Went looking for the original thread but it is too back back in the Topics view so hope no-one minds my starting a new one…

The ducks are still penned as the idea is to legband them and try to sort them out a bit -I have 2 lots of juveniles 8 from paired up Blue-fawn mallards and the other 6 were from eggs I found after all ducks except 2 were taken to Gold Coast Show last year – and bought by someone there. I will have to study my photos to sort them out as they are all nearly adult size now and some are starting to lay.5 bright colours and I used one of those CD/DVD marker pens on flat bands for the parent stock. i was unable to source coloured cable ties that some people use for identifying their birds. So far tried Bunnings, The Warehouse and Crazy Clarks. If any ties available at all they were only the big black “garbage” ties – at the B shop. I had been advised to look in craft section of cheapie shops but no go there either.

Have to get a bit organised! I now have a copy of Australian Poulltry Standards for the breeds that Ii own but interpreting them and making an assessment is something I need help with if I am to consider showing any poultry down the track.

5 bright colours – legbands that refers to not the ducks!

cackles said:

i was unable to source coloured cable ties that some people use for identifying their birds. So far tried Bunnings, The Warehouse and Crazy Clarks.

good idea, don’t have to worry about getting the right size. I’d try Tandy or Dick Smith.

bluegreen said:

cackles said:

i was unable to source coloured cable ties that some people use for identifying their birds. So far tried Bunnings, The Warehouse and Crazy Clarks.

good idea, don’t have to worry about getting the right size. I’d try Tandy or Dick Smith.

If you have a Home Hardware up your way Cackles, they have them there.

trade electrical places would have a better range of cable ties…like Middy’s. if you get desperate…blackbox electronics catalogue.

Thanks everyone. I have since heard from a friend that she bought her coloured cable ties at Super Cheap Auto! I have no idea how they would be used in connection with cars, though?

I have spent most of the day mucking around with the legbands/rings! They are way too big so I robbed the bands from the chooks and used those then and fiddled with the new rings. Tried a bit of tubing over them – had to hunt around for that and robbed a padded coat hanger hook-covering to re-size. But now have re-coiled the rings with aid of some almost boiling water to get them down to a size that should do. It probably won’t help the longevity of the plastic but should be OK for the time I need them. The clip-on ones can’t be adjusted which is why I only bought one lot of them and 2 packets (each of 25 rings/bands) of the simple split rings.

The ducks are quite wild and am very frustrated that there are not bolts on both sides of my four aviary main doors and 6 connecting hatches. It wasn’t such a problem with the chooks who are quite docile especially in the evening. Have asked the aviary builder to finish off the job – also including better supports for my 2 × 1m wide gates – so will chase that up again – they promised to rectify nearly a month ago and I have already followed up once so will ring again. The ducks freak out at handling and knock open unbolted gates. I worry about them hurting themselves not to mention their distress and mine – and whatever I’m trying to use being scattered and pooped on in general chaos!

my rooster’s crowing had some little strangled echoes this morning. Looks like the soup pot for the two juvenile roosters I have. Unless I get a call back from a fellow who apparently does poultry auctions at the Carribean Gardens Markets. The chick from the other batch looks like being a boy too.

bluegreen said:

Unless I get a call back from a fellow who apparently does poultry auctions at the Carribean Gardens Markets.

Well he rang back and is happy to put them up for auction for me. But I have to get them there at 6.45am on a Wednesday! I don’t get up that early! Still, it’ll be worth it if it means they find homes. So they have another week’s reprieve.

bluegreen said:

bluegreen said:

Unless I get a call back from a fellow who apparently does poultry auctions at the Carribean Gardens Markets.

Well he rang back and is happy to put them up for auction for me. But I have to get them there at 6.45am on a Wednesday! I don’t get up that early! Still, it’ll be worth it if it means they find homes. So they have another week’s reprieve.

bump for Lucky

bluegreen said:

bluegreen said:

bluegreen said:

Unless I get a call back from a fellow who apparently does poultry auctions at the Carribean Gardens Markets.

