Need the answer to that question that perplexes you so? Whether it be life, love, metaphysical, spiritual, sexual or fanciful Trev can shed light on that mystery for you. The more interesting a question, the more likely it will get an entire blog post dedicated to it!
Dear Trev,
Should I get chickens?
I have a small suburban backyard that I am sure would sustain 2 to 3 hens, happily.
People keep telling me horror stories.
The food will attract vermin. The chooks will destroy your garden. They’ll go off the lay in a few years and you’ll just have a few freeloaders in the yard. Foxes will massacre the chickens. Diseas will destroy your birds. And so on and so forth.
Please help me refute these ghastly claims.
Yours in good faith,
Small, not really that angry anymore, Mads.
I shall set myself upon this task immediately! Stay tuned 🙂
Dear Farmer Trev,
Ok, so I got chooks.
19 week old pullets. They are all New Hampshire cross breeds. One Australorp cross (proving to be the noisiest), a white leggorn X and a Rhode Island Red X. The tiniest (white leghorn cross) has already come on the lay but one of the others (or potentially her) is smashing up her eggs bfore I get to them. How do I stop this behaviour?
Also – hen pecking – tiny has already started hen pecking the red. How do I address hen pecking if it gets really bad? Or is this the natural order of hens and there’s nothing I can do?
Finally – Is there anything they really really should not be fed ir any tips for super happy hens?
Thanks Big Farmer T.
-Mads.
Dear Farmer Trev,
Yep, me again seeking more chook advice please.
My girls are losing all their feathers!
At the start of winter!
They’re grumpy, sensitive and edgy, picking on each other, all off the lay.
The place is bedlam – feathers everywhere!
It has been suggested to me that they are having their first ‘molt’.
Is this a thing? Why are they so grumpy?
Why are hey molting in the cold weather?
What the hell do I do with all these feathers?
How long will it last? What can I do to help them?
Thanks Big Farmer Trev,
You noob chicken pal, Madsy.
Dear Big Trev,
No vets in Melbourne know anything about hens.
Except for one who is two hours away and deals with prize winning pedigrees and expects you will want to spend lots of money doing anything you can to save a crook chook.
The online forums offer some basic advice but it’s so difficult to know what’s wrong with a sad hen.
There seems to be a fairly common theme of ‘cull her’ amongst the more rural hen keepers.
I don’t want to spend a mint taking a vet to the other side of the city for the best bird care in Melbourne but I’m not a ‘better just let her slowly die while I stand about not caring’ kind of chook owner.
So my question is : how do I find the happy medium between livestock and pets when it comes to my backyard hens?
Thanks,
Maddy.
Dear Trev,
Me again, with more chicken nonsense.
Thank you for the very informative and detailed blog post about goats.
Your initial FB post about capturing goats was never enough of the story for me and I feel quite pleased to now have the full account.
I wish you good fortune on your future goat capturing endeavours.
So anyway as you may know I have overcome the little city kid heartbreak of losing ‘livestock’* (*pets) and have decided that contrary to what a teenage boyfriend once declared to me (I wish I had never fallen in love with you so I didn’t have to feel this heartbreak at having lost you) I can in fact go on to love again. I’ve recently acquirers two new hens and did a great deal of research on breeds and temperaments and so on and so forth.
My last girl standing from my last flock is a wee little thing and has become quite dependant on me in her dotage.
Cut to the chase she has two new pals who are little silkies. They’re much younger than my last posse of backyard hens and seem to actually despise me. They’ve only known a small cage prior to coming to Casa Del Madsy but seem entirely perturbed about that whereas my last girls felt this palatial new digs was simply glorious.
Everything I read about silkies is that they’re lovely friendly hens who will tolerate children and sit on your lap and follow you about.
They have blue ears and extra toes and I’ve ruled out the idea I may have accidentally bought bunny rabbits so why do they hate me?
Will they ever come round?
They grumble at me like old men who’ve been woken from a nap in their favourite chair and the greyish one even pecks me when I put treats in their little run. I have them separated from Ponny still but she seems to be happier just knowing they’re there.
So anyway that’s my question : why do my silkies hate me and will they eventually warm to me?
Is there any more I can do to convince them I’m very nice to animals,
Thanking you in advance,
Subruban Madsy.
Dear Big Farmer Trev.
Firstly I would like to acknowledge and thank you for being instrumental in this city kids foray into pseudo ‘country life’. Ok I’m over stating things, into suburban hen keeping.
The little silkies did prove a complex hen to care for and I subsequently found myself down from two to one.
The bird vet said ‘they are very poor egg layers, you can’t get them wet, they’re very broody , have a myriad of health problems…’ whereby I asked him if that was his professional way of saying ‘why the fuck would anyone ever want to keep silkies?’ He laughed. A lot. Which I took for a ‘yes, yes that is what I was getting at’
In any case one of the adorable little munchkins made it but was desperate for companionship and I have managed to assimilate a new hen into my flock.
All is mostly going swimmingly.
The newest girl is a Welsummer.
She’s not just the prettiest bird I have ever brought home, she is the smartest.
She was first put in with the Silkie who was thrilled to have a new roost pal. Problem being Silkies roost low and are very poor flyers and jumpers and . . . all that other stuff the bird vet said about silkies and more.
Anyway I built a new coop, and trained the little silkie how to navigate my complex hen ladder system to get into the higher coop.
She’s done well the adorable little munchkin.
So anyway..here comes my question.
The Welsummer (Penny) is still not happy at all with the coop.
Every evening right on dusk the other two happily put themselves to bed and Penny paces about looking for (even) higher digs.
As a keeper of many birds I am hoping you can help me to understand where does she actually want to sleep?!
In a tree?
Over the neighbours fence?
Is there a coop I could get built for her that would be appropriate for her discerning specifications or is she just being a dick?
I’d love to let her freerange at dusk to see where she actually wanted to sleep but I fear she may end up over the fence.
Someone suggested clipping her wings first.
I’ve never done that to any of my hens. I am remiss to fuck with their abilities like that in case it disables them in a possible escape from a predator scenario.
Historically I have just taught them that shit is so good here they don’t need to fuck off. It’s worked so far, but Pen really really wants a higher night time roost.
Or that’s what I assume she wants when she paces about considering her options and winds up on my shoulder or on the roof of her coop.
I’d rather figure out how to accomodate her needs than fuck with her body.
Do different breeds have different innate desires or is this a quirk of Penny herself?
Have you had hens that protested their accomodation and how did you address it if they did.?
Yours in good faith,
NOT a farmer by any stretch of the imagination but semi fluent in chook.
Mads.
Dear Big Farmer Trev,
I had been warned about this with Silkies and it’s happened.
I have a broody hen.
I spent all weekend watching her trying to figure out why she is so grumpy.
She’s been laying an egg every day and getting mad as hell when I collect them.
Then she started walking about shouting and sulking and now she is mostly staying in her coop looking very upset.
I checked her over trying to figure out what on earth is wrong with her.
Physically she is in tip top condition.
My mate just walked outside and said ‘maybe she’s broody’
Then he said ‘I don’t actually know what that means, is that a thing?’
Pretty sure he is right.
So now I need your wisdom.
How do I ‘break’ a broody hen?
Or should I get her some chicks and shove them under her at night time?
Help!
Love Mads