AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi everyone. Well we have had a breeding season of excitement. Firstly a hen called Susan caught us by surprise months early ( for here ) and was nesting in October. She had 10 eggs in the woolshed, in a big box of screenings, where Josephine nested last year. 6 hatched, 2 died, not sure why and the rest were dead in shell. While we were away for a few days she flew out with them, a week early compared with last year, and the babes got taken by something. Meanwhile we found a white one, Blanche, under the tank near the kitchen with 6 eggs. We decided to risk losing the eggs and to move her into our fabulous aviary, built especially for this purpose. We put a few hens in there with a mature male. They proceeded to lay MANY eggs but not to sit. After weeks of this and putting some under chooks to hedge our bets we gave up and let them out. We had been a way a lot, unavoidably, and had just got back from Darwin and found a white under the tank stand again. I thought this was impossible, as we had only let them out a few days before and there were four eggs. Turns out it is our ONE YEAR OLD Bianca!!!!!!! We hadn't locked her up as we thought there was no chance of her breeding. Al made a beaut foxproof cubicle, open in day, closed at night, around her and she stayed there on 5 eggs. 4 hatched out a few days ago , 2 whites, 2 pied. We have shepherded them all into the big aviary. Meanwhile, Blanche had set up in a pile of logs under the woolshed, with 5 eggs and there were two laid on a bed in the WS, so Al built yet another cubicle around her with the two eggs added. She seems very happy. Each am we open it up for her and close it in the evening. She has about two weeks to go.

Then we noticed Josephine behaving suspiciously, and hoped she would lay in her cubicle from last year, an old sheep pen. No, she had to lay next to the ramp down to the river, in the middle of nowhere. We fixed a cage around that but she changed her mind and laid in the sheep pen next door to the original one, so off Al goes to make it foxproof!! It is an awful setup on sheets of polystyrene foam with junk everywhere but she can fly in and out of there so she regulate her own times. We popped her initial eggs in there too, making 8. But, meanwhile, Susan is behaving suspiciously, and we noticed when J was off her eggs that there were now 9 there. So, the upshot is that Susan has probably laid more eggs in there and is now "helping" J with the task. Problem is that J is due around the 27th, and obviously there are eggs there that are much newer. We reckon there are heaps of eggs there, because when one leaves to eat, there are eggs overflowing from under the other one. Does anyone have experience of this??? I guess we have to leave the whole thing to nature and just see what happens. Why didn't one of them use the lovely site we had made for them, that they used last year!! At least if they wouldn't breed in the aviary we have it to put them in while they are young. Anyway, it is all learning and fun isn't it?? All the ones under the chooks were dead in shell or haven't hatched. Any comments gratefully accepted!! Cheers and good luck everyone with your babies. Pam