Well he rang back and is happy to put them up for auction for me. But I have to get them there at 6.45am on a Wednesday! I don’t get up that early! Still, it’ll be worth it if it means they find homes. So they have another week’s reprieve.

bump for Lucky

Yay……… roosters live:D

Thanks for the info and bumping it up for me….. Radar is molting here and he’s got no tail feathers….ROTFL

Lucky1 said:

Thanks for the info and bumping it up for me….. Radar is molting here and he’s got no tail feathers….ROTFL

not quite so dignified, is it? they don’t seem to mind though :D

I reckon the funniest stage is when they have one lonely tail feather that stands proud all by iteself.

bluegreen said:

Lucky1 said:

Thanks for the info and bumping it up for me….. Radar is molting here and he’s got no tail feathers….ROTFL

not quite so dignified, is it? they don’t seem to mind though :D

I reckon the funniest stage is when they have one lonely tail feather that stands proud all by iteself.

Make them look like they need to be on a horse whooping it up and circling the wagons…LOL

Well he rang back and is happy to put them up for auction for me. But I have to get them there at 6.45am on a Wednesday! I don’t get up that early! Still, it’ll be worth it if it means they find homes. So they have another week’s reprieve.
====
Good luck!

The idea was to put water out of reach of ducks so it would stay clean for the chooks when they were sharing the same area! Need to think again – or continue to keep cleaning and giving fresh water to them all.

cackles said:

The idea was to put water out of reach of ducks so it would stay clean for the chooks when they were sharing the same area! Need to think again – or continue to keep cleaning and giving fresh water to them all.

Ducks have no shame…..LOL

cackles said:

The idea was to put water out of reach of ducks so it would stay clean for the chooks when they were sharing the same area! Need to think again – or continue to keep cleaning and giving fresh water to them all.

lol! just goes to show you can’t keep a good duck down! :D

prattle indeed ..I have new chooks ..very exciting .
I have croad langsan ..1 pair and hopefully another pair/trio in June (via poutlry 2008 in canberra )
Has cost a LOT but well worth it ..lovely, big& black with feathery feet
count is now … sussex -light bantam ..show -silver large … hopefully show Langshan-black bantam ..have excellent new roosterf rom gundagai …. Large croad ….yet to see . must get the incubator cranked up and disinfected …plan to be inundated with chicks … didnt breed any last year …. cackles if you havent found any ties …I’ll send you some …lucky has my email ..if you’d like to contact me … ( think of it as my good deed for the year …)

sweetpea2008 do i know you via another name?

possibly not ,..I’m sweet pea on most gardening sites . lost the love when Ga did the dirty

Hi Sweetpea!

sweetpea2008 said:

possibly not ,..I’m sweet pea on most gardening sites . lost the love when Ga did the dirty

ahhh! yes now i remember you from the GA forum i was there when it closed down.

hi orchard .. you’ve been busy in the garden ..i stop by your blog to catch up … minea a bit neglected ..busy with other stuff

hi orchard .. you’ve been busy in the garden ..i stop by your blog to catch up…
minea a bit neglected ..busy with other stuff
=========
Oh that’s nice, I’ve been a bit neglectful of my blog lately. :(

I was out feeding and watering the gang….. I heard a noise up in the roof of the chook house. If it was summer… I would have thought snake.

I checked with a torch and pressed the top of the roof…. couldn’t find anything and nothing moved.

Told the elf about it and he saw it was moving after I was down on the ground feeding the girlies.

So I had another look and it was a bloody cat……

I yelled for the plastic lawn rake to give the cat a good scare…… after a tussle….. the cat was underneath the chook house…….elf got the hose…..

Between the hose and the plastic rake we gave the cat such a good scare.

Hopefully it won’t be back………….

No blood as it was so scared we could pick it up…. checked it out and dropped it over the fence…..and off it ran……

Hope its okay and doesn’t return.

