browns Laying!!
A while ago we got some week-old chicks from a pre-school. We have divided our pen in half and kept them segregated from our older birds so we could feed them Pullet Grower mix without them being molested by the adults. However this morning I went into their area and...
Polly – The Layer of Eggs
Our White Leghorn / New Hampshire Cross chook known as Polly has finally started laying. Which has taken a month or so longer than the Rhode Island / New Hampshire crosses took to begin laying. She laid her first egg last Friday (15/Aug/08) and the 2nd one came today....
Automatic Drinker
If you are interested in creating an automatic drinker without spending 10-20 dollars on a bought one you can make a drinker out of a plastic tub and a drink bottle you will need to drill holes in the drink bottle to let the water out to the right height and then just...
Re-coop-eration
We have been slowly refining our Chook Pen and Coop. The first thing we found is the girls didn't like how exposed the nesting boxes felt and weren't using them. So we stapled a privacy curtain to front and put small cutouts in them to allow them to enter. They now...
Double Yoker
On Tuesday (5 Aug 08) we had our first double yoked egg layed. It was 89 grams. The average egg we get at the moment from our young chooks is about 54-59 grams. It tasted really nice:
I am chicken hear me roar
OK this will be of virtually no interest to the world community. I put it here simply for posterity and to answer the "When did chicken X start laying?" question. I think we now have two chooks laying. The new egg is on the right. My lovely wife found an egg in the...
Wheel Rim – Garden Hose Holder
This wheel rim was taken from my parents property which they sold. I have had it in the garage forever. After digging round for a concrete anchor or loxin I have finally mounted it on a concrete post near the tap. It's not beautiful but it's functional.
Chicken Coop Security Appliance
This is a shot of my new chicken gate latch. It's made of a plank of wood, 2 welding rods, a mop handle and some 1.2mm galvanized wire.
Chicks and Chickens sometimes don’t mix
Our chickens are about 26weeks old but we have just gotten some smaller ones. If it wasn't for the wire between the older chickens and the chicks I'm fairly sure they would peck the babies to death. The chicks are oblivious to the danger they are in. The older chooks...
First Eggs! and 2 New Isa Browns
OK so this morning I had a more thorough look for eggs and lo and behold in the back of the coop, in the most private corner are two eggs We weighed them and the first eggs are 46 + 48 grams. We haven't identified which of the 3 girls are the actual layers yet And...
Blogging about Chickens
So today we bought 30kg of Layer Pellets from Furneys. I'm not sure if it's too early because you are supposed to feed them "Pullet Grower" pellets until they start to lay, then switch to Layer Pellets. However I'm reasoning that they shouldn't be too far away from...
Our Chickens discover there’s no place like home
We had a bit of an episode today. Lisa (my wife) decided she was going to mow the lawn and as she went past the chicken coop they (3 chooks) freaked out and flew over the 6' high fence into our and the neighbours backyards. Lisa had to climb the fence and grab one...
Chicken Jail Break
Recently we became the proud owners of 4 chooks. This morning my Wife calls out and says that one of them was outside of the pen. I presume she got out by jumping onto the coop and then over the 1.8m high wire fence. Looks like I'm going to have to do some wing...
I counted my chickens, I have four of them
OK after much work I have created a chicken coop and run and today we got delivery of four lovely ladies to inhabit them. They are "Layer Pullets" so they are about 6 weeks away from laying eggs. I got them through Brian Larkin Poultry ((02) 4681 9722) who sells them...
The Rear Deck Renovation – We have a plan
When you start to think of what you want for a certain portion of the house. There is a period of time where ideas surface and command attention for while but ultimately don't reach the final design. I suppose planning is important so you don't just go for the first...
House – Todo List
Fix rusted Gutters Install a large Rainwater Tank Install large downpipes and pipe them to the Tank Provide better subsoil drainage around house Remove the Outhouse Plant a Vegetable Garden Install a Car Port & Replace Shed with new one Cement Bag the Peers Renovate...