Part 6 - Funky Chicken Call In
Pāmu Heihei Tihohehohe
We set up a backyard chicken coop and leisure area by converting an old playhouse into a coop, whacked a few warratahs around, attached some chicken wire and bought six highlay birds from a battery chicken farm. It's our way of fighting back against rising food costs.
Thanks so much to everyone that participated, it seems a few of us are having problems getting our chooks to lay at this time of year, but fear not, with less light and the cold coming on the girls can easily go off the lay - so if you're worried then don't panic.
Darcy clearly explains that the chicken's pelvic bones are the key indicator of whether she's in or out of the lay - here's the video that shows you how to measure the distance between the pelvic bones (scroll down it's the first video you get to) – we're after 2-3 fingers which means they should be dropping eggs. If you want more details then listen to the audio above.
Well my girls (Barbara, Gwen, Maxine, Peggy, Nancy and Cluck) are going well and we broke the dozen egg mark this weekend - poached and fried with black pudding and bacon on Sunday - stunning they were.
Darcy's coming over today (Wed) and we'll be filming the session as I'm having problems with perching (getting the birds to sleep on their perches off the ground) plus loads more questions from you to be answered.
Next weekend (Sat 31 May 2008) I'm off to the NZ Poultry and Pigeon Championships at Upper Hutt - there's going to be over 1300 birds and a quite a few chicken champs.
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