Nobody…messes with my gang!!!!!

Lucky1 said:

Nobody…messes with my gang!!!!!

you tell ‘em girl!!!

:D

bluegreen said:

Lucky1 said:

Nobody…messes with my gang!!!!!

you tell ‘em girl!!!

:D

Damn right!!!

:P

Lucky1 said:

I was out feeding and watering the gang….. I heard a noise up in the roof of the chook house. If it was summer… I would have thought snake.

I checked with a torch and pressed the top of the roof…. couldn’t find anything and nothing moved.

Told the elf about it and he saw it was moving after I was down on the ground feeding the girlies.

So I had another look and it was a bloody cat……

I yelled for the plastic lawn rake to give the cat a good scare…… after a tussle….. the cat was underneath the chook house…….elf got the hose…..

Between the hose and the plastic rake we gave the cat such a good scare.

Hopefully it won’t be back………….

No blood as it was so scared we could pick it up…. checked it out and dropped it over the fence…..and off it ran……

Hope its okay and doesn’t return.

good work lucky =) i thought u were going to say it was ur cat.

good work lucky =) i thought u were going to say it was ur cat.
—————————————-
Naaa…. our cats live inside…. lap of luxury our lot:)

Wow that was a bit of excitement for you both, Lucky. I hope it’s learned its lesson.

orchid40 said:

Wow that was a bit of excitement for you both, Lucky. I hope it’s learned its lesson.

I hope so too……. I looked fear in its eye……. me I was so careful not to harm…just to scare.

cackles if you havent found any ties…I’ll send you some…lucky has my email ..if you’d like to contact me… ( think of it as my good deed for the year…)
=======
Thanks, Sweetpea that is a very kind offer! So far I have plenty of useable rings/bands at the moment but always glad to meet new friends and very happy to exchange email addys if Lucky would be so kind as to put us in touch :)

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

bluegreen said:

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

Good luck selling them! You should hear soon? Did you have to put a reserve on them BG?

cackles said:

cackles if you havent found any ties…I’ll send you some…lucky has my email ..if you’d like to contact me… ( think of it as my good deed for the year…)
=======
Thanks, Sweetpea that is a very kind offer! So far I have plenty of useable rings/bands at the moment but always glad to meet new friends and very happy to exchange email addys if Lucky would be so kind as to put us in touch :)

Doing that now

A couple of young cockerels are just starting to crow – one is sounding ok the other more like it’s being strangled!
——————————————-
Still no strangle crowing sounds from either of those cross bred chickens…..may still be hens:)

bluegreen said:

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

Oh I am sure they will do just fine… If they are 1/2 as good as my sexy Radar;)

cackles said:

bluegreen said:

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

Good luck selling them! You should hear soon? Did you have to put a reserve on them BG?

I ring back this afternoon. No reserve. If I couldn’t get rid of them they would have been chicken stock anyway.

bluegreen said:

cackles said:

bluegreen said:

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

Good luck selling them! You should hear soon? Did you have to put a reserve on them BG?

I ring back this afternoon. No reserve. If I couldn’t get rid of them they would have been chicken stock anyway.

well they went for $10 the pair :)

I have to go back to collect the money so I’m thinking maybe I’ll swap my Friday for Wednesday either next week or the following, and spend some time looking around the markets as well…

bluegreen said:

bluegreen said:

cackles said:

bluegreen said:

the boys are now at the markets, I wonder how they will go? they were the best looking birds there when I dropped them off (IMHO)

Good luck selling them! You should hear soon? Did you have to put a reserve on them BG?

I ring back this afternoon. No reserve. If I couldn’t get rid of them they would have been chicken stock anyway.

well they went for $10 the pair :)

I have to go back to collect the money so I’m thinking maybe I’ll swap my Friday for Wednesday either next week or the following, and spend some time looking around the markets as well…

Oh sweet:) Very happy for you… and the boys.